This is the letter I got back from them. Notice all the Inter office communication they accidentally sent my way. This is what got me thinking about a letter writing campaign.
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Hi Mickey,
Just wanted to let you know that you can ship your lizards and take them to the customer counter per Brad at UPS. However, UPS will not take any snakes. Per his statement below you can take your lizards to UPS Customer Counter on 25th and Gomes Ave.
Hope this helps,
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sherry Wattier
-----Original Message-----
From: Cook Brad (nrd1bxc)
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 7:45 AM
To: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
Subject: RE: concerned customer on Reptile shipping
Sherry,
I may be misreading the letter below, but I have the impression that if we do not take snakes they do not want to use our service. I have no problem with them establishing an account (Occasional Air) with us and using the customer counter for drop off. But we will only take the lizards, not the snakes.
Brad
-----Original Message-----
From: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 7:13 PM
To: Cook Brad (nrd1bxc)
Subject: RE: concerned customer on Reptile shipping
How about being able to drop off his lizards near closing time at customer counter, so they are not left in the truck longer then they should be??
Sherry
-----Original Message-----
From: Cook Brad (nrd1bxc)
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 2:58 PM
To: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
Cc: Berenguer Stephanie (NZZ1SAB)
Subject: RE: concerned customer on Reptile shipping
Sherry,
No, there is nothing we can do for this customer. We will not take snakes (knowingly). I have debated this issue with several people at Corporate to try and get support to accept non-venomous snakes, but have not been successful yet.
Brad
-----Original Message-----
From: Berenguer Stephanie (NZZ1SAB)
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 10:01 AM
To: Cook Brad (nrd1bxc)
Subject: FW: concerned customer on Reptile shipping
Brad,
I am forwarding this to you as you might find interest reading this shipper's comments.
I don't know how (and if) you want to handle this.
Stephanie.
-----Original Message-----
From: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 9:46 AM
To: Berenguer Stephanie (NZZ1SAB)
Cc: KNADLE GREG (dak2gxk)
Subject: FW: concerned customer on Reptile shipping
Stephanie,
I am forwarding a letter from a customer that has some concerns regarding shipping reptiles. Please read below. Is there anything we can do for this customer.
Thanks,
Sherry Wattier
Area Sales Representative
402-738-6584 x2560
-----Original Message-----
From: The Lizard King Reptiles [mailto:tlkreptiles@cox.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 2:15 PM
To: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
Cc:
tlkreptiles@cox.net
Subject: Re:
Sherry
Well at this time I have decided it would be in my best intrest to go ahead and just go with Delta as my primary shipper (even though it will cost me 70$ to ship packages, and coustomers will have to pick them up at the airport). So feel free to cancel my account as it will not be used.
If you or corprate would like to know why I am chooseing to do such, I will happily break down my reasons. If at some time in the future the policies are changed, I would love to send my business your way.
I am comfortable paying the daily pickup fee, however I am not comfortable shipping unisured animals (even if lost) and being forced to send them on a truck twice often in extreme temps. If I were able to drop them off at the hub, even with a daily account charge, that would be fine.
Next a big problem with paying for your service, and all the risks with no insurance, is I would not be able to ship harmless snakes. This is a major portion of the reptile industry and is fast growing. That means I would have to pay for your service for only half or often less then half my shipping needs. Many orders are half snakes, half lizards, ect. Now we are not talking about adult snakes, dangerous snakes, or venomous snakes. We are talking about genearlly 24" or smaller animals the size of a pencil often. If if the future UPS really wanted to "controll" the reptile shipping market (a growing market mind you) they would consider offering this service on REASONABLE snake shipments. Also as we are well aware, snakes are often shipped via UPS anyways.
Lastly I did a bit of calculations, and refigured my expected shipping needs. I honestly believe with a reliable shipper of ALL my reptiles I would easily ship 10-25 packages a week for starters, with the sky being the limits. Now you figure each package would cost me atleast 30$ ea, often 40-60$ on medium orders, and 70$ or more on larger orders. Lets say I ship 10 packages a week, 40 a month @ 40$ ea on average, thats 1600$ a mo and nearly 20,000.00 annually for less then 500 shipments. Thats got to be a great margin for any company. Especially considering I am begging to cut out one step in the process. Now if you consider there are another 200-1000 companies in my same shoes you may get an idea of the big picture involved in HARMLESS LEGAL reptile shipments.
Thanks for your time, and sorry so long winded, but I figured if I fully spelled out my needs, it couldnt hurt.
Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles
402-934-9906
P,S. Also 90% of the animals I have recieved recently, INCLUDEING SNAKES, have come via UPS. I hope I dont put myself in any jeopardy for saying this, but I figure its the truth, I might as well say it. Whats the worse you guys would do, stop shipping animals all together. In all honesty at this point that would help me more then hurt me, as it would level the playing field for my business, as everyone would need to ship via the airlines at that point.
----- Original Message -----
From: WATTIER SHERRY (NPL1SSW)
To: The Lizard King Reptiles
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 12:40 PM
Hi Mickey,
Yes, you can begin shipping.However, corporate state that you do have to have a daily p/u account. Unless you leave them for pickup at you place of work.
I tried to call but no answer. I forgot my cell phone so I thought email would get to you.
Tx
Sherry Wattier
UPS Area Representative