Shipping damage

UPS is champ in damaging items upto 30% chance.
Fedex has better freight and ground prices and better item handling by FAR.
If you're sending solid unit and not heavy such as piece of 2x4 stud or few, than you're OK with UPS.

One of my first deals here on the gon was for a pair of Talon Raven C speakers to be shipped from Ca. to NY.
One of the speakers was damaged & the crossover became loose.
FedEx sent their claims man to inspect the issue & to make a long story short - I received a refund for the speakers + shipping & was told to keep the speakers.
The damage to the cabinet was very slight & a good friend came over to repair the crossover for free.
Probably the best deal I have ever done here.
Back then (15 yrs.) I had quite a few claims with both FedEx & UPS & got to know the claims guys by their first name.

As long as your dealer is somewhat reputable and willing to process the claim, you should have no problems.

Did you consider asking the shipper whether you could inspect the inner box (your comment of an "outside box" implies there is an inner box) or, if there was only one box then inspect the item itself, prior to refusing the shipment? I have had drivers from UPS or FedEx allow me to do that rather than incurring the hassle of returning possibly undamaged goods to their distribution center. In each case when I inspected the item (I believe only two times) it was undamaged. In a separate instance, a B&W M803 tweeter was damaged and the dealer sent me a new tweeter.

I'm with Czarivey on this one. I've been shipping Vintage Drums via FedEx since 1999 without a single incident of damage. I've received drums shipped UPS, however, with less luck. I pack very well, using multiple layers of bubble wrap rather than the more common plastic peanuts, which simply move out of the way when pushed.