Fedex is the way to go.
I to have had one disaster with UPS and with all the stories on this thread that tells me this is way too common and is a serious trend. I've nicknamed UPS the Gorilla Squad!!!!
I had a shipping account with DHL and all kinds of surcharges and misc. charges showed up. If you do ship internationally I think DHL is hard to beat in that arena especially to Australia from the East Coast.
Jerry