That still didnt' work so I pulled the crossover out of the back and found that one of the large capacitors was loose on the PCB.
Call Axiom. I'm sure they will replace the speaker. As a general rule, if anything is non-functioning in a new product, the first thing to do is contact the manufacturer directly. This establishes that the product was dammaged on arrival.
As far as QC, unless you are willing to pay a lot more, there is only so much that can be done to ensure that nothing gets through. The PCB will go through a functional test when it is manufactured, and the assembled speaker goes through a test in a mini chamber to make sure it is functioning and within spec. I saw the chamber during my plant tour.
With the speakers being shipped and going through automated shipping equipment, they get rattled and shaken. It is well within reason that your speaker passed functional tests at the factory and ended up non functional when it arrived at your door.
The plant I work at supplies seats for a Lexus. Our plant has won the top quality award for seats in North America 5 years running, but we still have dammaged seats returned from Toyota weekly. This despite having on line and end of line inspections up the wazoo. We ship all of 30 miles to the assembly plant and have had shipping dammage to seats. Stuff happens.
It sucks when stuff happens to you, but sometimes its just not the other guy.
