Gene
I thought your letter was very well thought out and well written. Good points!
I very nearly bought that same boat through bass pro shops as well and I was also aware of the differences between last years model and this years after talking with the Outcast reps at the San Mateo Show. I'm really sorry to hear that they did not send you the correct one.
I would also like to offer, if you want, the use of my float tube this weekend at Naci if you would still like to go. It ain't much, just a Lew's round tube, but I could bring it and a livewell if you still want to go.

I would also like to share my kickboat ordering experience as it was similar except for they sent the right boat.
I was researching kickboats and decided to buy the J.W. Outfitters Renegade. I found it for sale on a half dozen sites and was comparing the various options/prices. Every price was listed as $599 for just the kickboat, with accessories such as cargo deck, stripping basket, padded seat, etc listed as options which you could buy for more money.
Then I went to the San Mateo show and talked with the Scientific Anglers guys, who own J.W. Outfitters and who themselves are actually owned by 3M. Apparently they had just bought J.W. Outfitters and the way that the boats were packaged had changed. The new price was $699 but came with cargo deck, padded seat, and striping basket.
So then I call up roundrocks.com to order my boat, mostly based on the fact that their website was least cheezy of the ones that I looked at (always a good indicator of the kind of service you are going to get). Long story short, the guy I talked to was very cool, but if I hadn't known tha the boats were coming in this new configuration at the new price, I know there would have been problems. They drop ship all of their kickboats, so I had him call Scientific Anglers to verify the options and the price. Sure enough, unknown to the guy I was talking to, the price was now $699 and the boat came with all the options. Since the price on the website was in error, the guy was cool about it and didn't charge me shipping. That combined with no sales tax coming from Utah, made it a pretty good deal. The boat arrived 7 days later which was about as expected.
So overall a good experience, but a fine line between having things go bad and having things working out. Moral of the story, do your homework, but also cross your fingers. I know I would have got burned on the bass pro thing too.