96 EX civic heat control problems....

Just got a 96 EX civic with 212k miles...When i bought it the guy said his son took the heat controls apart and when he put it back together he said he got it hooked up backwards....I thought he was talking about the cable for the cold/hot selector...so i messed with it and that wasn't what he was talking about...I then noticed that what he was talking about is the push button selectors...They are backwards, for defrost u have to really use the far left button, etc....I took it apart and really there is no way to get anything put together wrong so then i had a parts car that i knew the controls worked on...So i swapped out the controls and it still does the same thing....So my question is....Is there some sort of relay that has gone bad making this happen or what? And if so where would it be located? If anyone has any ideas please let me know...Its just an annoying thing that i'd like to fix....Thanks in advance for any info...