Dragon Shield support for defective sleeves always this bad?

I've luckily never had any bad sleeves from Dragon Shield until recently. Two separate boxes of Dual Matte SNOW color have the same issue, from 2 separate retailers. They don't shuffle right, and look damaged after 4 to 5 shuffles right out of the box. They feel stiffer than usual. Other sleeves from the same orders are fine except these 2 boxes of SNOW.

I've contacted Dragon Shield but they are asking me to contact both retailers for replacement or refund first before they will help me. Is this typical?

When I try to contact Amazon I just get directed to the Dragon Shield support website and I'm awaiting response from the game store I bought the other pack from.

Does dragon shield ultimately replace these defective sleeves? This entire process feels like I'm getting the run around from them instead of them taking responsibility for some defective sleeves. Never experienced anything like this. Might be my last dragon shield purchase ever.

What sleeves are you guys using for expensive cards?

Thanks for reading.