I need help with an engine problem..please respond

I have an 88 astro van. I recently took in into a repair shop to have the transmition overhauled, the oil pan and gasket changed. I picked it up and paid and they told me it was in working order. I was driving it home and noticed theengine was knocking and the tranny was shifting excessivly hard especially into first and there was no overdrive. I drove it to my husbands auto body and paint repair shop and then home..all in the same town. After my husband came home later that night he took it around the block and noticed excessive lifter noise and knocking. He shut it off and checked the oil...no oil.....smoked a cig. ..checked it again...no oil..we waited an hour checked it again....no oil. I had it towed back to the place i had had the work done on it and the next morning the manager of that shop called me and said he started it and it purred like a kitten!!...and he said the reason for the oil not showing up was because the oil pump had picked up the oil and pumped it into the valve covers and the reason for none on the dip stick was because the oil galleys were plugged.....after this i calld another repair shop and they said that the info. about was absolutly false...if anyone can tell me if this is false could u please respond..any extra info would be appreciated...Im a 23 year old female with 2 children and feel that im getting pretty much screwed over on this....i would love some extra info...THANK YOU!!!

The shop is defintely giving you a line of crap, all the oil galleys could not be that plug that some of the oil would not drain back into the pan.
The oil could drain back the way it went into the rocker covers when the engine is off. Ask the guy why your lifters were making such a rattling noise if all the oil is sitting under the rocker covers, that where the lifters are. They forgot to put in oil after the changed the pan, on my van I had a shop forget to put in anitfreeze after they changed some coolant lines, on the way home it overheated, so I filled it up and on the way back to give them hell the head gasket went on the engine.
The shop paid for all the repairs without a fight.