Why does my taxonomy code display the first alphabetical term?

With wp_get_object_terms() you’re able to manipulate the sorting.

Make sure you tweak the sorting to what you want.

Try something more or less like this (Updated: 5/17/2012 — 8:15AM):

$taxonomyName="producttype";
$terms = wp_get_object_terms($wp_query->post->ID, $taxonomyName, array('orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC', 'fields' => 'all'));
if(!empty($terms)){
    if(!is_wp_error($terms)){
        for($i = 0; $i < count($terms); $i++){
            if($terms[$i]->parent != 0){
                $termChildren[] = $terms[$i];
            }
        }
    }
}
print_r($termChildren);

Output a list of all public custom taxonomies

<?php 
$args=array(
  'public'   => true,
  '_builtin' => false

); 
$output="names"; // or objects
$operator="and"; // 'and' or 'or'
$taxonomies=get_taxonomies($args,$output,$operator); 
if  ($taxonomies) {
  foreach ($taxonomies  as $taxonomy ) {
    echo '<p>'. $taxonomy. '</p>';
  }
}
?>

Output a list of all public custom post types

<?php 
$args=array(
  'public'   => true,
  '_builtin' => false
); 
$output="names"; // names or objects, note names is the default
$operator="and"; // 'and' or 'or'
$post_types=get_post_types($args,$output,$operator); 
  foreach ($post_types  as $post_type ) {
    echo '<p>'. $post_type. '</p>';
  }
?>