Received this directly from the manufacturer.  It's unfinished stainless, so I'm not worried about the small scratches.  This is from a well known company that has been in the game a while, not a fly by night company.  The things caught me off guard:

1)  Un-centered fluting.  Don't think I have ever seen fluting this far out of line with the index pin and gas port.  Don't know that I have ever seen them out of line on a barrel, fluting or dimples.  It's almost dead center off between a recess and high point.  Just seems lazy.  I'm sure it won't effect accuracy by itself, but it doesn't install a lot of confidence that attention to detail was put into other parts of the process. Drew a red line between the pin and port on the below picture for reference.

2)  Banged up barrel extension ring.  Looks like they whacked it pretty good more than once when installing the index pin.

3) Chatter marks in front of the barrel extension.  Hopefully these where made during fluting and not during rifling.

Am I being too picky?  The only other stripped barrels I have purchased are Rainer and Larue, never had a problem with those.  This barrel is chambered in an intermediate distance accurate round. So I was expecting a little better "fit and finish."  

I'd send it back.

This.

Not because of the fluting, but any damage to the barrel extension ring is going to increase the chance of accuracy degradation.  They can clean it up on a lathe, but by guess is that costs a pretty penny, and I would not be happy at all because it shows a lack of attention to detail.

What did you pay for it?  If it's was $150 or less I wouldn't bother sending it back.  Over $250 and it's going back.

Send it back, that looks like crap.

Why does the radial orientation of fluting under the handguard matter at all?

Like I said in the OP, it doesn't affect accuracy, but indicates poor craftsmanship in general that could carry over to other issues.  Have you seen a sampling of others that are off?  I ask because I really haven't.   Even tried to find some pics.

The flutes closest to the muzzle are off as well, I just didn't draw the line all the way up there.

$200.  Right in the middle

It was actually a gift, shipped directly to me.  Might make the return process more complicated.

It came from Alexander Arms.

I would contact the company first and see if they will let you shoot it for accuracy and still exchange the barrel for a replacement if the accuracy is not there. If you shoot it and it's accurate, who cares about the blemishes? You won't see any of them anyway when the barrel is mounted.

Did you call the company first and give them a chance before crying on arfcom?

Random prick comment.

I haven't decided yet if I want it exchanged or just return it and move on, so no, I haven't contacted them in the day that I've been in possession of it.  Put the feeler out here to see if my concerns were reasonable.  If I put the "fuck AA terrible customer service never doing business with them" comment in the thread I must have missed it.

Good info to know, I wouldn't have noticed the fluting. Now I know what to look for when buying said type barrel.

Can one possibly ask for better customer support than this?  Too bad for the OP that it wasn't an GM barrel.

It looks from the photo that the forward of the gas block fluting is in line with the index pin, so if that is the case and since that is the only fluting anyone is going to see, I would probably keep the barrel.  Problems two and three are non-issues IMO but the fluting being off center and not even being aligned front and rear would bother me.  However, since it was a gift and IF the front fluting is indexed to the index pin, I could certainly live with it since the rear fluting is going to be covered up anyway and will only be seen when the handguard is removed.

Speaking of gas block, look at that area.  It is machined weird. Has a short area of full OD where the port is, then machined smaller in front, then a larger area, then a small machined step, then the flutes.  That just looks odd.

This makes me nervous as I have the exact same barrel scheduled to be delivered today.

Did the company look their shit over before sending it out to a customer? The guy wasn't bashing the company, he was asking if others had experienced the same.

I wonder if it was sold as a blem.  I wouldn't worry about the cosmetic stuff, but as was pointed out, the gas block journal definitely looks odd, unless it is just lighting.

My opinion was I would send it back without even a 2nd thought about it until I read this post. A lot of wisdom in this post. For $200 I think I would not bother with sending it back. If it was a $400 barrel it would be going back no matter what.

Yeah, I noticed that when I got it in.  Measured it a .736" IIRC.  Not sure why they did that, but if you look at their product page it sure does show it in the pic.  Would it cause any issues using one of the shorter gas blocks?  One that is the length of a traditional FSB would just span the turned down gap and be supported on each end.  a short block (length not height) would be unevenly supported wouldn't it?

My opinion, I would send it back. Not so much for the fluting missalignment (maybe it was fluted prior to gas port and extension fit)  but the thing looks like it's been beat and chattered.

My bitch to the OP is that it seems to be perfectly acceptable to jump on a public forum first, rather than call the manufacturer first. It was 2pm when you posted that, perfectly within business hours. Especially if you are going to name the vendor before talking to them, first.

I'd be pissed if I waited almost a month for that.