I think UPS opened and inspected a box I sent out

Dez

Dez

Chamalot Chameleons
I have been shipping through UPS for a little while now... I used SYR and recently Reptile express.

I had a shipment of two chameleons being sent out. I had to purchase the shipping label directly through UPS this time because the for-mentioned services are suspended.

The temperature where my chams where going was about 40 - 42 degrees in the morning so I packed them with a 40 hour heat pack. I started it 30 min before I closed up the box and placed it in a small brown sandwich paper bag and taped to the inside of the lid.

The two chams themselves where in two cloth bags that I had tied in a snug knot and then tied again with the string in a bow. They where placed in a 12x8x8 insulated box with a Styrofoam divider in the middle.....

I sent them off last night and they arrived at the destination at about 9:10am this morning.

After checking on them with the receiver, she informed me they came very cold. :eek: My first thought was that the heat pack malfunctioned; even though it had been started and heated a bit before shipping. I asked her if the heat pack was warm at all.

She asked me where the heat pack was and I told her where I had taped it. She said it was not there and took everything out of the box and did not see any heat pack or a brown paper bag is was wrapped in.

She also said the knots in the cloth bags where so tight that she had trouble untying them.

I think what happened is that UPS opened my box (that clearly has LIVE REPTILE stickers on the side) to inspect the contents and for whatever reason the heat pack was taken, or fell, out..????

I don't know for sure. But if that is the case I am pretty upset that the heat pack was removed. Thankfully the chameleons seem to be ok even thought they where very cold....

I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever suspected their shipments had been tampered with or inspected???
 
I have not suspected any inspections on my packages. It is UPS's right to inspect any package but I would be upset if it was not packed back up exactly how I did it. I would be :mad: too.

Maybe its kind of like the police? They spot a "suspicious" car, pull it over and search it. They find nothing they wanted so they do nothing to help you put your stuff back in your car or pay for upholstery they tore up.............RANT:rolleyes:
 
kinda off subject but UPS (employee) stole my PS3 when I had to send it in to be fixed, I was an origional backwards compatible ones, luckily for me the place that recieved the empty box signed off as they recieved it so they ended up being responsible for it. Dont use UPS at all costs.
 
I would call the cops and tell them UPS stole your heat packs, they have the right to inspect but not take your heat packs.
You paid UPS to deliver your package not half of it. Go to the UPS store and steal something and I bet they call the cops and you go to jail. Why should they be allowed to steal......... Justice we want Justice!!!!!:mad::eek::mad:
 
Todnedo said:
I would call the cops and tell them UPS stole your heat packs, they have the right to inspect but not take your heat packs.
You paid UPS to deliver your package not half of it. Go to the UPS store and steal something and I bet they call the cops and you go to jail. Why should they be allowed to steal......... Justice we want Justice!!!!!:mad::eek::mad:
Click to expand...

:eek:Not a very productive suggestion IMHO. Sure, UPS can inspect a package, but they should be held responsible for re-packaging it correctly. No one stole anything. Someone was careless. Complain to UPS, provide proof of your concern, and explain what COULD have happened to your chams (and that they would then be liable for the death and financial losses). Stealing anything is childish, vindictive, and will land you in hotter water than complaining. Sorry, that's revenge, not justice.
 
Carlton said:
:eek:Not a very productive suggestion IMHO. Sure, UPS can inspect a package, but they should be held responsible for re-packaging it correctly. No one stole anything. Someone was careless. Complain to UPS, provide proof of your concern, and explain what COULD have happened to your chams (and that they would then be liable for the death and financial losses). Stealing anything is childish, vindictive, and will land you in hotter water than complaining. Sorry, that's revenge, not justice.
Click to expand...

I wasn't telling him to steal.....I was making a point that if he took a heat pack from them it would be a crime. UPS won't insure live animals.
 
As a postal employee, it is illegal to open any mail under any cirumstances. If a piece of mail is suspected of having some sort of illegal content and it is immediately isolated and a superior is called to handle it. The package is still not opened and only a postal inspector is allowed to inspect the contents under federal law. It is a pretty extreme case for a piece of mail to be opened and there has to be tell tail signs that the contents is illegal before it is opened. As UPS is a private company, I'm not sure if they have the same standards as the Postal Service as we are committed to a customer's privacy and the sanctity of the mail.

In your situation, it is a good thing you used UPS as they scan your package mulitiple times so if there is a shady character who is opening packages, there is a trail of evidence of where it might have been done.
 
As a UPS employee of 12 years I can say that boxes are only opened by us, on purpose when the box does something that worries an employee, like it leaks or it is continually making a sound. Like a chameleon hissing. If the box opens in transit that could happen. It doesn't take as much as you would think for a box to pop open on a conveyor belt. And like any company there are those employees that slip through the employment screen and look into boxes that the shouldn't. I would file a claim with UPS because your package wasn't delivered whole. If the heat pack fell out of the box on a conveyor then the employee's wouldn't know which box it fell out of. There are miles of conveyors in the average hub. I am glad the chameleons made it OK.
 
We have specialist in the hub that are trained to open boxes. ONLY those employees are allowed to open boxes with a superviser present. I just noticed that I didn't specify this.
 
KingKameha said:
We have specialist in the hub that are trained to open boxes. ONLY those employees are allowed to open boxes with a superviser present. I just noticed that I didn't specify this.
Click to expand...

well I am not 100% sure what REALLY happened. But it did seem as though the box was opened.. whether by accident or on purpose.

Thank you so much KingKameha for providing insite into the UPS system.
All I really care about is that the chameleons did make it alive and are doing well.

I only hope that this was a rare occurrence and I do not have to worry about this happening again
 
Less than 3% of boxes shipped through ups become damaged. UPS "requires" its employees to not damage packages and to stop the progress of damaged packages. They have a chart that shows how much damages cost the company that they dust off every few months to remind us to use proper methods when handling packages. Its almost peak season so I expect it to be coming out again soon.
 
Dez said:
I think what happened is that UPS opened my box (that clearly has LIVE REPTILE stickers on the side) to inspect the contents and for whatever reason the heat pack was taken, or fell, out..????
Click to expand...

Not sure if this was covered

I am curious , did you write the scientific name as well as the common name of the "REPTILE" on the box? It is Federal law to label the box with both names. It is part of the Lacy act. It is probably better "IMO" to use the word Lizard vs Reptile.
If the two names were not on the box it may have prompted an inspection or when they saw reptile they may have thought snake.
 
Ryan Jarosek said:
Not sure if this was covered

I am curious , did you write the scientific name as well as the common name of the "REPTILE" on the box? It is Federal law to label the box with both names. It is part of the Lacy act. It is probably better "IMO" to use the word Lizard vs Reptile.
Click to expand...

I did not write the name of the reptile on the outside of the box. I only recently read about doing that while researching shipping reptiles through FedEx. ..like two days ago

Before I started shipping at all, I watched videos of how to ship chameleons and also recieved a few in the mail myself.. Nobody ever did write the name on the outside of the box that I can remember. and they don't say anything about it in any videos I watched... so I never thought to do it

Most pre insulated boxes you buy only say "Perishable" or sometimes "live Rush" on the side... I always stickers stating there is a live animal inside so they will maybe use a little bit more care when handling it

Ryan Jarosek said:
If the two names were not on the box it may have prompted an inspection or when they saw reptile they may have thought snake.
Click to expand...

This is what I thought exactly.

I don't mind them looking in the box.. They have a right to and I have nothing to hide. I pack the animals correctly and I don't ship snakes.. Its just the fact everything wasn't put back in the box the way I had packed it.

I sent two Chams out last night to two different locations... I DID write that they contain "Baby Veild Chameleon" on the top just to be safe... I also secured the heat pack to the side instead of the lid so it wouldn't fall out If the lid is opened.

I will start using the word Lizard instead of Reptile from now on
 
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