I have observed damage to a few HT-11A and SYT-5 bodies shipped inside of their wood boxes and generally send replacement headbaskets out to replace the damaged units.
If you are truly unhappy with your build and the body kits that I try to make available, feel free to send everything back and I will refund your purchase, your shipping, and your return shipping costs.
Headbasket damage happens in very few instances I presume as a result of a sharp impact directly on the flat side of the box which causes the mic to jar enough inside of the soft foam to impact the headbasket. I do not ship damaged mic bodies unless it is explicitly agreed that the customer wants a B-stock unit, the defects are clearly stated in the product description (ie., very cheap product with possible manufacture defects), or it is an item that does not get individually opened and inspected by me before shipping. The SYT-5 is not one of these items. I have been unhappy with escalating shipping costs for a lot of these microphones, and the trade-off I have made is to continue shipping in the most economical way possible while packing everything in what I feel is a reasonably secure way. The alternative is to transition to larger boxes and more packing materials which would drive shipping costs significantly higher for everyone.
To date, all headbaskets damaged in transit have been replaced or microphone bodies refunded if no longer in stock. The examples below are from customers and in each case, the external packaging exhibited no signs of traumatic crushing and wood boxes were intact.
