Originally Posted by
trailangel
Here is a thought. The bike has a cheap Miranda narrow/wide chainring, and you didn't put the chain on correctly, and it got chewed up.
Yes, a definite possibility; however I'd think it would be
obvious that the chain was not meshing with the chain ring. Perhaps the assembler forced the chain on spreading the links and the chain went downhill quickly with use. But then, why were only a few links damaged?