I have never been contacted by Tier 3 but I called a second time on Monday [at 48 hours in business days] and a third time this afternoon - Wednesday [after a second 48 hours]. Support told me she would "escalate" my problem a third time and she gave me an address in Walnup, CA and told me to go ahead and send my PE in marked "for repair"; that I would not receive anything in writing prior to sending it; and, that Tier 3 would then send me an acknowledgement after they receive it.

Although this seems a bit unusual, I accept this as an effort to expedite the repair process. I sent a reply email to the original email from basic support restating the instructions given to me today by "Jem" and will send my PE forthwith.

I guess it would be petty to say that I hope this rather backdoor method of getting my PE into the repair pipeline will result in my receiving it back more quickly than Qwill or Cheyennedonna receive theirs. However I will watch this thread for progress as though I have a frog in a race.

BTW, my tier I rep was named "Larrie" and Qwill's Tier3 rep has the same name....