HELP! Large speakers fell over during shipping.

If Talon was dumb enough to pack any speaker that way, they deserve the incurred cost to replace them. Honestly, that is pathetic.  I have received two different speakers that were factory crated and the packing was by far better than any cardboard box and foam packaging I have ever received on any speaker, including a pair of Tekton Electrons. Of all the packaging I have seen, I would describe the Electron packing as adequate, nothing more.

In the pictures the seller sent, were the crates banded to the pallet? I would be surprised if a freight company accepted them without banding, but you never know. If they were not banded to the pallet, I can see how they could be easily dumped off with a forklift. It would also likely be the sellers problem. 

There were no crates, just two large (original-mint) boxes wrapped together in cellophane, sitting on a pallet with no strapping (seller's mistake). We figure the forklift driver had them off center on the tines, and they fell. Who knows. Someone was curious to know what high end speakers looked like because one side of the beautiful black cardboard box was torn down about 2 feet, but since they were upside down at that point, they must have given up. MORONS!!! The trucker that attempted delivery said that probaby 4-5 different companies would have been involved in getting them to me. So it could have happened anywhere/when.

I had a similar experience with one of a pair Totem Acoustic speakers. They were shipped by the dealer in their factory boxes. One speaker arrived a day later than the other and when I looked at the second speaker box I suspected there would be a problem, as one corner of the box was damaged. I opened the second box and after unpacking found the bass driver had a large, readily visible hole  in it. I had to ship the speaker directly to the manufacturer for repair. Totem advised that the crossover assembly had become detached and came through the back of the bass driver! Totem suspected that the box had to have been dropped from a considerable height (like off the back of a truck 5-6' or so). The dealer, who shipped the product to me, covered the repair (replacement of bass driver and crossover) and was unable to recover anything from FEDEX even though the shipment was insured, I provided photos of the damaged box and driver, and the damage was not due to improper or non-factory packaging.

Look for any holes, deformation or cracks in the driver cones of the mid- or bass- drivers. Also, if the speaker is not too heavy to slide along a carpeted floor, listen to see if you can hear anything moving inside the cabinet as you move the speaker. Obviously, you should not hear anything. And you need not move the cabinet very strongly to hear something, if anything is loose. Those are my suggestions for identifying potential damage in addition to what @millercarbon explained.

Totem did a great job with the damaged speaker. They match drivers when they make a pair, have records of the drivers used and had a  replacement driver and crossover on hand to install. I have listened to the speakers for around a thousand hours and am quite pleased with them, noticing no difference in the reproduction quality of the two speakers. Obviously if you can get the dealer to provide a new pair instead, that would be a great alternative.

I always thought Vandersteen’s Furniture boxes were a good idea. Who want to beat up on furniture? Our fedex guy left a subwoofer on my lawn under a tree in the rain. Wouldn’t do that with furniture.
The boxes were destroyed you say?