I'm hoping that is is just a shipping or storage issue. If you blow in the vent holes on the zig, you will see that it does work. I'm Thinking that maybe they pulled the shipment out of the store because of this filter problem. JMO
I don't think quality control would have let a bad product leave the factory. Maybe the skid of boxes were left in the sun during shipping. Or maybe the product was stored improperly.
I think that German engineering is some of the best in the world. This is just a bad batch of filters. A new product always has to have the kinks worked out. Thats why we are testing the product. Better that we get the defects than the new customers.
Keep long this is going to be the best on the market.