But I hold an eternal grudge against UPS. I've had two infuriating incidents with UPS.
1st - When I was younger I preferred bartering to exchanging money, and a friend in Canada was doing some php & mySQL framework for a commercial website I was working on. The bulk of what I owed him was going to be covered by sending him a decent desktop PC that I didn't need to hang on to. I made sure everything in the mini-tower was secured, and I packed it pretty carefully. I had shipped assembled computers before without problem so I didn't even think of disassembling it first. When the package arrived at my friend's doorstep in Canada, he was told they were holding the thing hostage until he paid a CDN$50 duty. He told them he couldn't pay it and I was pretty pissed about the duty which came without warning and I had declared the system as a gift. Since he couldn't pay the duty they return-shipped the box to me via UPS ground at my expense. I was really patient but the staff at the UPS store firmly demanded I pay up the return shipping cost before giving it back. I did, and when I unpacked the tower, its innards were pretty much destroyed. Now, I'm a very patient and mostly forgiving person, but the manager of that UPS store assured me I was SOL because I hadn't insured it; their liability only extended to something like USD$50 which wasn't even enough to cover the doubled shipping cost.
2nd - a few years ago, I needed to borrow money from my dad to pay a medical bill. over previous years he had sent me money in cash ranging from $250 to $600, without issue. but this time, he sent $1500 in 100's. it was all thoroughly concealed in layers of magazines, printed essays, greeting cards, in an envelope within an envelope inside the stiff UPS document mailer. I only live 5 hours away from him, but he chose overnight shipping anyway. He hadn't told me how much money he was sending until after I received a slashed and tape-resealed document mailer full of everything he sent me, minus the 1.5 grand. I know I cried, and I suspect my dad was equally upset. It said right on the mailer's disclaimer "do not send currency". Regardless of my dad not heeding or noticing the disclaimer, their employees had no right to tamper with the package, and apparently at least one of their employees feel that their policy on sending currency gives them the irrefutable right to rob people that make the mistake of doing so anyway. Again I was told, in so many words, that I was SOL - but this time they had zero liability, so it was definitely entirely my dad's fault from their perspective. That is pretty much the only time in my life I have ever felt truly violent hatred.
- end rant -
