There was no evidence of any kind of an old bulb? Strange. There's something else; something funny. I see those little brown, somewhat circular brown spots. Those appear to be 'attack wounds' caused by bulb mites. They attack a bulb in that manner, then wait for the wound to soften and spoil, allowing their entry. Bulb mites are much more likely to be present when bulbs are stored in pots that are allowed to remain damp or even grown in a damp greenhouse type environment. Given the fact that you say there was no dirt in the pots, that it appeared that things had been washed and the mother bulbs were missing---my suspicion is they discovered or were told by other complaining customers that they had a mite problem, and that they, then, inspected and cleaned all their stock. They probably disposed of the main bulbs because that's where the mites main colony (ies) resided and the bulbs, themselves, were pretty well destroyed. Mites are fairly common with bulbs purchased in pots and with lilium their most successful entry point are areas closest to the basil.
Those are my thoughts. Edit added: Don't be surprised if they don't have replacement stock--they've probably found out be now, it's all bad.
