Well, they are letting it happen. I had to have my 12/12/9,x74r drilling corrected and know of two 470's that were caddywompass, too.

I have liked and owned a few Merkels in my life and can see the changes in quality. Economic pressures and competition might be the cause...up the production and productivity of the workers = less scrutiny and quality control. It happened in a big way at J.P. Sauer years ago.