Over the holidays a frame was shipped to me wherein the shipper reused a former bike box, cut it down and retaped it to proper dimensions. The box arrived after a protracted length of time with two sizeable punctures (box shaped) in one panel. Upon inspection, the frame had suffered an impact on the right seat stay. Said frame was of a material the listmaster does not allow discussed here. Suffice it to say that beneath the clear coat, it appeared that there were "bullseye" type fractures in the matrix. The recepient of said parcel was dismayed (at least.)
After another timelapse, an employee of said shipping firm arrived to inspect the article, parcel and packing. While the inspector was not impressed with the packing, he seemed to feel it was sufficient, but that "wasn't his call", it would turn out to be the insurer's call. It was packed as well or better than many bikes are packed from the factory. He did feel that the shipping firm (who must remain in anonimity, at this time) failed to exercise due diligence in that they had punctured the box (standard heavy wall corrugated) not once, but twice. He agreed with me that no reasonable amount of packing material (short of a 3/4" plywood crate) would protect against something that punctured the box and impacted the frame.
Now, three weeks after the claim, I await word of the resolution. Do they cover the claim or deny it?
Meanwhile, I delivered the frame to its maker. The learned people there examined it and informed me that it was not my imagination, there was indeed a fracture in the matrix that had severed a number of fibers. Had I built the frame up, in a short period of time I would have experienced a failure. Catastrophic/non-catastrophic, who knows?
Moral(s) of the story : 1 Don't ship during the silly season 2 Choose your shipper with care 3 Pack with care (or hope your shipper does) 4 Insure it! 5 Don't ship if you can come up with another option