Cran, we have a very handsome Fed Ex delivery man here. I don’t know where they get these guys from, but it does seem like only good looking young men deliver for UPS and Fed Ex. I stick with USPS. Our mail carrier is female.
A few years ago I worked for a small entertainment company where I had to ship very expensive pieces of electronic equipment all over the country. Before giving up on UPS we had many items damaged, though none lost. The final straw was a $5000 video projector, packed extremely well and insured for the full value. The site received it with tire tracks on the box and an obviously destroyed projector. UPS would not pay off because it was “not packed in the factory shipping carton” (it was actually packed much better than if it had been in a factory carton – the factory cartons were really designed to be stacked and banded on a pallete and we didn’t consider them adequate for manual handling).
Three years ago I received two guitars a couple of months apart. They were shipped UPS and the UPS man left them sitting on the front porch in spite of the fact that they were supposed to be signed for. Furthermore, I was home both times and he didn’t bother to knock…
Most recently, I received a damaged wireless instrument system via UPS. The replacement was also shipped UPS and the box was destroyed but fortunately the wireless system survived.
Small packages (a few inches by a few inches) seem to survive UPS handling but I think every larger package I have ever received from UPS has had, at the very least, crushed corners.
I don’t know how the heck they stay in business when FedEx is only slightly more for the same category of service and I’ve never had a problem with a FedEx package.
John
UPS actually stands for “U Probably Shouldn’t”.
USPS usually works, but just recently i bought a flute from Hammy Hamilton (Ireland) and when it finally arrived, half of the box had been eaten by some eevil and foul smelling cleaning product that got spilled on it. The flute wasn’t damaged out of sheer luck.
FedEx usually works, but just recently i FedExed McGee flute with high insurance to the guy i was borrowing it from, and they didn’t find the guy’s place (the driver said it wasn’t in his map, though it was not a new street or anything hard to find). So they took it back to their (FedEx) office. We only found out because we were monitoring their site, and the guy had to go pick it up. At least they didn’t lose or damage it, and this was the only problem i’ve had with FedEx.
g
Miracle of miracles, the whistle arrived today!! 26 days late, and more than two weeks after UPS said that it was definitely lost.
It’s a fine piece of work, well worth the wait, but I could’ve stood a little less aggravation from the brown folks.
I’m in the process of having the same experience as glauber with FedEx - a fiddle, shipped internationally (2 day delivery) on Oct 3 has still not been delivered, because my address in Ireland is ‘incorrect’. What’s really special is that they’ve tried to deliver about 3 times in the last week, and each time they’ve driven the fiddle approx. 200 miles from the FedEx depot, before deciding that my house doesn’t exist… and then driven it the 200 miles back, only to try again the next day. And they can’t take a family member’s mobile phone number (no-one’s at home during the day, 3 days a week) because - wait for it - the courier might not have a mobile phone. EEEenteresting, no? To be fair, though, they’ve really only been trying to deliver it since last Wed - Irish Customs were sticky about allowing a fiddle insured for $1000 into the country, even with a Customs document saying that it’d been brought out… They like their import duty, it seems. :roll: . Hopefully, tomorrow… 
WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO! You got it!!!
Love to see pics of the elusive boxwood whistle. . .hint, hint
tyghress,
Chas is right now facing a canundrum…he has two of my boxwood whistles! The first was his original order, the second I sent him because I changed my design and wanted to “upgrade” him..so to speak…his first whistle you can see here…
Regretfully, I didn’t take a pic of the new one!!
ah, but he can!