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UPS Snake Account

For some reason I have two Account Reps. that I deal with. I found out today that my District Rep works off of Commission. She is on vacation until next week. I told them that I was going to pull my account if they did not give me permission to ship snakes. The guy I spoke to earlier said my District Rep. would be very disappointed because this would affect her commission. Probably why she never told me I couldn't ship snakes! Hopefully she will lose enough money, so that she will make a little noise about their policy at the Corporate Office.

This has been my argument from the beginning. Not until we can put UPS's feet to the fire and force them into the choice of either giving up all the business they already have, both above the table and below it, for shipping snakes, or accepting everyone within reasonable guidelines, will anything ever be done about this discriminatory behavior they are taking part in.

That is what it is going to take. Unless people are willing to take that route, this sort of thread will be showing up here again and again.

BTW, how many of you signed Christian Reynold's petition that he had running a while back about this issue?
 
I did!!! It seams they want the companies that ship out hundereds of boxes a week! I know of a ton of them out there that ship with them everyday and have gotten in great heated arguements over this, they said give us there names and they will cut there business--ya right they would--and heck no was I going to do this to anyone else in the business especially when some were my suppliers :) It is different story no matter where you are from, I have my FedEx contract and 1 hour away from me my friend cant get one due to her rep so now I am trying to go through my rep to get her the parerwork to get her started. It is simply a joke and all we can do is keep pushing the matter till finally something right gets done about it.

Shanell Sepulveda
 
BTW, how many of you signed Christian Reynold's petition that he had running a while back about this issue?

I did...or at least I'm pretty sure I did...hope to (insert name of diety here) that I did. I've slept a few times since then so I won't put myself out an any limb as the memory is foggy on some things.

Rich and Mickey are right that we have to push the descrimination issue and get it resolved once and for all or everyone in the industry is going to have to circle the wagons against UPS. My local driver grins from ear to ear when we get shipments in here because he "knows" what's in the boxes and has no problem with it, just has to work for the company. Still, he doesn't report it either.

I'm one of the little guys, especially since we had to cut back a couple of years ago due to my schedule then and some re-directing of efforts here. Still, there are a whole lot of us who could be making a huge difference with our shipping $$. Personally I haven't sent anything via UPS since that last fiasco about 3 years ago. Rec'd a handful, but was certainly not my personal choosing and would have done differently had I known in advance.

David
 
Screw UPS. Fed Ex changed their policies due to Gourmet Rodent and Bill Brant the owner.
They ship out hundreds of boxes weekly and from waht I heard, met up with the top guns of Fed Ex and had the policy changed to accept snakes and other reptiles after a process of seeing your shipping methods, etc.
UPS is completely discriminatory.
Anyone know of any lawyers that want to take up a class action law suit against them?
This is hard , and if I were you I would just get approved by Fed Ex.
Screw UPS, Fed Ex will also give you a quanitity discount up to 30% if you ship enough boxes weekly. They gave us the discount.
Mike

I see no need to keep shipping UPS and trying to "hide" snakes from them when there is a company that OPENLY accepts snakes as long as you go through their approval process to see how you ship. Same as with delta, except door to door service.
UPS really doesnt give a damn.
 
Yep but the only thing is that we have to get them to change there contract to say that we can ship to residential addresses! I know you don't have to say it I know everyone just overlooks that little line of the contract! But it would be nice for them to get that part of it changed. We are in the door now just need to push nicley to get that contract altered a bit.

shanell Sepulveda
 
Shannon~ where is your friend with the trouble located? I'm in Riverside county and my account rep has changed twice~ but so far everyone I've dealt with as my "Local" rep have been super helpful even though I don't ship often at all. The latest one sent me extra business cards so I could send more snake business her way (and arranged to get me a 30% discount when I print my shipping labels on-line!)

If your freind is down this way drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the contact info for my newest "local" rep here.

BTW~ I signed the petition too
 
miamireps said:

UPS is completely discriminatory.
Anyone know of any lawyers that want to take up a class action law suit against them?
.


Allright, what the heck, here's some free legal advice:

This is not what the law considers "discrimination". Reptile hobbists/Businesses are not "protected classes".


This MIGHT possibly have some Antitrust elements,but that is WAY outside my field and I won't comment......


Lloyd Heilbrunn, Esq.
 
I agree that I don't think it is discrimination if they don't agree to ship my snakes; however, I do believe that their "Internal Policy" should have been disclosed to me 2 years ago when I started shipping with them. What good is an "Internal Policy" if their shippers don't have access to it. Everyone knew what we were shipping and no one said a thing. Its because they want the money, but if they "happen to discover" it then they want to say you weren't supposed to ship that. "Happen to discover" is how it was told to me yesterday. In other words you can do it as long as we don't find it, but who wants to ship a high dollar snake, have it make it half way to its destination and have someone call and say come pick it up or we will give it away to a zoo. I don't think any of us would be willing to take that kind of a risk!

Tracy LeCompte
Swampland Reptiles
 
a drivers view

Ok...I just have to add my two cents here. I've been working for UPS as a loader, sorter, and driver for almost 29 years. The "official" policy is NO live animal shipments, but UPS is a GIGANTIC global company doing BILLIONS of dollars of business a year...so, it will look the other way IF you have a lot of stuff to ship. Yes, they DO discriminate against the little guy....no profit in one or two boxes a week. They want the big fish.....and if it's live animals, they will look the other way and tell you what you want to hear to get your business. Then when a box is opened outside of your shipping area, it becomes your fault for violating UPS policy. Believe me, UPS is SO big, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!! The only way to get the "no live animal" policy changed is to somehow convince the brass down in Atlanta that the shipping of reptiles IS BIG BUCKS!! They're only interested in the bottom line....that much I know firsthand!! By all means, ship FedEx...if UPS sees how much volume FedEx is getting from us herpers, they might be convinced to change their policy......just my opinion.

Scott Nellis:D
 
I have just shifted to FedEx after UPS refused to ship one of my packages. The snakes arrived in time and without a glitch both in CA and CO. No more UPS for me!

Regards.
 
We weren't able to get anyone to pick them up in KY. Right now UPS is trying to get a zoo to take them. I will call back on Tuesday and find out if they were able to do this. I wonder how they will get them to the zoo! (On a UPS truck perhaps??) I am still waiting to hear from my District Rep. She comes back to work on Tuesday. We are also continuing the verification process with Fed-Ex. They said it could take a week or two to get us shipping with them.

Tracy
Swampland Reptiles
 
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