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I purchased a new Protec C241 22inch bell Gold series gig bag from a vendor well known to this community. It was shipped to me via ground and arrived today. The bag had been "squished" into a cardboard box significantly smaller than the gig bag and now the bottom/foot of the bag has a significant warp and possibly a crease in the material added to stiffen it (cardboard?). The bell end also has a significant curve and I am not confident I can get the 22inch bell into it without quite a bit of work.

Has anybody had a similar experience and found that over time the warp/crease relaxes, or is the bag now permanently damaged?

I realize this model of gig bag is not of the highest quality but since I am an amateur and only need it to go back and forth to community band once a week I was hoping it would work well for my needs. I want to understand if I should return it and try a different vendor, or if I can expect all Protec gig bags to be shipped in this way and over time it will be fine.

My protec sousaphone case was squashed flat for shipping. I loaded a horn into it for a few weeks and everything seemed to sort itself out.
My case does not have any “hard” inserts. If there isn’t anything like that to be bent or broken, I think you SHOULD be ok.

It will never be "right" but they ar surprisingly robust, so it may be less damaged than you think.

If there is a hard endcap for the bell and it is warped it is because its made of pressboard and it got damp. (These are never made of wood as they advertise. It would snap in half. They use this hard paper product instead.) Getting this stuff wet turns it into a Pringles shape, in the bike world we call it "taco-ed".

It could be steamed and flattened by a good hat shop that blocks felt cowboy hats. But no guarantees. I once got my miraphone bag wet in the rain and the lid did this. I wet the lid down and put the horn in with a form I made from a fragment of sheetrock that I wrapped in saranwrap and duck tape, zipped it shout, and let it dry out for about three days. It is not perfect but it is much flatter now.

If the board folded it is toast. You could cut it open, remove it, cut an ABS sheet to match, and have a seamstress sew it back togrther with the replacement in the lid. You could also remove it and have the lid be soft. (These stiff lids do not actually do anything to protect your horn. Nothing.)

If your talking about the padding im not sure what is wrong exactly or what you expect.