So I ordered a couple of dozen inexpensive picture frames for a project, and they showed up so unexpectedly quickly that I couldn’t figure out what this jumble of boxes on my porch was. The seller deals in bulk, so the padded item boxes were just strapped and taped into (5) bundles.
One larger frame proved to have broken glass. I went back and forth about even reporting it, since buying a replacement pane would likely be cheaper than any return costs, etc. I finally tossed off a note to customer service, offering to accept just a replacement pane of glass or acrylic.
They immediately acknowledged the inquiry and said, “It’s just easiest to ship you a replacement, do what you like with the original, sorry!”
The replacement arrived today (the next day)… in a box big enough to hold almost the entire original shipment, and with nine FRAGILE stickers on it.
It made me laugh. Great company, though.
I wish it wasn’t surprising to hear about good customer service. I can also imagine at the company someone saying “Wrap that thing up good so those idiots at UPS can’t break this one too”.
It’s funny, I can list the number of broken items I’ve gotten in shipment on one handfingers, and we buy a LOT of shipped stuff. There were two in the last week - this picture frame, and a 42" LED TV. The TV was a PITA because it sat here for several days before I was ready to mount it on the wall, and it wasn’t until I had it up there that I noticed the fine spiderwebbing of cracks.
RMA’ed it (to Amazon), chose refund instead of replacement because I wanted to consider another model anyway… ended up ordering the same unit again. It showed up the next day, along with the RMA shipping tag. I ended up paying about $20 more than a straight replacement because of price fluctuations and some kind of weird surcharge, but it was still plenty cheap.
Both orders came amid a whole passel of fragile and potentially DOA items, most shipped in their own cartons. No problems other than these two.
It shouldn’t cost you anything to return broken merchandise, as long as you weren’t the one who broke it. You report it to UPS and to the merchant, and they take it from there. If it was properly packed and UPS still managed to break it, then they refund the merchant for the value of the goods and the cost of the shipping, and the merchant sends you a replacement. If it was poorly packed to begin with, UPS won’t pay, but the merchant will.
FWIW, UPS = United Package Smashers. 
It doesn’t, in most cases, and it didn’t in this case. I was just reluctant to cost the seller 2-3 times the cost of a $10 picture frame when there might have been cheaper alternatives. The TV, I had no problem demanding satisfaction. One out of 30 picture frames delivered extremely fast and cheap… I waffled.