Where to Get "Professional" Packing Done for Shipping a

Some years ago, I bought a $5 integrated circuit from a supplier in the USA. I wanted them to put it in a padded envelope, put a customs label on it and give it to USPS. However, for international shipping, the supplier insisted that they would only use some UPS service that supposedly covered all transborder documentation, customs clearance, insurance and so on and cost several times the value of the IC. I reluctantly agreed and had them send it to my work address. Unfortunately, the package arrived while I was out of the office at lunch. Thinking he was doing me a favour, a colleague accepted delivery for me and paid the $30 or so fee the UPS delivery man wanted to cover duty and customs fees. Of course I reimbursed my colleague but if the package had arrived when I was there, I would have refused to pay the charges which were a) supposedly already covered and b) way over the top for an item worth $5 and had them return it to sender if they were not happy with that. Talking to UPS was like trying to get blood out of a stone but they eventually said that the customs charges were levied because my supplier had declared the value of the item as $100 or neglected to specify the value of the item in which case they would assume a default value of $100 and their expensive customs clearance service didn't actually cover customs duty and fees - it only covered their filling in and sticking a customs label on the package and giving it to the customs people for inspection. The supplier claimed that they did decare the correct value of the package to UPS but was good enough to reimburse me the $30 because of the all the grief I had so I stopped persuing it with UPS. Bizarrely, out of the blue, nearly a year later I think, I got an unexplained refund from UPS. The upshot of all this is that if on payment of a hefty fee, they cannot even organise to ship me a $5 integrated circuit without a huge amount of difficulty, I am definately not going to trust UPS to ship anything bigger or more valuable. I will not buy anything from anyone who insists on using UPS to ship to me. I never want to have to deal with them again. Regards, Peter Coghlan