You're probably not going to spend a bunch of money on your first guitar. I'm no expert but it seems like the inexpensive models need some adjustments. Probably the dude in the Chineese factory doesn't know/care that much to put any time in.
I've got a friend that makes guitars for a living, and when he saw my guitar, he said more or less "there's nothing really wrong with this, but bring it to my shop so I can work on it".
I did, and he did a few things like adjusting the truss rod, filing down the grooves in the nut, adjusting the action and intonation. It really made a big difference, especially the nut thing. Apparently the grooves needed to be brought down some as it was making stuff, especially like an open D chord, sound sharp.
I would have never even considered buying something brand new and immediately bring it to a repair shop, but it makes sense to me now. He did it for free, not sure what a repair shop costs, but it took him about 45 minutes to fix up both my electric and acoustic.