Squier Mini Jazzmaster MN SFG

I had great plans for this shortscale guitar. I intended to mod it into a fifths-tuned 5-string tenor guitar. But there were problems... When I received it, I plugged it in and the pickups made a great jazzmaster-ish sound. However, there were too many glaring signs of bad quality. There was A LOT of black grease on the white pickguard. I tried everything to remove it but it was impossible to get it off the sides that are more porous, leaving the white pickguard permanently looking dirty straight from the factory. The pickup selector switch was loose and had a bad connection making the sound go in and out when it was set in the bridge position. The pot knobs had a sloppy paint job with a lot of gold paint where they were supposed to be white. There were also several little dark fibres cast into the middle of the white pickguard, i.e. within the material itself, impossible to remove. Then there was also the ugly, bubbly chrome finish on some of the saddles. This was too much so I sent it back. How did this pass quality control? It's such a shame because the sound and feel of this model is awesome.