Suspicious garlic!

My niece got three garlic bulbs from a reputable firm so we went out today to plant them. On splitting them up we found that the bases and bottom of the individual cloves in two of the bulbs had white mould on them so we decided not to plant them. Could this have just been a storage problem or could it have possibly been onion white rot? She's going to complain so hopefully she'll get some replacements, but just need your opinions on this problem.