Ive always argued in defense of UPS. When I ran a large warehouse in Chicago that shipped and received, worldwide. We had great drivers, and never had one single problem over the 3 years that I worked there. Dealt with Customs and the DEA.
However, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that for non-business addresses, UPS is terrible. Started with them leaving a $250 package on my steps only to be stolen (they also left everything in my sig on those same steps), and recently I have been hit with "hazardous weather" twice. The blizzard was one thing, but it took them 3 days to get that package moving again and to my door, and it was around 45 minutes away the whole time.
But this last time, just this week, really pissed me off. I bought a pair of $150 gore-tex alpine climbing gloves for my brother who is in A-stan, and they arrived too late for me to give them to him when he was back in the states last week. Should have been here last Friday, but for some reason it got delayed the entire weekend until Monday. So now I have to pay to ship them 7,000 miles, and hope they make it.
Ive been doing ebay for the last few months, and I have been very impressed with the USPS. And it just so happens that the place I bought the gloves from are starting to ship USPS Priority when they can. The difference is 2-3 days, vs 7-10 with UPS.
UPS ground almost always mean you get screwed with a weekend. Love that...