Shipping a sewing machine

From day one, I have heard about the nightmares of buying a sewing machine on line    (E-Bay) and then actually receiving it. I have found out that those nightmares can be true.  A great number of people selling sewing machines don't have a clue what they are doing. In some cases, this can be to your advantage. You can get a great deal. In other cases, you are going to get a boat anchor. Either the machine is no where near the condition it is advertised, or it will be shipped in less then acceptable conditions. Case in Point- I won an auction for a Featherweight 221. It was advertised as "Needle not working".  The Pictures looked good. It was old and I knew I could fix it. It was just gummed up and needed a good cleaning. Now, I really didn't know this for a fact, but for $130.01, I took the chance. I was excited. Six days later I finally received a box that had to be my long awaited "221". I raced it to the kitchen table and grabbed my pocket knife. It didn't take much to open it up. I could tell from the start that it wasn't packed well. It was like a "Cardboard Bag" when I got it. There was a few "Peanuts" and some "Bubble Wrap" but it was pretty much just floating in this "Cardboard Bag". Here is the first thing I saw when I opened the box......

A Singer 221 is a beautifully engineered, 1-piece, cast body. The bobbin winder assembly is part of the entire machine. Snapped right off. The machine is ruined. What were they thinking.

The Plug socket was also damaged due to the same poor packing.

The motor pully also disintegrated. How the heck did that happen?

I am just sick.

I Hope I get my money back. 

Here are the broken pieces recovered from the packaging. I have shipped a half dozen sewing machines to date. I spend at least an hour packing each one to get them "Safe" for shipping.