help with SHIPPING!! pls...

[ladysilkworm]

USPS is driving my silkworm biz to the ground.. it is reaching a 50% fail rate.

When they don't bother scanning, customers think that I held the package back and did not mail it.

For a 150 mile trip, it took 7 days.

For a 1200 mile trip, it took more than 2 weeks!!

All of the worms are DOA.

Now, My latest ship from NY to CA is going down by TRUCK! How dare they call it priority service and call it a 2-3 day >> There is no tracking, only delivery. When there is no dispatch info, I know the package is doomed! I lose sleep on this every time I ship. I am so nice that I refund the customer $. I can't manage a business this way.

PLEASE HELP!! I open fedex acct but I don't have enough volume to make a reasonable discount. PLEASE, can I use your account? I know you get kickbacks from FedEx. I also need to incorporate this shipping calculator on my website.

I will be selling wet and dry chow, silkworm cups and expanding into horn worm cups.. anyone can help me?? I can't sleep at night with USPS...

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Anyone offering to allow you to ship under their FedEx account would be violating their agreements...

Have you looked into UPS with ReptilesExpress?

 

[deborahbroadus]

Not to mention, anyone taking a complete stranger and letting them ship on their certificate probably has a few loose screws upstairs.

Good luck, and I don't know what you mean by "kickbacks" (way to kill your request ) Many of us pass our savings on to our customers, and sometimes we eat the shipping.

 

[ladysilkworm]

Not to mention, anyone taking a complete stranger and letting them ship on their certificate probably has a few loose screws upstairs.

Good luck, and I don't know what you mean by "kickbacks" (way to kill your request ) Many of us pass our savings on to our customers, and sometimes we eat the shipping.

I believe fedex puts some $ back to the account holder, the more they ship, they more they get, it is called handling charges.

Its also called volume discounting. The customers get a deeper discount through someone who ships frequently. As for me opening a fedex acct, it does not do customers any good because they can pay 33% more than someone who ships frequently. All I am doing, is watching out for the customers.. the USPS has a really bad track.. 7 out of 10 packages don't make it on time. Everything I shipped this Monday is no where to be found, everything I shipped on Tues got there on time.. I am very approachable and asnwer every email.. but some customers can hound me to death and I am too nice, I give them $ back.. 3 out of 3 times. doesn't it seem that I will survive this biz if USPS keeps doing this to me? Is it fair to me that I provide silkworms at bulk prices and take all the risks of USPS failure? why is it that all the other insect sellers have clauses to protect themselves? And I am just such a softee, and being too nice becomes suffocating?

 

[Southern Wolf]

I believe fedex puts some $ back to the account holder, the more they ship, they more they get, it is called handling charges.

Its also called volume discounting. The customers get a deeper discount through someone who ships frequently. As for me opening a fedex acct, it does not do customers any good because they can pay 33% more than someone who ships frequently. All I am doing, is watching out for the customers.. the USPS has a really bad track.. 7 out of 10 packages don't make it on time. Everything I shipped this Monday is no where to be found, everything I shipped on Tues got there on time.. I am very approachable and asnwer every email.. but some customers can hound me to death and I am too nice, I give them $ back.. 3 out of 3 times. doesn't it seem that I will survive this biz if USPS keeps doing this to me? Is it fair to me that I provide silkworms at bulk prices and take all the risks of USPS failure? why is it that all the other insect sellers have clauses to protect themselves? And I am just such a softee, and being too nice becomes suffocating?

FedEx has never sent me any $$$ and I have the same rates as when I opened my account.

 

[deborahbroadus]

FedEx has never sent me any $$$ and I have the same rates as when I opened my account.

Me either. Some's holding out on us!!

 

[Melinda]

I believe fedex puts some $ back to the account holder, the more they ship, they more they get, it is called handling charges.

Nope, Fed ex doesn't work that way. I get a very small discount for shipping my packages which I pass on to my customer. That's it, no bonus's, no handling charges, no kickbacks

Handling charges are usually collected by the seller, not the shipping company.

I usually charge my customers less than I pay for shipping. I do not charge a handling fee or charge for shipping supplies.

When in a business, it is the seller's responsibility to make sure the buyer gets the item that they paid for. If that is live bugs, then that is what they should receive. Refunding for dead bugs is not being "too nice", it is basic business standards and in the case of USPS, the law. Buyers that receive items that are not what the buyer purchased can file fraud charges against the seller.

Have you thought about using a quicker service, such as two day or overnight?

 

[Southern Wolf]

I usually charge my customers less than I pay for shipping. I do not charge a handling fee or charge for shipping supplies.

Exactly.... I dont charge a box fee or anything like that. I probably should because I build my own boxes with better insulation.... but I dont and I wont. Its all part of the service.

Monday I shipped out a package and my price on shipping was $58 but I offer a flat rate shipping of $50 per box... so I just ate the extra and put it as a business expense.

 

[JordanAng420]

I use USPS weekly to have 1000 worms sent from CA to my house in FL using priority mail service. Never had a problem with it, and the worms always arrive within 3 or 4 days, max. Not sure what the problem is. I agree that you should start using 2 day or even overnight service.

 

[ladysilkworm]

I believe it is called Power Ship. I went to FedEx and that is what they told me. Big suppliers have this integrated into their website, and after a certain volume they can renegotiate the rates.. but suppliers charge whatever they want, legally, that's the handling fee. Some suppliers even charge a boxing fee. But overall, it is still cheaper than for a customer to go online and fedex to himself.

I don't charge anything extra either. I sum it up in one payment and whether it is zone 1 or zone 9 , 1 lb or 2lb I absorb the fees. But if it takes more than a week, then, there is no hope. It took exactly 7 days from NY to CT once, half the worms made it. The USPS tracking does not always tell you when the pck is mailed and it doesn't always tell you where the pckages have been to.. postal workers say they are not required to scan in.. they only are required for delivery confirmation.


From experience, once a package does not get scanned, it usually means it did not make it on the plane. They only bother scanning the ones that do get on the flight.

From CA to FL, the most likely way is to fly. From NY to midwest, the likely route is truck. All of my packages on Monday did not make it to destination and are not trackable. All of the ones on Tues made it there. It's just so frustrating, it makes me depressed all day...I asked a regular customer to upgrade to UPS ground, with a bonus pckage shipped by USPS (on my pocket) and guess what, the experiment failed! USPS is untrackable and 4 days has gone by.. no signs of it anywhere.

I've been the postal office to talk to supervisor s and search for my package. No hope. They just do not know where the packages are. Then it suddenly shows up in customer's hands 11 days later, 2 weeks later, totally ranked! Now I still have 3 packages missing since MOnday.. and it is now 7:30pm Thrs...


http://raoulpop.com/2006/10/14/usps-priority-mail-is-anything-but-that/#comment-11414

 

[ladysilkworm]

I had also asked the clerk to scan it in at the PO so that it shows that I mailed them..but they got upset with me saying that I got a discount for printing it online and the next time they refused to scan in for me.

I also realized that even if they check in at the counter, it doesn't mean that they will get there ontime.. or scan it along the way...

ugh..

 

[Southern Wolf]

How about shipping using a method that scanning is mandatory. Yes it may cost just a bit more... but isn't your business worth it?

 

[Melinda]

Scanning it in or tracking will not hurry the package along. There is no delivery time guarantee on priority mail.

Since you continually have problems, your going to have to ditch USPS priority and choose a different delivery method. I have found with the USPS system, you can't complain your way into better/faster service. You get what you get.

I don't think there are many of us that qualify for Power Shipping and the large corporations that do are probably not going to risk their account to let someone else use their account.

If you can't get your product where it needs to be at a cost that your company and/or customer can pay, then you are not going to be profitable with that product.

 

[ladysilkworm]

you hit it on the nail with that one..

 

[GreenCountryHerp]

I would recommend using UPS through Reptiles Express. You get a discounted rate using their account and I have sent out over 15 shipments in the last two weeks of ball pythons and every one of them was delivered on time. I am surprised that they haven't messed up at least one. Fed Ex used to screw up on being on time at least once every 10 or so shipments it seems. Just a suggestion.

 

[ladysilkworm]

I would recommend using UPS through Reptiles Express. You get a discounted rate using their account and I have sent out over 15 shipments in the last two weeks of ball pythons and every one of them was delivered on time. I am surprised that they haven't messed up at least one. Fed Ex used to screw up on being on time at least once every 10 or so shipments it seems. Just a suggestion.

yes I did saw that from earlier poster (thanks to the earlier poster) about that, but do you guys use paypal??


I use paypal and with that, I get a pretty good discount with UPS ground.. how does it compare with reptile express/ i hate having to manually write down address or retyping them over. I really like the paypal feature of direct label printing. I keep on having to rewrite my shipping policy. I would like to make my silkworms very affordable to customers.. but I think I may have to just expand my local market instead of going national.. I suppose I can make silkworm pods and go visit all the petstores in the area.. one of them is anxiously waiting for me to visit. I am waiting on my overseas chow that have actually already arrived in NY port for 5 days now but do not know what is the hold up.. sigh.. just one peak after another to climb...

 

[ladysilkworm]

Anyone offering to allow you to ship under their FedEx account would be violating their agreements...

Have you looked into UPS with ReptilesExpress?

I am looking at it now, if it is really as cheap as it says it is, WOW!! That would be really great!!! Then, my biz may have a chance. THNKS!!