I'm not getting involved in the 'fraud at ebay' thread, but I will contribute what I now do to avoid any problems when I'm either the sender or the receiver of any goods.

Right or wrong, it was relayed to me over the phone by my shipper in great detail how to get prompt action on a claim whether it's insured/not insured in terms of how to ship, they empasized double boxing, if it's isn't double boxed, your claim is going to take forever, even if it's insured. This guy may not have stated his companies position correctly over the phone, but it makes sense to me.

When I'm the sender, I double box, I take a picture of the item separate, then I take a pic of it packed in the inner box sitting in the opened outer box, and then make a point of asking the receiver if they want insurance included in the shipping estimate, many say they do. If I'm the receiver, I asked that the the item be double boxed, and I get insurance.

Stuff can take a beating as it's shipped, I sent some stuff that the receiver of the goods says was pretty 'beat up' in terms of the outer box, and I've gotten some pretty beat up boxes where the inside box saved the day.

Bottom line from what I've been told(over the phone), if you can prove that it's been carefully packed and double boxed, you'll get action, if you can't you got problems.