Unless they have had more than one oddball power meter in the past the old Polar power meter (which I also had/have) was actually a DFPM whether most "haters" recognize that or not. Most DFPM units measure the pedaling force by the changes it produces in an electrical strain gauge. The Polar measured the pedaling force by using what amounted to a guitar pickup to measure the vibrational frequency of the chain. This seems ridiculous to the average bear but anyone who plays bass guitar or another stringed instrument or who tunes pianos can tell you that it is a perfectly sound method of measuring the force/tension on a vibrating "string". The Polar's problem was that in the field the failure rate after two years was close to 100%. It's hard to make a product succeed in the marketplace with that reliability record....
As it turns out I was able to get approved to post on the Velocomp forum in less than 8 hours. I feared it could be a week or more. An email to them last Saturday has still not been answered but I posted the same story to their forum yesterday and got a response this morning asking me to email them. Again. So I have just done that and I will wait a little while to see if they respond quicker once you've gotten their attention in their forum. Don't know what the odds of that are since I have seen people posting there asking when they would get a response a week after getting the same request to email them privately. I'm not going to wait a week. An out of the box failure like this should be embarrassing enough to a company that they would respond immediately. If they won't then I don't think they are a company I want to deal with.
Sure, I'd be willing to take the time to position the PP right next to the speed sensor and try to pair them. As an RF engineer I would not normally do that because putting the receiver right next to the transmitter can be as problematic as putting it too far away. The strong TX signal may overload the RX! But it's worth a shot, thanks for the suggestion and for the report that it has worked for you. It's odd if the PP can receive the speed sensor signal from the handlebars once it has been paired but cannot hear it from that location before it is paired. I guess I have seen odder things however.
I do have the nuclear option: an RMA and a prepaid shipper to return the PP to the retailer for a refund. I'll use it if I have to....