I really didn't want to go here but, the gun came from Weatherby. I bought the gun brand new in February and later discovered some issues with the finish. I called Weatherby and they said no problem in warranting the old stock with a new, if it indeed had issues.
I had a business trip to Los Angeles in May so I brought the gun with me on the airlines, minus the scope. I transported it in a hard side Pelican gun case. Made the almost 5 hour drive to Paso Robles from L.A and spent the night in a hotel on my own dime.
I met with the guys at Weatherby and they replaced my original stock with a brand new one that I hand picked. Their service and attention in the matter was impeccable. I decide to let them ship the gun back since I still had 3 days of work in L.A and didn't want to leave the gun in my hotel room for obvious reasons. They elected not to use my Pelican case and against my better judgement I allowed them to use their own shipping box. I was assured it would be packaged appropriatley. I feel it was, for most normal shipping conditions. Obviously what my gun encountered on the way to Texas via UPS wasn't normal.
I'm just as perplexed as the rest of you about the minimal damage to the box. I know the gun was in good shape before it left Weatherby, because I held it in my hands. As I said, I hand picked the stock and thoroughly inspected it before and after they mounted it to my action.
As for who is handling the claim, it's Weatherby obviously. They are taking the appropriate steps, but from the sounds of it thus far, I'm going to be lucky if UPS replaces the whole gun. At this point Weatherby can't say how it's going to go until they get the gun back and inspect it themselves, which I totally understand. As I said, from the people I've talked to, UPS is going to get off as cheap as possible.
Sorry if some of you are confused, I just didn't want to bring Weatherby into this because they have been so good to me thus far. I'm just so upset about this and wanted to ask everyone for their opinion on what they would expect if this had happend to them. I'm by no means trying to start a pissing match and am not trying to pull the wool over anyones eyes.
This is the gun I've always wanted and finally made it to a point in my life where I could afford it and now I'm dealing with this BS. Heck the gun only has a total of 40 rounds through it.