Re: USPS are a bunch of idiots

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Posted by conservationist on April 18, 2003 at 12:52:18:

In Reply to: USPS are a bunch of idiots posted by dt1977 on January 22, 2003 at 19:42:43:

I have dealt with UPS, USPS, FEDEX, Airborne, and Delta when shipping reptiles. Fedex is the most reliable, with UPS coming in second, Delta third, USPS fourth, and Airborne fifth.

When I had animals shipped via delta same day air, they were delayed. The animals were supposed to arrive in jacksonville at 5pm, and they kept changing the times to 8PM, 11PM, 12am.. And finally, they arrived at 2AM. Imagine driving two hours to the airport and waiting all of this time, frustrated 100%. We weren't the only frustrated people there either. It seems like there were 4 or 5 other people in the waiting room, cussing and fussing about how their shipment was supposed to be there, including one body transplant organ.

A lot of people swear by airborne express, but I've had nothing but bad dealings with them with every shipment. It'd usually take three days for them to deliver a next day air package to me, and now they don't even deliver to address, because they apparently let a bunch of ball pythons loose (a miami company was sending these to me) and blacklisted the address. They do accept the packages and send them out through an alternative carrier. Anyway, if I'm buying reptiles and having them shipped to me, I tell to ship fedex.

Fedex has been the most reliable shipping company for me. I've never had a late shipment from them or anything. UPS has been late by 24 hours a couple times though, but all in all, they're pretty good too.

I've had some turtles shipped via the USPS, and they were a day or two late as well.

With each of these companies, they have "hot spots" where they do a large ammount of delivering to on a daily basis, and you need to call each of the companies and ask if the destination you're shipping to is a hot spot. Else, they won't guarantee next day shipping.

As far as I know, the only shipping company that guarantees safe/alive delivery for the animals is delta. If you read most of the terms from various shipping companies, they say they don't guarantee live animals or parrishable items.

We hope that this helps you choose!

:I talked to USPS about shipping live reptiles. There first response was "that's illegal" than they transfered me to another department. i assured them it was legal.
:Than they told me they couldn't guarantee express overnight delivery because of Fedex's policies.
:So what's the deal.
:I can either ship them unmarked and have them arrive the next day or I can ship them labeled clearly and hope they make it to there destination before the heat pack runs out in 2-3 days.
:Not to mention my local post office won't even except the package if it is labeled, I would have to drive an hour out to a "hub".
:Anyone have problems shipping unlabeled animals in the past?
:I think the package probably gets beaten around regardless of rather its labeled correctly.
:anyone want to comment. what am I supposed to do?
:

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