Clearly you missed my point entirely.
Why would a manufacturer that just finished making a product make and/send a damaged product.
Of course this happened in the mail.
I didn't miss your point at all.
So let's iterate why a manufacturer would send a damaged product.
1. no one notices the damage when the product is done and ready to package.
2. the product is damaged in shipping to the distributor and no one notices the damage.
3. the maker notices it and hopes the customer doesn't.
4. the product is damaged by someone in the shop and shipped anyway to avoid taking responsibility for it.
Those are four reasons off the top of my head how a damaged product can get to the customer with no fault of the shipping company.
Which is why it was important to me that the readers know we didn't ship it out that way.