I got an interesting phone call yesterday afternoon. I was called by a packaging Manager (Greg) for my local station. He works directly under the station Manager (Dan) that I have talked to on the phone once before, last week.
The call became "ODD", to say the least, when he was asked to call by by Dan and find a time where they both could come out and look at my 'setup', for lcak of better terms. I was quite puzzed for a couple reasons. 1. What does my facility have to do with my shipping? 2. During the 20 minute conversation I had with Dan late last week, why was this not brought up? Greg went on to say that they do not even ship reptiles, but that I have gone through the propper channels to get such approval, but that he has never heard of such a thing. Greg'g concern was what if an animal were to get out? "People would walk off the job", I was told. This may be true, but VERY unlikely. I explained to him how I package a snake (snake in a TIED bag, bag in styro lined box, box taped shut). I asked how a snake would ever be able to get out of that without the use of fingers/digits to untie a bag, forget about the fact that the knot would be on the outside and the snake on the inside. He then brought up a fact that if a box was dropped and the snake got out. I referred him to the above explination. He said that more or less they just wanted the chance for ME to meet THEM in person. This way, in the event something went wrong, that I would know them personally..........ok whatever? I said that unless they are insisting on coming here, which I let VERY few people do, that this would not be possible. I said I WOULD bring a smaller snake (yearlilng boa or something like that) to THEM and all the products needed to ship a snake and show them in person what steps I take. This IS what this is about, packaging, NOT my stock of animals. THe conversation was not a tense one, he was very nice, but I was NOT at ALL happy about this. I went to THEIR Corp. levels (Packaging Design & Development) to get such approval and now it sounds like the individual station is backpeddling. WHo runs this show? Like I have asked before, there are WAY too many inconsistancies when dealing with these folks. LIke I mentioned beofre, I have YET to be asked to sign any type of 'waiver'. I have even asked about it and get the response that I am set to ship. Then, yesterday, I get this phone call? NOT happy. I guess what bothers me most is that the person who asked Greg to call has talked with me, like I said above, and he even said I was good to go? Why the change of mind? Why the need to see my facility? Why no "waiver" to sign? WHy do these Managers of each station not know about people from the CORPORATE level making the decision to allow us to ship, as I was told, on a 'case by case basis'? In the end, I was thanked for being a FedEx customer and the conversation, like I said, was pleasent. Just got a 'funny' feeling about this whole call. He said he would pass on my concerns with Dan and see if we can't meet at THEIR place of business rather than mine. Not sure what the response will be, but I am ready to call James and get this all figured out as I find it wrong and to me the are renigging on the already designed AND APPROVED agreement. Just don't feel this is very professional NOR does it leave a good taste in the customer's (ME) mouth! |
Remember your working with a large corporation that until a few weeks ago it was against policy and the shippers doing it with permission were extremely rare. Reptiles are going to be a minor issue to most mainstream employees and they may not even pay attention to a memo handed down (if one was) covering this.
Persistence is the name of the game here. Just keep calmly pushing for what you want. Take what they give you and then calmly come back again. My recommendation is to get the signed paperwork. Give one person a chance to get it for you. If they don't then call their toll free number. Explain you are getting no where and need that person's supervisor. Repeat until you have it. Pretty soon someone is going to get tired of their employees not following up properly. |
OK, I just got the signed contract faxed back to me a few minutes ago. I talked to Bill Zindell and mentioned about my belief that shipping to home based businesses would suffice for the letter of the contract, and he concurred. He feels, and James Brown verified this, that they want that assurance that someone will be available to accept the package upon delivery.
I am setting up my shipping schedule for Monday. If anyone has not noted an earlier post by me in the other shipping thread, please note that the official word I have gotten is that because of the merger with DHL and Airborne, Airborne Express says they will no longer accept ANY live animal shipments. Don't get caught flat footed. Start your paperwork with FedEx NOW, if you haven't done so already. And PLEASE, try to stress to your customers that if there are any snafus in this shipping process to NOT get into FedEx's face about it. The last thing we need is a few highstrung customers blowing this whole deal for us. You may even want to suggest that all contact with FedEx be through YOU so you can be a bit more diplomatic about the problem resolution. |
Where did you hear the info on Airborne/DHL not accepting any live animals? Is this from the company or grape vine? I do know that Airborne was a hit & go, station to station to begin with. It's just like we are getting from FedEx now,,, One person says it's okay, & someone else says none!
I'm not talking about snakes, but animals in general (frogs, for most of us. lol) Thanks. Joel Roberts |
Email I received from DHL/Airborne Express on 02/26/04:
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Ouch!
Thanks for the info. This is really beginning to suck! I predict to see a lot of collections up for sale, unless one of these companies jump on board and give us something to stand on. Thanks again. Joel Roberts |
How are you going to sell your collection?
I know alot of herpers who live in small towns that cannot absorb or afford the animals they keep how are you going to sell your collection if you cannot ship it out? It will be impossible nobody is going to buy high end animals for a pet and nobody is going to sell their expensive snakes at pet prices. I pretty much can only sell ball pythons and corn snakes locally because they are the only snakes that people in a small town want to pay for. Everything else is sold via the internet. Somebody should try to get paypal to throw some weight behind the breeders they make alot of money off me and everyone else who uses their service if we cannot do business they cannot make money off of us.
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Just in case a reminder is needed, the point of this thread is that FedEx has apparently stepped up to the plate and is accepting shipments of ALL harmless reptiles, including snakes. Even if you are intending to ship sometime in the future, but not right now, I strongly suggest that you get your account set up now in preparation.
If all of our business makes a significant enough jump in bottom line figures for FedEx, then our voices together may mean a whole lot more to them then just single voices alone could ever hope to do. This is what this is all about. |
I have been following this thread and was planning on waiting to open an account. This is going to be my first year breeding, and I was going to wait and see how this year went first. It sounds like I should go ahead and get my account setup??? What do you guys think???
Thanks Jim Baptista |
My recommendation would be to get the process started. The only cost to you would be the original test boxes and stuff you send. Fedex (or any large corporation) tend to move slowly. Much better to have it all set up and a little less stress when your ready to ship
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