Best shipping companies

@mastering92 I just can’t imagine being able to call any shipping company to tell them to be sure to handle a package with care. What company can you do this with? It can’t be DHL, FedEx, UPS or USPS, as they’re handling millions of packages daily. I use a small regional shipper and have occasionally dealt with their customer service. I can guarantee that they have no ability to contact their workers about a specific package somewhere in the process shipping. I suppose that someone could call them and ask, but I’d have zero confidence that the message would be passed on to the multiple people involved. Would a company that sells and ships audio equipment every day be on the phone asking shippers to handle their items with care?

My advice is to “bulletproof” pack items for shipment and be prepared for damage when it occurs. Items I have received in good shape were first manufacturer packed, then packaged AGAIN in a second container.  Note that this usually means that the item becomes triple boxed.  Better than dealing with damage!

@mastering92 OK, I hear you. I often ship items that cost up to $3000, so I’m very interested in how you are able to contact shippers to ask for careful handling. You mentioned FedEx as an example, would you call the general 800 number? Or do you have a direct number to the office/desk at the origin, or to the office/desk at the destination? If so, how can I get those numbers for my package locations? Any detail that you can mention regarding how you do this would help. Thx!

I recently had a package delayed so I called customer serve at the head office of the regional shipper I use. They don’t give out the phone no. of the local office, and don’t do any customer service there. When I called, they could only tell where my package had been. I had to wait a couple of days before it was delivered. With USPS you can put out a tracer for a lost package, but if it’s not late they won’t do that. In some cases I’ve had them look up a picture of a package as it was scanned on a conveyor belt. The problem there was that a second package was scanned at the same time, messing up the tracking information. Eventually it got straightened out.