Although I think the term pre-certified implies that someone may have looked at an item, the prefix pre- could be interpreted from a linguistic perspective as simply before. Thus pre-certified linguistically implies before certification, which also implies the item will be looked at some time in the future when it is certified or not.
Similarly if you have a three year old child in pre-k (nursery school), the term pre-K does not imply that the child is qualified for, eligible for or would ever be able to handle the rigors of the kindergarten curriculum.
Thus I do not think technically that pre-certified means anything with respect to the authenticity of an item, good, bad or ugly.
I raise this point not to defend Heritage or anyone else that uses the term pre-certified, just to clarify the actual meaning of the language involved. I am not commenting on intent.