Kiwi, don't accept the seconds! Really, it seems that this "pro shop" is worse than useless for you, and not worth your custom or your money. You've had no joy with redress on your own faulty skates, and now they're trying to offload more faulty product on you. Could you maybe order them by mail/phone from another pro shop in another city in NZ, or are these sharks the only ones in the country (I know that might actually be the case)?
I had a quick look around and it seems that the skate price is not the killer, shipping from UK is. Because Risport is a European brand, it seems that it's mostly UK shops which keep the brand? What about mail order from Sydney - I know of a store here which keeps the Risports, and might be able to help? At least shipping might be a bit cheaper than from the UK!
As far as online shopping goes, there are two important issues I can see:
(1) You need to be sure of what you want, and that what you want matches what you are buying. You can't try on first, and often returning something is a hassle and expensive, if it's possible at all.
(2) You really need to check out the seller carefully. That includes googling their name + "issues" or "problems" to see what comes up, not just checking out the ebay feedback, although that's very useful too.