Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have shipped animals overnight with Fedex before and everything has been fine. However, twice within the last 2 weeks, I have had problems. I bought 2 geckos and they arrived dead via fedex, and I just shipped a turtle that arrived dead via fedex. The turtle was even still warm when it arrived! What is going on?! Can anyone give me insight? I am so upset and I need to make sure this will not happen again!

I've used Fed Ex exclusively for the past 4 years and have had zero problems w/ them. One option is that you can ship to a Fed Ex office where it can be held for pick up. This way it is kept at room temperature in their office. I do this when temps are extreme or if it's more convenient for the customer.

Scott
www.gartersnakemorphs.com

I just recently tried to use fed ex to ship and I had a whole mess of problems. I was shipping 3 different packages and I had done everything I needed to. I wrote live harmless reptiles on the side and everything. They took my packages and told me all 3 would be to my customers by 10:30 the next day. So I paid the 130 some what dollars for shipping and walked out. The next day my customers started contacting me and telling me that the packages hadn't arrived and all. I had been on the phone with fed ex talked to 5 or 6 different people and all gave me a different story. Finally(after about 29-30hrs after I had dropped them off at a Fed Ex staffed location) one of my customers tells me that fed ex told him they had never even left town. So I go down there and sure enough there they were. They left them sitting there for close to 30 hrs and never contacted me or let me know anything. They wouldn't even tell me why they wouldn't even ship them. All they said was they couldn't ship them. I was so ticked. So I pick them up and tried to get a refund for my 130 some what dollar bill and they wouldn't give it to me. I had to go home and call this number and deal with all this mess. So when I got home and called they told me that I wouldn't get my money back for 6-8 weeks since I paid cash for payment. If I would have used a credit card I could of had it back no later than 4 days but cash is a different story. So the next Mon. I hopped on over to DHL and they shipped them with no problems. If I was ya'll I wouldn't us Fed Ex. All Fed Ex did was give me a run around and lied to me. SSR.
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There is nothing I hate more then a person buying a snake or any animal for that matter and not doing research and relizing what they are getting themselves into. Because of people like that we have such strict reptile and animal laws and they are ruining it for everyone. Not doing research is totally unacceptable and with the internet is super easy to do. There is just no excuse for that!!!

I've used Fedex almost exclusively to ship snakes and am a registered reptile shipper with them. I have had no real complaints. The registration and approval process to ship reptiles is a bit tedious but in the end you get the peace of mind knowing you are not breaking any laws. Since becoming a registered shipper I even get calls every couple of months from the regional supervisor asking if my reptile shipping is going smoothly. I trust them with my business and have never had an animal arrive in poor shape.

Rob Haneisen

although not perfect fedx is pretty good at what they do.When we ship using fedx we "take a chance" that things go perfectly and even when things go " normal" fedx is good.It amazes me that more breeders do not ship "delta dash".You pay good money for animals and then "skimp" on shipping.I understand that shipping fedx is convienent for shipping animals and convience is a premium breeders want and need, BUT...when somebody like me who only recieves 1 or 2 shippments a year and you have a bad experience , it sours the whole hobby as a whole.Breeders, especially bigger ones should All offer "delta dash even if it does cost twice as much...Also something that 9 out of 10 people dont know is that if a breeder, shipper has enough "volume" you can get a highly discounted "maxi-ship" system from fed x and " mark up" the shipping bill.Yes it is substanshal and depending on volume can be as much as 20% percent.He charges you say 50 bucks for overnight priority and it actually costs him 40 bucks..ALWAYS ask for an aproximate weight and shipping "from" location and call fedx or go to fedx website and get a "pricve" quote" you might be supprised..No i dont work for fedx but i do a lot of shipping from work 10,000 plus fedx packages a year, and i have found that fedx does a great job, considering the volume which is mind numbing
sorry for you and god bless, greg