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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....

Steps To Become Fedex Certified!!!

Was looking into getting certified, and I was wondering if anyone knows if you can get a better shipping rate if you have a business license? I was just wondering because I don't have one atm. Was doing it more so I could trade with people at least right now, but if a business license would save me on shipping I could get one cause I think there only 15$. I know my job gets a discount because their a business so was just wondering if anyone had the answer since it pertains to shipping herps could be different.

Thanks,
Brendyn
 
FedEx doesn't really care about your business license - that doesn't make them money. They just care about how many boxes you will be shipping each year. And of course, they want to know that you have passed their box and waiver approval and follow their rules.

You can immediately get a 10 - 15% discount just by doing all of your FedEx paperwork for each shipment online (instead of filling them out by hand). And once you have been shipping for a while, if you are doing at least 1 - 2K with them per year, or something near that, you can probably get additional discounts. Maybe even if you do less volume you can still get a discount - never hurts to talk to your rep to find out.
 
Well, I got my box approved with no problem at all...it's getting the paperwork done after that that's going on 2 months now.
Apparently they did some department reorganization...my old rep is no longer my rep, and the new one was supposed to contact me. Well, new rep hasn't.
The old rep is actually getting irritated too, and has stepped in to try to find out what's going on. I've been assured that I should be contacted soon (again).
I just knew this wasn't going to be quick and easy. <lol>
At least I only have a handful of for-sale animals left, so it's no huge issue waiting on it.
 
I've been getting that runaround too, but don't lose hope. I finally heard from my rep today and he hooked me up with the info I needed. And what are the odds, the guy has been thinking about getting a snake and we talked about BPs for a bit. Very cool, and he's super nice.
 
Only took me one try. But it did drag out for about 3 weeks. When I finally got a hold of my Rep, I stressed to her, that I have a business to run, so expedition of this needed paperwork is a must. We switched to emailing everything back and forth, and it seemed to speed things up a bit.

But I still ain't very impressed with their legal dept's ideas of the waiver thing. I seemed to have gotten past the "no residential deliveries" thing, by proving to them via link, that my home is my business address, and so are a lot of customers I deal with.

Anyway, good luck.
 
It took me six days.... I scanned all docs and emailed them back...... my rep even set me up for a 16 % discount on all shipping.....
 
ALWAYS BE SURE YOU'RE CLEARED BEFORE SHIPPING

3 months ago I sent in my final waiver and was told I was good to go. 12/21/08 @ 7:37pm to be exact. Turns out the guy did not do the little task of sign the document and fax to the Live animal department. I don't want to get into the hell that I had to go through to find out why I was not able to ship, but it was hell none the less and finally I got things straight. The poor fedex ladies who helped me had to deal with an angry customer (me) as more info built against me and no one could or would help.

Since there is no such thing as customer service anymore, no one could or would help me get anywhere. Finally I called Fedex for the 50th time and said I need to speak to a person, not a darn voicemail because I needed an answer now as I had a snake ready to ship. This one lady who could hardly speak full sentences but still spoke pretty good english did not break from 'happy to help' attitude and got me Kathy of the live animal desk in person rather than doing like the rest and shooting me to voicemail.

Kathy of the live animal desk was a super help and she and I figured out it all came down to my rep not doing the little task of signing the final document and shooting it to her 3 months ago. She got me set and was very nice about it! I was smart enough to have saved all documents on my computer so I could shoot them straight to her. (Kathy, you rock! :thumbsup:)

Anyways, the moral of this abridged version of my story is: always be sure you are good to go before you try to ship. I was told I was good to go and turns out I was not. This caused 2.5 hours of stress and problems that were not needed.

A secondary moral, more of a suggestion: save EVERYTHING! if I did not have the documents from the waiver to the package report, I would have had to go through the process from step one all over again.
 
What if a customer needs to return the package?

I just went through hell the other day trying to return a snake to the breeder that sent it to me. I used the same box and labels it came with. Walk into the FedEx Kinkos office and for some reason everyone just stared at me? I was like wtf? I noticed everyone's attention was directed towards the live harmless reptile sticker on the box. The first question was, whats in the box? I said a frog (ball python) and it all started going down hill. I talk to the manager there, customer service number and they all told me they cannot ship live reptiles. I went on to explain that FedEx does have a reptile shipper certification program and that the shipper was certified. They seem unaware that a certification program exists. After a long conversation with the customer service lady on the phone, she was about to ok the shipment until they realized that this could only be done business to business! :bandhead0 I asked how the hell did I get that same package delivered to my house this morning then? They didn't have an answer for me. Enough is enough, after a good 15 mn trying to explain to everyone how things work, I drove to the next FedEx Kinkos, took the live harmless reptile sticker off the box, walked in and handed the package to the shipping attendant. No questions asked, got my receipt and walked out. The package was back the next morning to the original shipper.
As a buyer/customer my question will be, how do you shippers handle returns? and what are the proper steps on returning a live reptile?
I guess a fast answer will be, dont follow any FedEx certification rules and take all stickers off?
 
The business to business clause has been there from the start. Usually, home based businesses are considered acceptable (though that might not OFFICIALLY be the case). The best way to do it, and stay within the terms of the contract is to ship FedEx to FedEx...and use FedEx staffed facilities, as opposed to Kinkos or other ship outlets.

And my fast answer is not to disregard the rules & proper shipping methods.....
 
Diego, are you not FedEx Certified? If not, it doesn't matter if the person that shipped to you is FedEx Certified...It doesn't apply to you shipping an animal back.

This does raise an extremely interesting question. What the heck do you do if a buyer isn't FedEx Certified and wants to return an animal? I've never had it happen and I've never even thought of it until this post!
 
So you're saying I can't schedule the pick up of a reptile, under my account, to be delivered to me? What did I go through the whole process for if it's a one way street?
 
TripleMoonsExotic said:
Diego, are you not FedEx Certified? If not, it doesn't matter if the person that shipped to you is FedEx Certified...It doesn't apply to you shipping an animal back.

This does raise an extremely interesting question. What the heck do you do if a buyer isn't FedEx Certified and wants to return an animal? I've never had it happen and I've never even thought of it until this post!
Click to expand...
No I'm not since I dont sell or breed reptiles...yet ;). But I have being expanding my collection in the last several months and this was the only time that a transaction had go wrong, and I had to ship the animal back. The shipper offered his account to be use and bill to but I didn't know I would have so much trouble sending it back.
 
not an unheard of problem...try returning something when the seller used UPS :ack2:
 
not an unheard of problem...try returning something when the seller used UPS
Click to expand...

I have heard of difficulty shipping UPS, or specifically getting certified to.. What does one do to ship UPS over fedex? I have never dealt with UPS for reptile shipments, but everything else I have shipped UPS I have had less problems with, so if it is possible for someone who is not a big time dealer to ship UPS, I would love information on it!
 
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