Okay - three days later and I'm a lot calmer than when I started this thread. Still annoyed, but mostly at being hung up on.
You all should know that I passed my posting along to my financial consultant at Merrill Lynch and he took the matter very seriously. His attitude was that the consultants work hard to develop long-term relationships and that they resent that misleading products and unprofessional low-level telephone people can put them in jeopardy. Amazingly, he passed my letter along and it seems to be near the top of the food chain.
I expect nothing - at most a letter of apology. He did stress that all calls are recorded and everyone seems to want to hear the call. I'll let you all know if something significant happens.