The pot bottoms must be cut round on a rotary cookie cutter it would be labor intense to go thru the trouble cutting them into oval.
What condition did the shipping box look like, sounds like it was sat on or stacked in shipping? You received it without looking at it from UPS? My driver stayed and watched me remove the ferm from the box making sure it was ok.
My Brewhemoth ferm came very well protected for shipping.
I would seriously doubt Dale and Josh would ship a product looking as you stated. I would be be calling them first documenting your problem before flexing the top section round again incase you you mess it up, CYA your end.
My thinking it's a simple fix from working with aircraft sheetmetal years ago.
It's out of round because it's a piece of stainless that was, from what I can tell, bent into a circular shape, and then welded down a seam. And when the handles were welded on, it flattened out the pot walls even more. I'm not here bitching about brewhemoth, I know you get what you pay for. I just asked if the conicals were of better quality. i know for the price you can't beat it. But again, you have to consider what you're getting for the price.
Regarding the bottom, it's circular. But it has a rock to it. The burner grates on my rig were dead nuts flat, because my Blichman bottom is dead nuts flat. We had to put in a jack and basically raise the roof off the garage to get enough of an indentation in the grate so that the penrose won't rock when full.
Regarding the shipping, the boxes arrived undamaged. No creases, dings, etc. The pots are the way they were made.