All OEM AMD CPU's I've seen come with a 15 or 30 day return and replace only warranty.
Also Teq, you're starting to sound like a broken record - jumping in and criticizing AMD CPU's and HSF's with glee everytime someone posts.
I've put numerous AMD systems together and always use the retail HSF unless the machine is going to be OC'd or the user wants a really quiet machine. That said, the retail HSF's are fairly quiet anyway.
I've had two machines I built with the stock HSF shipped over from the UK to the US without a problem, and I've never come across a problem with the systems I have built. If a machine is going to get a bang hard enough to unseat or break the HSF clips then the memory and cards, especially any AGP card, are going to unseat first.
My CPU is running at 44C right now, it's been on for about a week and is over 12 months old. It rarely goes over 50C.
Perhaps, Teq, the problems you are having is because the cooling solutions you used 2 years ago weren't adequate. I don't know. Or maybe you used cheap motherboards that are shorting and don't supply the fan with enough power - alot of older VIA ones in particular are prone to this over time. Or maybe it's down to the power-supply degrading over time - alot of old AMD motherboards are very particular about having a good power-supply. I can say for sure, and THG's article backs me up, the AMD CPU and HSF in their retail packs are more than adequate for the task. In fact they are better than many of the expensive third party coolers and certainly quieter than most. Also, if there was as serious a flaw with the AMD CPU and HSF design, as you are trying to maintain, then wouldn't a few sites have picked up on this and demanded AMD do something about it, like they did about AMD CPU's having no built in thermal cut-off protection?
A big problem people have who build systems and aren't very experienced is not making sure the HSF is on properly - it's possible to get the clip on and it's seated incorrectly. In numerous cases I've seen people freaking about the heat their newly built AMD machine is running at, I open it up and the HSF isn't sitting properly even though the clip is on tightly. Anyway I rarely have seen a machine hitting 80C on the core, and it's almost always down to the HSF not being seated right when it was put on. An AMD CPU can run at 80C quite stably usually anyway.
AMD aren't going to ship crappy cooling solutions with their CPU's - they just aren't. Maybe they did 2 years ago, but not today and not in the last 12 months - it's not worth putting the reputation of their CPU's on the line to save a few pennies on the HSF.