Originally Posted by
sheddle
The shop is adament that the bike was like this when I dropped it off
Given that there's no paint loss, definitely some kind of a stand clamp that was padded enough not to mar the paint when crimping it. This would have required a
hell of a lot of force. You would know if you did this.
At any rate, oust the name of the shop please - start a new thread, preferably. You already have before-and-after proof.
It's possible with a long enough seatpost to rectify some of that by inserting the seatpost in the hole and banging the hell out of it from the inside out. Both the mechanic and the frame.
-Kurt