I was having a huge issue with DOA from UPS. I live in Arizona so by the time stuff got to me it had been baking in the back of the UPS truck with NO AC. One of the guys over at Live Aquaria suggested only having stuff delivered to the hub and just picking it up from there. This was probably the best advice I could've gotten. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better survival rates than before. There's still the occasional loss but nowhere near as bad as when things were delivered to my door. Also, when UPS misses a next day air delivery it usually makes it into town and onto the truck, but the driver for whatever reason cannot make delivery and it gets pushed back a day. At least that's how it is for me. Since I started picking things up from the hub they've never missed a delivery date :) Hope this helps. -A