I am surprised by your sound card story - I bought a graphics card last year where the initial batch had a lot of lemons, I got three broken graphics card in a row and each time Amazon refused to help me insisting that I should go through the manufacturer RMA process since the 1 month return window was over.
Maybe thats the difference. I've been pretty surprised anyway since I didn't have the warranty slip ready (sometimes tidding up isn't that a good idea).