ChameleonsByVanGogh
Member
i sent out a cham today and the package was suppose to reach its destination by 12pm the next day. and it didn't i was wondering "who does everyone else use" and if you have ever had a problem with the USPS
Anyone have bad luck with USPS
- Thread starter ChameleonsByVanGogh
- Start date
pigglett79
Avid Member
I don't even like using USPS for shipping my bugs, I couldn't imagine trusting them with an animal. They are so unreliable and you do not have any recourse. They could care less about customer service because they are mandated by our constitution and it doesn't matter if they have reliability and customer service or not, they get to stay in business.
I have paid for 2 day shipping on bugs and it takes 5 days, multiple times. When I call to complain I get nothing.
I have paid for 2 day shipping on bugs and it takes 5 days, multiple times. When I call to complain I get nothing.
deathdealer91
New Member
With supplies ill doi it because i order in advance. but with animals i don't trust.
ChameleonsByVanGogh
Member
they arrived
He arrived and was healthy. I packaged him very well in a syrofoam deli container with a thick sponge and a piece of fake plant in the middle of the sponge...that container was taped to the bottom of a box and was surrounded by crumpled news paper. I took all the measures to make sure he would make it...the next step is to never use USPS again. However they did give me my money back.
He arrived and was healthy. I packaged him very well in a syrofoam deli container with a thick sponge and a piece of fake plant in the middle of the sponge...that container was taped to the bottom of a box and was surrounded by crumpled news paper. I took all the measures to make sure he would make it...the next step is to never use USPS again. However they did give me my money back.
Psychobunny
Avid Member
Where I live, USPS is utterly incompetent and useless.
I avoid them at any cost
I avoid them at any cost
Psychobunny
Avid Member
LOL!! did you ever have to pick up letters off the ground that your carrier dropped?
Ever go to your branch office to pick up your parcel, with your little orange slip in hand, and have to wait 30 minutes while they slowly shuffle here and there trying to find it?
Then, they look at you, and say "I don't know where they put it", as though they expect you to simply turn and leave?!
P.S. Oh, and add another 15 minutes if they get a phone call !!
Ever go to your branch office to pick up your parcel, with your little orange slip in hand, and have to wait 30 minutes while they slowly shuffle here and there trying to find it?
Then, they look at you, and say "I don't know where they put it", as though they expect you to simply turn and leave?!
P.S. Oh, and add another 15 minutes if they get a phone call !!
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Lathis
Chameleon Enthusiast
LOL!! did you ever have to pick up letters off the ground that your carrier dropped?
Ever go to your branch office to pick up your parcel, with your little orange slip in hand, and have to wait 30 minutes while they slowly shuffle here and there trying to find it?
Then, they look at you, and say "I don't know where they put it", as though they expect you to simply turn and leave?!
P.S. Oh, and add another 15 minutes if they get a phone call !!
I know your location SAYS Maryland... are you SURE you don't live in my neighborhood???
Psychobunny
Avid Member
I know your location SAYS Maryland... are you SURE you don't live in my neighborhood???
LOL!!! I need to take a Xanax before I go to my post office!
P.S. I'm beyond worrying if it's going to be alive or not, more focused on how bad is it going to SMELL when I open the box!!!
Like Schrodinger's cat; is it alive, is it dead, or is it at the post office
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Lathis
Chameleon Enthusiast
Like Schrodinger's cat; is it alive, is it dead, or is it at the post office
I might have to make this my new signature. Truer words have never been spoken
Norcal55
Avid Member
junglefries
Avid Member
Fed Ex, NO WAY! I pretty much quit ordering chams because everyone uses fed ex. They have NEVER ONCE delivered a package to my address. ALWAYS two doors down. My numbers are right there beside my door. I have called repeatedly, asked them to drug test my driver, and still they can't seem to read the 4" tall numbers on my house. NO THANKS AND NO WAY! Yet, UPS IN 25 YEARS HAS NOT MADE A MISTAKE ONCE! If you ship UPS, LET ME KNOW AND MAYBE I WILL ORDER AGAIN.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
UPS has done it's share to try my patience.
I once had a clerk at the counter at the main office take my package, which had big "LIVE HARMLESS LIZARD" printed all over each side, and where they all call me the "lizard man" and literally toss it about 10 feet onto the back counter behind her. When I complained, she responded with "that's nothing, you should see what they do in the back". But I chewed her out enough that she always carefully handled the package with both hands and walked over to put it down after that.
Last winter I had a pair of very rarely available lizards coming and the website said they were out on the truck for delivery that day. It was a very cold day in December. When evening came I called to see what the hold-up was, and was told the package was on the truck and don't worry with the holidays delivery comes later. An hour or so later, the status on the website suddenly changed from being on the truck to having just arrived at our local hub and scheduled for delivery the next day, with all reference to having been out on the delivery truck mysteriously disappeared. I called again, and was told the records showed that it had just arrived at the hub and there was no record of it being on the truck. Nobody would believe that the record had changed in spite of us tracking the package all day and checking the site several times and in spite of the earlier phone call where they confirmed it was on the truck. I lost the male because of the shipping.
Then they delivered other live shipments labeled loudly this winter and would sort of sneak in, leave the box lying there in freezing conditions and take off without knocking or honking. I was expecting the shipments, so lizards were OK, but 20 minutes outside in the cold killed quite a few crickets shipments this winter.
UPS depends a lot on your driver. We used to have a good driver, now we don't.
USPS used to be excellent. Prior to 9/11 for about 10 years I used USPS exclusively and shipped thousands of lizards safely, reliably and very cheaply (usually less than $20- which meant I could sell individual lizards and compete with pet shop pricing). Suddenly the local post office (very small rural office) began giving me the run-around supposedly from our local hub. I had to cut windows in boxes so they could see the lizards weren't bombs, then I had to ship the lizards in see-through bags so they could confirm there weren't tiny bombs in the outer box when they peered into the little cellophane windows I had had made. Then I had to call the office the day I wanted to ship, and they had to confirm for me whether I could ship that day or had to wait- something about connecting flights to the destination. Now, they say they cannot do next day arrival for many locations.
I don't know what happened around 2002, but suddenly USPS went from being able to reliably deliver overnight to not being able to and completely sucking big time. I think management must have changed and it has become mismanaged like the rest of what government gets involved in. Totally changed the nature of business for me. Had to get a contract with UPS (no SYR in those days) and then shipping costs were more expensive- went from $14-18 to $35-$40 in those days. Then over the past several years UPS and fedex prices have jumped through the roof. I'm lucky today if I can ship for $70 to most locations, and very often it costs more like $110. That's too expensive for individual sales in most cases, unless the animal is so unusual that buyers are willing to pay the extra shipping. So I had to sell mostly to wholesalers.
Every once in a while I think about the anoles sold as "chameleons" in the back of "boys life" magazine that my friends and I ordered as kids. $3 or something got you a year's supply of food (a little cloth pouch of mealworms) and a FREE!! "chameleon" (green anole AKA- the american chameleon). These all arrived alive for us and were shipped in a tiny non-insulated cardboard box via regular mail (not express or priority- don't think priority was invented yet).
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Psychobunny
Avid Member
I think this really depends on your location, the management of your local facility, and the drivers.
I suppose I am lucky, I LOVE FedEx, but I am somewhat biased, my delivery guy is a friend of mine. When I have a live delivery, it sits up front, with him.
When he brings it up to my door, he holds it carefully in both hands, and moves as if there was NITRO inside!!LOL
He likes to quickly peer into the cham room (once, a living room) to see my guyz
Lovereps
Avid Member
I believe that my local PO has the worst management in the USA
Our local postmaster is so incompetent that he sanctioned skipping mail delivery entirely for a day or two each week to some streets each day.
(Packages are always a crapshoot, if my regular mail person has the day off.
The substitutes often don't knock and don't bother leaving a slip. Too much bother.)
It got so bad that our senators had to intervene.
The excuses; people retired, some were out sick and a few were injured.
A business with any accountability (or profit motive) would have hired in anticipation of upcoming retirements and shifted workers around to ensure that all services continued.
Little rural PO?
Nope, this PO branch serves about 44,000 people.
What happened to the Postmaster?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens to the subs who don't attempt package delivery or leave notices?
Absolutely nothing.
For those who may doubt what I say..... http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/slow-mail-deliveries-in-two-new-hyde-park-zip-codes-now-corrected-1.7409143
Our local postmaster is so incompetent that he sanctioned skipping mail delivery entirely for a day or two each week to some streets each day.
(Packages are always a crapshoot, if my regular mail person has the day off.
The substitutes often don't knock and don't bother leaving a slip. Too much bother.)
It got so bad that our senators had to intervene.
The excuses; people retired, some were out sick and a few were injured.
A business with any accountability (or profit motive) would have hired in anticipation of upcoming retirements and shifted workers around to ensure that all services continued.
Little rural PO?
Nope, this PO branch serves about 44,000 people.
What happened to the Postmaster?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens to the subs who don't attempt package delivery or leave notices?
Absolutely nothing.
For those who may doubt what I say..... http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/slow-mail-deliveries-in-two-new-hyde-park-zip-codes-now-corrected-1.7409143
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
Well you can all be glad you don't live in AK. Most shippers exceptUSPS treat us as if we live on Mars. Some don't deliver at all. Almost all charge up to twice as much to deliver. Some overnight shippers only get the package to Anchorage overnight but then dump this urgent package in the MAIL after that (but don't tell you this when you make the arrangements). Actually, I've found that small rural POs are often better than the big ones because they get a lot less volume, tend to know the oddballs in their communities (like the person who gets 500 live flies, rodents on dry ice, birds, crickets, roaches, etc) in the mail, and who tells stories about or show pictures of their non-traditional pets when they come in to pick something up at the counter. I find if I really chat up my postmaster or the air freight desk people about the oddball live shipments they are more likely to call me when something changes, gets delayed, or immediately upon arrival.
A lot of our freight arrives by small air taxi. A few times the pilot got concerned about my crickets getting chilled on the flight so he shoved their bag inside his jacket. A chirping pilot...how great!
And, if they screw up they realize you know where they live!!
A lot of our freight arrives by small air taxi. A few times the pilot got concerned about my crickets getting chilled on the flight so he shoved their bag inside his jacket. A chirping pilot...how great!
And, if they screw up they realize you know where they live!!
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