Thanks for all of the replies, guys.

I am not being too hard on the bench guy, who was very sympathetic.
Sounded like he felt dumb making the call. I figured I would give his
boss or the Milwaulkee rep a day to reply. When I got no call, I
called the 800 number on the website for customer service. I was able
to reach a real human after beeping through just a few menus. She was
very nice, and both understood and spoke English! Imagine that.
Anyway, after hearing my tale of woe, gave me the name and number for
the "Northeast regional manager". I got voice mail for him and left a
very detailed message. That was earlier today. If I don't at least get
an "I got you message" return call by midmorning tomorrow, I will
likely call again and if I can't get him, call back and ask for his
boss.

Like I said, I have a fair number of Milwalkee tools, and for a
number of years made my living with them. This was a bit of a
disappointment.

The suggestion to post this all to rec.woodworking is a great one. I
am going to do that as soon as I am done with this message.

Again, thanks for all of the ideas and comments. I will certainly
keep you all posted as to how this develops. Perhaps if this ends up
being one of those lengthely threads, I may email a link to the folks
at Milwaukee. I think it may be good for them to know how fast word
travels these days.

Anyone here that remembers when MSC tried to "quietly" buy ENCO?
RCM made pretty short work of that secret, as I recall.

Thanks,
AL A.