Thanks for the update. In all honesty the bag could be patched for a couple of dollars and would be completely usable, and you'd look like a hardcore player who took his tripod everywhere, but you shouldn't have to do that. Like you said in another message, you find out who's reputable when you need customer service. I guess RRS and Bogen go on the 'not reputable' list, which is too bad because I like my Bogen tripod. It's old, back when Bogen was Bogen, and I don't use it much anymore because it's a monster made for motion picture cameras, but you should have been treated better.