"...the idea of changing stock symbol names" is the idea of FINRA. which supervises all splits and dividends. A symbol change is almost always required. Regardless of whether it was a good idea to do the reverse split, there's nothing to investigate.
My shares held through Fidelity were converted Friday night. If you have a crappy broker, like Scotttrade, they dropped the ball on you and you should be angry. It was not something the company did, it was your cheap broker.