So last week I bought a motor off of ebay for one of my X300 cars. Tonight I went to the local UPS Freight terminal to pick it up.
When I got there the motor was wrapped in black plastic and lying loosely on an open pallet. I have picked up other pieces of freight from this terminal and never had a problem.
So they loaded the engine onto my truck and I signed for it. When got back to my shop, I climbed up onto the bed of the truck and cut the plastic wrapping off with a pair of scissors.
This is what I found underneath. I contacted the seller through the ebay system and he said the engine was in a crate when it left their dock, not lying loose on an open pallet.

HUGE crack

 

Steve,

That is tragic! eBay Buyer Protection may help, but it looks like the real claim is with UPS, assuming the seller is telling the truth about the crate.

Don

 

Looks like it's been dropped from a height to do that amount of damage.

The 160252 is presumably the seller's stock number and he may have photos which help establish the pre-freight condition.

Graham

 

The engine was returned this morning to the UPS Freight shipping dock where it will be returned to the ebay seller in Alabama. The UPS Freight dock supervisor told me they have photos of the shipment (which he could not show me) as it passed through their Lexington hub and it looked nothing like what I received here in Ohio. So he acknowledged based on these photos that it is obviously their fault.

As they were unloading it I also noticed a crack in the oil pan which is shown below.

Crack in oil pan

 

Definitely a severe attack of gravity.
Coupled with a bounce.

 

What a waste. Hopefully UPS pays up.