Shipping Damage

Summary

Shipping damage covers systems or components that arrive with visible transit damage, loose or displaced internal hardware, or boot/display failures traceable to rough handling in shipment. In this set, damage ranges from cosmetic chassis dents to pulled PCIe slots, loose power supplies, broken coolers, missing drives after transit, and moisture-related DOA concerns.

Frequency

81 tickets.

Common Causes

1. Physical chassis or frame damage in transit. The most common pattern is dented corners, broken rack ears or handles, bent panels, damaged front I/O, or other enclosure damage found on arrival or intake ([10693], [18519], [27867], [30325], [5692]) ...and 40+ more.
2. Internal components shift or break loose during shipment. GPUs, motherboards, PCIe slots, power supplies, and other heavy parts were reported loose, unseated, or physically torn from their mounts after delivery ([10193], [16007], [2719], [34643], [34744]) ...and 30+ more.
3. Cooling hardware is damaged or disturbed by transit. Fan errors, broken coolers, noisy cooler assemblies, and related thermal concerns often appeared after shipment, sometimes alongside broader chassis damage ([10693], [18519], [34643], [8978], [9284]) ...and 15+ more.
4. Storage or boot hardware is affected by transit. Some systems arrived with no boot device, missing or shifted M.2/NVMe hardware, or storage-related instability discovered after inspection ([10193], [16007], [26010], [30695], [36271]) ...and 10+ more.

Diagnostic Steps

1. Document the shipping condition immediately. Check the outer box, pallet, foam, and chassis for dents, cracks, bent ears, water signs, or other transit clues, and capture photos early for support and carrier review ([10693], [18519], [27867], [30325], [36271]).
2. Inspect internal hardware before deep troubleshooting. Verify GPUs, PCIe cards, power supplies, drives, coolers, and slots are still seated and not physically broken or pulled loose ([10193], [16007], [34643], [5692], [8978]).
3. Separate cosmetic damage from functional damage. Burn-in or minimal-hardware testing helps determine whether the issue is only enclosure damage or whether boards, slots, fans, or storage were also harmed ([18519], [27867], [30325], [5692], [39501]).
4. Escalate fast if DOA or claim timing matters. Several tickets show that late reporting can block DOA treatment or carrier claims even when transit damage seems real ([34643], [10693], [22573], [33406]).

Solutions

1. RMA the affected part or full system. The most common fix is repair or replacement through component or system RMA once physical damage or displaced hardware is confirmed ([10693], [16007], [18519], [30325], [34643]) ...and 40+ more.
2. Replace the damaged chassis or other visibly affected parts after validation. When internals still test good, Exxact often reworks the system with a new chassis, panel, cooler, or other damaged assembly rather than replacing the full build ([18519], [30325], [29745], [30490], [34745]) ...and 15+ more.
3. Have the customer reseat obviously shifted hardware if the damage is limited. Some shipment-related failures cleared after reseating loose GPUs, power supplies, or similar components, avoiding a full depot return ([10193], [27867], [40290], [5692], [8978]).
4. Send or arrange proper packaging before return shipment. Many successful RMAs depended on Exxact providing replacement box/foam/pallet materials or enforcing freight packaging to avoid additional transit damage ([10693], [27867], [31247], [36271], [41118]).
5. Use cross-ship or expedited replacement for severe new-arrival failures. For suspected DOA shipment events, Exxact sometimes resolved the outage faster by advanced replacement instead of waiting for repair-first flow ([36271], [14950], [19931], [39633]).

Edge Cases

• Damage may be shipment-related even when the outer box looks fine. One condensation case had a dry outer box but moisture droplets on the plastic around the system inside ([36271]).
• The system may be NTF even though freight damage is real. In at least one case, Exxact found broken rack ears and dented chassis parts but could not reproduce the original instability complaint ([27867]).
• Late reporting can convert a likely transit case into a paid repair. One customer reported a torn motherboard PCIe slot after the carrier-claim and DOA windows had already expired ([34643]).
• Return shipment can add new damage beyond the original issue. Exxact documented extra transit damage on inbound RMA returns when approved palletized freight instructions were not followed ([10693]).

Related Issues

• incorrect-hardware-shipped
• motherboard-hardware-failure
• gpu-hardware-failure
• system-boot-failure
• rma-workflow

Referenced by

• Vws 135223847 — product affected by this issue (×6)
• PCIE Riser Failure — co-occurs with this issue (×5)
• Motherboard Hardware Failure — co-occurs with this issue (×13)
• Ian Dicarlo — handled tickets on this issue (×17)
• CPU Hardware Failure — co-occurs with this issue (×4)
• Jason Chen — handled tickets on this issue (×12)
• No Trouble Found RMA — co-occurs with this issue (×5)
• TS4-194492555 — product affected by this issue (×1)
• David Nguyen — handled tickets on this issue (×2)
• RTX 4090 — product affected by this issue (×2)