Thanks for the details, Moose. In hinds sight you probably good have taken your dad with you to Gander Mountain and since you two are family they would likely have replaced the gun for you.
I am sorry to read that Taurus CS reps have given you a bad time. I have written a number of posts up here on how to best deal with customer service for any organization including Taurus. You did the right thing in escalating your issue to a manager. The front line people just want to transfer your call or get you off the line asap. Occasionally you will find that exceptional rep who will go the extra mile. Always get their names, too, and then ask for them.
The shipping and handling procedure Taurus is using is actually an industry standard. The clock always starts when the package is received into their system because they can not be held accountable for the length of time it takes the shipping company to process the package to the gun company (e.g. Taurus). The samething applies for return shipping.
Receiving cues are also standard and the length of time a received package remains in the cue depends on the amount of packages being received and the number of employees processing packages out of the cue. Ditto for the inspection cue packages are processed into. Keep in mind that Taurus does something very few gun manufactuers do... they warranty a life time repair of the gun to the gun itself and not the owner. So any old "Joe and Jane" out there can find themselves a used Taurus that has gone through dozens of owners and ship it out for warranty repair. That certainly has an impact on Taurus' ability to process repairs and orders in a fast manner.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are internal organizational problems with the process at Taurus. These sort of problems plague many large corporations. Try sending a computer off to Dell or Compaq for repair and getting it back within 30 days! The cost to produce a computer is so cheap for these companies that they will ship out a replacement to you and supply a return shipping carton for the defective unit. However, with a firearm that is a bit more difficult to do; especially if dealing with restricted parts. But I wish they could do something like that, it would make things so much smoother!
I hope things move along fast for you.