I don't know if it still holds true but I remember about 30 to 35 years ago my father relating a story to my godfather that Sears had set such high standards for their private label tires, that Firestone threw up their hands and said "No can do" and backed out of the 5 year contract bid for Sears.
I do know for a fact that several companys are so demanding and make the manufacturer eat their goods returned for what ever reason they decide. What I came to refer to as the
"WE SAY SO WARRANTY" In fact when I ran a paint sprayer warranty and repair shop I had received from a local Sherwin Williams store what the refered to as a CHARGE BACK. This was the result of a sprayer brought in for repair that was not a warranty situation, it was plain and simple abuse and lack of maintenance by the painter. After informing the Sherwin Williams manager of this he issued a Purchase Order for the repair. 60 days later ( they never pay within the terms) , I received the invoice with a charge back saying they had decided it was warranty and would not pay the invoice. I called the Store Manager and said I had 5 machines from his store in my shop and his store was now placed on COD CASH Only. His responce was, " You don't know who your dealing with I'm Sherwin Williams". My responce was congratulations "I'm Vern's Airless Repair and not that we had formaly introduced ourselves he was still COD CASH ONLY and the sprayers in my shop would not be released until all invoices for his store was paid and the sprayer in the shop had also been paid for whether the repair was done or the estimating charge of $25.00 as a bascket case the sprayer disassembled in the box or $50.00 for the sprayer reassembled as it came in the door. The manager started using many colorful metafores umongst them questioning my parentage and confusing me with Odipus ( Having Carnal Knowledge with my Mother) I informed him the next sound he would here would be the dial tone. He tried to send customers directly to me to get their sprayers I told them of the estimating charge , but proceded to assist said customer in getting a new account with a competitor paint store. So it also back fired on SW I had a lot of fun at SW's expence.
But this is common practice with many big box stores, that for instance is why if you go to HOME DEPOT you see a GRACO paint sprayer thats entirely different then one you will see in a Sherwin Williams Store and different yet from a Glidden, PPG or other paint store Home Depot's are tinker toy sprayers that Graco designed for the non proffessional and in some cases are not worth the money. SW's are closer to a quality sprayer but they also have some that are cheaponed with so as to offer a lower price but is not apples to oranges. As the old saying goes
IF A DEAL IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS"