well, I think the net result of this entire thread for most readers is that Trek comes out of it looking pretty good.
I have nothing to do with Trek, never owned one, was not a dealer for them when I ran my shop, but the one occasion I had to contact them did give me the warm fuzzies.
I had a customer come in with an almost new full suspension Trek mountain bike with a lot of play in the suspension pivots. He had taken it to the dealer he bought the bike from, but was not filled with confidence by the responses he got there, so he brought it to me.
I quickly diagnosed the problem as cartridge bearings that did not fit snugly in the holes.My usual fix for such situations is a dose of Loctite 680, but I thought, what the heck, I'll call up Trek and see what they say.
After describing the situation to a customer service rep, he told me, without having to check with anyone else, that they were supposed to be set with Loctite 680 at the factory, and that one must have slipped through.
He told me to go ahead with the repair and forward the bill to them.
A service rep obviously knowledgeable in their processes, and authorized to cover costs incurred at a shop not in their dealer network.