Every time I get comfortable with a retailer something bad happens. In this case, Newegg is doing Microsoft's work by illegally
The letter doesn't really bear repeating here now after the above summary; the gist is that until this is resolved in favor of the customer, I am going to have to be rabidly anti-newegg. This is a horribly offensive move that proves that newegg does not understand its community, nor does it have the customer's interests in mind in the least. This is a revelation to me, because I have always been very happy with Newegg.
Came to their senses
Newegg rapidly backpedaled. I am a Newegg customer once again.