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Bad Guy Bad experience with Shipyourreptiles.com

This is the reason I do not ship reptiles...I guess I am old school.. I can not stand the stress of wondering if and when the package will come.. I totally support Reptile Shows.. That way people can see what they are buying..Talk to the vendors face to face and walk away happy with reptiles in hand..Not getting one in the mail they are not happy with and then come here to complain about what they got...:shrug01:
 
I feel SYR as the middle person should be held to some accountability. But a bad guy thread is not needed after they sent a refund and took care of it on their end.
What really grinds my gears is the TOS for UPS and Fed Ex states that certain reptiles can not be shipped... But then we get this great service like SYR and and now we can ship those reptiles? As long as all of the guide lines are followed of course. But some people have been told they still can not ship reptiles even using SYR. What I want to know is, is it OK to ship? Is it now OK to ship? Is it going to be another reptile related media frenzy when a box is smashed at the terminal and they see a snake inside. I could see it know, The reptile industry strike again. Shipping reptiles illegally using the same postal services your dear sweet grandma uses to send you her delicious cookies. A box was discovered today with a python scaring the pants off of this poor terminal worker.
I myself have never had a problem with shipping out or receiving a reptile but there is a first time for everything.
 
Thats why all should get FED-EX Certified

I went through all the stops to get certified with fedex and i will say it was worth it .
Yes all shipping companies have the issue of sometimes having packages becoming delayed in transit , but with UPS they flip flop way to much to be trusted ,( 1 depot or hub allows reptiles to pass thru and 5 other depots or hubs wont allow them to enter the building) .

with fed ex certified thats not an issue ,once your certified thats it , as long as you stay to the packing terms of your certification you will have no issues with your reptiles being shipped .

the worst problem you will have to worry about is the the possibility of it arriving delayed .

using UPS (unless your one of the huge businesses) is to much a risk from what i have seen and heard . and i would never want to take that risk again . to each their own , everyone has their own stories when dealing with them , but for less stress on yourself i would recommend going thru the process of getting certified with fed-ex . takes the headaches out of shipping your animals to your customers ..

just my 2 cents :thumbsup:
 
Quote from Tad F. in Vegas:
... (bad experiences with UPS leaving packages on porch in the sun) ... It's very HOT in Vegas and all the UPS trucks are large with no air conditioning. Only in rare instances will I now allow anyone to ship snakes to us through UPS (SHipyourreptiles or any other way).
Click to expand...

Tad, as you live in a notoriously hot place, as do herpers in Phoenix and other such environs, might I suggest that you have animals shipped to the UPS Centers as "Hold For Pick-Up"s during the warmer months ? It is not cheaper, but far safer, and Vegas has several such centers. Many vendors practice this for deliveries to such hot places, and UPS has a procedure to follow specifically for such deliveries. You need to anticipate what can go wrong, such as a box not labeled for special handling, an unattentive delivery person, etc., and be pro-active.

Ed, you are an example of someone who, if they do not drink adult beverages, should start. And if you do partake, you should stop.
 
TheVipersHouse said:
I went through all the stops to get certified with fedex and i will say it was worth it .
Yes all shipping companies have the issue of sometimes having packages becoming delayed in transit , but with UPS they flip flop way to much to be trusted ,( 1 depot or hub allows reptiles to pass thru and 5 other depots or hubs wont allow them to enter the building) .

with fed ex certified thats not an issue ,once your certified thats it , as long as you stay to the packing terms of your certification you will have no issues with your reptiles being shipped .
Click to expand...

I too prefer using Fed Ex and shipping with my own account. But to say that Fed Ex does not have any issues with uninformed employees holding up snake shipments would not be even close to accurate. I have had it to me many many times over the years. Usually a phone call or three takes care of the problem, but the problem most certainly does exist. I will say though that it has gotten better over the past couple of years.
 
Here's a question for you Ed.
Let's say I ordered a snake from you, (I know, like THAT would ever happen, but just for the sake of argument), and it took two days in transit on your personal account with FedEx or whoever. I told you about it and you refunded my shipping charges. Then I came here to the BOI and posted a bad guy thread because the package arrived late.
How would you feel about it? Would you think it was justified? Would you accept the blame and the bad guy label?
The answers are of course you wouldn't. Hell you won't accept the times you really are at fault let alone when you wouldn't be. So what would possess you to post a bad guy thread about SYR when they have absolutely no control over shipping delays AND refunded your shipping charges?
Are you just that dim witted? Apparently so. This is stupid even for you.

They did what any other responsible shipper would in the same situation so are no more a bad guy that a private individual shipping on his own account.
 
Clay Davenport said:
Here's a question for you Ed.
Let's say I ordered a snake from you, (I know, like THAT would ever happen, but just for the sake of argument), and it took two days in transit on your personal account with FedEx or whoever. I told you about it and you refunded my shipping charges. Then I came here to the BOI and posted a bad guy thread because the package arrived late.
How would you feel about it? Would you think it was justified? Would you accept the blame and the bad guy label?
The answers are of course you wouldn't. Hell you won't accept the times you really are at fault let alone when you wouldn't be. So what would possess you to post a bad guy thread about SYR when they have absolutely no control over shipping delays AND refunded your shipping charges?
Are you just that dim witted? Apparently so. This is stupid even for you.

They did what any other responsible shipper would in the same situation so are no more a bad guy that a private individual shipping on his own account.
Click to expand...


Excellent point Clay :thumbsup:
 
I don't think this should be titled "Bad Guy," but I do think this information is important to share. This is not the first complaint against UPS and it probably won't be the last.

I also don't think anyone is saying that FedEx doesn't have issues...But the thing is, with the FedEx Certification, you have proof that is filed at FedEx that you have permission to ship. With a few phone calls the situation can be corrected. With this UPS thing, you can't do that.
 
leaving at UPS

Curious George,

I have done that as well and when I called the hub to pick up the animals they apologized and said it went out on the truck by mistake. I asked the supervisor if they could contact the driver and at least deliver it as the contents were live reptiles. He said he would try but the best thing to do was come to the UPS hub at 5pm. In the end I got the snakes and they were fine. I know this is an isolated incident and mistakes do happen, they just seem to happen more often when I'm using UPS. They were starting to remind me of 10 plus years I used Airborne Express, there were all kinds of problems to say the least. When DSL took over they sent me a nice letter saying we no longer ship live reptiles. It was actually a blessing as it forced me to get an account with FedEx. Knock on wood, I have not had any problems with. I'm not a huge volume shipper but between my wife and I we average 100-200 shipments a year. Delta is another story which I won't go into, but it wasn't very good. Your suggestion is good though and when I have done that with it has worked. But I make sure I put the address of the FedEx hub (not the buyer) and when I drop off at FedEx I tell them and have them attach a sticker "Hold at FedEx".

Tad Fitzgerald
 
Tad Fitzgerald said:
I have done that as well and when I called the hub to pick up the animals they apologized and said it went out on the truck by mistake. I asked the supervisor if they could contact the driver and at least deliver it as the contents were live reptiles. He said he would try but the best thing to do was come to the UPS hub at 5pm. In the end I got the snakes and they were fine. I know this is an isolated incident and mistakes do happen, they just seem to happen more often when I'm using UPS.
Click to expand...
That has happened EVERY time I've tried to have a reptile package held at the local UPS hub (and why I really try to avoid UPS for reptile shipments)...funny that they can manage to hold any other package for me.
 
It's very HOT in Vegas and all the UPS trucks are large with no air conditioning. Only in rare instances will I now allow anyone to ship snakes to us through UPS (SHipyourreptiles or any other way).
Click to expand...

Well, in the interest of educating the reader, the UPS procedure is to also use the hub as the delivery address, labeled "Hold for Pick-Up", etc. About 1-2% of the time, they will actually load it out on the truck that has the hub in its delivery area, and deliver it back to themselves ! To drop and run is otherwise to be expected, unless the shipper pays the extra couple bucks (maybe $1.50) to require a signature. In some areas, such as mine, the FedEx service is subpar to UPS, so it goes both ways.

Back to SYR and Ed. SYR is well documented as providing an excellent resource to lower volume vendors who do not ship enough to get the higher discounts. They were stellar in this situation. I am not sure how much was refunded to Ed, but my belief is that the shipper only gets the discount to the next level of service met, in this case two-day air, possibly Ground if close enough, and that such refund must be applied for at the end of the week when the billing posts. While SYR may have a couple weeks to actually pay UPS, it is possible that they refunded Ed more than UPS would credit them. They are "BAD" no matter how one looks at it :rolleyes:
 
Curious George said:
my belief is that the shipper only gets the discount to the next level of service met, in this case two-day air, possibly Ground if close enough, and that such refund must be applied for at the end of the week when the billing posts. While SYR may have a couple weeks to actually pay UPS, it is possible that they refunded Ed more than UPS would credit them. They are "BAD" no matter how one looks at it :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I disagree here, as you pay for a service and do not receive what you were guaranteed. If this happens, I feel that the buyer should get the entire shipping cost returned. This is just my opinion on the matter.
 
I did misstate their policy. They will refund the full amount within conditions. Delay due to weather being one condition that they will not refund. Its all in recesses of their website.
 
shrap said:
I too prefer using Fed Ex and shipping with my own account. But to say that Fed Ex does not have any issues with uninformed employees holding up snake shipments would not be even close to accurate. I have had it to me many many times over the years. Usually a phone call or three takes care of the problem, but the problem most certainly does exist. I will say though that it has gotten better over the past couple of years.
Click to expand...
I also had a problem with FedEx holding a BP I wanted shipped out, that facility didn't know that they ship reptiles. I had the certification, the contacts, everything...still took two days with my BP just sitting there, they called me a couple hours after I dropped it off and they were closed so I had to leave it there, the next day it was shipped, never got a refund, although I asked and I never started a Bad Guy BOI thread about it although, I repeated this story with regards to that other, now defunct mess of a co. Rep-something-or-other.

I am of the opinion that SYR does have to hold some responsibility for problems. They are the ones that chose UPS for the program.
Click to expand...
Then the refund can also be attributed as their responsibility as well, so can they take credit for that as well?

I allowed them to ship Shipyourreptiles.com
Click to expand...
Ed chose "allowed" his seller to ship SYR via UPS, so Ed actually made the choice to use UPS.

To date, I've saved close to $100 for my buyers ( I don't ship that often and I only charge what SYR quotes me, although I do give buyers the option because I'm FedEx certified as well.) and have had no problems with SYR/ UPS ( fingers X'd)
 
The very first time I shipped using SYR/UPS (which was the very first time I shipped, ever), this very same thing happened. I spent all day on the phone with UPS and ended up almost making the situation 10x worse by having a stop-ship put on the package so that I could bring the snakes back here, since I knew they hadn't gone out yet. Apparently, this isn't possible, and the stop-ship would've required that they go to their destination FIRST, then bounce back here to be picked up. ... And I did not find this out from the oh-so-helpful UPS reps until AFTER I'd put the stop-ship on the package -- which, apparently, I was not able to have canceled.

In the end, I remembered that I'd used SYR (having temporarily forgotten due to the stress of dealing with UPS), called them up, and they were able to stop the stop-ship (thank goodness). The snakes arrived at their destination a day late, but healthy and well.

SYR did refund my money for this incident, and I have since shipped seven more times using them and all of the packages have arrived on-time. I've also received several shipments sent through them, both door-to-door and "hold for pickup," with no issues.

I don't see a problem with the company "Ship Your Reptiles" at all. I can see the argument that they may promote folks who really shouldn't be shipping to ship reptiles, but then again, if someone doesn't have the integrity to ship a reptile properly in the first place -- are they really gonna care whether it's against a company's regulations?
 
FedEx trucks vrs UPS trucks

Curious George,
"It's very HOT in Vegas and all the UPS trucks are large with no air conditioning. Only in rare instances will I now allow anyone to ship snakes to us through UPS (SHipyourreptiles or any other way)".

The reason I mentioned this but failed to elaborate on is most of the FedEx curriers (at least in Vegas) that deliver the small overnight shipments arrive in smaller air conditioned vans. Any UPS shipments we have ever received have been their standard huge truck with no a/c.

Most of this thread has nothing to do with the original "bad guy" post but it has been nice to vent a bit and hear some of the feedback on the shipping companies. To me the important thing is the safety of the animals being shipped which ultimately falls on the person shipping them. They need to be aware of how to properly pack, label, understand shipping policies and be able to communicate with the shipping company.

Ive had several mishaps in the 20 plus years I've been shipping but have had only one snake die. I had a shipment missing for 4 days once through Delta and the snakes ended up arriving in good condition. Many 1 extra day mishaps, which is why I will only ship Mon-Wed, shipping Thur for Fri arrival can turn into Monday if the shippers hub isn't open on Saturday. These are just a few examples, anyone in this business for long has most likey experienced these and other problems. So if their packed right and your able to communicate with the shipping company even when delays occur the results are almost always good from my experience.

BUT THE STRESS !!!!! LOL

Tad Fitzgerald

Tad Fitzgerald
 
For Tad: "I have always thought it was a federal law to ship any live animals across state lines without labeling the box (Lacy Act), correct me if I'm wrong."

It IS a violation of the Lacey Act to not have a box clearly identified with the quantity,species and common name or a packing slip clearly visible which contains the mentioned three requirement. You can read more here:

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/tex...gn=div6&view=text&node=50:1.0.1.2.8.8&idno=50

Matt
p.s. - Clay: Your Avatar's gotta GO! :)
 
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