Panel shipping is hard, apparently!

[hamburgerman]

I took delivery of 50 panels yesterday. Before the driver even opened the truck, he says, "You might want to take pictures of this before I even move anything."

Best we can tell, one of the pallet crates had broken or something, and the shipping company just stacked the panels flat on another pallet. This is funny, since there is literally a sign on them that says "DO NOT STACK HORIZONTALLY".

Of the panels that were flat, 24 of the 25 were shattered in multiple places, and some were completely broken through the frames. Luckily, I took a ton of pictures, and the vendor has (thus far) been great about responding and working with me to resolve the issue. As far as I can tell so far, only 3 of the panels in the proper crate were damaged. One looks like a forklift hit the side and smashed the panel on the end. Another is in the middle of the crate, where the bottom failed and the panels dropped, and it fell on a corner, smashing the glass. The third has a weird crack that I can't determine the cause of.

So, best case, 27 of the 50 are smashed or broken in some way. I haven't been able to actually test the others yet, that's a project for this weekend hopefully.

I didn't want to just outright refuse delivery, since I had no idea how many panels were actually broken, and sending them on another trip just risked breaking more of them.

Mistakes happen and I'm not ready to install anyway, so as long as this gets sorted out in the end, I'll chalk it up to the imperfection of life and do my best to laugh it off. In any case, let this be a reminder that warning labels and notes exist for a reason

 

[Lt.Dan]

Jesus i hate shippers. No respect for other peoples property.

In my area, FedEx is the absolute worst. I actually refuse to buy from places that only ship FedEx.

 

[iamrich]

That's just crap packaging IMO. I got 12 panels (granted, a lot less) on a pallet, all stack horizontally, and there wasn't a single issue. All corners had thick cardboard protection, there were little rubber spacers between each panel, and everything was banded, and then the whole thing was shrink wrapped.

 

[Bluedog225]

Sad to see them die like that.

 

[pvdude]

Last panels I received, amazed they were intact.
Pallet broken in multiple places, some straps broken, etc. Yep, Fedex.

 

[Dynoman]

I have had 3 different solar panel shipments and all 3 of them had some damage. One was like the pictures with broken glass where they were sent back for replacement. Others were minor with the panels still usable. Still it is disappointing...

 

[backwoods]

In a situation like that; It would have been easier to just refuse the load. Been there done this as I've worked in shipping receiving for a long time.
On the plus side, the shipper may just tell you to junk it all and you end up with a few extras for your time in dealing with this.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I have had 2 pallets from SanTan solar in AZ to Central Cali, and 40 panels total, not 1 broken. I guess i'm just lucky lol

 

[Rennit]

I took delivery of 50 panels yesterday. Before the driver even opened the truck, he says, "You might want to take pictures of this before I even move anything."

Best we can tell, one of the pallet crates had broken or something, and the shipping company just stacked the panels flat on another pallet. This is funny, since there is literally a sign on them that says "DO NOT STACK HORIZONTALLY".

Of the panels that were flat, 24 of the 25 were shattered in multiple places, and some were completely broken through the frames. Luckily, I took a ton of pictures, and the vendor has (thus far) been great about responding and working with me to resolve the issue. As far as I can tell so far, only 3 of the panels in the proper crate were damaged. One looks like a forklift hit the side and smashed the panel on the end. Another is in the middle of the crate, where the bottom failed and the panels dropped, and it fell on a corner, smashing the glass. The third has a weird crack that I can't determine the cause of.

So, best case, 27 of the 50 are smashed or broken in some way. I haven't been able to actually test the others yet, that's a project for this weekend hopefully.

I didn't want to just outright refuse delivery, since I had no idea how many panels were actually broken, and sending them on another trip just risked breaking more of them.

Mistakes happen and I'm not ready to install anyway, so as long as this gets sorted out in the end, I'll chalk it up to the imperfection of life and do my best to laugh it off. In any case, let this be a reminder that warning labels and notes exist for a reason

I had the same thing happen to me. 10 of 28 panels were completely destroyed. Like glass and the actual frame of the panel destroyed.

Who did you order yours from? Was it Solaris by chance?

 

[backwoods]

That above picture is a great example of a tool on a forklift that tore out the blocks and caused that damage.
The shipper that did that should not have even loaded it back on the trailer that was delivering it.
Need to refuse these before they come off the trailer, it's your problem once it's off the truck.

 

[robby]

In a situation like that; It would have been easier to just refuse the load. Been there done this as I've worked in shipping receiving for a long time.
On the plus side, the shipper may just tell you to junk it all and you end up with a few extras for your time in dealing with this.

Agree I would never have accepted that delivery. I would have just written "Completely damaged on the paper work and let him take them back.

 

[robby]

That's just crap packaging IMO. I got 12 panels (granted, a lot less) on a pallet, all stack horizontally, and there wasn't a single issue. All corners had thick cardboard protection, there were little rubber spacers between each panel, and everything was banded, and then the whole thing was shrink wrapped.

View attachment 95212

I got my LG's in three separate shipments and they were kind of packed like yours. All of them arrived in perfect shape, not even a scratch.

 

[time2roll]

I would have outright refused the entire shipment. Let them sort it out.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

That's just crap packaging IMO. I got 12 panels (granted, a lot less) on a pallet, all stack horizontally, and there wasn't a single issue. All corners had thick cardboard protection, there were little rubber spacers between each panel, and everything was banded, and then the whole thing was shrink wrapped.

View attachment 95212

Sounds like the way SanTan packages/ships...

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I would have outright refused the entire shipment. Let them sort it out.

I'm with you on this one. IMHO, I would be reluctant to deploy any panels that were in the same stack as damaged panels. There could be unseen damage that results in reduced lifetime.

 

[Rennit]

That above picture is a great example of a tool on a forklift that tore out the blocks and caused that damage.
The shipper that did that should not have even loaded it back on the trailer that was delivering it.
Need to refuse these before they come off the trailer, it's your problem once it's off the truck.

Yea I accepted the delivery but marked damaged on the shipping invoice. The damaged panels ended up being replaced at no cost to me, just took more time.

 

[hamburgerman]

I'm not gonna say where I bought them from, until it's resolved one way or the other. That way I can sing their praises if they handle it well, or shame them appropriately if not

One of the main reasons I didn't refuse was that the type of panels I want are tough to find at a reasonable price right now. So possibly turning away a bunch that were totally fine, and then not getting enough for my project, was a risk I didn't want to take.

Luckily, the only real deadline I have here is that I want to finish installation this calendar year, due to the tax credit. I don't even have the mount system yet, so sifting through panels and doing some exchanges as necessary isn't a huge deal (yet).

 

[rhino]

I've had panels where they mount this largish pyramid shaped cardboard piece on top of panels that said do not stack.. so you would have had to of smashed the obvious sign in order to stack them...

 

[The Dish Doc]

Sad to see new panels destroyed before they ever even made any power :-(

 

[pvdude]

I wish I had taken a photo of the cardboard "no stack" pyramid that was on the last pallet of panels received.
It was nicely flattened, of course......