Nirvana
Genetics Geek
Ugh, I had so freaking hoped to never have to make a post even remotely like this on this site ...
First of all I want to start by stating that this is not, inherently, an accusatory post. I'm still a little bit on the fence about what I think is going on here -- hence the title of the thread.
Long story short, I bought a ball python (albino) from a gentleman named Greg Wark in Pennsylvania about two months ago. At the time I bought the snake I was living in upstate NY. When I first contacted him I thought I might want to drive down to pick it up, but at the time gas was $4.30/gallon so I elected to have it shipped instead (still kicking myself over that, obviously...). He almost shipped it the week before we moved but didn't get ahold of me in time, so he agreed to hold the snake until we had moved out to MA.
It took me about two months after that to get him to agree to ship the snake; I do believe that he was genuinely busy, but it was still fairly frustrating. We finally agreed that he would ship this past Tuesday for Wednesday delivery. Tuesday afternoon he sent an email with the FedEx tracking number. On Wednesday morning I waited around for the snake, but no show. I tried the tracking number but it didn't work -- was not valid. I contacted Greg and he said that the tracking number wasn't working for him either. During this time, in fact for most of this ordeal, he was and has been fairly prompt responding to emails, and has not chosen to break contact with me at all.
I called FedEx Thursday morning, and the woman on the phone told me that there was not only no record of that tracking number, but no record of my address whatsoever. I told this to Greg and he agreed to go to the FedEx facility to see what was up. He emailed back that evening saying that FedEx claimed that the package was received at my residence. This didn't make a lick of sense to me given that they had told me that there was no record of my address in the system, but I called FedEx again and they still told me the same thing. This time the guy searched even just by my name and still found nothing.
The FedEx guy told me to find out the exact location where he dropped it off, but Greg claims that he can't remember which one it was. He says that it was in Philadelphia near the airport. The ZIP code on the receipt appears to be a Reading ZIP code, though, so I don't know what's going on there.
At this point I'm not sure what to think, though whatever it is, it isn't good. I know if I had actually shipped somebody a live snake, and they claimed never to have received it, and the tracking number wasn't working, I'd be pretty darned upset and I'd be doing everything in my power to try and figure out what the heck went wrong. I know not everyone is as verbose as I am, but I feel like I'm getting some pretty evasive emails back (I'll post them below). I have a hard time reconciling what FedEx is telling me with what Greg is telling me. At the same time, it seems like a lot to go through to rip somebody off -- but then what do I know.
I'm just wondering, from the Fauna crew, if this kind of FedEx screwup has ever happened to anyone else before. Maybe I'm being overly paranoid in thinking that Greg has done something wrong. FedEx is a big company; I don't have any difficulty envisioning them screwing something up somewhere.
Thoughts, questions, comments? I'm not trying to be accusatory here, but I am pretty freaking frustrated.
I'll post some email correspondence below.
First of all I want to start by stating that this is not, inherently, an accusatory post. I'm still a little bit on the fence about what I think is going on here -- hence the title of the thread.
Long story short, I bought a ball python (albino) from a gentleman named Greg Wark in Pennsylvania about two months ago. At the time I bought the snake I was living in upstate NY. When I first contacted him I thought I might want to drive down to pick it up, but at the time gas was $4.30/gallon so I elected to have it shipped instead (still kicking myself over that, obviously...). He almost shipped it the week before we moved but didn't get ahold of me in time, so he agreed to hold the snake until we had moved out to MA.
It took me about two months after that to get him to agree to ship the snake; I do believe that he was genuinely busy, but it was still fairly frustrating. We finally agreed that he would ship this past Tuesday for Wednesday delivery. Tuesday afternoon he sent an email with the FedEx tracking number. On Wednesday morning I waited around for the snake, but no show. I tried the tracking number but it didn't work -- was not valid. I contacted Greg and he said that the tracking number wasn't working for him either. During this time, in fact for most of this ordeal, he was and has been fairly prompt responding to emails, and has not chosen to break contact with me at all.
I called FedEx Thursday morning, and the woman on the phone told me that there was not only no record of that tracking number, but no record of my address whatsoever. I told this to Greg and he agreed to go to the FedEx facility to see what was up. He emailed back that evening saying that FedEx claimed that the package was received at my residence. This didn't make a lick of sense to me given that they had told me that there was no record of my address in the system, but I called FedEx again and they still told me the same thing. This time the guy searched even just by my name and still found nothing.
The FedEx guy told me to find out the exact location where he dropped it off, but Greg claims that he can't remember which one it was. He says that it was in Philadelphia near the airport. The ZIP code on the receipt appears to be a Reading ZIP code, though, so I don't know what's going on there.
At this point I'm not sure what to think, though whatever it is, it isn't good. I know if I had actually shipped somebody a live snake, and they claimed never to have received it, and the tracking number wasn't working, I'd be pretty darned upset and I'd be doing everything in my power to try and figure out what the heck went wrong. I know not everyone is as verbose as I am, but I feel like I'm getting some pretty evasive emails back (I'll post them below). I have a hard time reconciling what FedEx is telling me with what Greg is telling me. At the same time, it seems like a lot to go through to rip somebody off -- but then what do I know.
I'm just wondering, from the Fauna crew, if this kind of FedEx screwup has ever happened to anyone else before. Maybe I'm being overly paranoid in thinking that Greg has done something wrong. FedEx is a big company; I don't have any difficulty envisioning them screwing something up somewhere.
Thoughts, questions, comments? I'm not trying to be accusatory here, but I am pretty freaking frustrated.
I'll post some email correspondence below.
Are you able to track it on your end?
