The article states the warranty coverage would be done by the third party company. Why was Best Buy handling it at all? And if they returned the RAM, not sure what the issue is. Swap the RAM and see if it is working, if so, put it back in.
Another marketplace horror story. What else is new. Buy from reputable sellers or pay the price. You can filter out the garbage on Best Buy's website by selecting In-Store pickup - that will show you only computers that are sold by Best Buy themselves. On Walmart, buy only "sold by Walmart." On Amazon, buy only "Sold by Amazon." On Newegg, buy only "Sold by Newegg." This is the way.
A Lenovo Legion 5 owner claims their laptop came back from warranty repair with half of its 64 GB RAM removed. While the situation initially looks bizarre, Lenovo's own specifications states the laptop only supports up to 32 GB RAM.