Yes, it was actually in the box this time!
And I could see what happened last time. The vacuum box is inside the cardboard shipping box, which is a sleeve, closed on one end and with just a tiny corner piece holding it all in on the other end. That corner piece was busted on the first box.
I ran out to meet the UPS driver – and he remembered delivering the flat box – he thought it had been sent to me as a return box.
It’s charging now and then I get to vacuum ALL THE THINGS!