Lame, I have had a similar experience: Once I snapped my favorite bong in half, (yeah I'm a stoner) but it was a pretty clean break. I cleaned it and took it to a head shop I had called that told me they had a guy who blew glass that could fix it. So I dropped it off and they sent it. Flash forward about two months, they call me and tell me my package returned. I roll back up and the cashier is like: "Hey man he couldn't fix yur piece, let me grab it for you, sorry". He proceeds to disappear into the back for like twenty minutes, it seemed like forever. Then he reappears looking sheepish, and apologetically says he can't find it. He apologizes again and tells me I can have and pipe of equivalent price in the store for free. This bong had been worth about $150 at point-of-sale. So I was very happy with this turn of events and chose a beautiful bong with a donut hole in the stem. The guy was wrapping it up when his manager came out and said: "what are you doing?" The guy told him and the manager said: "Oh, THAT broken piece? It's right here!". Then he brought out my old broken bong and sent me on my way empty handed....
:/