My father bought a sheet metal truck and had it shipped to his house. The truck arrived in a trash bag more or less from the post office who claimed that was how they got it from the shipper. The box was partially flattened and the truck inside the same. It was clearly ran over. USPS of course denied all of this the whole way.
The shipper had packaged the item about as well as could be expected.
I work at a car dealership and we get many packages a day from all the carrier companies. Giant holes in boxes and foot prints on top of things are very common. Needless to say you always need to over protect what you ship because you have no idea what will happen.
To add another story to this, I went to our local post office to drop off an expensive toy I sold on eBay. Before I left the building I could hear the unmistakable noise of that package being tossed into a bin from a distance. The clerk that day must have been trying out for basketball after work.
