I can't say that is what happened but have seen a lot of that type of garbage go on.  I know of one story where a guy took bred cows to a sale barn, supposedly they preg checked open and were sold as canners.  The next spring at a bred cow sale the same cows with the same ear tags were being sold as bred cows.  You draw your own conclusions, but I've seen and heard of enough crap out of sale barns I don't trust them much.  I do buy feeders from reputation herds at special sales where I do know what I'm getting.  Something would definitely be fishy about what you explained, especially if they didn't promote them at all and they have a special sale coming up Saturday.  Ask them.