That's true, IF it's beyond the retailer's return window. The vast majority of retailers have a period of time that you can return a defective item for replacement or refund rather than having to go through a possibly lengthy and troublesome warranty repair process. That return window may vary anywhere from 24 hours to 30 or 60 days, but almost nobody out there will just not accept returns on an item that's defective out of the box. If a place does have an outright policy of no returns for any reason then I just don't do business with them. It's one thing if something breaks after some use (even if it's way too little use), but when it's defective out of the box you should be (and usually are) able to return it to the retailer for immediate satisfaction.
This is where I do also realize that I'm being a bit nitpicky about Klein. Yes, I hesitate to do business with them now simply because they do run out of stock on things VERY quickly and don't have a replacement to send in some cases. That's what twisted my shorts about that GP15 they wouldn't work with me on. I didn't get what I wanted and they were too hidebound to simply swap parts and make that happen. I've had the same issue with Wal-Mart and Lowes, to an extent. Taking something home, getting it halfway assembled, then finding out there was a defective part. The difference there is that once I talked to a manager they WOULD simply swap out the defective part rather than forcing me to disassemble and bring in the whole thing.
To be fair, I do have to say that at least as far as returning a defective item, Klein is very good about accepting returns and even paying for return shipping. Can't fault them there. It's just that if you do get unlucky as I did you go through all that trouble for nothing and are then also still looking around to try and find what you wanted in the first place. I did state that I do still use Klein on occasion, but mostly just for items I know they'll restock, such as turnouts.