A quick note that I dropped off my LGT 5MT this morning with Carter Subaru in Seattle. I mentioned to the tech that I'd been in before with the same complaints, and that they had considered the surging normal (as well as the obnoxious door and dash rattles and the squeaky clutch pedal) and sent me on my way. The tech (John) seemed somewhat nonplussed that anyone could have considered that normal, and when we went on a test drive, it took about 500 feet from the parking lot for him to declare that there was definitely something abnormal about it. When I asked him if other cars had come in for the same problem, he said no; naturally, he had also not heard of the ECU update that addressed it. I showed him all of the info Opie had given, and not only did he NOT give me the standard 'OMG INTARWEB SI TEH BAD!!1' talk, but he actually thanked me for bringing it in. They set me up with a nice Outback 2.5 XT as a loaner, and I was in and out of there within an hour.
Two hours later, the service manager called me here at work to inform me that my ECU was on its way to SOA-NJ, and that I should have my car back by Thursday. When I told them of the importance of having my car back by no later than Friday morning due to my impending road trip to central Oregon, she assured me that the car would be ready to pick up by Friday morning, and if it wasn't, that she would authorize me to take the OBXT wherever I needed.
As mediocre as my first service trip to Carter was, this second one was absolutely exemplary. Needless to say, the service you recieve is highly dependent on the people you end up talking to. If you're in the Seattle area and need this reflash, John at Carter is now 'in the know'.