UPS sucks. Pack your shipments properly.

Just had a shipping disaster with an amplifier. UPS delivered it with a destroyed speaker and all the tubes shattered. They either threw it around in the truck or dropped it from a great height. The speaker magnet sheared right off the cone, something generally unheard of unless great force is used. Those things are stuck together with massive magnetic force, plus a whole bunch of adhesive.



Anyway, from now on, I'm going to try to stay away from UPS. They treated my package like crap. If you're cross border shopping, they'll take you to the cleaners with brokerage fees and customs charges. I've had better luck using the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Edit, a few hours later:

I guess this can happen with any shipper, so maybe instead of avoiding one company in particular, I would make sure that your item is packed properly. With large heavy objects like amps, you need to make sure that the corners of the box are well packed with shock absorbers. As my gear-savvy friend Craig told me the other day, the corners of an amp are where the chassis is strongest, so you want to transmit the shock there first. Use a couple of inches of dense foam, at least. Make sure the fit is very tight. You don't want the object to move at all inside that box. Otherwise the foam can't do it's job properly. Fill the rest of space with absorbant materials if you have them. And if it's an amp, stuff some bubble wrap inside the cavity if you can!