The tilt watch and shock tag both clearly state on them to NOT refuse shipment but to inspect for damage…which is probably why so many of us avail ourselves of just using our phone to document everything with photos.
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Take pictures, note it on the receipt form if given the chance, and let us know.
So far we’ve had mostly good luck getting these to you despite the Glowforge Hockey they seem to be playing at the distribution center, but all the data helps!
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ok but I reserve the right to use non forum approvable language while demanding they set down the glow forge gently and back away slowly if I see them mistreating it.
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Have you considered shipping electronic shock trackers with the pre-release units? It should allow you and the shipper to pinpoint when and where the excessive forces are happening. Could just have the thing packed in a small box inside the Glowforge packaging, complete with return shipping label, and have the prerelease testers open the box upon delivery and hand the tracker right back to the delivery guy to send back 
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Not a bad idea at all if it helps make FedEx pay for dammages that they do.
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My FedEx guy had to do the same thing through my door, too.
Indeed. Many Glowforges that we ship, we ship to ourselves…
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hahaha, I don’t know whether to “like” this because it’s getting good info to you about shipping, or to really “not like” it since there are Glowforges shipping and it isn’t to us 
? All in good jest though. Very glad that you are getting lots of useful data that is making our GF better when you do open the doors and let them get delivered.
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Of the 4 boxes FedEx dropped off 3 had “This End Up” stickers, 1 had shock tags. The 4th box was delivered in the proper orientation. The other 3 had the “This End Up” stickers pointing in every direction but up or down (to various sides). The shock tags of course were red (they also register tilt I think so when you stand that box on its end - the machine’s side - it’s past the tilt tolerance).
If the driver who has plenty of time to get it right is getting them all wrong, there’s not a chance there’s just one place in the delivery chain that’s responsible so you can “fix” the problem.
The good news is that the GF & its ancillary parts can survive thousands of miles of this mistreatment.
What is interesting is there’s a label on the main GF box that says “do not stack” but we’ve seen pictures of stacks of them in the Seattle office and I really don’t think FedEx cared about that - there’s no way that box is on top of all other boxes in the plane or trucks.
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Took me a moment. I thought these were like shock collars for misbehaving dogs. If the fedex guy starts abusing your GF en route, it shocked him. I suspect that would be more effective than recording the damage, since only the first GF the very first time would be mistreated briefly, after that handled with white glove service!
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I can tell you from experience that the packages will be treated as gently and carefully as possible taking into account factors of weight and dimension. The other side of the equation is packaging. Properly packaged the most delicate item can be thrown without damage. Improperly packages, the most durable item can be damaged with ‘kid glove’ treatment. From what I’ve seen in other comments on deliveries and the tilt/shock indicators, it sounds like Glowforge is doing a great job on the packaging side of things as the contents are well protected inside the box.
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Did you just come out? 
Do we have another pre-releaser? Congrats! 
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Ha! I was looking for an excuse to get a new keyboard, thank you! lololol
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Yeah, looks that way to me too. Awesome!
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Cool! The pre-release units are going far and wide. 
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As if on queue as I was reading this thread about shipping damage I was walking down one of our 1/4mile tunnel’s and one of our shipping trains was going down and a laptop in box flew off the top of it because it wasn’t secured well. I’m sure the laptop is fine we beat the heck out of the oem packaging
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Even with care, accidents happen to exterior packaging, which is why good interior packaging is a crucial part of proper care on the shipper’s part.
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That is true.
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In my history of furniture delivery I saw many cases where a few more dollars spent in packaging would have saved Megabucks.
Shipping protection is not where you want to try and shave expenses!
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