I have one (part hear-say) story to recount, but take it with a grain of salt: there were a couple of shops in the bay Area that for unknown reasons stocked and sold Argos frames. One was in my neighborhood (SF City) and another was in the East Bay (there may have been more). A co-worker who later beacme a friend was chatting with me about bikes when we first discovered we had this in common, and at that moment he was considering a number of "upgrades" to his Univega as he had some cash to spend, and he was considering buying an Argos from his East Bay shop. I recognized the brand and suggested he take a look at my 'hood shop as they might have some more choices. He reported back that he had talked for some time with the SF shop owner ( I was not there) and they guy warned him off buying an Argos because he said he had a rash of frame returns all due to similar failures of cracking at the BB shell/down tube or seat tube junctures (I don't remember which or if it was both). Anyhow the shop owner was righteously pissed at the extra work that he had to endure to 'make whole' the handful of Argos frame buyers who all wanted money refunded or free warranty repairs.
Now i'd be much more inclined to give Argos the benefit of some doubt but back then I (and others who heard this story) quickly ran to the conclusion that Argos frames were junk.
My friend scratched his itch with a custom frame built by Bernie Mikkelsen, shortly after he traded up to a custom frame by Ed Litton.
Very "East Bay".