I'll send you a PM, Tav...
One thing, this quote might be a clue though for the wrong reasons:
Other comments were very inaccurate in their so called guesses, "Cut back on the bottling sugar just a bit to have more mouth feel. (is it just me, or should you not be guessing what the brewer is doing in the procees cause most of the time your wrong
He's complaining that the beer is overcarbed. (You are right that he shouldn't be assuming you bottle primed.) But if he's getting overcarbonation and you are properly carbing (like you mentioned in your earlier post), then the extra carbonation has to be coming from the time in the bottle.
Sounds like either a low level infection (though phenolics might be a better indicator if they accompanied the carbonation) or the gravity is in fact high when you bottle and the yeast are still chowing down, but that wouldn't explain the apple. Hard to say without tasting what you are describing.
Oh, and a 12 pt spread is unacceptable. 7 points is the max allowed spread that I've ever heard of and we get very uncomfortable when they are that wide. 12 points doesn't sound right to me.
