Custom Line CLD-1048SCE NS : Quality control hit and miss

I have purchase two of these, first one b-stock and a week later another one for which I have paid a full price (new).

I was disappointed in both cases, which is a bummer since I really wanted to like these guitars. The sound is very good both acoustically and through an amp.

B-stock:

Came packed insufficiently - no foam wrapping, guitar in direct contact with cardboard and obvious finish wear on those exact contact points. Missing hardware (manual, spare tuner peg and allen wrench). Action too high (1mm higher as per attached QC specs).

All in all, the guitar still looked nice and I would use it, however, the neck had a worrying cracking sound at the neck/body joint when moved sideways (as if not glued on properly) and it affected the tuning stability - for this I will be returning it.

New:

Packed properly, all hardware included. The headstock had a very visible ding at the top, missing a piece of wood. The second crack was near the battery compartment (probably caused by a loose 9V battery in the box). What happened with the visual inspection??? The parcel that it came in was undamaged!

Otherwise, the guitar was set up correctly and sound was awesome.

I could not get past the QC issues though and have sold it to someone who does not care about this.

It is obvious that these two guitars were not checked properly before shipping which makes me sad as they are great instruments and very good looking otherwise.