Sigh... Here in the UK, eugh, I can't do it. I felt my mood drop by about 72 awesomeness points just thinking about joining in this conversation!
Strangely, as an occasional ebay seller and generally independent human being I find our standard national 'Post Office' to offer near perfect service - and would honestly say no fewer than 99% of packages delivered by other corporate couriers (Citylink, DHL and UPS all being offenders) have been linked with major inconveniences, lies, avoidance of delivery to domestic addresses during office hours to save time, insisting packages are still en route and strategically refusing to contact drivers or phone-monkies' superiors until it's "too late to act now"...
I've managed to swing things in my own favour (after finding myself in unfavourable positions) by threatening to invoice couriers for my hours outside of agreed terms, questioning the legality of their behaviours and demonstrating eagerness to have individuals or the companies punished or defamed, or pushing guilt trips... I never feel I'm being unethical though - and this can lead to both having items be delivered "after hours" and having respectable freelance drivers be called in to clock up some very well paid hours - as I was told after trying to apologise to the freelancer having to deliver late once, who in turn thanked me for the work!
Couriers are cretins... Well, the guys sat in the offices, really, not the overworked drivers who are given more work than is realistically doable and need legislation to stop them being abused further...
Amazon, Apple.. They work with the most pathetic of these couriers, eeeurgh..
Have fun tracking down real phone numbers for the depots, too - and don't forget to publish them online for everyone else to see if you're lucky enough to get 'em
