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Rich Z, thank you for as usual cutting through the controversy and getting a straight answer. And thank you Robyn at ProExotics for providing one... from what I have seen, my personal opinion is that your customer service is excellent and you are providing an essential service that is long overdue to small breeders like myself. Keep up the good work, and best of luck getting a general exemption approved so we will have smoother sailing with UPS employees. For now, I'll be packing carefully and giving the boxes to the driver at work.
 
Thanks Rich for posting that.

Robyn, I thank you and all of the SYR staff for doing what you are doing for this community. It's never easy branching out on a new business avenue and there are sure to bumps along the way. But with good employees and supportive customers those bumps can be over come. This is a good thing for the reptile shipping industry and I hope it succeeds beyond your expectations.

:thumbsup:
 
Robyn called me this evening (Thanks, Robyn!) and read me the entire letter from the corporate offices of UPS. I am convinced that it is legitimate and a genuine effort if underway to get UPS to accept live non venomous snakes. As the wording of the letter precludes Robyn from posting that letter I agree that it is not in the best interests of this project for him to jeopardize his relationship with UPS by defying a stipulation of that agreement.

:thumbsup:

Sounds great! And great decision on the part of SYR to make that effort.

Hope that your endeavors succeed SYR, and hopefully UPS will honor the bargain they've struck with you without too much hassle to your customers.
 
Hope that your endeavors succeed SYR, and hopefully UPS will honor the bargain they've struck with you without too much hassle to your customers.


I agree. I think this was a good way to resolve the situation.
 
Robyn called me this evening (Thanks, Robyn!) and read me the entire letter from the corporate offices of UPS. I am convinced that it is legitimate and a genuine effort if underway to get UPS to accept live non venomous snakes. As the wording of the letter precludes Robyn from posting that letter I agree that it is not in the best interests of this project for him to jeopardize his relationship with UPS by defying a stipulation of that agreement.

After days of this back and forth, thank you for finally doing this, Robyn. Rich's reassurance of the exemption is enough for me to try a third time for a shipment. Don't have anything I'll be shipping anytime soon (and if these snakes don't start laying soon I'm going to be pulling my hair out!), but when the time comes I will offer the option to someone willing to attempt it. :thumbsup:
 
Well I knew SYR would pull through... okay, I didn't, but I was really hopeful. I'm glad they did!

Thanks Robyn and Rich!
 
Am I the only one who sees this as something that can be a great thing, but at this time is so under the table that those of us who may only ship a few packages a year will still have problem until UPS changes their policies completely?
What Trip went through with her shipper, sounds like could happen on countless times in the future until we are able to produce some sort of documentation that proves we are able to legally(by UPS) standards ship snakes. I'd still be very leary of shipping with SYR, Until either I or the person I'm buying a snake from can prove to my local UPS hub that yes, I have said paperwork that says I can do this legally through UPS.
Just my thoughts and maybe I'm way off base, but is how I'm feeling right now
 
Am I the only one who sees this as something that can be a great thing, but at this time is so under the table that those of us who may only ship a few packages a year will still have problem until UPS changes their policies completely?
What Trip went through with her shipper, sounds like could happen on countless times in the future until we are able to produce some sort of documentation that proves we are able to legally(by UPS) standards ship snakes. I'd still be very leary of shipping with SYR, Until either I or the person I'm buying a snake from can prove to my local UPS hub that yes, I have said paperwork that says I can do this legally through UPS.
Just my thoughts and maybe I'm way off base, but is how I'm feeling right now

What I see has happened in Trips case is a nosy UPS employee, don't you? Trip told the shipper what to write on the box. So the first package was marked with all the correct things to tell there was some thing 'live' in the box. So what suspicion did the employee have to open it? It was clearly marked. IMO the UPS employee behind the counter wanted to see the pretty animals, opened the box to find snakes and freaked out. I would still like to hear what that employee has to say as to why they opened it in the first place. Then of course after seeing it was snakes, they called her to come pick it up and they flagged 'that' tracking number. So since it was flagged it was stopped a second time. Would it have been nice to have a paper or phone number one could call? Sure. But would it have helped? Probably not. I've known many other FedEx certified shippers that have shown their paper, including me, to a snake phobic counter clerk and they still refuse the package. Even after phone calls to managers they won't ship it. So the shipper picks up the box, leaves, goes 5 minutes up the road to some mom and pop shipping spot and ships with out any hassle. I think this case was one of the extreme cases. The ones that are 1 in a million to happen.
 
OH !!!

Robyn called me this evening (Thanks, Robyn!) and read me the entire letter from the corporate offices of UPS. I am convinced that it is legitimate and a genuine effort if underway to get UPS to accept live non venomous snakes. As the wording of the letter precludes Robyn from posting that letter I agree that it is not in the best interests of this project for him to jeopardize his relationship with UPS by defying a stipulation of that agreement.


:beer::?party::lol01:
In your face who ever doubted Robyn~!
 
I'm getting a little aggravated with this juvenile "in your face" nonsense. Letter or not, it doesn't change the fact that packages are being refused and animals are being confiscated. Reading the letter to Rich is a HUGE step in the right direction to put many at ease, but if UPS isn't changing policy or flagging this account to prevent these issues, it's moot. I still maintain everyone think, if these snakes had been confiscated in a state between our locations...What would we have done?

These refusals and confiscations are a UPS issue that I hope SYR can get on them about. I hope SYR and UPS take this problem seriously and can come to some sort of arrangement to prevent the problems in the future.
 
I'm getting a little aggravated with this juvenile "in your face" nonsense. Letter or not, it doesn't change the fact that packages are being refused and animals are being confiscated. Reading the letter to Rich is a HUGE step in the right direction to put many at ease, but if UPS isn't changing policy or flagging this account to prevent these issues, it's moot. I still maintain everyone think, if these snakes had been confiscated in a state between our locations...What would we have done?

These refusals and confiscations are a UPS issue that I hope SYR can get on them about. I hope SYR and UPS take this problem seriously and can come to some sort of arrangement to prevent the problems in the future.

I couldn't agree more. Just having a letter that you can't post because UPS asked you not to, doesn't make me feel any better about using SYR to receive or ship animals until they come to a public agreement that users of the SYR service can go to their local hub with.
 
I couldn't agree more. Just having a letter that you can't post because UPS asked you not to, doesn't make me feel any better about using SYR to receive or ship animals until they come to a public agreement that users of the SYR service can go to their local hub with.



For those of us who have been around long enough to remember some well placed doubts over the years on this board, I for one think that asking for proof/reassurance is not misplaced.
I think Robyn's reading of the letter to Rich was a significant step in boosting confidence in the face of the glitches we saw, as was the fact that SYR picked up the charges associated with this particular glitch.

It's not yet smooth sailing but I think Robyn is going to do his level best to bring UPS up to par, after all, his business depends on it. The SYR idea has saved lots of money to those who ship reptiles. While that is no comfort to those who are the victims of a UPS glitch, to me, the letter and the payment of the glitch charges show that there is some serious effort here to make the service better.
 
I'm getting a little aggravated with this juvenile "in your face" nonsense. Letter or not, it doesn't change the fact that packages are being refused and animals are being confiscated. Reading the letter to Rich is a HUGE step in the right direction to put many at ease, but if UPS isn't changing policy or flagging this account to prevent these issues, it's moot. I still maintain everyone think, if these snakes had been confiscated in a state between our locations...What would we have done?

These refusals and confiscations are a UPS issue that I hope SYR can get on them about. I hope SYR and UPS take this problem seriously and can come to some sort of arrangement to prevent the problems in the future.

I quoted the above in its entirety because the above statements are THAT important. The letter (given the assumption that it exists) is pointless if UPS doesn't honor the terms of that agreement (which they don't seem to be doing) and SYR doesn't take massive steps to make sure those terms ARE accepted. This isn't the phone example - these are time sensitive packages containing live animals. They MUST be legally labeled, and "flying under the radar" is like not having a waiver at all. This reminds me of all the illegal shipping done prior to FedEx approving anyone that qualifies: "Sure we CAN do it, just don't let anyone know so we don't get in trouble."

If the packages are being stopped - UPS problems or not - then this "beta testing" is a failure. What percentage of messed up shipments are acceptable? 5%? 1% 0.5%? In my opinion, 1% is MUCH to large of a margin of error, and I doubt these people are seeing 99% of the packages go through flawlessly when legally marked. That's just sad.
 
Stephanie Kunder, this was totally uncalled for, I think you owe Robyn an apology. You make me sick, and your comment about moving it to the BOI is a joke. Robyn is nothing but a good guy, PROVEN many times. You came in here and called him a liar, now it is time for you to buck up with a big “I’m sorry”.

Also while we are on the subject, is it not true that you, Stephanie Kunder, has wanted to set up a shipping account business like Robyn’s? And all of this is based on jealousy?

I will be honest with you Stephanie; I have not trusted you ever since I went in on a breeding loan with you. You claimed the snake died with not one ounce of proof. That snake was 100% healthy and was in my care for a long time, without any issues at all. But we will leave that one alone for now. Bottom line is, you were wrong about Robyn, and you need to apologize to him and stop attacking someone that is here to help all of us.
 
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