Which shop in NYC? There are shops that know vintage bikes, but most don't. If I'm on the phone, generally they don't get what I'm talking about. I normally need to go into the shop with the part/s that need to be replaced. I have some sort of informational interview with the mechanic or shop hand. I exchange key words, and if they don't understand what I am talking about, either I move up the food chain to the head mechanic or owner.

I think in this case that they did not replace your axle with the same quality part, which you should have been entitled to. Putting a nutted axle on when the bike that came in had a QR is not acceptable. Perhaps, they did not understand what a PX-10 is or your investment in the bicycle. The adjustment sounds improper.

In the future, I strongly urge you to learn to repack your bearings. It's not that hard and will save you a lot of problems. As for the hoods, that is about a 10 minute job, and there are many tutorials on youtube for rewrapping your bars.