| Author | Subject: Am I being scammed by the customers? |
| Mickey Hinkle | Posted At 10:34:41 06/12/2001
I dont know how best to ask this without affecting my reputation, but its a question I feel I have to ask. Last week I shipped out 3 animals, all to me were very healthy baby bearded dragons.I have nearly 100 babies on hand and only shipped out 4 (4 very nice ones).Well out of the 4 animals I am mysteriously getting claims on 3. 1 st claim was a dropped shipped animal for another dealer (bad move).I recieve an email 3 days later saying it arrived with a nearly cut off leg, and wasnt eating well.I didnt even recieve notice from the other dealer that the animal arrived, let alone was damaged. 2nd claim was a listless dragon. On this one I recieved an email upon arrival stating everything was great.2 days later I recieve an email stating that one of the 2 was acting funny.I gave a bit of advice, and havent heard back since. 3rd claim was on a dead arrival.I shipped 2 PERFECT beardeds out, and recieve notice 3 hours after delivery that one of the 2 had arrived not only dead, but had a flattened in the middle tail, and was bruised on the belly. Now I want to start by saying I am not accusing the customers, I am just asking for other peoples experience's, to see if its my fault, or if I need to alter the way I ship. I ship using deli cups that are 3" tall.I put newspaper in the bottom of the cup for litter.I styrofoam line the boxes with 3/4" styrofoam.I use heat packs when needed.I fill the rest of the space with newspaper to keep the cups from slamming around the box. Do I need to use shorter deli cups? Could the little holes in the deli cup slice the top of a beardeds leg? Any other ideas. Now for some of my theories or ones I have had given to me by friends. Bearded with cut leg: Was put in with a larger or more aggressive bearded, and the other bearded bit it? Bearded acting funny:(this one I dont know on, I swear that baby to the best of my knowladge was very healthy, but was a young bearded) Stress of shipping? Bearded with smashed tail, bruised belly: Ok this one, and the cut leg one are the ones that are really baffeling me.I have never recieved an animal that had a cut caused in route, especially when packaged by itself.Nor can I imagine how ones tail would be flattened, and belly purple.Neither boxes or deli cups were damaged. Friends theory on the smashed tail: arrived and was placed in cage, lit was put on cage, and smashed the bearded in the process.Or something fell on it. I have asked for photos of the dead/injured dragons, or the return of the bodies.At this point I am still up in the air as to what I should take claims on.What would you guys do? Has anyone else ever had a bearded injure itself when shipped alone in a deli cup?If so please let me know as I feel this is all very off to say the least. Things like this can make a guy want to get out of the shipping end of this business in a heartbeat. Again, sorry I was soo long, and I am not trying to blame the customers, rather to understand the causes, and maybe be able to prevent them in the future. Mickey Hinkle The Lizard King Reptiles |
| JERRY TRESSER |
Re: Am I being scammed by the customers?
4454.html Posted At 15:03:58 06/12/2001 I dont know if your being scammed, but I do know that if you shipped the animals in a condition that you yourself would like to receive them, then theirs something wrong with the recipient of the shipment. I know from my own experience that sometimes when shipping geckos, they can loose their tail. But its usually found in the container with the gecko. Ive never heard of loss of limb, scars, and other outwardly wounds from a deli cup. Yes the animal can also die, but this is not the case here. I think you made your big mistake by opening to many doors to exposure. If I read your post correctly, you dropshipped some of the beardeds. I would have sent them all to one place and allowed the receipient to deal with the rest. Hope it works out for you. But it sounds fishy to me. JERRY |
| Angela Dean |
Re: Am I being scammed by the customers?
4456.html Posted At 15:15:01 06/12/2001 I would use shorter deli cups and/or use paper towels for more cushoning and less space to bounce around in. While I've only shipped geckos as far as lizards go, I have had one incident where they arrived dead and they both had blue bruised bellys. I think it's from the box being thrown around by a careless shipping clerk. Other than that the way you ship sounds perfectly normal. |
| Ernie Watts |
Re: Am I being scammed by the customers?
4492.html Posted At 17:17:03 06/13/2001 I don't know much about lizards so this is just an obsevation. How big were the holes in the deli cup? Could it's leg possibly get through the hole? If it did get into the hole (long shot) it could have gotten cut on the sharp edge of the hole. As for dead arrivals if they send you a pic or return the bodies I think you should stand good for them. Anything can happen during shipping in that respect. To be safe I would insist on getting the bodies just to make sure it wasn't stepped on or attacked by a larger animal. Flat tail sounds like something crushed it. As for using news paper, I have been cut by it (paper cuts are a bit@h) so I would imagine animals can get cut too. I use paper towels. |