Heather Stotz- Sandstone Corns

Originally Posted by T and J's Corns

I myself am still awaiting FedEx to send me my waiver.. The advice I got from a very well known person here, told me she attaches a copy of her waiver when she sends things.. This way there is no if's ands or butts from the FedEx representives on any part.. If FedEx gets off their duff to send me the waiver, I would try to figure out a way * I don't own a scanner * to see if I could post it with the obvious stuff balcked out for my own good..


*shrugs* Sounds like your week has gone from bad to absolutely worse, and maybe even catastrophic.. Hopefully your other shipment arrived finally with better results.. We can only encourage others in the community to follow through to the best of their ability..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

I can actually do this, Tim. Give me a few minutes to run down to my truck to grab the copy that I've got and I'll scan it in.

Correct, Tom. 99% of FedEx employees have no clue about the waiver---and this is why I have a copy of mine in my truck---just in case some idiot at the counter freaks out.

I'll admit I don't normally write 'live harmless reptile' on my shipping boxes. Sometimes I do, other times I don't. Apparently there's no 'waiver' actually in/on your file. So when you call FedEx that's why they're clueless. I shipped a package last year to a FedEx Kinkos and the girl forgot it was coming....so I called to see if I could get it into the truck for delivery the next day. I calmly explained to the idiot who answered what the situation was and he FREAKED out. He told me that he had taken classes and was well aware that FedEx did NOT ship any live animals under ANY circumstance. I tried explaining that I had a waiver from the Legal Dept but he just didn't care---he had been to a class!

My understanding is that the Lacy Act requires you to label your box with the common name and latin name of whatever animal you are shipping. I don't believe there's any law requiring you to put 'live harmless reptile' on it. And I really don't think it's beneficial to do so.

And for whatever it counts, I don't believe she did it on purpose. She's only 23 (heck I'm only 24) but she's in the start up phase of her business, and I don't believe she's actually shipped out that many packages. So guys this might all be fairly new to her---and yes, she needs to own up to her mistake and accept on consequences for the mistake---which I'm sure she will.

First time offense, let's take it a bit easy.

Originally Posted by Thomas E

That's a good point Joe. Yeah, I was going to say earlier that I have seen some discussions where people have said they even prefer not to write 'live harmless reptiles' on the box even when they do ship Fed Ex. The reason given was that many (and I know this is true) Fed Ex employees believe it is illegal to ship reptiles period! I've heard that the law does require it (live harmless reptile label) but I can kind of understand where someone would not do it if they had had a prior hold up over some employees understanding of the company policy.
So I'm not convinced that she did it intentionally. At least not on that alone, though there are a few sticking points for me with her email. For instance the way she always says 'Shipping place' instead of Fed Ex, and the way she avoided mention of tracking numbers- But whatever that's speculation. Let's just say I'm not convinced she didn't either. The main thing though is that I'm absolutely positive that she's just as responsible as if she had.

Bottom line, I don't think her mother is an approved shipper of live reptiles with anyone. Now I haven't done it, but I would imagine there is a bit of hoop jumping required in order to become a certified shipper. That's not just for kicks as we now see..

Joe mentioned..

I can actually do this, Tim. Give me a few minutes to run down to my truck to grab the copy that I've got and I'll scan it in.

Cool beans Bro.. Appreciated..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

I have the waiver in a PDF file, but what is the purpose of posting it?

I have the waiver in a PDF file, but what is the purpose of posting it?

Maybe Heather doesn't know she needs a waivier and might actually see what the waiver looks like, and get things corrected if need be with her shipper.. *shrugs* Other than that Dennis, it would just be another obnoixious post..

Regards.. Tim of T and J

Shrugs, but here it is....

So Thomas paid for FedEx Overnight delivery ($50 or was it $60) and it arrived via USPS? Last time I shipped something USPS Overnight the cost of postage was about $21 for a 1.5lb box. Thomas were you offered a partial refund of the shipping fee charged? That'd be at least 25 bucks or more difference for the service charged and not provided by the seller.
Mail tampering is a Very serious offense, Federal if I recall. I seriously doubt any employee of a mail office be it Kinko's, UPS, Fedex, Ship and Zip or whoever would allow their child to "rip open a box" and "basically destroying it" to see what was inside. Small town or not, anyone entrusted to recieve and process US mail is required to abide by Federal law regarding handling of mail.
"Owner's son" ? The owner of Ship and Zip would've been well aware of the laws and probably had to sign a form stating they understood the laws regarding handling and would've told his kid to "not mess with anything" for fear of losing his business and being fined heavily (at least).
On the other hand, it'd be very easy and tempting to make a little more cash off the snake by shipping via a cheaper method and making a couple excuses up. Cornsnakes are not very profitable anyway unless you have a large program already set up. I know this having sold Amels and Anerys locally to pet stores for $16-25, taking a loss just to pay for feeding of my other animals.

A ferret with cancer? How was it discovered that the ferret had that? Was it taken to a vet, and can some pic of the vet bill be posted to verify this?
Excuse me if I'm skeptical, but it's just too easy to make excuses to pinch off a little more money hoping to slip it by. (the tired "death in the family excuse")

Too ate up with stomach flu or food poisoning to send an email? Oh, but a call to the vet for an appointment and the packing up the ferret for the drive to the vet and dropping it off and a drive back home done? (now the personal illness excuse + the death-in-the-family excuse)
So Mom took the snake with instructions to mail it and botched it. Now it's(the pawning-off-on-other to redirect blame + personal illness + the death-in-the-family excuse).
Then the avoiding sending a tracking # to Thomas (for the gig woulda been up right then that Fedex wasn't used to ship)
I'm sorry for being cynical, but the odds of these events happening w/o conscious intent on what should've been a simple transaction have to be at least 1 in 38 million. I've seen similiar excuses too many times here reading the BOI for any of them, and together all at once to be a true relating of what went on.
So while I may be nobody important to judge, I am part of the buying public, and pretty cautious when buying something online, especially exotic pets. Unless I see Heather give credence to her story or provide some partial refund of shipping and make an apology, I would not buy from or reccomend her.

Mistakes and adverse things DO happen. Murpy's Law will make sure of that. BUT to avoid responsibilty and then make excuses whilst pocketing a few extra bucks in the process vs. owning up and asking forgiveness for a screwup... well, it's hard enough to scratch out a living selling animals and seeing the antics by those less than legit doesn't make it any easier for anyone.

Cornsnakes are not very profitable anyway unless you have a large program already set up. I know this having sold Amels and Anerys locally to pet stores for $16-25, taking a loss just to pay for feeding of my other animals.

I guess you need to read the thread at CS.com..

A brief passage from the thread there..

This isn't the BOI, so I won't do any heavy bashing, but this situation would have greatly upset me. If I spend $1650 on the Hypo-Plasma project snakes, they're going to be MAILED to me? Even setting aside the legal implications for the shipper AND receiver (it IS illegal to ship snakes via USPS), it seems a crazy risk, particularly at this time of year. I sure hope there was a live arrival guarantee...

The link to the thread again... http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59945

Of course the other deal in the thread does not involve your run of the mill amel or anery corns that eat up all your profit .. *shrugs*

Regards.. Tim of T and J

I am a little on the fence rather this was intentional or not but ...

in post number 2 Heather states "So I send my mom, with the packages and instructions to mail them out, next day, at the fedex place and to use the name on my account. Somehow, when she returns home, she hands me receipts from the post office. I was more than a little suprised."

To me that means Heather knew that the snakes had been shipped USPS and didn't notify Tom

And in post number 24 in an email she sent Tom she states " I checked with the shipping place and they swear that he's coming in today. (Some kind of screw-up, I'm not quite sure who did what yet- but I'm still checking on it). They say by 3:00 today he should be at your place. That's the best I can do right now, I'll try to get more information later. Let me know when he shows up. So sorry!"

In the email she says "the shipping place" like she doesn't want to admit the package was sent USPS. Then she claims some kind of screw up but again she had to have known what was happening.

To make it worse she says "that's the best i can do right now, I'll try to get more info later." I don't think that was the best she could have done.

Just my 2 cents
Jason

OK I'm years behind anyone who produces the new morphs, so I'm not a good reference for the market(my whole colony is valued at $750 now with newer morphs and hets)... but selling off future breeders of some high-enders seems not too profitable either if you don't produce them