I stopped by the bike shop today to see what was happening. Dahon had sent the new part but it too was defective. In this case the latch handle was broken in half. I think they may have just took another defective part off the shelf. What I found interesting was that the new part looked slightly different, sure operated a lot smoother. I didn't have the old one to compare, so I can't tell.

Oh well, what's another week.