• Responding to email notices you receive.
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  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Fed Ex being late consistently. SYR insurance?

I'm sure fedex comes out ahead in the end with all the insurance they collect and dont have to refund on. If they didn't I am quite sure they wouldn't offer the insurance or the guarantee!

Jay, FedEx doesn't offer any refunds, insurance, or guarantees on live reptile shipments or live reptile accounts. Refunds are actually specifically prohibited in the contract you have to sign with FedEx.

The SYR insurance is entirely self funded by the insurance fees paid. We try to keep it affordable, and yet still be able to cover payments. Some of those recent weeks in February...yikes.
 
I'm sure fedex comes out ahead in the end with all the insurance they collect and dont have to refund on. If they didn't I am quite sure they wouldn't offer the insurance or the guarantee!

It's not Fed Ex ins. It's SYR that does this! Fed Ex offers none! So the money refunded is directly from SYR. That's why I'm not so quick to complain about a few mins or even an hr or two. Depending on weather.
 
This thread is a little older but I just wanted to chime in with a different perspective on the timeline for putting in a late arrival claim. SYR has been incredible to deal with and the ‘on time arrival’ insurance, whether it's just one minute or a whole day late, is one of those reasons.

Let’s say you have a customer who has just bought a reptile for his son’s first pet. I guarantee them that it will arrive by 10:30am. The Father is a little hesitant about ordering an animal online but they are excited about its arrival and wait anxiously for it the morning of. The clock starts running, 9:00 becomes 9:30 and then becomes 10am. They are both starting to get a little more anxious but are sure it will come within the next half hour. The clock strikes 10:30am, the guaranteed deadline has passed, and now they are getting worried. The animal is delivered at 10:45am, no big deal, but the experience of getting their first pet still has a bit of taint to it. Maybe it’s easier to just go to a local pet store next time and avoid the waiting and hassle.

Instead of being petty, it feels downright awesome to be able to tell this customer that I’m sorry for the delay and will refund what he paid for shipping. This completely unexpected and unasked for gesture has just made this customer’s day and raised the whole online pet buying experience for him and his son. Besides treating my customer well and guaranteeing future business, this feels good to me personally to be able to do. If making such claims are an issue financially, I would gladly pay more for the insurance fee to be able to pass this along to my customers.

This option is just one among many why I choose SYR for my shipping.
 
So have you made a one or two min late claim? Just asking.
I can see if after at least an hr. Talking the customer through it as its happening will also work,especially since you know that it happens and usually ends fine. You can always offer a 10 or 15 % discount on their next purchase. This too will work in most cases.
I can also see if your losing constant live animals to make claims. But most of us are not having constant issues with being late.
 
Just different points of view. I like to go the extra mile for my customers whenever possible and SYR provides one of many different options to do so. To answer your question, I don't keep track of the claims I've made over the years to the minute and SYR usually always files them automatically so I have no idea. On the other side, I just had some animals delivered late to myself a couple days ago and never considered asking for a refund or finding out if it had been shipped through SYR.

Satisfaction of the experience aside, not every one has the free time to sit around and wait for a late package even for an hour... they may be using their lunch break early, having part of their shift covered, etc. and 10:30am, per the guaranteed delivery time, represents their absolute leaving deadline before they're going to get in trouble with work for clocking in late. People have different circumstances in regard to their time and I have had many customers with this one.
 
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