I almost have to doubt the rep's honesty if he said he couldn't figure out. Like I said, the lab I use says they see this a lot with Cinestill film. They're quite annoyed by it since clients will often assume it's a processing error.
I appreciate Cinestill's efforts in regards to film photography but personally I don't consider their film products worthwhile. Even if everything else was perfect, the halation issue is enough to put me off. If you want to shoot cine film you're better off rolling and developing it yourself or use one of the companies that offer true ECN2 developing. I've never tried it myself, since I have a local cine-film lab that offers the same service but have you considered silbersalz35.com? They offer true cinefilm including processing and scanning at €60 for 4 rolls which isn't a bad price at all.
