Brakes coming apart on my new 2012 8289WS

[Kirk Sr]

We LOVE our new 8289WS Diamond Package. But...came back from our 3rd weekend trip with it and noticed the brakes were making noise when I applied them and released them, but worked OK (as well as I've ever seen electric brakes work). I have the ALKO axles with the torsion bar suspension. I crawled underneath it (I didn't jack it up) to see if I could see why they were making noise, pulled the brake adjusting dust covers off and checked the adjustment on the passenger side RR - I could move the star adjuster fore and aft about 1/4"!! OK, I'm thinking that's why it's making noise; the whole brake shoe assembly is sliding back and forth when the brakes are applied/released. I checked the RF wheel - it had about an 1/8" of fore/aft movement. I moved over to the driver's side LR and pulled off the adjustment dust boot and what do I find inside? The retainer spring that holds the shoe to the backing plate is laying in the bottom of the drum! I look up to the backing plate, and sure enough, the hole where the trailing shoe retaining pin should be is empty...I check the LF and it's the same thing(upper left in both pictures)! All I can figure is the brakes were SO FAR out of adjustment that they caused the retaining pins to be pulled back and forth so much as to fatigue the head of the pin, causing it to break off. I used to work as a mechanic, and I've never seen the retaining pin/spring come loose on the brake shoes.
I'm waiting to get a call back from the dealer to see if they can send someone to repair it here - I don't want to pull it anywhere if the brakes are already in pieces on 2 out of the 4 wheels.
So I have a (half sarcastic/half serious) question: If the brakes are supposed to be adjusted after the first 200 miles (according to the manual), and if the trailer is towed 2,200+ miles from the factory in Indiana to the dealer in California for delivery, don't you think the dealer would have adjusted the brakes as part of their PDI, if not already, at say, a Forest River dealer on the way through Illinois?
I've put maybe 600 miles on the trailer (mostly freeway) since delivery, and I don't see how they could have worn that much in so few miles.

[Kirk Sr]

My dealer in Turlock, CA, referred me to the closest Rockwood repair shop which for me is in Napa-27 miles away. I called them, explained the situation, and they asked me where I purchased the trailer-I told them Turlock..he replied that they don't service anything sold by that dealer.. wow..they're not going to win customers over with that attitude...

I contacted Doug Fought at FR warranty-the next # that my dealer had given me. He referred me to Vacaville Trailer Sales.. less than 3 miles from my house that carries Cargo Mate-a FR company. I called them up, they said bring it by and we'll take care of everything. Dialed the brake controller down as low as it would go and took it in last Saturday, and picked it up this Saturday. I think I just found a new neighborhood store that will get my business for trailer goodies!
He said everything else looked good, they just replaced the springs and hardware and adjusted the brakes. Couldn't have been much easier.