Potential problem, I need some opinions

Monday the 14th of january, I shipped two boxes of box turtles to a customer via delta dash. One box had 2 layers, with 2 turtles per layer and one had 4 layers with 4 turtles per layer, 20 turtles total.

The customer, tells me when they arrived the small package had 6 turltes and the big package had 12. For a total of 18.

I packed these myself, and I have counted my stock many times, I am missing 20, so I know I sent 20.

The big box was made for 16 turtles, and the small was made for 4.

He did not report them to delta as missing when they arrived, so it is unlikely they will cover the 2 missing turtles.

I do not know what to do, I am 120% positive there were 20 turtles in the box,

The customer is a doctor, and I have no reason not to trust him. I have already contacted delta, they are "investigating" it, I have no clue what else to do.

Delta just called me back and told me he signed off on the package as it being complete, live and undamaged, so Delta will not pay any claims.

Corey.... Did you tell your customer that you were sending a "triple-layered" box???.... Just last week, I got 3000 worms from the Wormman (great worms), he sent them in a triple-layered box, but, I didn't know that!! (hear that, Ken??).... I opened the top of the box and found just two packages of 500 worms in each.... I thought that was strange and I noticed what seemed like a false bottom.... I cut through the top and found another 2 bags, I thought that was it.... I was just about to call Ken and tell him he forgot two bags, when I just decided that MAYBE there was a third layer, and, of course, there was.... my point being.... if you didn't tell him, he might have actually thrown them out with the garbage and not even have known it???.... Did you tell him???.... If not, I think you owe him two turtles....

....Neil

Corey,

What was the size/weight of the turtles?

If they were large enough (and of approximately similar size), and if you have their average weight (weight the ones you still have at home), the total weight of the shipment (from delta dash), and the weight of your packaging materials you can tare the weight of the turtles. That could give you a pretty good idea if there were 18 or 20 turtles in the shipment (provided they were not hatchlings!).

Just a thought.

Neil he I sent them per IATA regulations for shipping land turtles.
He knew it was multi layered.

I dont have an average weight asthey were various sized.

I am just going to send him 2 more, not worth any bad marks on my name bu not doing it. I will adjust my terms, to protect from this.

I am wondering if someone at the cargo place saw the species tag on the box, and just swipped a couple.

Corey.... Sending him another 2 turtles is probably the best thing you CAN do.... but.... I'm not trying to get nit-picky....you still haven't answered my question???.... Are you just ASSUMING he knew about the multi-tiered boxes??.... Or did YOU TELL HIM!!!.... If you didn't actually open your mouth and say, "By the way, Mr. Customer, I'm shipping them to you in multi-layered boxes, so make sure you check them thoroughly", you CAN'T assume he knew it???.... Did YOU say that??
I'm just trying to show you that communication is everything!!

....Neil

He stated that he has torn the boxes apart, and checked every layer.

Just a practicality point on the theory of the customer not knowing about the multi-layered boxes...

Monday the 14th of january, I shipped two boxes of box turtles to a customer via delta dash. One box had 2 layers, with 2 turtles per layer and one had 4 layers with 4 turtles per layer, 20 turtles total.

The customer, tells me when they arrived the small package had 6 turltes and the big package had 12. For a total of 18.

Now, if the customer had missed a layer and come up two turtles short, they would have to have been missing from the smaller box, as the larger box had four turtles per layer. However, the customer claims the smaller box actually had six turtles, more than the box was even designed for. In addition, since both boxes were layered and the customer managed to figure it out on at least one box, I would think they would check the other box quite throughly if they were coming up short.

This adds no real insight on the matter, I know. The numbers just don't add up no matter how you look at it.

Jackie has a good point with the numbers.

Also makes it sound a little more like someone may have gone through the shipment somewhere along the way. Perhaps looked at all of them, picked out a couple and forgot how they were packaged when putting the others back.
Also note that each layer in both boxes apparently contained 3 turtles. Dividing them up evenly in the packages.

Nothing can be done if this were the case, since it can't be proven. However it is another good reason to open shipments at the counter and inspect them before signing off on receipt.

Well, I make a promise on animals to my door and that's where it ends. If you have FedEx take the package or your grandmother I don't care. Either way the animals I sell come with a promise to my door and that's it! I would not ship any more turtles and if I did it would be at a discounted price.

am just going to send him 2 more, not worth any bad marks on my name bu not doing it. I will adjust my terms, to protect from this.

Yeah right! Terms are you most worthless thing on the planet. I was getting VERY behind and slow on shipping so I adjusted my terms to reflect that. I still took hell over late shipments. Terms only apply when they work in favor of the customer, they seem to hold little or no weight when trying to protect yourself. That's just my $0.02

Adam Block