• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Stupid FedEx

backafter30

backafter30

New member
I sold pair of Fire het Charcoal corns to a breeder in Alaska ( http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140366&highlight=Fire+charcoal ). I ship through Reptiles Express and FedEx. The animals went through Memphis, but then stayed there for over 24 hours. So much for overnight delivery! They told me the plane broke down and assured me the package was being kept in a temperature controlled environment. They delivered the package a day late, and the snakes were not only dead, but could be smelled before the package was even opened! I refunded my customer, and Reptiles Express refunded the shipping charges almost immediately. I am still waiting to hear back from FedEx. (This was just Wed. the 10th, 3 days ago.) They say they have to have someone review the case to determine if I am due compensation for the contents. Has anyone else dealt with this? Tracking is so well recorded, I can't imagine them telling me it was not their fault, but I just don't know. My customer tells me my packaging was correct and the animals looked beautiful and healthy, except for being dead and smelly. They had to have been left in the sun, right? What else could have caused this? I know I need to give FedEx a few more days, but I can't stop thinking about it, and I'm rather angry. My customer told me they had other packages arrive from Memphis that morning, so why weren't priority-overnight packages delivered? Just frustrated...
 
Oh man, you ABSOLUTELY need be compensated. I would be furious. You lost a profit because your snakes arrived dead and you had to refund the buyer, so fedex owes you that to start off with. On top of that, we're talking about live animals, about PETS. I had a puppy shipped to me from a breeder. Imagine how much drama would have gone down if the plane had killed my little puppy. I mean talk about major emotional damage. The breeder and I would have both been wrecked. You need to get on their case. They owe you A LOT. A pet snake should be no different than another animal. It was a live animal entrusted in their care. They killed two pets, took two lives. They need to pay for their negligence. And imagine your buyer. They had to see their new pets arrive dead before their lives. Jeez, what if those had been coming to them to be a little kids new treasured pet?

If I were you, I would hound them like nuts. Threaten to get a lawyer (or get one). They need to pay up, they killed your snakes.
 
I am so sorry to hear that, someone dropped the ball at FEDex in Memphis. You may also want to check into Ship Your Reptiles, works like Reptiles Express but they offering Live Arrival Guarantee Insurance. $2.50 per $100. Also have a tool on their FAQ page to let you check to see if an extra day to Alaska would be needed so you can add the heat/ice packs all that good stuff.

And I can vouch for how well your snakes are packed. I bought 2 from you and they arrived perfect condition.
 
It's been a week now since I first contacted FedEx about my delayed package. They still haven't decided if they did anything wrong or if they will compensate me in any way. The comment I got today was that they don't guarantee live arrival, and they don't have any temperature control for any packages. I am amazed that more animals don't die while in their care, but no one else will ship reptiles, so what are we going to do? I did check into Ship Your Reptiles, solely for the Live Arrival Guarantee. They won't divulge any details until you sign up for an account, but they wanted $16 more to ship the same package than what I paid to Reptiles Express. That's more money to charge the customer, eat myself, or maybe lose a sale. Not great choices.

I was shipping from Denver to Anchorage, both rather cool (I almost added a heat pack!), but the package sat in Memphis and cooked. What would anyone else have done?
 
If you have a Live Animal Waiver FedEx account (instead of going through SYR or RE) part of the contract includes a clause that FedEx will not compensate beyond shipping costs. The value of the animals is not covered.
 
If they promise overnight delivery, it should be overnight delivery. Fed Ex used to always come though. My last purchase from Steve Roylance was delayed in Tennessee. Steve was on it before I was. Fortunately Steve packed them well and placed warm packs in with them and they arrived safe and sound the following day. I would pack for two days with appropriate packing. I think Fed Ex has forgotten the company it used to be and is now just chasing the dollar.
 
Sorry that you are going though this.

I do have a FedEx account, but I strictly use SYR for this reason. These things do not happen very often, but when they do, it is nice to have insurance.
SYR will refund the shipping as well as the value of the animal, if you buy the insurance. I do.

There are a couple other companies that will ship geckos (and I think frogs) but not snakes, that are less expensive, but I still use SYR for the peace of mind. (It won't bring back any dead animals, but neither party is out financially.)

I hope that you get this resolved with FedEx soon.
 
remember when the fed ex commercial used to say "when it absolutely positively has to be there the next day."
I think they forgot that.
 
USPS used to have a saying similar, now when it rains hard I'm lucky I get my mail delivered and not have it laying in the yard soaking wet. Or worse when my cricket delivery that had "Hold for Pickup" stickers plastered all over the box was delivered, wrapped in a plastic bag and left on my porch. My Dubia was stuck in a plastic bag and hung on my mail box in the middle of high heat as well.

All of them have gone down the tubes. They want more money for substandard delivery practices.
 
Well, I have certainly learned a lot about shipping this week. Here is how things worked out: FedEx does NOT compensate for live animals, EVER. If you are a FedEx certified shipper, you still have no legitimate leg to stand on, and you are technically limited to business to business deliveries, no residences, and still no guarantees. If you purchase your shipping label through Reptiles Express, you are not even considered FedEx's customer! RE is their customer, and you are RE's customer, and you have no recourse. This is a situation known as SOL.

As stated above, Ship Your Reptiles will sell you a Live Arrival Guarantee for $2.50 per $100 of value, sold in $100 increments. That seems to be the only way to ship worry-free, but will cost you (or your customers) considerably more. On the other hand, I cannot afford for every shipment to be a dice-roll. I intend to cut my ties to Reptiles Express and charge a bit more for shipping through Ship Your Reptiles, who even guarantee residential delivery. It sucks to learn things the hard way...
 
I usually charge the customer just what the shipping cost is, and I pay for the insurance cost. It is saving me, in the event of a problem, from losing out on that money that was spent on the animal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top