I guess it depends on availability. If Gigabyte or EVGA or MSI have cards in Europe ready to replace broken cards turnaround is quicker but if there waiting for inventory from Tiwan or China then their at the mercy of their logistics companies to ship them over. I guess the relatively recent mining crazy has exasperated supply issues as well.
Thats a poor excuse and not an acceptable one.
If a card needs to come from Taiwan, then it should be overnighted for the customer. Making the customer wait when they provided the faulty hardware is utterly outrageous.