No Insurance with FEDEX as of 11/01

I had a pair of Harbeth speakers shipped via FedEx to Canada. They left perfect including the original factory boxes and arrived looking like one had been dropped on a corner, irreparably damaged. FedEx initially denied the claim, but a quick look at Bbb.org showed hundreds of complaints. So I filed a complaint and finally got a reimbursement. It was a four month nightmare. I don't yet have a sure fire 3rd party insurance, but am in the market. Also using UPS. 

check  USPS...many ways to ship...with smart phones i now have pictures of everything

It does not matter if it is FedEx or UPS they both have a proven track record for destroying audio equipment and not paying damage claims. We have filled 29 damage claims and have only gotten paid for 3 without going to court. All 3 of those claims were under $300.00. We pack our stuff like it is going to get droped out of a plane and it still gets damaged. We take pictures of the packing process and we still get denied claims. Most people do not get paid damage claims even when they go to court because they do not pack accourding to the shippers guidlines. If you can't pack acourding to the guidlines don't even bother buying insurance, you will NOT win in court. We have gotten to the point where if it is valuable and or over 50 pounds we build a wooden crate for it and strap it to a pallet and send it commercial freight. Yes it is more expensive to ship commercial and wooden crates are not cheap to buid either but that way the percentage of your equipment getting to it's destination undamage is much higher than ground. Another tip, the percentages of shipping damage increase around Christmas.

Used Ramon cargo insurance when I shipped my Bryston amp for repair. Great price, easy to deal with.

Despite factory boxes, unit arrived at repair site with broken speaker connectors.

Luckily, I did not need to file a claim, as Bryston fixed the unit under warranty and repaired the shipping damage at no cost to me.