Just got off the phone after talking to AC and as I predicted, the crash was my fault - I did the upgrade installation improperly. No explanation as to how the wheel worked for 500 miles before failing.
To their credit the wheel has been repaired and is on its way back to me.
From a customer service standpoint, very, very unpleasant experience. For both sides, no doubt.
As an FYI to the community - they were not very happy about me posting this in the first place - they read the boards. And that was made
very clear to me, wrapped in platitudes about "America being a free place and exercising one's opinion." They also did not like my comments about their wheels being under-engineered, under-designed and prone to failure as evidenced by a history of posts on this very forum. No answer for that either.
Which brings us to the notion of recalls. Here we have my ability to read and follow instructions vs. the local wrench at the LBS. As I mentioned above, there isn't a single LBS wrench within 500 miles of me that I would trust - the market is just that bad. I guess if something has the potential to break, and thus threaten one's life, perhaps consumer-executed recalls should not be allowed. While I'm pretty confident in my skills, I make mistakes too. As do LBS wrenches. Seems to me that recalls should be that - send it back to the MFGR for it to be done properly or ride it at your own peril. No halfway solutions.
There you have it, a sad tale of woe of my half-assed mechanical skills intesecting with a recalled product.
Live and learn.