Dave, it could be he has decided to become a PE dealer and is working through the process. He may not have been able to inherit it from the other party. It would be good for him to be straight forward about this if that is the case. You can go to PE's website and use the dealer locator as a cross-reference.
Another thing that kind of sticks and I didn't really make all that clear, is that X seemed to want me to place the order with him when I was out there or even get back to him and order. And actually I spoke to the first guy on the phone after the visit to X, before I went back in, and I asked him if I should place the order with X (after he said the deal went through). He preferred that I didn't. (So in a way he might have been cutting his salesman out of a commission and I went along with it, but I didn't realize that's what I was doing -- I assumed he was just taking over X's business, and X was going to retire.
And if I had ordered from X, he knew how to handle it, and I'd probably be getting it by Friday. But the first guy doesn't seem to want to get X involved.
If this guy keeps stringing me along, I'm thinking maybe I should call X and get him involved.
But you're right, I think I need to get this guy to start leveling with me about what's going on and maybe suggest that we need to get X involved, since he seemed to know how to get it within a week.