I am in the process of dealing with a UPS claim as i type this. I bought some gear from someone in California and they shipped it to me via UPS ground here in Chicago. When the driver delivered it, part of the amplifier was hanging out of the box, the heat sinks had chunks missing out of them and some of the remaining "fins" on that side were pretty bent up. I new enough to have the driver input into his terminal that the package had been retaped and that the contents were damaged. Upon further inspection in the same lot of gear, a preamp that was also shipped from the same individual had a rack handle physically ripped from the faceplate, taking that entire portion of the face with it. The power cord was severed on that piece also. Both boxes looked like they had literally fallen out of the back of a truck and it was quite obvious that they had attempted to retape / repack the equipment somewhere along the way. All of this with very large "fragile" stickers on the boxes. The killer part is that these pieces were packed and shipped from an authorized UPS shipping station with all of the boxes & packing materials purchased there. The station attendants were the ones that actually did the packing and labeling. So far, everything looks good in terms of having them pay the claim, as i have "been there, done that" with UPS on several other occasions and have learned some of the in's & out's. Either way, it has been a rather unpleasant experience. For the record, Fed Ex ground (formerly RPS) IS better than UPS in terms of damage but i have found them to be LESS timely in terms of delivery. Can't speak for how fair they are on claims though, as i've luckily never had to deal with that. Albert's suggestion of Delta Air Cargo / Delta Express is VERY valid, as i've used them in the past also. For shipping very heavy items, the best prices and service that i've attained has come from Overnite Express. They are "non-union" and the employees are at much greater risk of losing their job for improper packing, abusive treatment of cargo, etc... The bottom line with any of this stuff, regardless of the carrier, is that EVERYTHING needs to be packed like it was glass and would be handled by gorilla's. LITERALLY. Sean >
