I pretty much just go to the shows in the southwest (San Diego, Los Angeles, Tucson, and Phoenix). With all of the nightmare stories out there about people cutting corners on their shipping, I understand your dislike for it. I also understand the appeal of being to pick out your animal and see it first hand before actually buying it.
I will say this. I have shipped in the hottest of hot weather, and if it is done properly with a Styrofoam lined box that has the appropriate cold pack(s) secured inside and sent for a morning delivery, then you will end up opening up a package with a cool (in regard to its temp) snake even if it is over 100 degrees outside. I have had the same results with shipping in freezing cold weather. I just use 35 to 40 hour heat packs in a Styrofoam lined box and the reptile arrives nice and toasty (but not too toasty
).
In the last 6 years I have shipped close to 400 packages, and it has been a process of evolution to get to the methods that I use today. I have only had one problem, and that was with Airborne Express a few years ago. I sent out a package on a Thursday for a Friday morning delivery. Well they lost it, and it was not delivered until the following Monday. The weather was very hot, and 6 of the 9 lizards died. I refunded the customer his money, and tried to file a claim with Airborne only to be denied because they do not ship lizards (just turtles, bugs, and amphibians). It was a lesson learned. I do not use Airborne anymore. It was also a wake up call, in that errors on the part of the shipping company are always a possibility.
Before this happened to me, my packing methods were pretty good, and I had never had a problem, but pretty good does not always cut it when a package is lost in bad weather, and there is always room for improvement. Now I really I try to use my head. When I pack something I try to pack in a way that it will be able to survive with no problems even if the package is lost, and I pack it in a way that the delivery guys can play succor with it (if they want to) with no harm being done to the reptile inside the package. I pick up tips from those that have shipped to me with great results, and I also try to learn from the many mistakes that I see others make as well. I also like to check with the customer to find out the temps of the animal when it arrives so that I can make adjustments if necessary in regard to the # of heat packs or cold pack that I should use in the future when shipping to a place with similar temps.
In short, I think that shipping and packing methods are things that we as hobbyists should always try to improve on when ever possible. This is not meant to try to convince you to buy anything from me, it is more to let you and others know that there are people out there that really do put thought into their packing shipping methods. If we all do out best to improve on our own packing and shipping methods, there will be much less apprehension about this aspect of the reptile hobby/business, and that will improve business for everyone. I did not mean for it to sound like a cheap plug or a lecture.
