They get the parts local from Ford and as you know the packaging is crap.
We may need a replacement part (let's hope not) some time in the future so it does us no good to piss them off.
We should offer to pay for re-packaging and insurance when ordering.
The first two sets that I know of were also damaged when shipped, years ago.
Dave
Wendy's supervisor isn't happy about shipping these lights overseas simply because of them getting damaged. The more these lights come in damaged to us and we report that to them, the more of a chance of them ending shipments to us in the future. The thing is, it's certainly not our fault these lights are getting damaged. I did my best to use the ones I have before reporting it, as I didn't want to have to wait 2 weeks to get another set. Reporting this was the last thing I wanted to do. I was willing to epoxy the tab back and have a screw stuck inside the other one. I only ended up reporting it when I couldn't get the projector/halogen housing inside the lamp in the right position, which caused the high/low beams to not be at the right level, even after aiming. I may work on it some more over the next week but I'm not sure I can do any better than what I've already done. I've spent a lot of hours trying to fix these things already.
I agree, insurance needs to be added to these orders, if it's not already. I forgot to ask if that's included in the $65-70 quotes for shipping. One thing I gotta say, for the value of these lights, $65 for shipping these to us from the UK is VERY cheap. Yes, they certainly get discounts for shipping so much volume with the same carrier but it still seems really low. So I'd imagine they're not adding insurance already and that may be why the supervisor is not happy about shipping these lights. Adding insurance would certainly reduce the chance of damage since carriers pay special attention to the packages that are insured, especially ones that are pricey.
Taking a little more time to package these lights up would greatly reduce the chance of damage, as well. Mine had just 1 layer of the thin bubble wrap wrapped around the middle of each headlight. The ends were not bubble wrapped at all whatsoever. Then they put a bunch of bubble wrap on top of the headlights...just laid it on top of them. There was no protection on the ends of the boxes where each end of the lamps are located. And they were shipped as 2 separate boxes, which I'm sure got thrown around as they're not too heavy. I'm not sure how much bubble wrap was used, or how it was used, for offthewall's lights but the person who packed his up placed both individual boxes into a larger box; that alone may have prevented the carrier from tossing them around by doubling the weight and size of the package.
Hopefully they start packing these headlights for us US customers the same way they did dirtyblueshirt's reshipment a few years ago on the other forum. It is interesting that they've been shipping these lights to us for more than 2 years now, although probably less than a dozen times, but haven't consistently taken measures to package them better. Hopefully it gets better.