As far as I know, they did an initial run of boards in the UK, i've not personally seen any posts where they indicated that they did a limited production run with the supplier they were using the make the large batch, although I'm more than happy to be proved wrong on this. If they did do a mini run and the part was swapped out after, then I'll remove the lunacy tag, they can keep inexperience because they should have had somebody there to ensure the quality of the product.

And even if they are doing it now with farnell, it's a bit like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Hugo placed the blame with Raspberry Pi, I concurred. No matter what the factory did or didn't do, the onus lies soley with raspberry pi to ensure that their end product is built to the BOM and their exact specification.

Like I said, inexperience or lunacy. Take your pick, it's one or the other.