I’m not sure exactly how you’re finding the variables. But I’ve found, in order to access a variable the plugin stores for you, you simply do as follows:
// $post comes from "The Loop" in my case
$post_meta = get_post_meta($post->ID);
$custom_field_array_value = $post_meta['wpcf-variable-name'];
$custom_field_single_value = $post_meta['wpcf-variable-name'][0];
Hope that gives you ideas on how to work around this “issue.” Hate to see such an amazing plugin receive bad ratings!