Although Avalon might of played it right by you, it's not very hard to see why others would not be as happy with them.
Not saying we should be happy with them, just that they are far from being the worst company out there but still they seem to have some of the most rabid haters around, they even rival BFL on that front
I just wanted to get my point across that when it comes to buying from their in stock items there isn't really much risk from my experience since they have a good track record on that side of their business that gets drowned in all the old "pre-order hate" noise.