ShipYourReptiles.com

"Based on your numerous negative comments on various forums, voice messages and e-mail to me, I have to assume that you are concerned over the value of our services in meeting your specific shipping needs. You of course are completely free not to use ShipYourReptiles.com thus totally alleviating those concerns."

Is it just me or is that a nice way of saying off?

I would really be interested in someone from SYR to come here and address these issues and post that "letter of accord" from UPS. I don't see why they've chosen to ignore this thread but have been active on other threads about them..

Either way, I really appreciate you posting this as it will definately keep me from using their service until they get these kinks worked out.

Originally Posted by brandonsthaman

"Based on your numerous negative comments on various forums, voice messages and e-mail to me, I have to assume that you are concerned over the value of our services in meeting your specific shipping needs. You of course are completely free not to use ShipYourReptiles.com thus totally alleviating those concerns."

Is it just me or is that a nice way of saying off?

unfortunately, it really does seem to come off that way..

Maybe someone will be able to notify SYR of this thread?

Its finals week, and i gotta run to my next exam, but ill try later if i can remember..

Originally Posted by Andy'sReptiles

unfortunately, it really does seem to come off that way..

Maybe someone will be able to notify SYR of this thread?

Its finals week, and i gotta run to my next exam, but ill try later if i can remember..

Well in their email they reference 'posting negative comments on forums' or something to that extent, so yeah I would say they're aware of this thread and choose to ignore it.

Originally Posted by brandonsthaman

Well in their email they reference 'posting negative comments on forums' or something to that extent, so yeah I would say they're aware of this thread and choose to ignore it.

It's probably not this forum they are talking about. There is another thread on a different forum about this situation.

Hope things get worked out.

Becky is referring to a thread on Cornsnakes.com where I added to an already negative SYR thread. Robyn did respond on that one about The UPS Store being individually owned and issues with using them, but no response has been provided since the snake confiscation matter.

Originally Posted by brandonsthaman

Is it just me or is that a nice way of saying off?

I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

As has been posted numerous times over the years, most lately I believe in one of the Scolaro threads, it isn't really a total picture, and measure of a company what happens when things go right. The complete measure of a company is its customer service when something goes wrong.

So far, we've seen some vague emails from the company about a letter of accord, and packing procedures, and so on. That does nothing to ameliorate the fact that the name of the company is SHIP YOUR REPTILES, and something went very wrong when a customer attempted to SHIP THEIR REPTILES.

So far, there are no straight answers or satisfactory conclusions to either this particular transaction or any clear assurances as to future transactions. Certainly if there is any kind of 'letter of accord', not only should we be able to see the letter itself, but no customer should have to second guess what will happen when they want to ship their reptile, no matter where the glitch occurs. Once one pays money to a shipping service and puts one's reptiles in their hands, they should not have to worry whether or not their customer will receive it.

I myself would not risk doing even non-snake shipping with this company if they can't work out problems that are central to their shipping business. This thread does not inspire my with any sort of confidence in SYR.

Back in 2003 and early 2004, I was using UPS to ship my cornsnakes out, and everything was (I thought) done properly and through channels with UPS's management. Well, I will simply copy a post I made back on 02/03/2005 about what happened to me using UPS...

Originally Posted by Rich Z

I used to ship out my snakes via UPS. Did so for about a year. Had a local rep come out here to inspect the place and my shipping methods TWICE. Once he took photos of everything for documentation as well. Supposedly he cleared it on up the line and had everything set up. I asked my sales rep for an actual letter, but he never did come through with that. As was to be proven later, it was a mistake on my part not to pursue this more strongly and insist on getting a letter of approval.

Things were going just like clockwork and I didn't have a bit of problem. Boxes were marked properly, as per Lacey Act requirements, and I never heard a peep out of anyone.

Then one week in January (I believe) of last year, things all fell apart in a hurry. I had a couple of shipments to go out later on in the day, and the UPS driver showed up earlier in the day to drop off some packages. My wife mentioned to him that we had some shipments going out later in the day, just to remind him. Well she said he gave her a puzzled look and asked if anyone at UPS had called her. She said "No, why?" The UPS driver said that he got word down from corporate office to not pick up shipments of snakes here any longer. He was obviously embarrassed by all this and said that what he heard through the grape vine was that some snakes had escaped from one of our packages "up north" earlier in the week and terrorized one of the drivers. Well earlier in the week I had sent out three packages. I contacted each and every one of them to find out if anything "unusual" had happened with their deliveries. The only one that sounded suspicious was a package that went up into the Carolinas. At that time, they had an ice storm in the area and UPS was refusing to make any deliveries. So the customer himself had to drive to the UPS office in order to pick up his package. He said the package was undamaged and unopened, but he did get some static from one of the people behind the counter because the box was marked as having live harmless snakes in it. But other then that, nothing else was wrong. He had all of his snakes in the box and everything was OK as far as he could tell.

The other two packages arrived at their destinations uneventfully.

I have sent numerous emails and letters to UPS corporate office about this. I have had my attorney inquire to them about this incident. To date, they have never responded. Someone at UPS, quite bluntly, lied about this incident and as a result through me into a real loop when I could no longer ship my animals. I say it was a lie, because quite simply, if any of my snakes had escaped (and anyone ever receiving packages from me knows this is HIGHLY unlikely) then one of my customers either would not have gotten their shipment, or the shipment would have been short one or more animals. This is also EXTREMELY unlikely as no one was going to overlook there being 5 snakes instead of the 6 they had ordered and paid for.

UPS has refused to look into this matter and still tells me bluntly that they do not accept live snakes for shipments. Yet I know for a fact that I could get on the phone right now, this instant, and order snakes from several dealers and breeders, and they will be delivered to my door by UPS. Some even openly advertise the fact that they ship via UPS.

UPS, quite frankly, is engaging in a discriminatory practice that is damaging to some people in this business by providing a competitive advantage to some sellers of snakes over others. Yes, I could sue them, and yes I would probably win. After spending MANY thousands of dollars to do so. As my attorney told me, "Rich, do you really have enough damages to compensate for what you would get out of this?" Well, I'm not sure. Maybe if I didn't already have too much on my plate I would be very willing to find out. UPS needs to have their feet placed to the fire and either crap or get off the pot. If they are not going to accept snakes from me and you, then they should not be accepting it from Joe Blow and Jill Hill either. If they want the business, then get the business. If they don't then drop it all across the board, evenly and fairly.

Personally, I think a class action suit would be the ticket. That would spread the burden over a bunch of people and fire a shot across UPS's bow. Attorney's tend to make a LOT of money off of such broad based lawsuits, so perhaps someone could get one interested in taking this up. Quite frankly, I just don't have the steam to take this on myself. But you can bet I sure wish I could. It still burns me to even think about what they did to me.

So I guess, in a nutshell, what I am trying to tell you is that if you DO ship via UPS, they can drop you like a hot potato at any time with absolutely no notice. If it happened to me, it can certainly happen to you as well.

I have been using FedEx for about a year now, and except for the higher fees, have not had ANY problems at all using them. Matter of fact, whenever I order something from someone, I generally ask that they ship it to me via FedEx rather then UPS. It really rubs me the wrong way to give UPS any of my business in any fashion.

Yeah, they REALLY pissed me off, big time by how they treated me. That wound still has not healed over completely. Personally, I would STRONGLY suggest that a "letter of accord" from UPS CORPORATE be verified as to this exemption for shipping live snakes through SYR. If there is no CORPORATE letter, then there is no actual agreement. If the agreement is only on a local or regional level, then there is NO official agreement from UPS concerning this matter.

Quite frankly, Hell would freeze over SOLID before I would ever consider shipping my animals via UPS again after that stunt they pulled on me. But if it works for others, more power to you. FedEx has been good to me and has made shipping my animals completely headache free. THAT is what this should all really be about.

I was personally thinking about using syr.com but now... i am second guessing it. It's just as risky as just packing the box as normal and not labeling it. Im pretty sure this method is against the law, may or not be. But i have to agree with Lucille, we should not have to worry buyer/ seller about if the animal will get their safe or not? And what made me really irritated is that this hub opened the box, it is against the law to open anothers mail so what is the difference from this? maybe someone can pm me and shed some light. Im not attacking ship your reptiles in anyway, it sounds to me like they went beyond what a normal company would go threw to please the customer. But i think UPS was in the dead wrong, privatley owned or not, their still reps. for UPS. I will not be using SYR until i can see actual proof that this matter has been resolved between the two companies.

for fish, ups does not require outside documentations unless its going throught customes (international) as far as i understand it thou ups does not ship live animals period. thats why i follow the dont ask dont tell rule. the pl at my ups store here know me now and knowing accept live fish now thou but that might not be the case where your from. when you ship alot of boxes and are there 3-4 times a week they usually bend the rules a bit to keep your business. the ups stores are independantly owned aswell so they are usualy more acceptable to get the business in my experience.
fedex rates are higher now than ups and dedex requires you to be a registered live animal shipper. all you needto do is send them in an empty box with your packing materials so they can approve your packaging. like i said thou fedex rates arevery high but might solves your problems.

its not against the law for a currier to open the boxes. some curriers have it in the fine print on the shipping labels it says. the curriers actually own that box until it gets to itsdestination and is delivered. im also a registered known shipper with a few large airlines that offer same day shipping which is alot cheaper than ups and fedex. live animals are no problems there either.
its just finding someone on the other end close enough to a major airport and willing to go pick it up.