Jet Tools considered harmful

  I need to vent.  I've recently had a very hard lesson in the ancient warning, "buyer beware".  For literally decades, I've had my eye on a 3-in-1 sheet-metal-working machine.  Long ago I decided I would have to get something from Jet or Grizzly, because I thought it would be affordable enough to buy new so long as I bought SEIG*, and used an American dealer so I could get parts and service.

 A few weeks ago I did just that, and I pulled the trigger on a Jet 30" wide machine.  Unfortunately, when it arrived, the crate was broken.  I should have just refused the shipment, since the fuckers on the truck had tipped the whole thing onto its side, and it was still on its side in the back of the truck when they showed up.  

 Of course, it didn't help that the people who shipped the thing never thought to put any "UP" arrows or "THIS END UP" signs anywhere on the outside.

 But I told myself it was a big hunk of cast iron, and the box was only a little beat up, it was probably okay.  More fool me.

 Once I got the lid off the crate and started inspecting it, long after the truck had left, I found all kinds of heinous problems.

 For one thing thing, the shippers had only installed two bolts in the four holes of the base holding the machine to the skid.  When the shippers tipped it up on one end, the machine's 300+ pounds of weight was too much for the two skinny bolts they used; one snapped and the other bent severely and pulled its head half-way through four inches of plywood...

 The blades of the shear were the most fucked up of the whole thing.  They had been shimmed into place, despite the fact that they are supposedly equipped with two cutting edges so they are reversible... not these, not unless you took the bends out of them first. O_O

 The problems went on and on, and many of them were manufacturing / QC issues that had nothing to do with shipping.

 The good news is that I bought it through Amazon and the return should be no-hassle.  We'll see.

 I also ordered an abrasive blasting cabinet recently, and the seller kept my money for three weeks before I enquired whether I would get a tracking number, at which point I found out they had never shipped anything.  They gave me a sob story because they want to preserve their ratings, but IDGAF.  Actions have consequences.

 It turned out I can drive to a store here in town that has the same unit for considerably less money.  I just can't do it right now, because neither I nor wife can unload the thing from the vehicle once it's in there.  I might literally have to open the box and take the parts out one at a time because both the wife and I have weight lifting restrictions.  I can't lift more than twenty pounds at the moment.

 And so it goes.  I'm actually re-thinking the whole sheet-metal machine purchase entirely.  While I do want the capability, I don't like the compromise that the all-in-one machine felt like.  There are combo brake-and-shears with no roll that are a lot more sensible.  But then I'd probably spend the rest of my life wanting a slip roll and not buying one, because I would only need the thing every 18 months.  *sigh*

 I might find myself getting a plasma cutter & XY table, or a vertical band saw first, I dunno.  Need to replace welding gauges too and blah blah a hundred other tools, upgrades, and repairs.  I got a white-board full of 'em.

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*for those unaware, most of the hardware and tools sold by Grizzly, Jet, MSC, and others
are made by one company in Shanghai