Well, that sucks. How old is it? Were you able to ride on it, after a fashion?
But in general I'd have to agree with you: Brooks quality is not always as good as you'd expect, based on the price and reputation. I have a Brooks I got a little less than a year ago, and I treated it correctly, a little proofide, no radical or violent attempts to soften it, and I didn't let it get rained on... but by July it had softened up so much that I took it off my bike and put it on my son's. He's half my weight and it holds him okay, and I convinced him it's an upgrade. But for my purposes, it just got too broken in (and I'm not a heavy guy). I think there was something wrong with the leather.
That said, these problems seem to be rare.
And only this afternoon I was wondering how many hundreds of miles I would have to ride before my B17 stretched enough to be remotely comfortable.