Ouch. I've just read this whole thread and I feel really bad for you folks.
I'm an unknown here as I never did get any water into a tank since I joined (I'm about to sell my two unused tanks, with sadness) so I don't know if anyone's ever posted anything about their experiences with UPS. But I want to share a few things with you which hopefully might help in the future.
The first is that in the 90s I became good friends with a gal who worked for UPS, and what she told me did not surprise me in the least. You see, I had had my computer system shipped to Holland (not by UPS, of course) when I went to live there for a time, and when it finally arrived a month late, the delivery guy insisted on getting my signature at the door, even though he had dropped the boxes onto the floor instead of bending down to place them carefully. This put me between a rock and a hard place, because if I didn't sign, he would just take them away, and I needed it to finish a job I was doing and had already tried the patience of the company I was doing it for to the max on account of the delay. And besides, he was not about to wait for me to set it up to confirm it wasn't broken.
So when she told me NOT to write "Fragile" on anything because the other UPS employees had "extra" fun with those boxes, I took her seriously. She said that on slow days they would play catch with them!
Also, UPS is one of the world's largest package delivery companies. As such, there is no accountability or recourse without an enormous amount of effort on the part of the shipper or consignee after the fact.
Lastly, (although I wouldn't suggest that this has any bearing on individual experiences) UPS tried to sue Canada for US$160 million in 2000 under NAFTA. Finally, 7 years and a pile of Canadian taxpayers' money to fight it later, they lost.
All in all, not a company you want to give your business to, IMHO.
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