Re: In their defence
Indeed. Been there, done that etc... IIRC for us it was a "drop in" replacement optoisolator which came reeled in the opposite orientation to the one it was replacing. Might have been a drop in replacement in terms of schematic and PCB design, but most assuredly NOT a drop in replacement as far as the SMT line was concerned. At least in that case, the incorrect orientation meant the boards couldn't get past production test, so customers were none the wiser and we only had to rework about 100 boards from that initial build run.
I also have a vague memory of occasionally seeing components available with both standard and inverted orientation reels, presumably as a way of avoiding problems like the above, so that provided you ordered the right part number then you genuinely would get a drop in replacement for whatever other version of the component you were already using...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
