Well, with the holiday shipping season upon us, I thought I'd take a few minutes to warn everyone to be VERY careful shipping items.  Personally, I'd recommend NOT using DHL....they totally destroyed 1 package we had sent to us and supposedly delivered another to us yesterday.  When I called to complain, the reps were very apologetic, but it still makes me mad that they are incompetent.  According to the cs rep and the website, the package was delivered to my front door at 11:09 am, which is rather interesting because I was HOME at that time and NOONE came to my front door.  I called a few neighbors last night and none of them received it so I have NO CLUE where it is >:(

Has anyone else had any shipping nightmares ???

My FIL did. He was staying with us for a summer a few years back and wanted to ship a can of maple syrup to my SIL. He took it to UPS. Somehow the can got punctured and the can was totally destroyed. Since it wasn't insured, he was out the $$ that he spent on shipping it-as well as for the syrup (people may not be aware of this but a gal of syrup can go for about $30).  I can just imagine some people getting packages with maple syrup all over them.


My own preference is the Post Office. I have had nothing but good results with them.




Cat

I've had large parcels damaged by both UPS and Fed Ex. The small boxes seem to arrive in good condition.
Hey Cat, I thought UPS automatically insured everything. For what they charge, it should all be insured. I have a friend who makes maple syrup and yes, it is a bit pricey. I usually get a free can from him every year. He also makes maple sugar.
I've had my best luck through the good ol' Post Office. Even with them, I've had one package not delivered and on took almost 3 weeks to arrive. I also had a computer monitor crushed, but it was badly packaged.

I will second not going with DHL.

I use the USPS for most of my personal stuff.  When I was working, though, we used UPS to ship documents, and in 6 years of using it, there was only one incident.  An envelope got stuck on a belt, and it destroyed almost the whole document package.
When hubby orders from the internet, whoever delivers the package leaves it on the front step.  I'm pretty sure most delivery companies are not required to have packages signed for when they are delivered to residential areas, as opposed to businesses.