Upon reading about this across the boards today, this came to mind :
Mikeyc,
It's apparent your defective/poorly performing product remains a big issue for you. I can relate as I had somewhat of a similar siutation with another type of product ( a Trek bicycle) last year and yes, I had felt much the same way about Trek as you do about LC.
FWIW, I wrote directly to the company. It was either to the "head honcho" or the department that handles consumer affairs. Often times, when you actually write an old fashioned, "snail mail" letter to a company, it shows you are serious and wish to actively get an issue resolved. It alsao creates a concrete "paper trail".
Although, not exactly the same kind of situation that happened to you,Trek did get back to me but it did take a while. They basically offered a voucher for the value of the item I had a problem with.
Perhaps doing something like this may help in your case? It can't hurt and it's worth a shot. I browsed a few online articles related to this kind of situation.
This one looks like it offers some basic pointers.