During WW II there was a portrait made of the European Babe-A-Luscious Margret Bourke White. She had gone on what was suppose to be 'A milk run' over Germany, Of course she was Ikes main squeeze and got anything she wanted, even beyond reason, like flyingin a B-17 bomber over Germany. She got some standard photos but stood shooting snaps when the bomb group came under heavy fire, it turned out to be less than a 'milk run', the two waste gunners died and Bourke-White took over the fifty cals and returned fire taking out several Me-109s that were attacking. Almost everyone on that bomber died or was wounded.

The image you see is of her as she exited the shot up B-17 after it landed made by her assistant photo guy. This ran in as the center fold in Stars and Stripes for the rest of the war as the replacement to the 'girly' center fold because the GIs in Europe wanted it as the center fold pin up, so many requests were there made. She would sign autographs of all ranks from these center fold pin up prints out of Stars and Strips, some while across from German troops in the fox holes of American and allied soldiers in the front lines between fighting.

Portrait or pin up? Sexy? Hot? Babe! In her era Margret Bourke White was the shining center of being a sexy hot babe to women and men alike in a world dominated by the male gaze. Guess what, the world has changed and men are beginning to understand that women are becoming powerful beings in many respects to any and all things that men can imagine. If you think that women don't know just how powerful they are by using there sexuality, the raw power that a necked woman's body is to the males around them then you have missed the boat and are lost in a past that will not be returning if the women have anything to do about that.

Women DON'T need to be nude to have power, it's just that many women love to be nude, and they really do like being ogled by men in or out of their clothing! Live with it.

I think that you are too sensitive.
If the only thing wrong is the Customer Service reps 'choice of words', then big deal.
No one called you a liar or doubted you. His information was that it was new.
He offered you to return and replace. This is something you should immediately do unless you actually do not want the new unit anyway.
How many of us have had a similar experience? Contacted customer service. Received a similar response. And did the exchange? Mistakes in the warehouse happen. B&H is not trying to pawn off used, bad, or open box merchandise on you. This is good customer service.
I wish as the New Year begins, this was the worst thing happening. Alas, not.

Tripod discussions are frequent here on UHH. There is no doubt that a heavy, rock steady, full size tripod is frequently useful. I have one.

Based on frequency of use, I have one that is a bit different. B&H says I bought it in 2017 and paid $44! It still looks and feels brand new. I've used it as a "chest stabilizer", slide copy stand and simple handle. It works to hold an LED light. I've used it on a selfie stick to make it stand up. Used conventionally it makes any chair, stool, table or stump into a replacement for the big one.

The price is a little higher now but, for what it does, it is still a good value.

Manfrotto PIXI EVO Mini Tripod

This is a bit different use of my cameras that may be of interest.

I have a trinocular compound and a trinocular stereo microscope that I use for entertainment and the stereo microscope comes in handy for examining and cleaning my collection of specimens for focused stacking sessions.

With nothing to do and all day to do it, I flocked the internal surface of the tube and connectors used to connect the camera to the microscope to eliminate any internal glare that affected the quality and contrast of the images taken.

These images are taken with a Swift 380T compound microscope with a 10X eyepiece and a 10X objective resulting in a 100X magnification view of the commercially prepared slides.

The first slide is a silverberry hairy scale which I thought looked like an abstract art painting. The second slide is mosquito eggs that are viewed in a negative view. They were both so small that the slides appeared to be void of anything on them.