One way you can tell if the tonearm has been rewired is by looking at the cartridge clips and also if there is now a ground wire. The Rega clips, if you look at them in the direction the pin would be entering, are triangular shaped and copper. Most rewires use Cardas clips and they are round and gold plated. I do not know what you can do if they rewired the tonearm incorrectly because they probably cut the wires too short. I sent my RB 250 to be rewired because I was afraid of similar problems. Of course you could also have bearing problems but that is unlikely. I would suggest sending just the tonearm to the current Rega distributor to have it checked out. It is a good tonearm and certainly worth the trouble.