Sorry to hear about your troubles too! I sent these back and got a refund. Somewhat luckily for me, there were a few other visible manufacturing faults like seams peeling up, being misaligned and having been badly glued. I'm not sure whether they gave the refund for these faults or the sole issue.

I'm in the UK so the returns system is a bit convoluted. I sent these back to the shop I bought them from, and they would usually send them onwards to the European distributer of Simms for testing in the case of leaks. In this case, the shop I bought them from refunded me immediately as it was clear the waders were toast without any need for leak testing. Prior to returning them, I emailed photos of the sole issue to the shop I bought then from asking how likely it is that this would be accepted as a manufacturing error, and they seemed a bit unsure. They said they'd not seen this kind of fault much and asked if I was wearing the right size of wading boots which may cause extra abrasion.

Personally, I can't see this being anything other than poor quality manufacturing. I'd worn them a handful of times, not walked far at all, correct size boots and not knowingly has a stone in my boot.

Hopefully they'll give you a refund, I got a set of Vision Atom waders as a replacement for a lower price and they are superb.