Question for other shippers about shipping Non-venomous snakes via Airborne Express

I have a question for any of you that is in the biz about shipping harmless snakes via Airborne Express. I would appreciate any info or advice you have to offer about this situation.
I just shipped a 5 foot captive born male Taiwan Beauty snake to a customer in AL (we are located in FL). She asked us to send it overnight via Airborne Express and put it on her account. The terms and conditions of our shipping are listed at the bottom of most of our pages on our web site, stating that we ONLY guarantee live arrival on shipments that are airport to airport (NOT door to door such as Airborne Express). This appears to be the standard as well as I can tell from reading some of the web sites of most of you shippers as well. Obviously we can not be responsible for shipping errors by Airborne Express, as they will not honor a claim for a snake because they do not allow the shipping of ANY snakes through thier service. My customer called me this morning upset (rightfully so) that the snake arrived dead, and that we explained to her that the snakes death is undoubtably the fault of Airborne (probably left it out on some loading dock in the sun, or whatever). She also felt that the snake was shipped in a box too small, but I explained to her that the box is 1/3 larger than the hide box the snake STAYS in 24/7, and the box had more than enough air holes. The snake was bagged, than placed in a Airborne express box measuring 10" X 8" X 6"h, and had lots of extra room in the box. This snake was a 5 foot captive born animal from Cathy Love's collection, and was healthy, eating, and had very good body weight (the customer even commented on it's good body weight). Without going on and on, my question is to other shippers, how do you handle a situation like this? Do you refuse to ship snakes airborne express? Do you take the loss even when the death is no fault of yours? Do you make your customers sign a copy of the terms of shipping prior to shipping? Any advice or info you can provide will be greatly valued.
Thanking you all in advance,
Be Blessed all!
Ray Hunter
Exotic Reptiles Jungle

You didn't go into a lot of detail of your shipping methods.
The box should have been insulated and cold packs should have been used for shipping from FL.
The styrofoam insulation should have some small holes but the box itself shouldn't.
In addition to being bagged there should have been crumpled newspaper or some other kind of padding to protect the snake from rough handling.

If proper shipping methods weren't used then I would agree with your customer that you were at fault (even if your terms of service doesn't guarantee live arrival through Airborne Express).

I live in FL and have shipped with Airborne Express several times and never had a problem (knock on wood). I always pay a little extra for 10:30am delivery though.

By the way, the following paragraph is attached to EVERY Kingsnake dot com ad we post (which is where this customer found this snake she ordered). Please note the part about live arrivals, and the terms of shipping.

<a href="http://exoticsrus.com/ ">Lots of other animals available, click on this link to see! </a>

<I> <BIG> <B> <FONT COLOR="#FF0000"> Please CALL 772-215-7625 FOR INFO, ORDERING, and quantity prices. </FONT> </B> </BIG> Unless otherwise indicated, the above animals are wild caught imports, that have been de-wormed, and are feeding. They are in “apparent” good health. I strongly recommend that all animals (captive born and wild caught) be quarantined, checked by a vet, and treated accordingly. Venomous reptiles will not be knowingly sold or shipped where they are prohibited unless you fax us your permit. No sales to minors. Proof of age may be required. Orders containing venomous reptiles cannot be shipped door to door. Shipping of all venomous snakes (including rear-fanged snakes) is via Delta Dash ($75.00) or Delta Air Cargo (+/- $68.00 collect) only. There is a $20.00 minimum box charge for all orders containing venomous reptiles. Other animals can be shipped via Airborne Express for around $40.00 (packing charges may be applied). Conditional live arrival guarantee only. Please read my complete terms and information, which can be found on my web site. I will be happy to answer any additional questions you have BY PHONE. We take all major Credit cards, MO, Pay Pal etc. </I>
<B> Sorry, no trades...</B>

<a href="mailto:Sales@exoticsrus.com">To E-Mail us your order, click here!</a>

<B> TO ORDER BY PHONE CALL: (772) 215-7625 </B>
<B> WAREHOUSE #: (772) 871-0242 (if busy use 772-215-7625) </B>
<B> TO FAX YOUR ORDER: (772) 871-5891 </B>

Thanks to all and God bless!
<I> Ricky D. & Ray Hunter </I> @ ERJ

Chris made excellent points. Furthermore it is very important to check temperatures on your area plus temperatures in the area where the snake is going to be delivered. Shipping can be postponed until temperatures are within "reasonable" limits. Again you should state if the cardboard box was styrofoam lined, if there were no more holes than necessary (which reduce the insulation effectiveness), and if you included a cold pack. Those are minimum conditions to ensure a safe arrival during warm weather.

Regards.

Chris, I would agree about the paper if there were enough room in the box for it to be jiggled around, but in this case there was not. I think cold packs would be more harmful than helpful. It was an overcast day in FL, and it was picked up about 4:30pm and delivered by 12:noon. Thank you for your reply.

I would agree about the paper if there were enough room in the box for it to be jiggled around, but in this case there was not. I think cold packs would be more harmful than helpful. It was an overcast day in FL, and it was picked up about 4:30pm and delivered by 12:noon.

Ray,

From what you are saying then there was not enough room for the snake to move. It seems that is was thus in contact with the box walls. If there was not enough insulation that could have easily over heated her. In this case I don't think the heat packs would have been more harmful, as the snake actually died! Again, what were the temperatures in AL upon delivery. Was the package delivered at the first attempt?

I meant cold packs!!!!!

I think the box was too small. The "dead" air space in a small box will change temp. faster than a large box. You should have used a box large enough to safely use cool paks, it would have cost more but the customer paid the shipping anyway. Shipping is always a risky deal and we need to do all we can to ensure the safety of the animal we ship.

Ray,

The others have addressed you shipping methods, and I would agree that some of what you have said you did is contrary to how I ship my animals. However, you are the only one that can determine whether your shipping methods were possibly constituent factors in the animal's death. If they could have been at all, I would err on the side of pleasing the customer and then change my practices to ensure no future culpability.

As to how I handle shipping door-to-door, I offer a live arrival guarantee. Quite frankly, if I cannot comfortably offer that, I am not going to ship the animal in the first place, regardless of the method of transportation. I just think that is good business. I have never taken such a guarantee into account as far as cost to me is concerned, because I have never lost an animal. I know it will happen sooner or later, but it hasn't so far.

However, IF I started to see that trend changing, I would probably just up the cost of all my animals by a few dollars to offset this definite cost of doing business. That is the only way I can see that is going to be acceptable in the long run. It would be sort of a self-contained insurance policy for myself. If things got so bad as to be costing me money even after that . . .well, I'd have to look seriously at whether I realy wanted to be shipping animals door-to-door ever, regardless of what the customer wanted.

just my $.02 --

Alvaro, yesterday it was 82 (at the hottest) in FL, and the internet reprted a high of 86 in AL. By the time it was picked up here, it was 4:30pm , raining, and cooler. It was delivered in AL by noon, so I doubt it was at it's hottest (86) by delivery time. I will take into consideration the cool packs. Thank you all for your very helpful advice.
Blessings
Ray