Oldest son worked in a local bike shop for four summers. It's not unusual for bikes to get damaged during shipping. The boxes aren't that strong to begin with. Oldest son would routinely unbox bikes for assembly at the shop and find the boxes damaged, parts missing (fell out due to the damage) or bike frames dented and scratched. He worked at a fairly high-end bike shop so customers were VERY picky about the bikes they purchased. If there was so much as a small scratch anywhere on the bike they refused it and demanded a new one be ordered.
A 25% "damaged during shipping" rate sounds about right from all the complaints I heard from my oldest son.
The cool thing is the bike company here thought outside the box and simply changed how the box looked to "fix" the problem. Pretty darn creative solution if I say so myself.