I will start off by saying that I do concur that if you are getting the run around from local or front line staff, you need to take it to the next level and to only resort to contacting the corporate office after you have exhausted other resources, but do not agree that this situation was handled properly in this case.

First of all, Amazon and UPS are two totally separate companies. Amazon has no control over UPS or UPS over Amazon. To blame or praise both parties for the other parties good works or misdeeds is not being fair to either party

What you should have determined and indicated which party was most likely responsible for receiving the damaged lamps and filed complaint/claim with that party.

It is not indicated whether it appears the lamps were shipped defective or the packages were not being packaged or labeled properly, which could have happened and Amazon would be responsible, but the higher probability is that they were damaged in transit either properly handled by UPS.

If the lamps were damaged in shipment, the writer should have filed a Claim with with UPS and this could have been done online.

From personal experience I would NEVER advocate leaving packages outside your door unattended for UPS to pick up because if someone decides to steal them, you would have no recourse in getting your money back from either Amazon or filing a Claim with UPS. If you cannot leave the packages where someone can witness the packages being picked up by the UPS agent, go to your closest UPS vendor on and return the items yourself and be sure to get the receipt with the tracking number that proves you mailed the item(s) back to UPS if sending back to Amazon.