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UPS Snake Account

S

swampland reptiles

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Has anyone been able to get a UPS account specifically for shipping snakes? If so please let me know who to talk to. We have been shipping with UPS for 2 years now. They have always known that we ship snakes. Yesterday one of our packages was opened in KY on its way to its destination. They called and said we would have to pick up the snakes or they would give them to the zoo. My account Rep., who also new we shipped snakes, contacted me and said she would send me the info in writting. When I got the e-mail I asked her where did she get this info. She said it is only in their "INTERNAL POLICY". Snakes are not excluded in the Terms and Conditions nor in the UPS Tariff. There would have been no way for me to get this info unless they would have given to me. Now they are saying they will have to give the snakes away. If any one knows who I can speak with to get my snakes on their way, please let me know.

Thanks,
Tracy
Swampland Reptiles
 
I might be wrong here, but I dont think they can legally sieze and give away your property. They can and likely will pull your shipping privilages, but again I dont think they can keep that snake.

Now if it were drugs or firearms, something of that nature its different. Thoose are illegal items and the authorities would be involved. But the snakes, while against policy, are not "illegal snakes" persay. Now are you leaving anything out, like the fact that they are venoumous snakes? If soo that would change the whole situation, and you would need to speak with a lawyer ASAP cause troubles coming. That would be illegal. But a non-venomous snake I dont see it.

The only thing I can think of is maybe just maybe they are sending a shot across our "bows" on the snake shipping issue. Im sure they know if we "feared siezure" of our snakes if caught shipping under the boards the snake shipping would come to a end. How many people are going to risk a siezure to save a few bucks?

Good luck with this, but if they stick to there guns, you may want to contact a lawyer.
 
We were shipping water snakes. Nothing illegal about that. I spoke with my account rep just a few minutes ago and now they are saying they will not even refund my shipping costs. They said that I could have another carrier go and pick them up. I am trying right now to schedule a pick up with Fed-Ex, but I don't currently have an account with them, so I don't know how long the process will take. My UPS account rep put in a request for someone from the Corporate office to give me a call regarding this matter. I'm still waiting for that!

Tracy
Swampland Reptiles
 
Just curious as to why they might have opened the box. Was it labeled "Live harmless reptiles", "Perishable", etc. I've never had a box opened and inspected, and I'm just wondering why they might have done this.
 
They said that they smelled something. Water snakes have a foul smell, but our guess is that one of the them must have threw-up a fish or something.

Tracy LeCompte
Swampland Reptiles
 
Something is VERY FISHY here.

For one no shipping cost for a snake would cost in the upper 300$ range.

What kind of snake was shipped?

Are they keeping the snake because you havent paid for the shipping?

Ive had boxes opened and inspected before, both labled and non labled (ONLY LIZARDS WERE SHIPPED). I now have an account to ship my LIZARDS via ups, and ship with labled boxes. In my opinion anyone shipping ups should be prepaired to have there boxes inspected at anytime, they are known to do it.

My money is this was a LARGE SNAKE and likely labled live. As a large snake, it likely was a very LARGE BOX (i.e. the 300 plus dollar charge). This box likely stood out and thus we are here now.
 
357.00???
owe many water snakes? 357 of them>
??
For that amount it should be a tremendously large and heavy box.
I have shipped two quads taped together to someone caus no airport near him and it cost ony 200.00 and change, four quads is 8 tropical fish boxes.
I have had trouble with UPS and no longer use them.
Fed Ex has a account where you ship snakes to yourself, they check it and if everything is nice and packed, they let you ship snakes.
UPS on the other hand will open a box, get scared, call the feds or local fish and game authroities and have them check it to make sure they are not venomous. They gave me the run around on that and didnt tell me the feds were inspecting the box, the feds came, checked the box and said why did you bother callig us, it has an invoice, snakes are packed right, has labels on the box of live harmless reptils, everything is by the book.
They left and UPS sent the package to teh destination.
They than cancelled my account which was good because fed ex now gives me a 30% discount on shipments cause of volume being shipped out of the location I ship from.
So when you get time contact fed ex, the will gladly walk you through the process of letting you ship snakes.
Mike
 
We are a wholesale company and we shipped 150 adult water snakes in several boxes. The total weight was 119 pounds which equals $357.00 in shipping costs. I have had an account with UPS for 2 years and do not have to prepay my shipping costs. They only opened the box because they said they smelled something. My rep has always known that I ship snakes as well as my local center and neither have ever had a problem with it.

Tracy LeCompte
Swampland Reptiles
 
This is a down right discrimination by UPS. So they smelled a foul oder as you stated, what did they think you were shipping? Nerve gas? Decomposing human body parts?
 
I spoke with my account rep just a few minutes ago and now they are saying they will not even refund my shipping costs.
Click to expand...

I have had an account with UPS for 2 years and do not have to prepay my shipping costs.
Click to expand...

Then I assume that means you have not paid them money for that shipment? Just refuse to pay for it then, they way they can refuse to refund your shipping costs all they want, because they don't have your money. If they want to get snotty about it, they did not complete the implied contract of this situation by completing their end of it. You contracted with them, and agreed to pay the charges, based on the delivery of the package.

I have contacted an attorney about UPS. He spoke to someone who said that UPS was at that time looking into their policy concerning the shipping of live snakes. My attorney advised that I do not have enough volume to warrant filing suit against them. But there is obivously an active case of discrimination against small businesses involved.

As far as others shipping snakes via UPS, yes, that is happening, and apparently with the approval of UPS. A person at Segrest Farms has told me that they specifically have a contract with UPS to ship snakes through their services.

Give you business to FedEx. So far I haven't had any problems using them. But they will be more expensive in many cases.
 
I spoke to someone else at UPS regarding the shipping charges being reversed. He said that he was going to try and credit my account. We'll see how that goes!! Because I am a wholesaler I have large shipments, and I already have customers complaining about shipping cost. I am worried about Fed-Ex being more expensive.
 
I shiped out snakes with UPS before I got my FedEx account, some went through and 2 did not on two seperate times. The first was that they simply returned me the box the next day back at my door with a letter explaining that they do not ship snakes and it took me 2 weeks to get my money back but they had no problem giving it back to me. The other one I got phone calls from there legal office saying that I had a really beautiful Ball Python but I had to come and pick it up at the local office(they had opened the box for what eber reason in another state then shiped it back to my local office)for me to come and pick it up. They refunded my money right then and there.

They should just have returned it back to you as they did with me twice. Good luck with the outcome but I agree i do not believe they can just give your stuff away like that!

Shanell Sepulveda -The Reptile House.

Oh and FedEx charges have gone up a bit but if you ship online you get 10% off your shipping rate.
 
buried in their policies

We had poblems with UPS about 3 years ago and it wasn't even with snakes, it was with uros, you know...those vicious and mean lizards that must breathe fire when we reptile people aren't around. (mind you that just a month prior we'd shipped a 12' female burm to Colorado with absolutely no problems.) Anyway, they opened ours at the "local" hub 50 miles away and refused to ship any farther. At that time, buried deep in their policies was a super brief statement saying that they would not ship any live reptiles. I'm going to look later this evening to see if I can find it again, but it irked me then and I pointed out to everyone I spoke to that there were numerous breeders shipping reptiles with their company and that many of them had signed agreements allowing this. I was told that I must be daft as that never happened.

Hey Mickey, you must be a figment of my imagination or something....

It's pretty clear to me that UPS has no idea what is really going on in different areas of the country and nobody at their company HQ is really paying attention to things.

Hope we can clear this up as they're the more reliable shipper here when compared to FedEx. And I say that as a FedEx account holder. Go figure.

David
 
whats funny is, is that one of the biggest breeders in the world, which im not gonna name....but we all know who he is.....has a link to ups tracking on his sight. i had a problem with them and they held a package of baby balls. there were 50 shipped and they knew they were snakes. but heres the twist, only 20 were found??? hummmmmmmmmmm so i think someone knew they were animals, crushed the box, took 3 bags of balls out and then reported it. the police took the package and was told i was SOL.
 
I am assuming it is being held in Louisville. There are a few herpers here in KY that might be able to help you if UPS wants to make good on the threat of giving the snakes away.
 
Im a figment of my own imagination.......

As to getting a shipping permit from UPS, its like pulling teeth.

You have to get ahold of the local rep, and start the process. Let them know your aware of the "no snake rule" and say you are fine with it (arent you....lol). Then when they say "were sorry you cannot ship any reptiles via ups" you tell them you would like to speak with their boss. Inform them that in your mind you are bieng discriminated against and you want this resolved.

After a few weeks of back and fourth, with some persistance you should be allowed the right to ship "live harmless lizards" above the books. You will likely have to meet in person with a sales rep at your "facility" and as such running a actual business is a definate plus.

The system can be a real pain, but once you work around it, your ok. However dont break the "no snake rule" or your sol......LOL

You choose yourself where Im sarcastic.
 
They are being held in Louisville, KY. I was not able to complete the process with Fed-Ex today, because they are checking on the policies for shipping live reptiles. Wonder how long that will take. Fortunately I contacted my customer and they have a Fed-Ex account. They are trying to set up a pick-up for tomorrow. I really hope this works. If not I might be looking for someone in KY :)

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.
 
It took me 4 weeks to get my FedEx shipping confermed with a contract to ship live snakes, I went back and forth several times but my rep was really helpful in making thins go faster. Good luck!!


Shanell Sepulveda
 
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