Airborne Express mess

You don't need a UPS Daily Pickup to ship non-snake reptiles... Dont listen to the customer service rep that you initially speak with over the phone; all you need to do is call UPS and ask for them to have your local manager contact you. They will want you to sign some waivers and all you have to do is fax it back to them.

Even with a daily pickup snakes are against policy.

Another thing about daily pickup is that they charge you weekly for the daily pickup service... I can't remember how much, but it is significant.

The best way to ship UPS is to drop the animals off at your local hub... don't drop them off at a Mailboxes Etc, or at The UPS Store, make the drive to and drop them off at the UPS Shipping Hub..

I had the same problem with FedEx over the summer. I shipped some turtles back east, or attempted to. I had contacted the "animal desk" when I set up the account there, and the person on the phone had told me that shipping animals was ok. Of course, you can guess the rest. My turtles were delivered back to me. Seems Fedex will deliver animals alright, if they are horses, zebras, etc. I went round and round with them too, just like I did with Airborne on Monday. Bottom line is that they will not ship anything live, despite what others have posted on other threads in this forum. I do sell zebras, but come on, how would I get it in that box to tape it up without catching its mane in the styro? I'm shipping today, as usual, about 6 boxes. I'm having them picked up by UPS. That seems to be my only choice now. Yes indeed, some of those boxes hold snakes, and I guess it's only a matter of time before I get racked over the coals again. UPS policy clearly states that they will not ship snakes. On a clever note, I did recieve a shipment of snakes the other day, labeled live plants. In the box were the snakes I had ordered, and a wonderful clipping of some house plant. The seller had not lied at all, just a small omission. The animals were great, but as hard as I tried, the plant died. Something needs to be done about this. Does the pony express still deliver?

having a shipment refused by airborne .But last year and as well as this one i have been doubled billed by them.Iwould get a quote of one price relay that to my customer and then intern when my invoice arrives its doubled. its one thingto have a $26.00 charge doubled ... but when they double charge a $126.oo charge doubled to $254.00 thats a whole different ballgame .I have also had problems on one cage that went to california that wasto be billed tothe customer at there request this was a large cage and fully equiped with lights , misting , heat etc. well airborne managed totally destroy the cage .When notified by the customer of this and by airborne i requested a photo to determine what if anything could be done on my end .While i hadinsuredit for $1000.00 which was its value of cage and all of the contents i was given a 6month run around where the customer was billed over $400 for a ground shipment that should have been less then $200 shipping charges .After over 50 calls to airborn on a daily basis about the photos or status of my claim since i had insured it . where all i got was a run around of how there were ontop of this and would asure me i would be taken care of , when i would call back to check status due to there supervisors NEVER contacted me on this as i was promised i finally was told i was contacted by the hub that had the package and that they had since disposedof the package.Well to say the least i was totally enraged over the fact they had disposed of something they had not made goodon and never sent me proof of the damage and were still chargingthe custome for something they had not received . eventually i received a check from airborne for $600.00 ???? when i asked of the otherinsured amount of $400.00 they seemed to have forgotten they said that that was all there were going to pay.Now i had sent in what they wantedto see as far as my invoice for all materials labor etc. .. they way i seeit unless you are shipping MANY MANY high value items and even then if you are not some LARGE fortune 500 company they really have no interest in you products and or buisness. i wrote offmy $400 loss and i made it up by refusing to pay any amounts in the future that would be billed to me in and upto the $400 amount owed to me in there settlement. was it the smart thingto do who knows but i have never yet to this day recieved a billing statement for shipment made from that time IMO they all suck even the good ones will get one over on you if you dont stay on top of all your paper work.

My office manager would spend at least 7 hours a week Correcting airborne invoices, on a regular basis they would over bill us by $200



Alfredo Veloso

When we used Airborne we were double billed many times by them. It got to the point that I was paying them the amount that they quoted me and not paying the extra they were charging on the invoice. I went around and around with them for quite some time. They kept demanding that I pay the other amounts and I refused to do so. They would initially correct it and then send me an additional addendum with that amount billed again. The total of the extra was about $1000.00 and When I stopped using them I informed them that I would not pay the extra and that was final. We have been with UPS for about 3 years now with great success. We have had a share of problems there as well but not like Airborne. One thing with UPS to be careful of, I ship using their express boxes which only get charged by actual weight and not dimensional weights. Well when the packages arrive in their Hub the employees there dimensionalize the packages and put it on my account and then I have to discuss it to have it removed. It has happened about 10 times but hopefully it no longer will happen.

Airborne Express employes a bunch of incompetent morons. No, not every single employee there is an idiot, but most are... seems to be the requirements.. lol

I've been through this too many times with Airborne - to me they are a waste of time, space, air, life, etc....

Unfortunatley, we will always get the run around - these people aren't 'programmed' to take responsibility - their 'job structure' does not establish this.
Everyone and anyone will tell you one thing and pass you to another fool who will tell you the oposite, and back and forth..

I hate to lie, for soo many reasons.. but I have found that unfortunately the only way to get around this is to lie.

Funny how they would go to an Exotic Reptile store daily to pick up obvious animals being shipped out, but yet when you speak to them, it's NO NO NO!

The story about the animals and the Plant, marking the box 'Live Plants', is quite ingenious! especially since it actually did include a clip of a plant.

What I would usually do is label the box ' 'LIVE HARMLESS REPTILE SUPPLIES'

if asked what the box contained, I would maybe say live spagnum moss, or live sand (for saltwater aquariums) or even just plants. I have NEVER been questioned further.

A common example of something similar is when we all hear the stories about ..
'I told my landlord about my snakes and he wants me out! doesn't matter if it's 1 or 100 ! '

IGNORANCE does not differentiate. They won't understand either way, and most times it's simply because they do NOT WANT TO understand. I give up on these people in society as a whole. No need...

Ross,

UPS only charges $7-15 a week, depending on how much one ships. I think that is a fair price for convenience. I was told that one must have a daily pickup account with them to ship reptiles (excluding snakes). I'm sure that if I called 10 employees, I would get 10 different answers. In my situation, UPS is the best option. I only ship a couple of boxes a day, but I believe that they appreciate my business.

BTW, UPS often tries to overcharge, so I examine every bill that I receive.

That isn't too bad at all... I remember being quoted something like $30 a week for it.

It depends on how many packages you ship out right?

And I agree that UPS is the best option, that's who I use. So far no problems at all.

If you don't ship anything, you will be charged $15/weekly. It is $7 a week if you ship $60 or more. I believe it is $11 if you ship $30-60 a week.

Time for me to call UPS... I'm tired of making the trip down to the hub three times a week, lol.

Thanks for the info Nathan, I was under the impression that it was quite a bit more expensive.