Whatever happened to "great" customer service?

I've had better days. Today was definitely not one of them. Work was the hardest part. I have recently taken up the position of ordering for the office, however communication is very minimal when it comes to maintaining adequate amounts of supplies. This week I had a request to place an order for a piece of an appliance that was needed by the laboratory technician. Turns out, the order was incorrect. Naturally, I thought that it would be alright to return the item without any problems or any hassle. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. The individual who sold the item decided that unless I had a good reason as to why I wanted to return the merchandise, he wasn't going to accept my return. It upsets me that some companies don't have the common decency to provide amazing customer service to their consumers which they claim they pride themselves in. The boss even spoke with the individual and he still wouldn't accept the return. What company does that? It makes sense to say that an item is nonrefundable if it is custom made, but this item was not. So why not take it back? Provide us a refund and let it all pass. So what if one business no longer believes or trusts in your product anymore? You have plenty of other businesses to rely on.