I've gotten so much poorly packed that I'm amazed it didn't get damaged in shipping. It's probably that 80% of the time, the package is not dropped or shipped on it's side (or upside down) or had something heavy put on top . . . but 20% of the time those things do happen. And for the Post Office, the heavier the item is, the more likely it will be dropped or flipped over (instead of lifted and placed) because the handler can't " handle" the weight.

Steve, I'm sorry that happened to your machine; opening that package must have been such a disappointment. It looks like the machine bounced around in the box, landed on its corner, and all the bouncing wore away the cardboard. I don't understand why someone wouldn't feel the weight of the iron and try to insulate the machine as well as make the box more rigid. It's not hard to do and doesn't require special materials. Heck, at least put folded cardboard around the interior of the box in the same dimensions as the box walls.

the main issues is people fascination with Styrofoam..

That stuff is like what we in the military refer to as "ablative armor". Ablative armor is armor that sacrifices itself to take the hit, meaning that it takes a hit and is no longer as effective as it was beforehand.

When you put 20 pounds of iron in a box surrounded by Styrofoam, you may put it in tightly,but you can literally shake it back and forth really hard a few times and then check it and see that it is now "a little looser". This means that the next round of shaking the iron has further to travel and gain momentum, so it hits harder and becomes even looser, and so on.

Even if it cannot move to do this the process of stacking and packing poxes by the post office compresses the Styrofoam anyway... same results.

Styrofoam ONLY works when it is molded to the specific shape needed and really does require a packaging engineer to design it to work.

When I picked up the box the hole did not worry me, but the fact that i could feel the machine "mass" moving about an inch in any direction let me know i was more than likely going to see a damaged machine.

I feel your pain. Here's one I purchased about 8 months ago:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=491336&stc=1http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=491337&stc=1http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=491338&stc=1

She wrapped it in several newspapers and tossed it in a box. She left the knee pedal unwrapped and loose with no wrapping at all. She refunded me in full and she included a huge set of attachments, so I came out ahead except that this model is not a common one and is now even less common by one.

Ohhhh people. You should def. get some re-imbursement for that. Thank goodness you wanted it for parts!