Well, Dahon said I was too tall (I'm 7" less than the max rated height), and I was too heavy (I was 60 lbs less than the rated max at the time, and had not fit that frame with racks or panniers). And then blew me off.

Back when that happened, I joined BF, but didn't see any signs of same failure. I didn't know where to look. I only became aware of the Folding group almost 3 months ago now, and in that short time, I've seen plenty of the same failure in the same spot on others' bikes of the same model and vintage. Their design countermeasures in following models seems to have greatly reduced the incidence of the same failure.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying or defending issues with Brand T. But there's a lot of this going around. And I think more reasons than that for few LBSs in my town (a huge biking city) now carrying Brand D, way down from previously. Brand BF? Everything I've read is that they trip over themselves and pull muscles, running so fast to resolve any customer issue. Their fold is messy to me, but something to consider in the future.