seller says it left his place with no such dent. i am inclined to believe him. seems to be an honest guy, and aside from the huge dent, everything else is exactly as described. his emails before and after the auction were timely, feedback profile is great, and the way he comes across in email convinces me of his sincerity. he's offered to file a claim, but says fedex can do it for me as well, so i'm going that route.

seller also offered to ship me another frame in the same size if i'd care to move the parts over, which is also a valid option imho. he did ship it fedex, it was insured for the exact amount, and it did arrive in good time.

upon later checking, the box did have two puncture holes on the non-drive side of the frame. either hole would accommodate a 2-3" diameter protrusion, though i'm not sure but am assuming a forklift arm is quite a bit wider. the entire box does appear "wrinkled" but i didn't look specifically for skid marks. it is obvious that the box went through the wringer between there and here. the packing job was pretty good and i'm of the opinion that something major happened to the container to cause this.

i'm going to explore all avenues, including getting another frame from this gentleman (an awfully nice gesture), but would really prefer success in filing a claim with fedex. i wonder how all that's handled, would be interested in having the frame repaired and repainted.

Dave Hickey, i'm sending you a PM with my work e-mail address in it. please drop me a line so'z i'll know where to start and how to go about it...

thanks all!

BTW, who shipped it? Where did they ship from? If it was UPS and it went through the Baltimore facility, they damage almost every large package. If you ship by ground, try using FedEx ground instead.

fedex ground, from va

PM me. My next door neighbor is the shipping MGr at Fed Ex and she can get me info onm proper avenues.

atp

thanks. dave is giving me direction, and i'm waiting for info from the shipper re: his address and exact freight fee. hopefully this will go through today or tomorrow.