UPS. Friend Or Foe?

Where they packaged one of the speakers they should at least be responsible for the damage on that one. About 10 years ago I purchased a Parasound amp on Audiogon . UPS packaged it using those cheap air filled plastic pillows . Half of them were deflated. I contacted the seller to inform him the amp was damaged and I sent pictures. He contacted UPS who had a driver visit me. After inspecting it he couldn’t believe the packing. UPS honored the claim.

Fedex is no better. Where I live most of their drivers are independents. I have had packages that were supposed to be signed for just left on the porch and some packages were left in the rain.

@lwin Yes! Same here. Anything large, heavy or expensive is almost guaranteed to be damaged or destroyed by UPS or Fedex.

The speakers I sold were Vandersteens. My wife spoke with Richard Vandersteen and he told her they had so many problems with UPS and Fedex they went to shipping their speakers on pallets.

I had Audio Classics refurb my MR 78 a while back.

First I bought their dedicated shipping box, then I packed it properly and left it with local UPS to ship insured.

Audio Classics said it arrived with a broken glass faceplate.  But insurance covered it and they replaced it.  I got it back in perfect condition.

Glad the insurance worked.

Tom, Sorry to hear about you bad shipping experience.

UPS and FedEx just don't care. They are just giant robots that move packages from one address to another. They know packages regularly get damaged and have their fine print and cleanup crew that takes care it. They make more money jamming as many packages through their system as possible and them dealing with the aftermath as opposed to being more careful with people's goods and having fewer claims. That said, they have to deal with people trying to get away with false clams, too. It's a giant system that has us over a barrel.

We use LTL shipping for everything except for a few item that are relatively small and lightweight and they are over-packed. We have had good luck shipping this way.

Most manufacture's corrugated packaging is really good for only one trip, maybe two if it wasn't too beat up the first time. Some are better than others. Shipping has become so expensive, one would think the service would excellent.