DeepDiver wrote:

"Jon Elson" wrote in message
...


Try Fed Ex ground. They are really resonable, and a lot more careful
that the gorillas at UPS.



UPS might hire gorillas, but FedEx hires monkeys. Very stupid monkeys.

I'm not a high volume shipper, yet of the relatively few packages I've sent
or received through FedEx Ground, I've had a very high percentage of
problems. FedEx has lost packages, billed me for services not used, screwed
up my loss claims, were unable to re-route a package that kept going to the
wrong address (and then kept being kicked back to their depot -- they knew
where it was but couldn't "pull it out" of it's endless cycle of
mis-delivery), and their Web site services suck. Furthermore, the only way
you can have someone ship a package to you on your own FedEx account is if
you let FedEx do a "will call" pick-up (with the exorbitant extra fees for
that service which defeats the whole purpose of the effort).


I have had a rotary table and a logic analyzer smashed by UPS. I have
never had
anything even get the corner of the box mashed a little by Fed Ex.

I have sent a number of packages Fed Ex, billing to the recipient's Fed
Ex number.
I take it to the local Kinko's copy place - they are owned by Fed Ex.
There may not
be one convenient to your location, though.

Yes, I've saved some shipping costs using my FedEx Ground account. But I've
lost those savings many times over due to the numerous problems I've had
with FedEx. My biggest gripe with UPS is that they charge extra service
counter fees for retail customers. And sometimes those counter fees don't
match the prices quoted on their Web site or in software that uses UPS's
shipping rate API (like Ebay's shipping calculator).


The insurance at the old "Mailboxes-R-Us" UPS store is really
exorbitant, like
$1 per $100 declared value. When I ship a $10,000 - $25,000 shipment, this
wipes me out! Fed Ex is less than 1/4 that rate! Why should I have to
pay for
UPS' carelessness?

As for UPS breakage, in my experience, that can always be traced to poor
packaging by the shipper. Yes, heavy items require extra padding and sturdy
boxes or crates (imagine that!). Of course, that's true with any shipper.


Yes, sure, I have to have 4-6" of high-density foam custom molded to the
shape
of the equipment, with extra cardboard corners inside the box, to keep
UPS from
smashing stuff. 2" of bubble wrap seems to be enough to protect a
package with
Fed Ex. Obviously, your experience seems to be the exact opposite.

Jon