Done with shipping.

[UrbanChameleon]

I am NEVER shipping an animal ever again.

Fed Ex gave me the worst freaking time. I wasted half a gallon of gas driving back and forth since 2 PM this morning. I just now got home and it's 7:30.

I ended up calling shipyourreptiles.com and spoke to a very nice man (Andy I think) and he walked me through how to deal with this rude lady. I could have never done it without their business and I highly recommend them. The Fed Ex lady claimed she'd never heard of shipyourreptiles.com and she has been working there for 30 years. "They must be a new company" she said. She had never heard of them, so obviously that means I was trying to scam her. Yeah right..
She also "didn't have the time to call Ship Your Reptiles", she's above that. When all was said and done.. after all of her rudeness, she figured out the business was legit. "I'll do it just this one time", yeah you will lady!

I can't believe she wouldn't let me ship the package, and wouldn't check up on it to make sure it was legit. So she put me through unnecessary stress, and in the end she lost. I'm pretty sure I'm never shipping a live animal every again. I'm sorry for venting, but I wanted to let everyone know that shipyourreptiles.com is awesome. I doubt any of us would be able to ship an animal without them. They've given our community a good reputation when it comes to transporting animals. So use them.

I can't wait to hear that he got there safely. Keep your fingers crossed for the Veiled Chameleon in transit guys.

 

[Olimpia]

Ugh, what a hassle!
I experienced something similar the last time I shipped a snake out to someone. I dropped it off at the FedEx place and as we're driving away I get a call from the center to come right back. We get back and the guy is like "uuuh, the box says live animal, I don't think we can ship live animals." I explained that they can because I've sent and received my share of them through FedEx, and he called a supervisor and gave me the green light, after apologizing.

I guess some employees just don't know. Maybe your lady has worked in another department of Fedex all this time and she's now doing shipping. Next time just ask them calmly to check with a superior and it should be resolved quickly. It's just needlessly nerve wrecking for us doing the shipping! lol

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Ugh, what a hassle!
I experienced something similar the last time I shipped a snake out to someone. I dropped it off at the FedEx place and as we're driving away I get a call from the center to come right back. We get back and the guy is like "uuuh, the box says live animal, I don't think we can ship live animals." I explained that they can because I've sent and received my share of them through FedEx, and he called a supervisor and gave me the green light, after apologizing.

I guess some employees just don't know. Maybe your lady has worked in another department of Fedex all this time and she's now doing shipping. Next time just ask them calmly to check with a superior and it should be resolved quickly. It's just needlessly nerve wrecking for us doing the shipping! lol

That's exactly what this lady said! She told me that I couldn't ship a live animal. I told her people do it allll of the time. She told me I needed to be "certified" in order to do it. I read, read, and read all week and never saw anything like that. Being certified makes things easier in the long run and what not, but you don't have to be certified to ship. I've had plenty of people ship to me that weren't.

It was ridiculous. Live animals can be legally shipped if you follow the guidelines. As long as the animal is not venomous or endangered. I'm not expert of Fed Ex policies by any means, but the shipping staff are so quick to shoot us down. You have an animal in a box. You don't need someone making the process that much harder on your or the animal.

 

[Wykd]

The common denominator in both situations... FedEx. I would slit my wrist before dealing with them. Hell I have had to pass up some good deals online because the companies ship thru Fedex not UPS or DHL.

I never never do business with FedEx

 

[laurie]

Did you go to a fed ex place or a storefront that also does fed ex? We got the same thing in Orlando a couple years ago. My sister tried to ship a turtle home and the lady had a fit, it isn't legal, never been done, the whole line of crap. Our friend, a vet was with us, ivan went in and the lady still did not think it was allowed. We took it to the fed ex hub and shipped with no problem.

I had a little work when I moved to this miniature town, getting both fed ex and UPS trained. My packages are the last ones picked up and incoming live animals never get on a truck. I meet the incoming planes. That is a lot easier for them than listening to me scream at someone when I don't get a live animal timely. They all hate for me to scream at them. Go figure.

 

[Wykd]

luckily the postal connections above my house doesn't hire ppl that are career clerks. They dont care what I ship other than the weight and which carrier to have pick it up. lol

Sometime mediocrity is a godsend.

 

[Dean Pulcini]

Fedex lost a male Cristatus on me about 3 yrs ago and he died in the box. I swore that I would never use them again I got the refund but who cares.

 

[Cainschams]

I hate Fedex. It sucks SYR doesnt use UPS anymore. You have to be a certified shipper now to ship live animals through FedEx and SYR is on that list. The lady I was talking to showed me a huge, probably 200 page list that they have to look through to find who is certified.

I miss the lady at the local UPS hub too. She was so nice and easy to deal with. Ive shipped many of chams through them and only one time did they mess up. It went to Colorado instead of Florida. Luckily a member picked the package up, took the guy home for a few days and resent it. I got my money back on that one too. Was a K. uthmoelleri which is really rare so it wouldnt have been a good thing if it died in the box

 

[Goatsniper]

Sorry you had to deal with an idiot. I live in southern California and have found approximately 75% of the population is infected with this life threatening disease. But what I am concerned about, is what the hell car are you driving that allowed you to drive for 5 hours and only used half a gallon? =P

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

I'd be calling up the manager, people need to learn their jobs...

 

[IronHulk]

People are F_____G stupid, some under paid flunky trying to ruin your day abusing what little power she has. 30 years at fedex and never heard of shipping reptiles ?!?! That says it all, glad it worked out for you in the end.

 

[AllFallDown]

I am NEVER shipping an animal ever again.

Fed Ex gave me the worst freaking time. I wasted half a gallon of gas driving back and forth since 2 PM this morning. I just now got home and it's 7:30.

I ended up calling shipyourreptiles.com and spoke to a very nice man (Andy I think) and he walked me through how to deal with this rude lady. I could have never done it without their business and I highly recommend them. The Fed Ex lady claimed she'd never heard of shipyourreptiles.com and she has been working there for 30 years. "They must be a new company" she said. She had never heard of them, so obviously that means I was trying to scam her. Yeah right..
She also "didn't have the time to call Ship Your Reptiles", she's above that. When all was said and done.. after all of her rudeness, she figured out the business was legit. "I'll do it just this one time", yeah you will lady!

I can't believe she wouldn't let me ship the package, and wouldn't check up on it to make sure it was legit. So she put me through unnecessary stress, and in the end she lost. I'm pretty sure I'm never shipping a live animal every again. I'm sorry for venting, but I wanted to let everyone know that shipyourreptiles.com is awesome. I doubt any of us would be able to ship an animal without them. They've given our community a good reputation when it comes to transporting animals. So use them.

I can't wait to hear that he got there safely. Keep your fingers crossed for the Veiled Chameleon in transit guys.

I cant stand FedEx. I have never received an animal through the mail before, but everytime I get notice that a book is being shipped from amazon.com via fedex I seriously place bets with myself as to the condition of the package. Granted, could be an area thing, but I rarely have problems with UPS or USPS.

Now regarding your story (I admit, I am getting ready to build a new database so I have not read the whole thread) the fact that they were reluctant to ship live animals is not surprising and honestly kind of a good thing in my mind(ok, kind of is a weak word, it WAS a good thing). They should be reluctant and IMO people should be required to go through a certification. There are too damned many idiots out there for me to blindly trust .

That said, the fact that she would not even look into it for you, the fact that she would not check on shipyourreptiles, etc... I think that is good grounds for a complaint. Did you get her name? I would call her manager, escalate to district or regional manager if necessary.

 

[AllFallDown]

People are F_____G stupid, some under paid flunky trying to ruin your day abusing what little power she has. 30 years at fedex and never heard of shipping reptiles ?!?! That says it all, glad it worked out for you in the end.

Really?! How many people do you think walk into a particular fedex store each day, month, year wanting to ship reptiles. The fact that she had never heard of them does not seem surprising to me, especially given the number of businesses which use FedEx.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Sorry you had to deal with an idiot. I live in southern California and have found approximately 75% of the population is infected with this life threatening disease. But what I am concerned about, is what the hell car are you driving that allowed you to drive for 5 hours and only used half a gallon? =P

Lol. A Mazda 3. I probably did end up using a little more than half a tank. In the end, I spent just as much on gas and the packaging than the actual shipping costs.

We can all use this thread as a vent for bad shipping experiences.
Haha! It's good to get our stories out there. Hopefully people will see this and be prepared in case it happens to them. Which it most likely will.

 

[IronHulk]

Really?! How many people do you think walk into a particular fedex store each day, month, year wanting to ship reptiles. The fact that she had never heard of them does not seem surprising to me, especially given the number of businesses which use FedEx.

Yes I find it odd that if you spent 30 YEARS , at a shipping company that you never heard of shipping reptiles.... Think of all you have seen and heard about in the last 30 years...JMO

 

[htownsoccer00]

While everyone is focusing on the negative in your post I'd like to say that Monday I shipped my first chameleon and had called shipyoureptiles to do so. I spoke with Andy and he was a load of help, I had so many questions and babbled on about everything and anything, I even had to hang up and call back a few times cause I was forgetting things. I'd just like to say thanks again to Andy for helping me through it. He's a good guy!


Thanks!!

 

[DanSB]

I've yet to ship a live animal through fed-ex and know that is how it is done but it just makes me nervous to think about.

I have worked analyzing best practice packaging for fragile items and have spent a lot of time working in warehouses whenever I can (I hate offices). So I've analyzed a lot of shipment quality data, tracked shock data in packages, etc... I firmly believe many shipping companies believe that the fragile sticker is an invitation to see how hard they can throw it. I would like to believe a live animal sticker isn't treated that way.

In my experience UPS is much harder on packages than Fed Ex is, and I have a lot of experience. I don't have a ton experience with USPS or DHL but I don't know if they will ship live animals either.

Either way they both move a ton of packages and things occasionally get lost, damaged, stolen, or just evaporate... Thankfully both UPS and Fed Ex have dedicated a ton of time and money to minimize these things but if you had an idea of exactly what logistics are involved in their operations it is impressive they do as well as they do.

 

[Whatcamo]

While everyone is focusing on the negative in your post I'd like to say that Monday I shipped my first chameleon and had called shipyoureptiles to do so. I spoke with Andy and he was a load of help, I had so many questions and babbled on about everything and anything, I even had to hang up and call back a few times cause I was forgetting things. I'd just like to say thanks again to Andy for helping me through it. He's a good guy!


Thanks!!

And you did a good job

 

[mrfixit01]

We just went through the same thing this week. A veiled was being rehomed from NC to TX and FedEx store lady told us that they didn't do that. However, UPS charged her $127! USE ShipYourReptiles.Com!!!! They would have done it for about $61 (half)!
Part of the problem, I've been told, is using a "store front" instead of going to the "Hub" location. Then they also charge a transfer fee to go from the "store front" to the "Hub" and back again at the delivery point. Oh, and there's the "Fuel Fee" too!!!

 

[okiroo]

Fedex

theres good and bad to fedex. onetime they took forever an a package i wanted now. do i was agravated. but with live animals. so far they've done amazing. always arrvive at 10ish-1030. usually a little early. i would have had the same problem as you but i called the fedex place first. they said they dont do it. so i called 4-5 more. then i called the fedex chain and found a fedex express store that did take live animals so long as im certified(ie- have my shipyoureptile lable) i took the papers i printed and the box the fedex and she did the rest. it was really easy(after i bought like 4 lables on accedent and had to call and cancle those) lol. i took kermit as late as possible so he wuddnt face heat or be in transit long. that was the first reptile i shipped and he arrived fine. Hate hearing when chameleons get lost