Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do you handle business with a client, if the courier loses a live animal package that the client purchased. I want to enter it in my TOS but I dont want to sound like a @$$ about it. and I want to make sure I write it correctly.

Bottom line is until that animal belongs to the seller until I place it in its new cage. It dont show, send me a new one. Tracking number with sig of course....

that's why I don't ship......you cannot insure except through (maybe) airlines , and who's to know if the snake gets there and the client just plain out lies about it?....then there is the "it got here and it's dead".....people say send the body back......then clients say."I threw it out".....who's to know if it is alve ,dead,or not arrived?.......

I have had stuff shipped here through airline and carriers....and all was / were fine......the one time snakes started dying I was told no sweat I'll get money back......
I got it back.......called Visa.......it took waaaay to long.......

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anyways...........I sell hand to hand........people still rip you off any way they can..........
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...........you would think so huh?...........

Just so everyone knows, I just want to make sure I have all my bases covered.

No offence taken at all!

Youve got to CYA in every business, especially this one!

You as a seller are responsible to get the animal to the customers house safe. If if arrives dead, or the shipping company loses the package it's the seller that takes the loss. I am just getting into selling on a regular basis and I know it's just part of the business. I know if I were the buyer I would never even think of purchasing from someone that had anything like "Not responsible for carrier error" on their TOS.
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John Vandegrift

what about if the courier delivers the package and no one is there to accept it, is it ok to void all live arrival guarantees during a situation like that? Like I said im new at this and I want to have all my bases covered.

That's fine. I would not have a problem as a buyer buying from someone who said the animal must be signed for on the 1st attempt. I usually try to encorage anyone that buys from me to pick the animal up at the fedex distribution facility. That way they can have the animal at 9:00am and the snake is not bouncing around the back of a truck all day.
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John Vandegrift

I agree 100% with you John on what you have said on this . David

Think about it this way: Pretend EVERY sale is face to face. They hand you the money, you hand them the snake...simple. Deal done. As far as shipping, they send you the money, you send them the snake, BUT the deal is only done when they get the snake, and are happy with it. If something happens during shipping, you send out a refund, or new snake, say in a week, giving you enough time to make sure the buyer is telling the truth. Then, you go after the shipping company. If you chose to ship, YOU WILL END UP TAKING SOME LOSES, but it is that, or you sell only to people in your town, or hand deliver everything you sell across country. Just the price of going "BIG TIME."

Dave

Same thing Dave said from a different perspective. Imagine you send the snake first and then receive payment. The snake arrives, all is good and then a check is mailed. It never arrives. It is the senders responsability to put a stop payment or trace on the check and then resend the money. Goods have been received, payment must change hands.

As a customer, I'm not offended by CYA,(Covering Your Assets) as long as my Assets are covered as well.

When you have a live arrival guarantee, that of course covers it arriving at all. This is a part of the business that very few people realize. When you ship as a seller you take all the risk, and of course that’s the way it should be. Now if something does go wrong I don’t think it’s too much to ask for proof. Like Gary said if you get a signed Fedex receipt and your customer says it never arrived, well then it’s a little harder to except responsibility. But I think there are very few people that I’ve dealt with over the past twenty years that together we haven’t been able to workout whatever problem comes up. I think it’s always on the breeder to take the load if anything bad happens. I guess that’s the cost of doing business. Good luck, Brian (BHB)

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

np

As far as I know this can only be done with Delta for live animals. DHL and UPS don't even allow shipments of reptiles so you have to lie about what's in the box to even ship it. They sure aren't going to cover the loss of something that wasn't supposed to be shipped in the first place. USPS (for lizards) and Fedex both state they are not responsible for the loss of live animals.
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The Voices have won!

jeff pfeifer

We guarantee live arrival and like Brian said that includes all the steps till the animal is in the customers hands, if it is lost in transit then I would take responsibility for tracking down the package and getting it back. If the animal arrives dead (which we have never had happen thank God) then we do require either a picture of the animal or the animal itself to be sent back which we would cover shipping on. We do state this in our TOS so that if they say i threw it away then their is no guarantee, proof must be given. Any high end animal we 100% require a signature or the animal wont be shipped through our overnight carrier but then through the airport, We send tracking numbers out to all of our customers so they can see exactly where there package is and plan accordingly. Depending on circumstances and weather conditions we have sent out packages before with no signature required, but we also talk to the customer prior too and lable the package itself "leave in Garage or on porch or in shade", something to that nature if the customer knows they will not be there. We also state in our TOS that we DO NOT ship on Fridays or holidays, there is too much chaos during those times and the odds of a lost package are increased. We use FedEx now we had used UPS in the past and switched due to cost. I have never had a problem with FedEx they are reliable on time and cheaper, plus our driver knows us and does our stop last so the animals go straight to the station ..Someone also mentioned lable the package "please leave at hub" which I have done on many occasions for customers that wont be home and the weather is cooler, or customers that live close to a local station.
Good luck, first few times can be stressful !!!
Kim
N.A.R.C

Those are my policies on shipping also. It's just good business. In all my years of using Fedex I've never encountered a problem. I have used DHL when a customer insists on it, but the problem with them is they will knock once then leave the package on the front step. They don't take any special consideration with the package, but then why should they? It's not marked "Live Harmless Reptiles" because they won't accept it if it is. But definitly the best way to go is to back your shipment yourself no matter what (unless the customer refuses to provide proof).
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The Voices have won!

jeff pfeifer