I've had to file 6 claims with UPS in 2 years. I've never had to file a claim with Fedex or USPS.
You have filed six claims in 2 years for high valuable packages? I could understand it, if you are talking about regular packages, in that case I would not even use UPS(I do sometimes, but thats cause I know for sure if it gets broken I will get the money from the claim), I also use USPS ocasionally. I had typed a long thread, instead of just "Why is UPS out of the question", but I didn't like the look of it, so I just went with the question first. But in what I typed as well as what someone else said, high valuables(which is what we are talking baout here) are handle very differantly at UPS. I don't know for sure how the other companies handle them, but UPS goes to great lengths to insure that high valuables make it where they are going, on time, unbroken and working. Like i said though, with normal packages, I fret to use UPS or any other company for that matter. I have seen how the boxes get thrown and smashed into a wall. But then again if the contents are packed well in the first place, then it would be very unlikely that that package would get damaged. I am not in any way impplying that you did not pack your things well. But I know a lot of people that complain about things getting broke and what not, but then I see so many packages a day that are very poorly packaged. But just to let you know what goes on with normal parcels, in both UPS and fedex, as I have been in a fedex hub several times, the boxes get thrown, crushed in a wall, stepped on, often dropped outside and possibly run over, then get caught in the rain, they get smashed together on moving belts. A lot of things can happen to damage a package, once again, good packaging prevents most of these from being an issue. But I know for sure that UPS does not let its high valuables travel the same path as normal parcels, so it would be very unlikly for a HV to get damaged, plus before they are loaded into a truck, not only do they have to be checked by the loader, they are checked by the HV person and the supervisor, so it is also unlikely that it would go to the wrong place. I don't know how the USPS does things, but I would have to imagine it is very close to the way UPS and fedex do things. Also if your UPS, fedex, or USPS is near a college or something that would make them try to employ young adults, I would not use any of them, since the younger people don't care much about other peoples stuff. In that case I would go with airborne express or something, but I don't know how they work either.
Once again, for high valuables, I would opt for UPS over any other company. I mean they didn't get where they are by breaking things. Sure some stuff gets broken, but it would seem to me that the more respectable comapnies had to of done something to get there. I don't have the numbers, I wish we could get them somewhere, but I bet on a percentage basis, that UPS has less damages then any of the other 2 you mentioned.