I have to say, Our UPS guy is the best. And yeah, looking at that box those wheels were not shipped correctly.
I get wheels in all the time, and even my cheap alloys are packed better than that.
Wheels are a tricky thing, but you have to have padding of some sort in the box. And something on the axle so it doesn't poke through the side. Was there a plastic piece?

Oh- and it really doesn't take THAT LONG to build a set of custom wheels. I watch our wheelsmith all the time, and it's not that time consuming. A craft not many know how to do, yes. A very cool thing to be able to do- esp. if you do it well, yes. But it shouldn't take as long as you waited originally.
Did he hand draw the spokes (hand make the spokes)?? That is a COOL thing to watch! And the spoke machine is EXPENSIVE! I want to say 2500.00.
So if you have a wheelsmith who does his own spokes, don't complain about his prices. He's prolly still paying off his spoke machine. hee hee

But yeah, I like UPS. I've had a couple of mis routed packages and "Leroy" at the depot has always gone out of his way for me. I guess I'm lucky..
Now fed ex?! HA! They aren't angels either. I'm still steamed about my lost terry skorts from 2 years ago. And still out 150 clams!