I've never had a manufacturer send me "wrong" components unless I order them. I've had distributors foul up orders frequently, not just in content but in delivery details, package type, etc.

I've had 'em send me OTP's back when EPROM was popular, because they thought it was cheaper, and I've had 'em delay a shipment beyond when I could use it because, in the process of assembling a shipment including OTP's they realized that they had to be programmed before shipment, yet they didn't have the binary with which to program them. The list is long and I won't bore you with that.

All of what you say is true, but, it's also the case that, in order to cut costs, distributors hire barely competent, or, in more cases than I care to consier, incompetent people to sit at the order desks and try to do the job. That's why I seldom deal with distributors who don't maintain local stock, as I don't want to order parts I can't see before I order them and pay for them. Back in the days when there were multi-sourced components available, this was not the problem that it has more recently become. Competition did, at one time, improve quality. Now that there's no competition, there's little guarantee of quality.

RE