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Info Reptiles Express - interesting situation

Personally, I think a bunch of random people contacting UPS's Director of Dangerous Goods to "cut all the BS" is something that isn't needed, nor would it be helpful. My own opinion of Brendon aside, this is his venture - let him deal with getting it straightened out.

Disagree. This is obviously not a unique situation between buyer and seller, anyone who is thinking of using this shipping company is at risk if something wrong is taking place.

The whole point of the BOI is that it is a business tool so that others can see what is going on and make their decisions based on what they think. And often business owners are called out here to explain inconsistencies.
 
Personally, I think a bunch of random people contacting UPS's Director of Dangerous Goods to "cut all the BS" is something that isn't needed, nor would it be helpful. My own opinion of Brendon aside, this is his venture - let him deal with getting it straightened out.

:iagree: Completely!! Don't make it any worse for the rest of us :eek:
 
So if no one contacts the "Director" then what? The owners of Reptile Express come on and say "no the signature is real, the exemption is real" and everyone just says "ok"
 
I had one issue with them with my first package shipped and haven't had any since!

Debbie and Brendon are usually quite frank about what is going on!

If need be.. one or maybe two people might contact the Director but not a whole bunch of people all at once. This May cause them to reconsider allowing the shipping of any harmless reptile if that happens. Hopefully this will get cleared up within a day or so!

Just my .02
 
Its is unfortunate that this happened and please email me directly with the persons name and number at the UPS Hub that told you this information or made jokes about killing your snake. I am sure there are a few people in the corporate office with UPS that would like to know about the comments of there employees. I will have our UPS rep call and explain to this person at the hub that we can ship reptiles (including snakes) with UPS. We have had hubs refuse snakes a few times. Most of the time Debbie has been able to clear up this misunderstanding with a phone call. We have had a few hubs that needed a call from our Rep or his boss. If they say we cant ship a snake? Why did they accept your snake and deliver it on time to your customer after all of this happened? If "ReptilesEXPRESS is in a lot of trouble with UPS" why are we shipping product and selling UPS labels still. We have shipped many snakes and lizards out today. Clay and Mike are still shipping crickets with UPS daily. Clay was still shipping his breeder program with FedEx and has started switching it over to UPS this week. If we where in trouble we would no longer have a UPS account or would they be asking us (Clay) for more of his shipping business. The "snake" shipping with UPS will take some time before all of the hubs/locations are on the same page and are updated with the amendment to there No Snake policy. We just had a meeting with some high ups at UPS on Tues that was only about shipping snakes and how to make the UPS employees more comfortable with shipping a snake. We started this company by joining 3 companies shipping volume together to get a better discount. The volume we spend in shipping is almost $1,000,000. Ghanns Crickets was using FedEx for all of his shipping and switched to UPS because of ReptilesExpress. If you think all of this has happened behind the back of UPS and they are not aware of ReptilesExpress and what RE does that is crazy. Companies like UPS don't just let a rep sign a company that does almost 1 mil. in shipping without corporate getting involved in the process. The truth is UPS has a fear of shipping snakes and could pull all reptile shipping if they wanted to. We don't have any control over this except to comply with all of there requests, label and package all of the reptiles we ship properly to prevent escapes. In our meeting with ups they told us about a day a snake got loose in a hub. They had to shut down the hub for a few hours while they had animal control hunt down the snake. They had 450 employees (on the clock) sitting in the parking lot for 3 hours. They estimated it cost them $500,000 to have the hub on hold for that time. UPS's concerns with shipping snakes is understandable and we are working with them on a daily basis to make snake shipping work for UPS. UPS has copies of our TOS and shipping guidelines and has been involved with the site since we first started talking to them about RE. Please forward any info you have about what happened with the HUB and the phone call that came later from UPS to me Ross. Please post anything you have that supports your claim. I take this situation very seriously and will stay on top of it, that I promise. I will also have our rep see if he can get a copy of any surveillance tape from the counter to see who these employees are and what was said. Ross what did the hub say to you as they took your snake in for shipping?
 
It's interesting that on a careful examination of Reptiles Express Terms page the word "snake" does not appear a single time.

To Ross the OP...would you be so kind as to post a scan of the waiver letter you were supplied with? I would be willing to bet that word is conspicuously absent from that document as well
 
Suncoast go to the good guy thread about RE the "SNAKE WAIVER" has been posted there for some time. It does have the words "NON VENOMOUS SNAKE" a few times.
 
Random people flooding the director's phone line will only have negative results for the community and the service that is being provided to us by UPS. Just be patient there is no need to bombard the Director with the possibility of changing his mind about this service because it is now more trouble than it's worth from his perspective. All it takes is a bad day and one tactless herper to push the wrong buttons, and poof waiver now revoked. If indeed Reptile express has forged the waiver there is no doubt that they will have to answer to UPS and the Law. It won't be covered up by someone from reptile express posting here that it's all BS don't worry about it. So please be patient and if you can't help yourself write another letter to congress or your local government abut the proposed ban or send PETA or the Humane Society a letter of just how you feel about them and their practices. But just hold off and show a little patience and the info will present itself good or bad.
 
Thank You Charles. I agree. We can very easily clear this up. This is just one bad experience with one hub. Has anyone else had phone calls from UPS or comments made by a UPS employee?
 
how about posting the entire contract sans names and addresses, a company like ups wont do anythig without it being entirely legal. also i thought ship your reptiles got shut down from shipping snakes how is this new place allowed> very confusing:shrug01:

sheldon clawson
 
Suncoast go to the good guy thread about RE the "SNAKE WAIVER" has been posted there for some time. It does have the words "NON VENOMOUS SNAKE" a few times.

Brendan

If you can point to the thread I would like to see it. A search on threads with the word "Waiver" in the title does not bring it up.

If it actually states what you said I will be the first to apologize for my suspicions
 
I can tell you I am in contact daily with the UPS preferred Customer Service People
If Bradley Cooks Signature was fake I believe we never would have gotten this program off the ground. I do not know whom would have called Mr Hyman as we are the UPS Customers
and they did take his delivery after they made a few calls. I will again say this is one HUB and I have had no problems at any other HUB I am the customer Service for ReptilesExpress and I talk to Managers from UPS daily. The customer service at Earth City was unacceptable and I have reported the young lady already to the owners of our company and to
 
lucille, i think you're being a tad reactionary.

how about we wait until tomorrow when the usual contact person over at UPS has a chance to talk to the owners at RE about this situation?
 
Brendan

I found the thread that you mentioned and ran through (albeit quickly) page by page. I did not see a copy of the waiver posted

How bout posting a copy here?
 
If Bradley Cooks Signature was fake I believe we never would have gotten this program off the ground.

So you are saying your proof is entirely circumstantial, and you do not in fact know that the signature is genuine.
 
I think it would be awesome if the waiver could be posted here. Also, I would think if someone was forging documents like that, and passing them out to their customers, UPS would be able to take legal action against them.
 
Lucille this is given to everyone that is a approved member of RE. Its has already been posted on Fauna. I can find the org post on the thread. Maybe a moderator can help with that. Here it is again:

ReptilesExpress.com
RE: Acceptance of Live Non-Venomous Snakes from ReptilesExpress.com and its Customers
Dear Reptiles Express, LLC
We have reviewed your request for UPS to reconsider our policy prohibiting acceptance of any kind of
snake (venomous or non-venomous) for transportation. Upon completion of our review it seems
appropriate that UPS can transport non-venomous snakes, provide specific restrictions and conditions
are met.
Restrictions: First and foremost, UPS will only accept non-venomous snakes. Venomous snakes must not
be offered for transportation at any time. Second, any snake listed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
website as a “Threatened or Endangered Species” is prohibited by UPS and must not be offered for
transportation. Finally, live non-venomous snakes must be offered for transportation via UPS Next Day
Air Service only. Unless Saturday Delivery is specifically requested, live non-venomous snakes may only
be shipped Monday thru Thursday.
Conditions: You must comply with some basic principles of humane care and safety in preparing and
packaging live non-venomous snakes for shipment. UPS is not liable for perishable items including live
snakes and does not provide temperature-controlled distribution. Packaging must be designed to
provide a primary and secondary means of containment. Each snake must be placed in a fabric or
burlap type bag of sufficient material strength to ensure the snake cannot tear or otherwise
compromise the integrity of the bag. The bag must be sealed or closed in such a fashion as to prevent
the bag from opening during transport. Each bag (or multiple bags) must be placed in a box constructed
of double wall corrugated of sufficient strength and size to accommodate the size and weight of the
snake(s) being shipped. It is recommended that an expanded polystyrene (EPS) box be placed inside the
corrugated box to provide additional protection from sudden environmental changes to which the
package may be exposed during handling and transport. If an EPS box is used the external corrugated
package may be constructed of single wall corrugated.
It is the responsibility of the shipper to identify any additional requirements necessary to provide basic
humane conditions for the non-venomous snake during transportation, such as air ventilation and a
source of moisture. Also it is suggested that the packaging used or developed to transport nonvenomous
snakes be submitted to an International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) certified testing lab
for pre-shipment testing prior to being offered to UPS for transportation.
Due to the nature of these shipments UPS is depending on the integrity of the shipper to comply with
the restrictions and conditions stated herein. If at any time UPS determines in its sole discretion that
the terms of this letter are not being met, the shipper will immediately notify to cease all shipments of
snakes.
 
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