Bad news re: shipping companies

Now all of a sudden, DHL refuses to ship reptiles for me. Like its my fault someone working for them screwed up the last shipment.

I was going to give them another chance, and went to bring a well packaged snake by today (same as the last one) and was told they would not accept it.

Went to Fedex. They won't accept it.

UPS obviously will not accept it.

So ends my shipping days, I guess. I doubt anyone is going to pay Delta's high charge for a $15 snake.

Unfortunately, I am getting the runaround with DHL. I keep being given bad numbers to reach corporate at.

UPS obviously will not accept it.

Why not??? I ship UPS at least twice a week, never had a problem. I've shipped Fed-Ex as well, also with zero resistance.

All of my shipments are marker Live Perishable - Live Harmless Reptile, etc...

Neither my local UPS or Fedex will accept live animal shipments. Period.

They won't even give me reasons why.

Have you tried going around your local office and getting certified to ship the snakes and then go back to the local office with your "waiver of liability for repilte and amphibian domestic shipments" in hand? Local little botique(SP?) like mail box place about has an attack everytime I come in with a box~ they'd love to tell me "No"~ but I have my waiver~ I pack my box and print my shipping label at home~ I just go into their store 5 min before the last Fed-Ex pickup and make sure the Fed-Ex man takes my box. ~And I make sure I have my copy of my waiver in hand in case one of them wants to know "Thats not REALLY a box full of live snakes is it?!?!?"

Yep, tried that. Unfortunately, DHL's policies seemed to have changed within the last week.

I'm pretty angry about it. I'm also writing a letter to their corporate office (like it will do any good.)

DHL had said it was ok for me to ship snakes a week ago, and I'm not sure why it changed so quickly.

DHL actually began cracking down as soon as they merged with Airborne. Your local office is probably just now getting the information.
Many long time Airborne users, including some whose shipping fees reached the tens of thousands of dollars annually have been told by DHL that their business is no longer welcome.

You'll are likely have trouble anytime you take a box to the desk. One remedy is to just open your own account and schedule pickups at home. I do this with FedEx and never have a problem.
Another option is to use a drop shipper. Many businesses offer this service and you can search for the nearest one from the company website. The benefit is it is not staffed by company employees, it's just a regular business that offers shipping services. Radio Shack used to offer it here.
The closest official outlet for any of the major carriers is an hour away from me, and we only have one drop location in the next town, a gift wrapping shop.

I find it really annoying that DHL/Airborne called me a month ago, asking to be my reptile shipper, and then they pull this garbage.

I told them over the phone that they will be losing a lot of money by dropping me and anyone else. I'm going to write them a letter, I hope others do the same.

We dropped DHL as a shipper and closed our account with them several months ago, after having major issues with them. Too many late packages, too many mishandles, too many rough handles, etc. Oh, and no refunds. Even if promised.

We now use Fedex exclusively, printing our own shipping labels and dropping our packages off at a shipping center.

Now that Aimee is staying home permanently, we'll probably just schedule Fedex pick-ups.

The ONLY way DHL gets any of my business is if we buy an animal from someone who insists to ship through them. And even then - I plan for the worst.

Mark

Same thing going on here.
I was able to ship live snakes thru Airborne. Hell, they used to send me vouchers for free shipments because of how many were going out the door.
Now that DHL has taken over, they no longer want to ship items for me.
I used to be able to label the box with exactly what was in it and never had a package turned away. Now with DHL, they won't take them anymore.
There is only 1 driver who will take a package for me. The drop off center or the other drivers turn me away.

Its really frustrating to be told one week I can ship, and now they won't take ANYTHING, be it animal or non animal from me.

Is there any way to get some sort of petition going? I've never heard of someone shipping DHL/Airborne and having a snake get loose or anything like that, and they still ship tortoises and frogs. I think someone in power just doesn't like snakes.