Many Bering employees are at Shot Show, so know this could impact how quickly they respond. Night Goggles has sold a ton and no I haven't been notified by customers of this. I also monitor the Facebook group called Bering Optics Users Group. I have probably seen this comment once or twice in 3+ years. I have not seen this personally after testing virtually every Bering product. I don't say this to doubt what you are saying. For any thermal, always write down the vertical and horizontal adjustments, so hopefully you did. If you bought it from Night Goggles, PM me and we can discuss via phone. If not, you may want to consider contacting the dealer you purchased it from.
The scope tests for battery voltage and amount of battery left when it first starts up. If you see the screen flash red quickly and turn off, it is sensing either the batteries don't have enough power, or a cell is bad. I know there are some PM members who use magnetic connections, but there are so many people on the Bering Optics Users Group who found, like I did, they are far more prone to cause issues. If you are using a magnetic connection, I would stop.
As for losing the reticle, there is a mode on the Hogsters, Super Hogsters, and Yoters where the reticle can be turned off. It is a feature. On the SH and SY, the typical process is to hold down the outside buttons while short pressing the middle button 4 times. On a Hogster 25 and 35, it usually is to push all 3 buttons down at the same time. Try these two if you don't have the reticle back.
As for switching from inches to metric, when you are in the zero window, press all 3 buttons. By what you are describing, it almost seems like somehow your scope got reset. The scope would show many of the same systems if a person accidently went into the 2nd page and selected the icon that looks like a reverse arrow/circle. However, a scope reset typically doesn't change the zero back to 0,0.
If this keeps happening to you, I do recommend contacting Bering. One other comment is many people hibernate their scope without realizing vs powering them down and the batteries are dead in their scope. Make sure you are holding down the front button until the checkmark and X appear and select the checkmark, to power down the scope. I know you said this all happened with the batteries out and the battery pack disconnected but just mentioning as I have seen this many, many times.