Actually Tex, not always. Hold the box out in front you at arms length possibly even lift it up to your eyes, and just drop it straight down. The box is going to land flat on it's bottom. The tape you had on it is strong enough that the walls are NOT going to burst out. Since it did not land on a corner, there is not going to be any tell tale crushings there. But the pot inside it, will sit HARD on the styrofoam and packing cardboard you put in there, that will cushion the exterior, so there will be no smushings on the feet of the stainless or busted plastic (although there is not much of that on this nice pot) however the group head, has no poofy stuff to absorb it's mass inertia, just the little spot weld holding the steel plate it is anchored to.... guess where it's energy goes?
THose g shock things are interesting though. but once they go off, can you reset it or is it toast? Also, UPS I can pretty much guarantee does not have anything in it's 'liabilities' section about G shock so probably would just scoff at you if you tried a claim on that.
One question though. The steel inside is going to be a bit ... work intensive to bust the welds off without messing up the exterior, and bending out and re welding. As I said cosmetics I can deal with, actually it gives the pot a personality, some may call that blasphemous, but an ole squid like me, banged up shit has personality and a sea story behind it
anyways the question
With the group head tilted back a bit like that, is that going to physically cause any problems with pulling a shot? In other words if it is not being level is that going to negatively affect the things ability to make a decent shot of coffee? If not then Ill just rotate the head a bit to get the handle on the steam valve put a piece of bakelite between the switch connections and the heater connection and we are good to go!!
Seriously dude, if the thing does not blow out when i try it, im not overly worried about minor cosmetics, as long as it works right. I know you take great pride in your work, but this is something you had no part in. Given the box was not damaged really, UPS is going to piss on you and me if we try to do a claim, I just don't want you to feel like you are obligated for some reason, especially if the thing still works right.
Nobody besides one of 'us' is going to notice something is not perfect anyways.
oh another ? the allen heads to rotate the group, those are the ones under neath on the outside right? not the inside ones?
Aaron