Hey Ross, yes, flat charge. The international Amazon sites used to just ship in a cardboard sleeve with no padding. 'Dinging' and 'dents' are pretty common, but 'generally' Amazon will either replace it, or give you a partial credit. There have been reports though that with frequent requests to replace, Amazon is getting less likely to replace/credit completely, so YMMV. Recently, some have reported that some Amazon sites (and depending on where you are), are sometimes adding padding to the shipments. So after years, perhaps things are changing, in terms of the % of dented Steels received.