Gitzo failure

Yesterday – while shooting a nice Chinook arched sunset – my Gitzo tripod decided to call it quits. After using it for about 8 months this thing is done.
I did nothing special, I'm not trowing this thing around nor did I put too much weight or strain on it or anything silly like that. But yesterday, one of the 'ledges' – where the tripod legs snap into – broke right off.

When I bought it last July, I thought I was crazy spending that much cash on a stupid tripod. And now I feel very disappointed by the quality of Gitzo. Wasn't Gitzo a company with a big reputation amongst the pro community?

I was researching my tripods default yesterday when I came across a post on some message board where somebody was explaining and showing the SAME EXACT problem (I'm using the treads photo to show you what went wrong)! This must be a manufacturing default. I'll run by my new friends at The Camera Store this afternoon and see what they say.

I'm pretty devastated. I guess I won't be shooting much this month. Unless The Camera Store would be gracious enough to give me a loaner while this thing gets repaired under warranty. *hint*

*****UPDATE*****
Alright. So I dropped the tripod of at The Camera Store and hopefully it will not take too long to get this fixed. Thanks again Jim for taking care of this! And hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a loaner I could use. Otherwise shooting landscapes without a tripod will be a challenge for the next weeks.