I appreciate many of the productive comments but due to a family emergency, I will have to issue a refund as I won't be able to retrieve new frogs from my breeder in a timely manner.
I had a bit more time to think over this issue. A couple of years ago, I worded the buyer terms to have one of the best guarantee's in the business, a live arrival on ALL animals and two week extended health guarantee on snakes. I've shipped well over 1000 orders thus far and had only 1 snake and 2 frogs arrive dead (this customer's).
I've read many folks do not have faith in USPS for amphibians, but I have had wonderful success, actually much better success with USPS than FEDEX or UPS.
Obviously I was wrongly under the influence that live arrival guarantee on frogs meant if they were delivered on time with express delivery, but actually cannot recall ever having any frogs arrive late before and never had a frog arrive dead before, so never ran across this issue shipping hundreds of frogs for almost 2 years. My guarantee is rewritten now to include if delivered on time with express shipping although I would honor any delay in the future.
I plan to issue the refund, but it may be important to note some information that might have been excluded or overlooked which would have voided any guarantee.
When I ship reptiles/amphibians, I request the customer notify me within an hour of delivery. It is a standard statement signature sent when I email tracking numbers. A copy is below. It is intended to avoid fraud and to be able to contact the buyer by telephone to investigate matters if need be.
The USPS (Postal Service) tracking number is to arrive before 12:00 PM. Please email that your shipment arrived before noon and/or within an hour of delivery if you can or shortly thereafter to inform that your order arrived in good condition.
Click here: USPS
Thank you.
Dan
DTS HERPS, INC.
5970 SW 18th Street
Suite 245
Boca Raton, FL 33433
954-426-8268
As was the case, the item was delivered at 11 AM and I was not notified until after 5 PM. See below for the copy of the delivery time and the email below depicting the time I was contacted.
Label/Receipt Number: ER37 5431 736U S
Status: Delivered
Your item was delivered at 11:22 AM on October 19, 2007 in DERWOOD, MD 20855. The item was signed for by D KIRBY.
10/19/2007 5:08:22 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
From:
[email protected]
Reply To:
To:
[email protected]
CC:
BCC:
Sent on:
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Internet Address Card Attached
Dan,
The frogs arrived this morning and two of them were dead. One is still alive, but it looks like it is on its way out. What do we need to do from here?
Erin
As such be the case, I was not notified within the hour, but about 5 hours later. I looked at some other folk's terms and they have similar statements to cover them. At the time of the problem, I was under the influence I was not notified in time, so no guarantee applied.
I ponder if some others would honor a refund or credit or new frogs if they were notified 4 hours late? Some made some mention in their comments they have such wordage.
Regardless, there is much behind the mind-set of a transaction not reviled in just a few emails during a purchase. Some may have not kept in mind that despite I was under the influence that since this was delivered outside express service and not covered by any guarantee, I did quickly respond and offered around $80 dollars in compensation to remedy the situation before it escalated to this forum. The purchase price being $105.00 shipped for the 3 frogs, so was about $20 short.
Not implying this was fraud, but had this been a case of fraud, I was willing to stick out the argument because I was not notified in time. Another odd thing was that this initial post popped up within a minutes after the buyer made a complaint into paypal and escalated it to a claim and it was then deleted by paypal, therefore not allowing me to consider it further or resolve the matter. It all seemed a bit odd - as if planned. And this is not mention to imply anything on the buyer, but to imply I thought at the time that this might be fraud and did not know the buyer. Another unknown to all is two months ago I received a threat from an ex-friend in Maryland, and the buyer is from Maryland, so I was paranoid at the gate when the buyer said anything arrived dead and followed to not share the burden despite I was misinterpreting my own guarantee.
Before the BOI complaint, I tallied what I offered to this customer (I might be off a bit because I am in somewhat of a fog now). Despite she reported only 2 frogs that arrived dead, I offered one free frog ($30 retail), two frogs at cost ($16 each), and about $20 contribution for shipping. That arrives roughly at $82 dollars and I received $105 dollars for the initial purchase of 3 frogs and shipping costs.
The buyer was to pay $32 dollars ($16 each for 2 of them) at cost but if you take into consideration the frog that arrived alive at $25 dollars, there is only a 7 dollar difference here. And knowing me, I would have thrown in fourth free frogs anyway.
I am in a fog and blurry to attend to family emergency matters but it seems my offer before this problem seems to perhaps covered the 2 frogs that arrived dead.
I appreciate the consideration folks took to help address my terms and get this straightened out. Again, my apologies to all and the customer and appreciate the help.
Thanks.
Dan
cutting corners to save a buck on shipping is down rite rotten.
