Hi Lew, my experience would be somewhat limited as it is not that diverse but the issues I had in the past.1. USPS, shipped back some speaker cables to the manufacturer for refund, $540 speaker cables, USPS priority. Package from Miami to Denver was lost in Denver, reason they provided is they were trying to redeliver, opened a case with USPS (online of course as you cannot do anything at their offices), they sent me a weekly notification they were trying to redeliver, I kept contacting them trying to collect something, I think $50 is the most they pay, they said until the redeliver was complete they could not pay the funds ($50), after 6 months they stopped sending notifications and I stopped trying to collect.2. USPS, got a Billy Joel 1st pressing, The piano man. The carrier thought bending the media mail hard carboard could fit the package into my community mailbox, even though all records I purchased usually are left by my door because they WONT FIT THE MAILBOX, new sealed NOS 1972 piano man vinyl when I was able to pull it out from the mailbox and I opened the record and noticed the damage, 2 tears came out of my eyes, I admit it. went to USPS office, with the pandemic every claim has to be filed online, go online, filing the claim says it is not insured hence they are not responsible, no vinyl no money. Went back to the office, asked for a supervisor, she said she could not help me (with an attitude and I am a nice guy) and my only chance was online, oh she asked for my address to speak with the carrier for future deliveries.
3. USPS, Purchased some tubes from Russia, 6S33S-V, April 15th or so 2020,
September 15th or so tubes were delivered 5 months later, they left
Pulkovo in April early May and were lost in transit for 4 months no
notifications or anything. Now I know the Russia packages could be an
exception. Our friend Chak sent me a cart around that date and took 4
month to arrive (or 3.5 and a half I lost count)
4. FEDEX, seller shipped some speakers to me, Fedex packed the speakers, speakers were received with some subs, subs were damaged in the corners, so one speaker, not by much, provided photos, one week later Fedex paid full amount for the speakers $4500 and allowed the seller (and myself) to keep the speakers.5. FEDEX, Purchased an HS-4 headshell in Japan, 3 days later I received it.
Again my experience could be limited and biased I know, I'm not saying USPS is the worst, YMMV, IME, in my book, no way Jose.Perhaps since I was born and raised in a communist country were the "state" is everywhere and there was no private enterprise I am biased towards despising such systems which are subsidized by the government, yes it could perfectly be.
I ship with Fedex and I pay with Amex, Amex gives me a discount, I ship always insured because of my bad previous experiences, if something happens I'm positive Fedex will respond, if they get cheeky and they don't want to pay a claim then I bring the 800 pound gorilla which is Amex to the fight and let them solve it.
Sorry Lew for the long explanation I respect everyone's opinion here, if you have good results with USPS by all means support them.
