Cham stolen during the shipping process?

Oh damn Lance!!!! What bad news. Someone is being dishonest here. The customer could very well be a scammer. I have heard of scams like this. Some people are even going to the length of videoing the cham being put in the box and shipped off for this very reason. I am sorry this happened to you. Best of Luck and Happy Holidays.
 
Lance - I hope this helps you a bit. My roommate works for FedEx, so I asked him their procedures. The easiest thing for you to do at this point is to call 1-800-GOFEDEX, and tell them that a buyer is questioning the integrity of a package that you shipped with them. They will start an internal investigation for you. Every package is weighed as it leaves each depot, so there is a weight on file for the box when it left the last depot and went out for delivery. Also, the trucks have cameras in the back, so between these things Fed Ex should be able to determine that their driver did not tamper with the box and that it was intact when it reached the buyer. I'll bet the buyer decides to forget his claim with Paypal when he learns about these steps. Good luck, and sorry that you have to deal with this right before Christmas!

Michelle
 
The only postive here is that Lance & I were able to determine this jerk is not a forum member. Thay would have bothered me even more. Still we all need to know scammers are out there and we may have one as a part of us. I personally chose to believe we don't.
 
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If someone from the shipping place wanted to steal the cham they would take the entire box. I would say that no one would risk their job over something like this, but my assistant store manager was fired for selling his "free" once a week 1lb of starbucks coffee on ebay so......who knows what goes through peoples heads.

It sounds really fishy. I would not give a refund because that's a bunch of bull. He/She probably just wants a second cham from you or a freebie. I would get in contact with the police. Don't let this person get away with that.
 
i work for UPS, and unfortunately yes we do have a theft problem which the company is battling pretty much all the time, however i don't believe an employee could have pulled that off. overnighted packages are treated alot better than ground shipped packages, and need to be moved as quickly as possible. employees in my warehouse wouldn't even have the time to go through those boxes due to the high amount of work, especially at christmas time. i have heard other unfortunate stories though, like a box breaking open with a baby bearded dragon in it. noone knew what to do with it so they let it go outside ( in the winter) :( tht rarely happens but it has. i agree with everyone else though....no refund!
 
Lancecham said:
Here is the situation:
I shipped a cham on Monday. I followed up with my customer on Tuesday morning. He stated there was no cham in the box. He stated the heat pack and shredded newspaper were inside the box, but no cham.
The cham was secured inside a snake bag. The customer states there was no snake bag in the box.
The box was not damaged in any way.
I am 100% positive I put the cham in the box. I remember it distinctly. I doubled checked and the cham was not in any of my cages. I know I shipped it. Again, I am 100% postive I put it in the box.
The customer picked the box up at a FedEx hub.

SO where did the cham go?
The only options are that the customer is not telling the truth. Or it was taken from the box by a FedEx employee during the shipping process. I personally dropped it off at the same location that I ship most of my chams from(FedEX hub). The customer states the box my have been tampered with and the bottom of the box may have been opened up and then resealed. From what I can see in the picture of the box, it does not appear that the box was tampered with, but it is hard to tell from the pics.

You can imagine how I feel. To make matters worse, the customer is not being too cooperative. I told him Tuesday morning that I would check my inventory when I got home in the evening. Less than a hour later, has filed a claim with paypal which I was able to get resolved then he appealed it.

The insurance does not cover this situation. I have been communication via emails letting my customer know what I am doing to resolve the situation.

I am not writing this to bash anyone, but rather, I would like to get people's opinion on is how this should be eventually resolved. Do I just return his money, do I give him a partial refund, no refund? or what?
What do you think is fair?
Click to expand...

I have to agree with a few others here, if the customer is being difficult, I would be very suspicious.

Others have mentioned about the overnight factor, and it being difficult. I wouldn't say its IMPOSSIBLE for a delivery employee to steal it, but with a difficult customer....I'd be more suspicious of him.
 
With a normal Ground package, maybe, it touches so many hands, takes a little longer than the overnight next morning packages, but the probability of it happening to a package that spends less than 12 hours in transit? Highly unlikely. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to offer a refund in this case.

-Dave
SPF
 
So it's Sunday has paypal dropped it? If so that dude's just a liar. Everything sounds fishy and I don't see you forgetting to put the Cham in the box. I have heard a lot of stories of tampered boxes during the holidays. My friend ordered stuff from JCPenny and some of the things were missing. She got them reshipped, but the box did look tampered.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I tend to agree asI think the guy wanted some extra cash during Christamas.
Paypal extended the response time for the guy to fill out a police report. He now has until 12/31...
So the drama continues!
 
Yeah... It seems really suspicious that the customer filed a complaint with PayPal before you even confirmed that you didn't just forget to put the cham in the box. That sends up a red flag to me that the customer is lying.

Sorry you're having to go through this, but I think it will come back to bite the customer in the end. If you need someone to vouch for you for any reason, I am more than willing. I'm extremely happy with the two chams I've purchased from you.
 
Damn Lance!! Sorry to hear about this mess!!

Let the record show , i have personally ordered a Cham from Lance and it was in the box!! Just as he discribed!! Foam insolation,shredded news papers, heatpack and the Cham in snake bag!

Great guy and seems very honest!

Lance , i don't know about any other Cham owners . But when you shipped my Cham , i opened it right at the Fedex Hub! Lil Excited:D! All the workers actually came from out back to see what was in the box. I opened it and he was good and they were all :eek:. I went back the to that hub the other day and they remembered me and even asked how the Cham was doing . Thats the kinda impression the experience put on them.

If i were you i'd bet $$ that he opened it at the fedex hub and they would remember.
Call them up and see if anyone recalls a person picking up a delivery and it being a Chameleon. Can't hurt.
 
Eh, I'm not sure how many people actually open up animal shipments anywhere but home or in the car. Especially around now that it's cold. I always have my chams shipped to the fede/UPS center and I never open it there, always at home, so they can come out and go directly into their cage.

You could very well try calling and asking but I don't think that's likely. Especially if he was planning this scam, wouldn't do well to have witnesses and security tape.
 
Olimpia said:
Eh, I'm not sure how many people actually open up animal shipments anywhere but home or in the car. Especially around now that it's cold. I always have my chams shipped to the fede/UPS center and I never open it there, always at home, so they can come out and go directly into their cage.

You could very well try calling and asking but I don't think that's likely. Especially if he was planning this scam, wouldn't do well to have witnesses and security tape.
Click to expand...

Hey, whats a phone call?? He has to wait till the 31st as is!

Just Saying...
 
I've been told by screameleons that they do not label their packages "live chameleon" etc. because they suffered a situation when some fed ex employee took a chameleon out of the box and played with it and then put it back inside.

I no longer label my boxes "live chameleon" I just label them "live animal"
 
Drama is over. It has been a rollercoaster ride. The other party did get a police report and submitted it. It took paypal a few days to review it due to the holidays. A few days ago, I got an email from paypal stating that the ruling favored the buyer and that the buyer was to ship back my chameleon and I had to give a refund.
This all sounded like nonsense to me as he was claiming there was no cham, but he was supposed to ship it back!!!
I spoke with paypal and discussed the case with them. I re-iterated that it was a chameleon we were dealing with. I guess I spoke to the right person at paypal and she said that paypal does not deal with live animals(they will only make sure a package was delivered). I told her I knew that but I wondered how he was able to appeal the process. She said that that my buyer should not have been allowed to appeal. She forwarded my case to her supervisor.
Yesterday, paypal closed the case in my favor...
 
Well its about time!!!!! You knew where I stood on this subject!!! :)

Must say this has been quite a learning experience for alot of people. Thank you for sharing all of this with us... but so sorry you had to go through it
 
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