Question about live arrival guarantees...

Just wondering what others' policies are as to Live Arrival Guarantees. My policy (which hasn't really been put to the test since all my sales have been local so far) is simply that I guarantee live arrival, but I've seen a few TOS that state that live arrival is not guaranteed if there are carrier delays (due to weather, or whatever). IMO, if someone pays for an animal, they deserve to receive it...I take on the risk of shipping as the seller. I'm just curious what others' thoughts are.

Thanks for taking the time to share

Well, SOMEone has to accept the risk of shipping. There's never a guarantee that the most perfectly packed animal will survive a 2-3 day shipping delay. No fault of the seller or the buyer, but one of them is going to eat the cost of that animal.

If the seller's TOS explicitly states that they are not going to accept that risk, then the buyer does. There's nothing particularly unfair or "bad business" about that, so long as both parties are in full understanding of that agreement.

Now...what, in my opinion, makes the most sense from a good-business point of view is for the seller to accept responsibility for all live-arrival conditions. An unexpected weather event...a package tossed onto the wrong conveyer belt and sent to the wrong hub in another state....whatever. That would be my policy if I sold animals (or any product, for that matter). And I would always take extra care to pack the animals so that they would have the best chance at survival, should the shipping go awry.

Worst case scenario is if a seller says, "I'm not responsible for shipping delays"....and the animal arrives a day late...dead....and has been packed in sub-par conditions. Then who is at fault? If the seller had taken more care to pack properly, then maybe the animal would have survived an extra day in the box? But the buyer is out anyhow, because of the TOS?

Fair is fair, so long as everyone understands up front what risks they are accepting when making the transaction. But, in my opinion, the best policy for a business is to accept full responsibility for all shipping aspects of the transaction.

Live arrival guarantee is the way to go.
How would you feel as a buyer if you paid somebody $2500, got a box of dead snake(s), and were told that you couldn't be compensated because the temperature made it up to 89 degrees? My feeling is that if a seller can't guarantee live arrival, then they shouldn't be shipping the animal. When I first put my TOS together, I included the common disclaimers...but I removed them in relatively short order. The only reason a buyer should have to eat that loss is if it is the buyer's fault the animal is dead - and that pretty much boils down to giving incorrect delivery information, or not being able to accept delivery (that includes having the animal delivered to their workplace, and having somebody else turn it away, IMO). If the animal stays in transit because of those issues, and subsequently dies, the buyer is SOL.

I agree with Harald and Judy. If you ship out what turns out to be a dead animal, for whatever reason, and don't go out of your way to rectify the problem, you're inviting a bad guy thread in a very small world of buyers. Anytime you accept money and ship an animal, you really shouldn't spend it until the buyer is happy. Think of it this way--if you bought any item (food, clothing, car, etc) and found out it was defective, you'd rightfully demand your money back even if the store clerk wasn't at fault.

Noelle