There's some new info about all of this on Mark's Patreon Page (this info can be viewed with the FREE membership option on Mark's Patreon). Mark has been approached by a journalist from Heise.de ("News and forums on computers, IT, science, media and politics. Price comparison of hardware and software as well as downloads at Heise Medien.").
Firstly though, read the info that is allegedly from Tom Evans on page 3 of this thread, second message down, this message:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/25-000-audiophile-pre-amp-repair-video-by-mend-it-mark/msg5742219/#msg5742219With that in mind about what Tom Evans states regarding the method of delivery, the packaging and the state of the amp, plus Mark sending the Pre-amp to Tom Evans, etc, now read Mark's Patreon post.
My very brief summary of the info in Mark's Patreon post regarding the postage/shipping is that basically the Pre-amp was INITIALLY sent to Mark by mistake - the owner had intended to send it to Tom Evans but there were two labels on the parcel, the larger one addressed to Tom and a smaller shipping label with Mark's address on it (I am assuming that Mark had maybe sent his customer a repair in the past and the customer used the old packaging without removing the old label first?). Parcel Force decided to refer to the smaller label addressed to Mark and so deliver it to him, presumably as it had a barcode on it. There are photos and more details on Mark's Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/c/MendItMark/homeThere's also a transcript of a chat between Mark and his customer, the customer sent Mark a new label to ship the Pre-amp on to Tom Evans. After that of course the customer requested that Tom Evans send the Pre-amp to Mark for repair, as we know from Mark's repair video for the amp.
Should the customer have addressed the parcel more clearly? Apparently so.
Should the customer have sent it to Tom (accidentally reaching Mark instead) via a courier instead of Parcel Force? Apparently so.
Should the customer have wrapped the Pre-amp a lot more carefully?
Based on the message from Tom Evans, apparently so.
When the new label was sent to Mark from the customer to send the Pre-amp on to Tom Evans it's not mentioned which shipping service was used but we would have to
assume Parcel Force/Royal Mail, hence why Tom Evans mentions that Mark allegedly shipped the parcel via the local post office. Mark did this because that's the label the customer sent him according to the chat transcript.
So there have been some errors by some parties but, from what I can tell
from Mark's info, he is most certainly NOT at fault here and he didn't do anything wrong AT ALL, didn't even make a mistake. He didn't even know what was in the parcel when he sent it onto Tom Evans!
But as I've said, read all of the info and see the label photos and customer chat transcript image on Mark's Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/c/MendItMark/postsAll of this diverts from the takedown of Mark's repair video and points the finger at Mark for matters other than the repair, nevertheless it too needs addressing and ALL of the facts stated.
We need to remember that the video takedown, etc is what is key here and what has driven people's attention towards the video and its many copies.