I do believe that I used to work for your distributor, and well believe your account of his reaction (Hi Lindsay)
However, Frank is a totally different matter and will go for a fix, if I know him.
Yes, seems there is a problem there, but neither the problem nor the fix are exactly rocket science.
But he can hardly do recalls, so resign yourselves to doing a very low-tech fix yourselves to this mundane matter.
thekite