That totally sucks Marco, I hope Ortofon get you back on track asap.

I'm absolutely stunned the SPU was allowed to leave the factory in that condition. It's disturbing enough that sufficient care wasn't taken during the manufacturing process, however I find it totally unacceptable that the fault wasn't picked up during the QC procedure. It's such an obvious and easily identifiable fault that it raises the question as to whether this particular unit went through QC at all...

Here's hoping Ortofon review their manufacturing and QC procedures accordingly as a matter of urgency. I'd expect a written apology at the very least if this had happened to me.