I would trust UPS to ship most things... a flatscreen tv would not be one of them. For whatever reason, the televisions are never packaged, just sent in the boxes they sit in in the warehouse. I realize that there is alot of styrofoam in that box, but there are also alot of hazards between the warehouse and your house. If you bought it locally, chances are it arrived at Best Buy (or wherever) on a shrink wrapped pallet on a Best Buy Truck. If you have it shipped, it goes on one or more of our trucks... and, well... you work there... you know how loading, unloading, and sorting goes... that's alot of being tossed around. Even if it's in working order when it arrives, I would be relatively sure that it's lifespan has been, in some way, shortened. Televisions were never meant to withstand that sort of abuse.
On the other hand... we ship alot of them... so it must not be a huge issue. Nonetheless, I'll buy local. The buy online, pickup in the store option is nice... it won't save you sales tax, though.