UPS Snake Awareness - "we dont ship snakes! "

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

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

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.

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.

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...

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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

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.

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".

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

Robyn@ShipYourReptiles.com : www.ShipYourReptiles.com


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