I have shipped in and out more than 75 pins since 2005. The only damage I have ever experienced on a "legs on" shipment to me was a scratched and damaged leg that they paid for without hesitation. I have never received a report of a "legs on" delivery that was damaged. I have had several instances of damage on a pallet, all of which damaged the cabinet or side of the head and required (at a minimum) re-decal. Pallets require forklifts to move, and forklifts and forklift operators are the pure nemesis of pinball machines. NAVL/STI/Beltman use man power to move machines in and out of the trucks. R&L Carriers is the worst for poking holes in a box or stabbing a cabinet with a fork, in my experiences. But I have had issues with all of the carriers when they use forklifts.

Just my two cents.

1) Very often they take them back to the hub to wrap up per the directions. Very often. I always demand that they at least blanket wrap the machine before it gets picked up, and then have them send me pictures of the machine wrapped properly with corner boards if and when they don't have them when they arrive. Almost always the machine is being picked up and put into an empty or near-empty truck, and they are strapped onto the siderail. So I don't worry about that first trip to the hub as much as the rest.

2) Is it relevant that they were black?

It's not when they go to pick the machine up. The stabbings occur when they are jetting around the warehouse at 30MPH on those lifts. They get stabbed high.

I trust pallet jacks. It’s the fork lifts that get ya.