Not trying to defend Taurus, although I've had nothing but good luck with them never needing their customer service, but why would you take a gun like this home with you before looking at it?
Because at first glance, I simply didn't notice them.
Granted I wouldn't have known the front sight didn't have loctite on it until it fell out on it's first range trip. Which it did...
The rear sight wasn't obvious. It has an adjustable sight and the actual blade was installed backwards in the mount that is pressed into the dovetail. Considering I don't have a habit of pointing guns at my face I didn't see it when I purchased it and didn't notice it until I had the slide off and was repainting the front sight. I happened to notice the two recesses for the "dots" on the rear sight were facing the front sight and didn't have paint in them. The recesses for the "dots" are pretty shallow and just something you wouldn't see.
Same with the barrel crown. In fact, I didn't notice it until I happened to have the barrel out and sitting next to my XD barrel for comparison. I was comparing them because someone here mentioned to check the crown due to it's inaccuracy surpassing minute of pie plate at 7 yards. If you didn't have a good crown to compare it to you probably wouldn't notice it. I honestly didn't inspect the crown when I bought it because it's something you expect to be right and I took for granted. Never again mind you.
Now, I will admit that I didn't give it a Marine Corps Drill Instructor inspection when I purchased it. Mainly because it was something I was going to have my wife try and if she didn't like it, it would live it's life as my kayak/fishing gun. You can say you can't believe I would take something like that home but I'm sure 99 out of 100 of you wouldn't have noticed any of them either.
Me noticing the problems is neither here nor there. If someone at Taurus would actually pay attention to these things people wouldn't knock their guns. More people would buy them. They are great guns if you get one that is right from the start. My father has had his PT-92 for almost 20 years now and it's perfect, never had a problem. Outside of my issues my PT-138 is rock solid dependable and will eat any .380 round I put in the magazine. Other than my XD I can't think of autoloader I've owned that would feed this reliably.
The simple things are killing them. While a sight installed backwards is actually no big deal it tells me there is no care in assembly. The fact that the barrel crown is off is also no big deal, but it's someone not firing more than one round through it or doing so and simply not caring.
If I get a gun and it has something wrong and the company is willing to make it right and do it quickly on their dime, I don't even get upset. These things happen. But how many horror stories of their support do we hear? Too many. It's always the same rigamaroll too. "Two weeks." "Two weeks." Then three months later the gun comes back and half the time it's not fixed right.