Sorry to hear this @SouthpawGuy, I hope you'll find the good one and quite thinkin on a "bad luck" situation here.
But I totaly understand your position, as in the US & the lack of HB distributor over there makes the whole process uber dupper long for return.
In europe, is a matter of 2 days shipping when we order guitar or strings at Thomann, thus, if anything goes sideways, the issue is usually resolved in a week or two. Plenty of time to forget about the issue and have a more pleasant experience.
I have 2 HBs at home, one TE-90 (Telecaster Cabronita Copy, ideal for the reheasals & pub gigs), payed 90$ (198$ new) & one SC-550 (LP Copy) payed 75$ (298$ new), both from eBay.
Although some really low low end have had a QC "standards" lowered on Lefty models - Let's be honest, nobody in a factory tests LH models like they do with RH models.
The nut on the SC-550, is on par with what Epiphone did on the DOT or Casino, I don't have nor have owned a LP from them to attest though.
Same goes for the TE-90 (Telecaster), I did in fact used some files on the nut and grey pen.
Fretjob was the most work, had to buy a neck ruler and some luthier's tools to do the job.
But now, with YouTube, you can pretty much learn anything, given you have some time and like to tinker a bit, I admit, I fell for it years ago.
For what I payed, I knew It would be a continual WIP and help to gather some experience in woodworking / amateur-Luthier-wannabe.
I have looked over YT to find out some tests on the TE-25TH, some are truely breathtaking when plugged into Ableton / Logic Pro or good amps