Need parts advice/problems with first trike purchase/Performer
 

I bought a Performer F Trike 4 weeks ago and ran into a series of problems.
Now all I have left to do to get it on the road is the front derailleur. The one
the company sent me is defective. Performer Cycles won't help me with this problem, even though we offered to pay for a replacement. They won't tell me which front derailleurs are compatible with the trike, either. I live in China. On the Chinese marketplace, I need to know alternatives for the Microshift R439 so I stand a better chance of ordering a better quality part.
Here are the specs...
Shifter Microshift bar end shifter 10S
Front Derailleur Microshift R439
Rear Derailleur Shimano Tiagra 4703
Crankset Shimano Tiagra 50/39/30 170L
Cassette Shimano Tiagra 11-34t
Thanks to anyone who can offer advice.P.S. Being a central Floridian, I'm being punished for not buying a Catrike...

You want a derailleur for a road triple crankset, and specifically one for road shifters. (Apparently the cable pull is not standardized for front triples.) In your case, your bar end shifters should be road shifters. So a Sora or Tiagra triple front derailleur should work. They're both optimized for 50T big rings, but that's close enough to count - 2 teeth isn't going to make a huge difference in the circumference. The only question will be the 20 tooth total capacity rating. That's a vague number, which can usually be exceeded by at least a few teeth.

I have had nothing but good experience dealing with Performer. Christine answered all of my e-mails, allowed me to customize my highracer into a lowracer, responded to questions I had about the frame after it was delivered, and has responded to follow-up e-mails for new handlebars I was considering.

Sounds like something went sour in the process with your transaction.

What front shifting problem are you encountering? How is your derailleur defective?

I was wondering about that, too. Defective front derailleurs are pretty rare - there's not that much to go bad. Damaged (bent) in shipping? Misadjustment is more probable, in my book. Maybe XPat9 is experiencing different treatment due to being in China?

I went through the process step by step with Vanessa. She was helping me with the assistance of a mechanic, but they couldn't offer any reason for the chain jamming between the middle and largest gear. Then the bolt became stripped, and they shut off communication by saying I had to only communicate with the Chinese dealer.
I went to a shop and they had a used derailleur that worked.
Thanks for your advice and comments.

One of the joys of buying online is that you can't roll the bike (trike) into the mfg for warranty work. It sounds like you found the right answer: pay a LBS to fix it.

That sounds like a derailleur height adjustment issue to me. That's common. Front derailleurs are very sensitive to the position of the derailleur on it's mounting mast.