Sigh…

This is what I found on my front deck the other day.

Fortunately I got out there in time to keep the stuff from soaking into the wood on the deck. There were two plastic bottles in that box, a 1 gallon and a 2 quart, containing the epoxy resin and the catalyst. The catalyst bottle had a dent in the bottom that was leaking, and the plastic bag the bottle was in which is supposed to keep stuff from leaking out failed too.

I suspect it made it through shipment until the moment it hit the porch. The delivery driver seems to have just tossed it onto the deck, at which point it hit just right to punch in the bottom corner of the bottle and crack it. I was in the basement and fortunately heard the thud when it hit the deck and got up there before it soaked into the wood. It looks like it was badly packed. Someone threw in some of those plastic air pads, shoved the bottles in, put a bit more packing on top and sealed it up, leaving the bottles laying loose so they could move around and work their way around the padding.

Amazon’s response was great. Seriously great. I got on line to report it and within a minute I had a real person on the chat line and within another minute or two they issued me a full refund. No red tape, no arguments, no need to send photos or try to return the stuff (that would have been interesting, trying to return a leaking jug of resin) just an apology and asking me how I wanted them to send me a full refund. A short time later I got a confirmation email from them. The email told me that I was free to do whatever I liked with whatever I could salvage from the shipment.

I got to the leak before I lost a lot and transferred it into glass jars. There was a gallon and a half total before the puncture happened, and it looks like I have at least a gallon plus a couple of cups left that’s going to be useable, which is a good thing because I waited two weeks for this stuff to come in.

It might sound like I’m getting a lot of free resin out of the deal, and I suppose I am, but this could have been a complete disaster if I hadn’t been home and heard the thud when it hit the porch. If that stuff had soaked into the wood deck I don’t know what we would have done. I suspect we would have ended up having to replace a significant amount of wood on the deck. That catalyst is thick, sticky, and doesn’t dry by itself. The wood would have been ruined.

Anyway it could have been a heck of a lot worse, and I have enough of the stuff left that I can play with it and see how it works.