First of all, as I said I bought them overseas because it was the only place in the world I could get this style of pedal at any price. I would have paid more to get them locally, but I could not get them locally and when local failed, when mail order failed, and when America failed, I had no choice but to look elsewhere.

Second of all, it has not been my experience at all that Shimano pedals work nicer. Wellgo is my pedal manufacturer of choice because I've generally found their pedals to work nicer with better bearings, better designs, and lighter weight than Shimano et al and of all my other pedals (mostly wellgo) the one pair of Shimanos I own are the worst of my collection (despite the fact that they were also the most expensive, being purchased at my LBS...which is no doubt much like yours: pay more get less).

These pedals were not cheap and I bought them expecting the best, just as every other Wellgo pedal I have is the best. I am not concerned about the manufacturer warranty. I am concerned about whether or not this is a legitimate defect because if it is the shop I purchased from has agreed to pay return postage, regardless of the warranty.

Has anyone ever had to do some rebending of the springs on their pedals? Because so far I haven't, not even on my other Wellgo SPDs which have the smoothest mechanism of any SPD I have tried. So I'm wondering if this is unusual to need to bend the springs or not and if that's likely to fix the problem.