I'm 100% sure he wasn't making this up, he even made an expedited request and an acknowledgment receipt which should allow me to work in the meantime without a SIN, since I already have a job offer and would have to start soon. This is BC within the Greater Vancouver Area. Plus the issue was escalated to the head officer of the service center, and from his experience this do happens often.
I have a friend who shared a similar experience, waited for 2 weeks before the SIN arrived. Though this happened several years back.