I thought chemicals that don't work the way they do is only peculiar to our high school chemistry laboratory. Then, most experiments never yield the desired result. We became experts at approximating the heck out of results so it'd look anywhere near the accepted standard results :)
Those were interesting days. But after high school, my adventure into chemistry came to my end. Hello, Physics :D
The primers were too old, the buffers had the wrong concentrations .... I don't know how they could mess up this badly.
Then it was old reagents and other expired chemicals .
I guess the person in charge of your lab is a bit overwhelmed or just does not care for such things.
I go for the "overwhelmed". And yeah, I know that "wrong chemicals" is incorrect in my post but didn't have the nerve to explain what primers are and why buffers are necessary :P
The simplest explanation may easily pass the message along without the need to delve into "work language" (jargons) which may confuse the heck out of the uninitiated.