Southern Wolf
I don't bite..... HARD!!!
After all the bickering I have seen lately on the BOI I thought I would start a thread to help folks CYA... (cover your 
).
For several years I ran a reptile breeding business and I was always buying and shipping animals. It was just the nature of the beast when your breeding and adding to your breeding stock. After a while you learn to CYA or it's going to get taken out by someone that has no ethics or morals and will try to get something for nothing.
Some of the tips I will share here I have not shared before. The reason for this is because I felt it gave me an ace in the hole when dealing with customers and suppliers. I didn't want to tip my hand. ONE of the tips I will share would catch a seller in a bold face lie very quickly should they decide to tell it.... therefore I definitely didn't want to tip my hand in case they decided to pull that crap on me in a BOI thread. Now that I am no longer in business... it doesn't bother me to share what I have learned and used to protect my butt over the years.
Below is just a few of the tips that I have learned over the years, but they have served me well. Others can add their tips too if they like.
TIP 1.... if your selling a snake of any value, take multiple photos before you send it out. Take a photo from every side... including the belly. If there are any distingusable markings in the pattern be sure to get these including the surrounding area. This way if someone claims the snake you sent died in transit and they sent you a photo of a snake on its back you can stand a chance at IDing that snake as yours. There are some very unethical folks out there that will keep one DOA in the freezer and try to use it to scam others out of their snakes. Be sure the snake you're refunding the money on is ACTUALLY your snake. The easiest way is by keeping good photographic records before you ship them out.
Now I realize this may not be doable for those of us that produced (or produces) quanity... and you may not want to do it for say a $20 normal cornsnake.... but if you have money tied up in the transaction... why not CYA!
TIP 2.... This is probably the most important tip I can impart and was my ace in the hole. At one point in time I kept seeing requests for proof on the BOI. I got to thinking... what is the one piece of proof that you cant deny? Then it dawned on me and I changed the way I did things. I actually had to use this twice while I was in business and it served me well. So what is the proof that you cant really shoot down? I started video taping every box I opened from start to finish. It started recording the box on the table (still sealed up) and I read off the shipper information and showed it to the camera.... I also said on camera while I was opening the box what was supposed to be inside the box. I then opened up the box with the camera rolling and shooting down into the box (had camera on tripod). This way there was undenialable (Sp?) proof of the packing conditions and the condition of the animals upon taking them out of the box. I had two instances where the animals didn't make the trip and it showed clearly on the tape. They were laying in my hands upside down and they weren't moving. When I contacted the seller and sent them a private link to that video they knew for sure I was not trying to pull a fast one on them to get a free animal. They could see without a doubt the animal was in fact dead and that it was their animal. I had one seller tell me that my reputation was good enough that they didn't need to see the video but I insisted and had them contact me after they watched it.
I also rolled tape when I packed up the packages. Once the transaction went smooth I deleted the files. The key is to CYA!
TIP 3.... Archive your emails. The way I achieved this (and I dont know if it was specific to my email client software) is I would hilight all emails from someone then right click. I had the option to attach the emails to a new email. I would then send myself the new email and put the order number or some other identifing info in the subject line. By doing this it attaced all the emails into one email and I could delete the multiples and just have one sitting there containing everything. This saves space in your emails and keeps everything organized and in one place. I did this for sent and received emails.
TIP 4.... Private links are easy to accomplish if your shooting video you dont want to make public just yet. Just log into your photobucket account and make a new folder. Once you have done this you will see a little "padlock" icon out beside it. Click on this icon and it will allow you to set that folder as private. Upload your video to that folder and send your shipper the coding for the direct link to the video. This will allow them to view the video and noone else because it's in a private folder. BE SURE you tell your shipper it is in a private folder that no one else has access to because if your doing it right you named them in the video. You dont want them to think your burning them to the whole world. Give them a chance to make it right before burning them.
These are just a few of the tips that I used on a daily basis to CMA when it came to dealing with shippers and buyers. In this day and age it is a good habbit to get into.
Be safe in your transactions and always CYA... you never know when you may need it.
).For several years I ran a reptile breeding business and I was always buying and shipping animals. It was just the nature of the beast when your breeding and adding to your breeding stock. After a while you learn to CYA or it's going to get taken out by someone that has no ethics or morals and will try to get something for nothing.
Some of the tips I will share here I have not shared before. The reason for this is because I felt it gave me an ace in the hole when dealing with customers and suppliers. I didn't want to tip my hand. ONE of the tips I will share would catch a seller in a bold face lie very quickly should they decide to tell it.... therefore I definitely didn't want to tip my hand in case they decided to pull that crap on me in a BOI thread. Now that I am no longer in business... it doesn't bother me to share what I have learned and used to protect my butt over the years.
Below is just a few of the tips that I have learned over the years, but they have served me well. Others can add their tips too if they like.
TIP 1.... if your selling a snake of any value, take multiple photos before you send it out. Take a photo from every side... including the belly. If there are any distingusable markings in the pattern be sure to get these including the surrounding area. This way if someone claims the snake you sent died in transit and they sent you a photo of a snake on its back you can stand a chance at IDing that snake as yours. There are some very unethical folks out there that will keep one DOA in the freezer and try to use it to scam others out of their snakes. Be sure the snake you're refunding the money on is ACTUALLY your snake. The easiest way is by keeping good photographic records before you ship them out.
Now I realize this may not be doable for those of us that produced (or produces) quanity... and you may not want to do it for say a $20 normal cornsnake.... but if you have money tied up in the transaction... why not CYA!
TIP 2.... This is probably the most important tip I can impart and was my ace in the hole. At one point in time I kept seeing requests for proof on the BOI. I got to thinking... what is the one piece of proof that you cant deny? Then it dawned on me and I changed the way I did things. I actually had to use this twice while I was in business and it served me well. So what is the proof that you cant really shoot down? I started video taping every box I opened from start to finish. It started recording the box on the table (still sealed up) and I read off the shipper information and showed it to the camera.... I also said on camera while I was opening the box what was supposed to be inside the box. I then opened up the box with the camera rolling and shooting down into the box (had camera on tripod). This way there was undenialable (Sp?) proof of the packing conditions and the condition of the animals upon taking them out of the box. I had two instances where the animals didn't make the trip and it showed clearly on the tape. They were laying in my hands upside down and they weren't moving. When I contacted the seller and sent them a private link to that video they knew for sure I was not trying to pull a fast one on them to get a free animal. They could see without a doubt the animal was in fact dead and that it was their animal. I had one seller tell me that my reputation was good enough that they didn't need to see the video but I insisted and had them contact me after they watched it.
I also rolled tape when I packed up the packages. Once the transaction went smooth I deleted the files. The key is to CYA!
TIP 3.... Archive your emails. The way I achieved this (and I dont know if it was specific to my email client software) is I would hilight all emails from someone then right click. I had the option to attach the emails to a new email. I would then send myself the new email and put the order number or some other identifing info in the subject line. By doing this it attaced all the emails into one email and I could delete the multiples and just have one sitting there containing everything. This saves space in your emails and keeps everything organized and in one place. I did this for sent and received emails.
TIP 4.... Private links are easy to accomplish if your shooting video you dont want to make public just yet. Just log into your photobucket account and make a new folder. Once you have done this you will see a little "padlock" icon out beside it. Click on this icon and it will allow you to set that folder as private. Upload your video to that folder and send your shipper the coding for the direct link to the video. This will allow them to view the video and noone else because it's in a private folder. BE SURE you tell your shipper it is in a private folder that no one else has access to because if your doing it right you named them in the video. You dont want them to think your burning them to the whole world. Give them a chance to make it right before burning them.
These are just a few of the tips that I used on a daily basis to CMA when it came to dealing with shippers and buyers. In this day and age it is a good habbit to get into.
Be safe in your transactions and always CYA... you never know when you may need it.
