Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway Update Rollout?

If old firmware was the ONLY issue, sending a new gateway is a dumb (slow and expensive) way to upgrade firmware. As I and others reported here, firmware updates are done automatically over-the-air usually off-peak (3a - ish).  
 

Also as tech support is not dispatching these devices, wondering how they can be confident the replacement won't also be loaded with v.12.  BTW v.12 worked for me, v.16 did improve performance.