Well your not alone Old Timer, I received two Marathon plus tyre's today delivered by UPS and stuffed in a cardboard box that was around 14in x 12in x 10in. One wasn't too badly distorted but the other had a couple of quite severe bends in the beads which proved almost impossible to get out en-tyre-ly. No your not being unreasonable the factory doesn't ship them that way so why should the retailer? Thinking about it, wrapped in polythene unfolded they would go through a letter box so where's the benefit in folding them.
Well I`m not alone, I know it is probably industry standard but it isn`t right. After my first ride when I got the puncture I removed the Marathon to repair the puncture and after two day on the bike with 65lbs of pressure in it it was still disorted to hell. OK! maybe I`m being finicky but Onmebike, tell me just how you felt when you saw the damage please? I bet you were gutted after buying what is a premium product.
If I was to try to tell you how I feel about it then it`s just like when a considerate council plants some tree saplings in an area to try to bring a bit of decency in and some mindless B****** breaks they off. I`ve planted a number of new trees around our property this year and if I saw someone vandalising one I truly would not be responsible for my actions.
I remember once sending one of my vans to fit a new aluminium shopfront and some ali bead trim to tidy up the joint and instead of strapping the bead to the ladder on the roof of the van they (being lazy)stuck it inside the van doubled up and I got a complaint from the client. When I re-visited the site to check things out and saw the mess i sacked them. There is no excuse in my book.
What are you going to do about the damaged bead on one?
BTW my wifes MTB now has a front puncture (standard tyre) I think I will fit a pair of those internal anti puncture kits to her bike and see how they fair.
I feel for you