Accurate Miniatures Decal Problem

I just finished decaling an Accurate Miniatures TBM-3 that I bought in 1996. I have never experienced decal problems with any of the numerous models that I have built in the past until now. These decals were extremely fragile and would tear quite easily. I had to go to my spares collection on several occasions and I even had to cut out an extra white arrow for the vertical stabilizer after two of the arrows from the kit decal sheet tore apart as I was putting them on the model. The final straw was when one of the side numerals stuck to my finger as I was putting on the last decal. I'm now searching for a replacement for that number. I'm just curious if this is a unique problem or one common to the Accurate Miniature kits since their decals are so thin.