I'll be interested to see how your service experience goes with Agilent so please post back with that.
It's been an excellent meter. I forgot exactly when I bought it but it has to be 10 years ago. It has an issue where VAC doesn't zero properly, not sure why that is. I messaged Keysight and am waiting for them to reply. It's had this for the last 4-5 years, I just never get around to sending it in. It has an offset of ~4 volts with the probes connected and sometimes 12VAC when I am measuring 2 different points on the same phase of a 240VAC system. All this on the 1000V range. It's annoying.
I've mainly used my U1271A for residential and industrial stuff - checking panels, control circuitry, relays, etc. It's a bit dirty but still functions 100%. The text on all the buttons is still 100% legible, etc.
The U1270 line isn't really designed for bench use. It measures things well but its a bit bulky and the display isn't pleasing to the eye. It is a 30,000 count multimeter though... I'd like something a bit less industrial and a bit smaller.
Having said all that, the multimeter I have my eye on is the Zoyi ZT703S. Why ? I can't get my head around buying a 6000 count multimeter, so I'm looking at 20000+ count models and by the time you in that price range, why not get the 703 ? There are many times that I would like to see the signal I am taking measurements of but don't want to haul out an oscilloscope. I think the scope would be very handy, even if it is a rudimentary scope. I have a bench scope that I can use if I need a better look or I need to store a waveform.
The most annoying "feature" on my U1271A is having to turn the dial to off to turn it off. Lots of times I'll take a measurement and be done and I have to turn the dial to off, for no other reason. There isn't a button press that will turn it off. You can turn it on with a button press but not off. So sometimes I have the auto power off set short but that is annoying too. The dial gets a lot of unnecessary use because there is no way to turn it off without moving the dial.
It's been a really interesting experience looking at multimeter and reading about them. I haven't bought or looked at a MM since I bought my 1271A. It's funny how there is a flood of lower end meters but the industrial segment is still owned by Fluke and the price gap is big.