UPS Snake Awareness - "we dont ship snakes! "

[Southern Wolf]

Something else with "keeping a low profile"... by doing what is suggested.... your violating federal law to ship via UPS

 

[jeffwyatt81]

Fed Ex SUCKS!!!!!!

I have shipped out numerous packages via SYR/UPS and the people at my main local hub station have no problems at all shipping snakes/dragons/geckos or whatever and there always exited to know what I am shipping off that day and take extra care to keep my packages in a safer place at around room temp until sent off. According to my main hub location it is 100% legal to ship reptiles of any sort other than venomous but they must be dropped at a main hub location and not a ups store or any other UPS certified shipping center as they will not except or take responsability for any live animal.

Now on to my fed ex sucks headline, I have shipped once through fed ex my self and low and behold they completely lost my package and never found it with a 300 gram female spinner ball in the package and being a live animal I got nothing in return from them not even an apology, so im out about $1000 on this snake and though most reptile breeders/sellers don't take responsibility for misshandled, lost or late deleveries due to the carrier I always try to work with my customer when and if this happens so I ended up talking it over with him and I sent him a 450 gram female bee in place and was atleast able to keep my customer satisfied but I purchased these snakes at a hefty price from local herp shows not producing them my self so it cost me a huge loss. I have also had 4 packages sent to me via fed ex from other breeders that have a fed ex account and not 1 has arrived to my door without problems or at all for that matter, they never show and I have spent atleast 30 min on the phone at 10:30 am everytime trying to find my animals when they had not arrived and I have had to drive to their hub station and other counties to meet drivers in parking lots etc.... just to recieve my animals that are supposed to be delivered no later than 10:30 am.

Now with all that being said I have had numerous packages delivered and I have sent out numerous packages as well through UPS and they are knocking at my door no later than 9:30am like clockwork and in a years time with over 50 packages sent and recieved via UPS I have not had one complaint or have any to claim my self and my local driver that delivers to me almost everytime is usually almost as exited as I am and he waits to see what new animal I have recieved and checks them out with me and has even offered me his personal number had I ever needed him to come pick up a package for me and at no extra cost(though he does have a gecko and monitor collection so he is one of us!LOL!) but none the less I have had exquisit experiances with UPS and I have sworn off and cursed out just about every fed ex employee here in MD and one a$$hole actually dropped a package with a gravid female dragon inside and that argument almost got very physical and ended with the police showing up in the middle of a pizza hut parking lot 30 miles from my home where I had to drive to get my dragon at 12 noon when it should have come to my door, so now even with fed ex cert. shippers I just pay extra and have my animals shipped UPS and it has been flawless everytime.


UPS ROCKS!!!

This is just my person experiance and opinion so take it as you will.

Thanks,

Jeff Wyatt

 

[Abby]

I forgot to mention, my UPS driver who drops my packages off is always stoked about my packages and always asks what new animal is in them He's a really nice guy who probably thinks I'm a bit loony with the amount of packages that come by but he's amused to say the least.

 

[sschind]

I think that the only main thing we can all learn from these threads is that there is no such thing as UPS good, Fed Ex bad or vice versa. Every driver, every counter person and every package handler is different. Some are careful and some do not care at all. Some follow the regulations to the letter and some are willing to bend them. As a result we will tend to use whichever service gives us the best feeling. To some that is UPS and to some it is Fed Ex. I think Robyn potentially has a great thing going with shipyouptiles but as we have all seen it is not without its problems. Truthfully it is one reason why I have not shipped any reptiles. I am not comfortable with what may happen to my animals at any point during the process, be it with UPS or Fed-Ex.

I don't understand UPSs policy of allowing amphibians and lizards but not snakes but I do know that the first shipping company that will universally allow the shipment of all harmless reptiles will reap large financial benefits. If people knew that their packages would be accepted at all points along the route without the possible threat of being rejected, and they knew they could be 100% truthful about what was in the box I am sure more people would use this service. If people knew that every employee of a particular service was aware that shipping snakes through them was perfectly legal and appropriate I am sure more people would use that service. Obviously personal preferences would still preclude some but for others they only use one over the other because they know, or are at least more assured that their package will get through safely without someone saying "we don't ship that" or giving them a hard time over it. Give people that assurance and they will use your service. Build it and they will come gosh darn it.

I also don't understand the difficulty in getting this word out to the employees. They get paychecks every week (or two) don't they? They have a chain of command don't they? They probably put up those stupid motivational posters all over as well. I wouldn't think it would be that difficult, once the top brass made the decision, to let EVERYONE in the system know that "we will now accept all live harmless reptiles"

The way packages are handled by individuals is another matter and in that respect I doubt there is a whole lot of difference. Drivers who get a lot of complaints about damaged merchandise probably don't stay around long. The fact is that a properly packaged item, be it a snake or an antique cuckoo clock should be able to withstand a bit of rough handling and if it isn't you shouldn't be shipping anything because it will be handled roughly at some point that is almost a guarantee. As for me I am waiting for a way to be able to safely ship soap bubbles before I start shipping.

 

[Kaiyudsai]

Just remember..... if you label your package "Live chicks" and you're shipping snakes.... you can get into trouble.....

Best just use "Accepted Live Reptiles" on the tag.... which is what I used... or use FedEx

I stopped shipping UPS because of the problems ... but I've never had a single issue with FedEx..... it's easy to get certified to ship reptiles with FedEx...

 

[Keith Stambaugh]

I'm a manager at UPS. I have used shipyourreptiles.com as well. My first time was a little rough but was able to make it happen with my connections. I have used it two more times since then with no problems. I will do my part and try to spread the word. It is a small change from what we used to except.
Keith

 

[deborahbroadus]

I'm FedEx certified myself, but I don't see the issue as FEDEX vs UPS. Both can make mistakes.

My concern is that SYR doesn't seem to have done their homework. I would need to see a waiver or have one assigned to me with my name on it. They need to draw up some kind of contract of their shipping permit with UPS using the one allowed shipping account number, but each customer should have within a contract with SYR a number that they can use to prove they are approved to ship through SYR (I remember very well our other bustup with a similar shipping company) or somone in there being the main contact if issues arise for any of their customers.

I can't be bothered with trying to call around to get issues resolved or sneaking and seeming to be breaking the law, or driving to pick up animals after I have paid to have them shipped. The way I see it, if I am paying SYR to ship though their service then they should resolve any issues that arise during the shpping process and that INCLUDES going to pick up any animals that are refused by UPS.

Since this isn't happening..I'll stick with FEDEX because if I have a problem, my representative is on the ball and issues get resolved quickly without any further outpouring of excess energy on my part.

 

[Andy'sReptiles]

I'm a manager at UPS. I have used shipyourreptiles.com as well. My first time was a little rough but was able to make it happen with my connections. I have used it two more times since then with no problems. I will do my part and try to spread the word. It is a small change from what we used to except.
Keith

The connections you used.. were they connections that would help me, and the many others with issues, or was it just a "family favor" type thing?


Thanks folks, a lot of insightful posts above.


Walt at SYR is supposed to get back to me today with some sort of definitive answer.

 

[jeffwyatt81]

Well, I think that answer just came though to everyone, I just got an e-mail from SYR stating that they are "temporarly stopping snake shipping".

 

[StrictlyExotics]

Wow!!! I just got this in an email

Temporarily stop snake shipping

Hi there,

Due to some irresponsible shippers, UPS has directed our customers to temporarily stop shipping snakes with ShipYourReptiles.com.

We are working hard to reinstate safe snake shipping for our customers and the entire reptile community.

Other types of UPS-approved non-venomous reptiles — including geckos, lizards and turtles — may be shipped with ShipYourReptiles.com.

To make your shipments easy, we recommend you drop off your packages at a Staples or Office Depot shipping counter.

We will keep you updated on this matter.

Thanks for your patience and support,

-- Robyn and the ShipYourReptiles.com team

[email protected] : www.ShipYourReptiles.com


© 2009 ShipYourReptiles.com. All rights reserved. UPS and the UPS brandmark are trademarks that are used with permission by the owner, United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

[deborahbroadus]

Well, I think that answer just came though to everyone, I just got an e-mail from SYR stating that they are "temporarly stopping snake shipping".

I received the same letter

Temporarily stop snake shipping

Hi there,

Due to some irresponsible shippers, UPS has directed our customers to temporarily stop shipping snakes with ShipYourReptiles.com.

Um um...

 

[Southern Wolf]

This was just posted over on the BOI....

Whatcha gonna do now if you havent gotten your FedEx certifications

Due to some irresponsible shippers, UPS has directed our customers to temporarily stop shipping snakes with ShipYourReptiles.com.

We are working hard to reinstate safe snake shipping for our customers and the entire reptile community.

Other types of UPS-approved non-venomous reptiles — including geckos, lizards and turtles — may be shipped with ShipYourReptiles.com.

To make your shipments easy, we recommend you drop off your packages at a Staples or Office Depot shipping counter.

We will keep you updated on this matter.

Thanks for your patience and support,

-- Robyn and the ShipYourReptiles.com team

I have been in this perdiciment before... and I refused to get back into it. I had put all my faith in RIPster and had to shut down my business until I could get my own certification.

Do yourself a favor... cover yourself and get certified.

 

[Wraith]

Thia may be a dumb question, but will they ship other live animals?

I'm just thinking that if you could label boxes "Live day old Chicks", or something else fluffy and innocuous, your packages may get more careful treatment by the herpetalogically challenged.

So you recommend telling people to break federal law by falsifying labels that go against the lacey act and can land people in jail ??? That's only making matters worse.

 

[Southern Wolf]

So you recommend telling people to break federal law by falsifying labels that go against the lacey act and can land people in jail ??? That's only making matters worse.

I hate to say it... but isn't that what SYR's is doing as well... by asking us to not put anything on the outside of the box and draw attention to the box?

The box is supposed to be labeled in some fashion.

 

[Twizted Paths]

So you recommend telling people to break federal law by falsifying labels that go against the lacey act and can land people in jail ??? That's only making matters worse.

I agree, but Helen isn't American so she's asking an honest question.

I hate to say it... but isn't that what SYR's is doing as well... by asking us to not put anything on the outside of the box and draw attention to the box?

The box is supposed to be labeled in some fashion.

I should've finished my fed ex certification back when I first made an account with them. I knew it was to good to be true when they couldn't provide any sort of written waiver from UPS.

 

[Southern Wolf]

I had to shut my business down for a month because of the crap with RIPster.... wont happen again. Either I will get certified or I will have to find another business. I cant put mine in the hands of others and hope they have their ducks in a row.

It is up to me... and no one else.

 

[HyderHouseHerps]

what is RIPster?

 

[WingedWolf]

I want to point out that my packages sent with SYR were always labeled "Live Harmless Reptiles". I had special stickers made up for the boxes. They always included a sticker on the top of the box by the label which said "Additional information under label". I placed a sticker with the species and common name, and the number of animals, underneath the shipping label, inside the plastic pouch--where it would be accessible without opening the box.
This is 100% in compliance with the Lacey Act.
I shipped only ball pythons.
I never had a problem.

 

[Suncoast Herpetological]

Donna I am curious...what makes you think the "Additional info in pouch" is Lacey Act Compliant?

 

[Southern Wolf]

what is RIPster?

RIPster = Reptster

David Young was proven here to be a bad apple in the herp industry.... basically he came before ShipYourReptiles.com

He set up the same thing with FedEx.... but he didnt tell FedEx about it