Shipping Problems!!!???

[Made4Music]

Hey All!
I was wondering if anyone here has experienced having a saxophone damaged during shipping before and how common it is?
I just had a brand spanking new Yamaha 875EX shipped in to try through a local music store, and after it arrived and I took it home for the weekend, it was discovered that the low C key (bottom right hand) was completely bend out of shape!!! So much that it was sticking terribly and leaking to the point where it was barely even playable!!!!
The store manager sent it to a repair man to have it fixed....and I'm going in to see how that went tomorrow.
Anyways, does this happen often?
Thanks!!
:treble:

[Jorns Bergenson]

Sorry to say that it happens all the time. Individuals and even music stores very often don't pack instruments in a way to minimize the risk of damage. Most stock cases don't provide enough protection.

This month I received 4 saxes from individuals (three purchases and one came for repair). Three of them had some kind of damage do to poor packing. I had sent each person explicit instructions for packing but each of them skipped one or more steps.

Come to think of it, the only two saxes that I bought new and had shipped to me both arrived damaged, one at the tenon and one at the bottom of the bow. This was some 20 years ago.