Eisen already shipped me out another lathe.....they have been nothing but excellent to deal with. They sent me photos of how they package their machines so now I know more about how unethical Roadrunner freight is. So there is the main crate with the lathe body, and then they steel band the two boxes containing the stand cabinets to the top of the lathe body crate. They also wrap the stand joining plate and steel band that to the top of the lathe body crate. So when Roadrunner showed up with only the two boxes containing the stand cabinets they were banded to their own little pallet and the joining plate was missing. So I think something really heavy landed on top of the whole package and smashed the joining plate and the lathe. So they banded the cabinet boxes to their own pallet and delivered that first since they weren't damaged. Then they delivered the lathe body crate the next day (again no joining plate anywhere to be found) in hopes I'd sign without checking the contents.
No one will get fired
When you start doing industrial things you are no longer in that consumer bubble. Can't imagine you'd be able to recoup a rental fee. Pickup at the terminal and do an inspection. Barring that, if you rent on a Thursday/Friday cycle you can usually return on a Monday. That should give you time to return it to a terminal.
I'd love to see some statistics on how often things get damaged in freight. I have had really good luck with anything smaller delivered through Fed X or UPS. But I'm batting 50% when you bump up to a semi delivering bigger/heavier items. My first freight item was a go-cart I bought for me and my son. It got lost in transit and took a long time for them to find it and deliver it. But, it did make it undamaged. I also bought a 1000 pound gun safe that made it fine. But then I had a pair of large audio speakers delivered that were damaged as well as my 1340 lathe. But my 2nd 1340 lathe made it in perfect shape. The joining plate for the two stand cabinets was strapped right on top of the crate where I would think for sure it would have gotten damaged.......not a scratch on it. It's just weird and a roll of the dice I guess.
