I have e-mailed with Jeevan, who seems to be the boss in India.  I have dealt with him quite often in the past and he is always very professional with an excellent grasp of English.  

He confirms that the e-mail really was sent out in error and that they're trying to get to the bottom of it.   I just get the feeling that someone took it upon themselves to make changes without checking with the higher ups who actually understand "life in the midwest" from years of dealing with our rural and winter-weather problems.

I also complained that their new order form has the same wording about turn times.  (This is another clue that maybe someone thought they were doing what needed done without checking with people in the know.  I think maybe we Americans have to be handled a bit differently -- we just don't like being told what to do when we know we're doing a great job and providing a quality service.)  We had already been told to ignore the "6 hr turn time" on the forms and, in fact, they had already sent an amended form changing the eta to 2 business days.

I think they are trying to mend fences and I for one will not hold the faux pas against them.  They've been a pleasure to deal with and pay their bills quickly.  

I have to wonder if that change in policy was supposed to go out to INTERNAL (international) subcontractors re work being done on line.  That, too, will eventually bite them in the behind, but as we already know, it takes time for the errors to catch up and for companies to learn a valuable and expensive lesson.