Boy, I'd like to say they are, but it's not likely. All three major shippers use similar conveyance systems...I know, I've seen them. There are only so many ways to design conveyors and package handling.

And OP, this doesn't help YOU right now, but it might help you or others in the future. For a real simple idea of how boxes get destroyed, think of your baggage when it comes down the slide at the airport baggage area. Your box may be perfectly wrapped, packed, and taped...but if the 50 pound box of hammers or a box with sharp corners comes down the slide of top of it, then your box becomes a landing zone. That box sliding down on top of yours can't read the word "FRAGILE" on the side of your box. I can't stress enough the importance of taping and padding. If you get a frame professionally shipped to you, you'll notice that many places wrap the tubes in foam pipe insulation.

In the future, when shipping a frame/bike, I'd suggest before "pictures" of the bike both with and without the tubes wrapped, and "before" pictures of the box both opened and after it has been taped shut. These can help with any claim you may have to file. Of course as Ccrew suggests, you can have the carrier do the packing, and that will help somewhat with the "who is at fault" discussion should it come to that.

Otto von Bismarck famously said "Those who are found of sausages or laws should never see either being made". If you want to lose any remaining innocence regarding package shipment, just spend a night at any of the major carrier's sort centers. Of course, if you get the customer tour, you get the sanitized version. It's amazing that more packages don't get destroyed in the shipping process. That's a testament to the design of the shipping processes to try and automate out the vagaries of box sizing/packing. Unfortunately, crap happens.

If you are going to ship something valuable, insure it. Assume the worst can happen.

Good luck. I hope you're able to resolve this to your satisfaction. This really sucks.

Charles