Last week I ordered about 10 things from McFeely's. The box arrived about
four days later via UPS but had visible damage to the box itself (hole
gouged in the side). I opened it up and took an inventory and noticed 4
items were missing. Proceeded to call customer service and tell them what
was missing and requested they resend the missing items. They then told
me they would send an UPS person to my house to "verify the damage" in
8-10 days. I feel that they are just calling me a big fat liar wanting to
verify the damage and all. For someone that has gone through this before,
is this a normal practice? Should I be complaining a little more? It's
like 10 dollars in product...give me a break.

This is standard practice with UPS. It seems they regularly trash parcels
and the inspectors are so far behind that it takes a while for them to get
to you. UPS needs to verify that the package was damaged in shipping and the
packaging was up to par. Once that is done you're expected to submit a claim
to UPS and wait another 3 or 4 months to get your money. Some vendors will
handle UPS damaged goods claims for you, others wash their hands of any
responsibility once the shipment leaves their warehouse. If you're lucky
McFeely's will handle this for you, once UPS confirms the damage.

I avoid these kinds of issues by avoiding UPS whenever possible. In any
case, when I receive a trashed UPS delivery, before signing I ask the driver
to attach a note such as "carton shows shipping damage". This helps to
accelerate any damage claims. Sometimes it's obvious that the item inside is
damaged, in which case I just refuse delivery due to damaged/missing
contents.