Note that we do use other carriers and have had issues but at least there is some cooperation/support to settle the claim, UPS blows you off tells one to go pound sand..
UPS is just awful. I'm never using them again unless I'm forced to after my experience last summer:
When I ordered my subwoofer driver through exodusaudio, their cheapest option was UPS ground. Since the brokerage fees are pretty ridiculous, and they for some reason added some duties, I decided to go to my local Canadian customs office, and clear it through customs myself to avoid those fees and know that whatever I`m paying is going directly to the government.
Now, before doing this, the procedure is to get a manifest form from the shipping company and give it to Customs so they can clear the package.
I went to UPS, and they refused to give me any paperwork. This is a freakin piece of paper for my own package that I wanted. The people working there just wouldn`t cooperate and finally when I said "let me speak with a manager" they told me there was no manager there and that I should just call their utterly useless hotline.
I called the hotline and was redirected to their brokerages office - they basically told me that because I lived in Calgary, I couldn't do a customs clearance because the packaged entered the country through a different port. Being the pompous smart-*** that I am, I quoted the exact legal paperwork needed to make her shake in her shoes - there's no need for me to drive for 11 hours plus 11 back just to clear a subwoofer driver (i'm sure some audioholics might do so, though). She told me she would "remove the brokerage fees from the package information". This still didn't solve my problem with getting the paperwork that I needed. Fed up with dealing with UPS, I went straight to Canada Customs.
The lady at customs told me that there's no reason UPS shouldn't have released the manifest form. She looked in her secret agent book of numbers and found the office number of the UPS manager who "wasnt there" and told me to go call it from their phone over on the side. I made the call and UPS Manager picks up and I explain to her about how I need the manifest. She asks me why I would need that, and I tell her that when UPS came to my door the other day, they wanted 124 dollars in brokerage and customs, therefore I decided to self-clear my package. "So you just ran off to customs? (i guess she had caller ID on that phone of hers, because she seemed pretty angry about this, as I'm sure she's instructed to be)" And that... is how I finally got someone from UPS to fax a copy of a piece of paper for my package...
They - the government office - charged me 24 dollars even though it was clearly made in china and listed as such on their own paperwork etc. Oh, and the customs agent told me that UPS sent her the wrong manifist form - something telling her my package was still in vancouver whereas it was certainly in Calgary. She didn't give me a problem over it but told me that UPS shouldn't have sent that form and could get in trouble for it.
Then, when I got to UPS, they brought my package out and then gave me a bill. A 115 dollar bill. ~60 dollars brokerage fees, ~35 dollars "duties because it's made in china", and THEN the 24 that I had just paid in G.S.T.
And the box for the driver was totally banged up (luckily it was well packaged)
So I showed them my B-15 form and the girl working there refused to acknowledge legal documentation stating that my package had been customs cleared. I was at UPS for half an hour arguing with her while she called multiple people (NOT the manager) who kept telling her to make me pay the brokerage. Finally she went inside to the manager, comes out 5 minutes later looking angry like she probably got her day ruined by said manager for a legal form she had no control over, and finally ripped up the brokerage bill.
On the other hand, Fed-Ex, USPS/Canada Post, and Purolator are companies I've used which have never given me these silly problems.
