I am still trying to get through this with you. The tape over the usb port on the battery block to ensure the battery does not short the Edison is a key factor for you. Whether or not Sparkfun included those instructions in the box, or whether it came with the tape on it already is important to note. I'll agree support is a necessary component to feel satisfied, but if it was me, I'd still be asking Sparkfun - especially if they did not give any warnings in their package about their battery block shorting. (Kinda like the coffee that had no label that it was too hot, regardless of how obvious, still won)
A guy takes his duck to the vet, says "I think it's dying, can you help?". It being already too late the vet replies "It's dead, that will be 40 bucks." The guy dismayed asked, "Are you sure, you haven't done anything yet?" So the vet called in his cat. The cat looked the duck from head to toe, meowed and walked away. The vet called in his dog. The Labrador retriever sniffed the duck, barked and walked out. The vet said "Yes, it's dead, that will be $150". The guy says "$150? a minute ago you said 40". The vet replied, "That was before the cat scan and the lab report"
Dell, HP and many others "co-market" with the Intel Inside logo. If the board causes the other components to go bad, it is the Dells and HPs that have to provide first responder support. If you have not sought a solution through sparkfun, the provider of the board that powered the module, you may be missing your solution by simply not going through the correct first channels. Please let me know what sparkfun has to say - I was pondering their battery block myself.