Daryl wrote: I find its more the individual driver than
anything else when it comes to good service and actually getting a
package...My local guys go out of their way for me as a business

And I'm sure that is the case.  When I was running a retail establishment we
always had the same UPS driver, he knew us and our service was virtually
perfect.  But here at home, in a condominium, we rarely see the same driver
twice recently (referring to UPS) and frequently there are two trucks a day
that make deliveries here.  Up to a couple of years ago we had the same
driver everyday and he made a special effort to make sure packages were
delivered.
As far as running things through the package crusher DHL has somehow gained
a very, very bad reputation in the amateur astronomy community. But, I don't
know if this is because of 100 bad deliveries reported on the forums or one
bad delivery reported 100 times  I'd tend to listen more to people like
Daryl that are dealing with these carriers every day as opposed to the
anecdotal reports  like my own.  None the less, FedEx still has some
explaining to do....