Yes I called them and spoke to a women (don’t remember her name) who gave me a pretty snarky response that the wheels were fine and that everything was normal - the general attitude I got from them was that they were annoyed I was questioning anything. I then called HED directly who were much more friendly, they said it was strange that they would be dated that old but that there had been no design changes and that the warranty would apply should there be any defects. I’ve run them on just about every ride since May and have had zero issues, love the wheels.
Following up on brake pads - I started with Kool Stop blacks which had good modulation but seemed to leave faint streak marks on the brake track no matter how clean I tried to keep them. I switched to standard Shimano black pads (HED rep recommended) and there’s much less modulation but no streaking.
Oh and the braking is crazy good, I can’t imagine needing any more stopping power.