Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, i just shipped a snake overnight last night to las vegas....well, he received the snake and the snake was dead...what do i do?...do i have him ship it back, do i pay him back the total or half? or do nothing and we both take the loss?...im really worried...please anyone that has experienced this before please help...thanks...
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0.2 normal ball pythons
0.2 normal Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1.1 Bearded Dragon
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)
01 Brindle Boxer (Marley)

If you ship a snake, it is your responsibility to get the animal to the customer, alive, healthy etc. If the snake does not make it, reguardless of whose fault, yours or the shippers, the person receiving the animal should take a pic of the dead snake, to satisfy you that it is indeed dead, and you give them a full refund or replacement snake.

Dave

I would not accept a picture. I suggest that you have him send the snake back at your expense, and check out if the snake really died during shipping. If the snake did in fact died during shipping, then you can send him another, give him credit, or just give a refund.

If you have him take a pic of the snake upsidedown, unless it was a Hognose playing dead, the snake is dead. No need to pay for useless shipping.

Dave

thanks guys...the snake is actually alive...but barely moving....so a vet visit is happening right now..thanks again...
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0.2 normal ball pythons
0.2 normal Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1.1 Bearded Dragon
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)
01 Brindle Boxer (Marley)

So, it's dead or not? You should probably get the story straight before you worry about what to do next...
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

county coroner. Hey its not for everybody, I hope the snake will be ok. I just hope he doesnt go to sleep for to long or a trip to the freezer it will be.

Possibility he just got to cold in shipment and has to warm up?...Maybe
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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.

I got an email at 6am this morning and he told me the snake was dead....i wrote to him explaining that im a sorry that the snake died and i understand he lost the money he spent, but i also said that now i lost the snake also....i asked him what he wanted to do....did i do right?...should i do something else...he is sending me a picture...
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0.2 normal ball pythons
0.2 normal Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1.1 Bearded Dragon
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)
01 Brindle Boxer (Marley)

It sounds like to me that the animal was on it's last leg when it arrived at your customers home. If you want to do the right thing (which you should not only for your business integrity but for the ball biz in general) you need to take what EmberBall said and act upon it. Give him a new snake, refund, or credit him for a future purchase.

The ball is in your court.....don't miss a lay-up
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Nick

I agree with Ember and Nick. Refund, New one, or credit. Keep the customer happy. But second, you need to find out what went wrong. Was it a packing issue, a transport issue, or a snake issue?

Packing and transport are self evident. Were there heat packs and it went through 90 degree weather or the opposite. Was the package dropped miss handled?

But the fun one is the snake. I'm not pointing a finger or placing blame, just covering bases to avoid this in the future. How old was the snake, general health and feeding. If it is possible the snake was already sick and the stress of shipping addied to it, you need to check your other snakes.

Hopefully it was just a freak occurance and all will be made right.

Above all, I'm truly sorry to hear of the loss and hope things work out for the best.
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That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.

The snake was 7 months old and had never missed a meal..it was my most expensive snake (albino ball) and i took more than exceptional care of it..i decided to sell it to start on a co-dom project. I shipped it in slightly cold weather, 50-60s...and with two heating packs..i packed it the same as always before and i packed it the way all of the breeders that i have bought from have done....i think it was just a freak accident...i am waiting on a reply to see what the guy wants to do....i plan on either paying him back or giving him another snake or something...i really dont want to get a bad reputation out of this...im going to do the best that i can..thanks for the ideas..i appreciate it...
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0.2 normal ball pythons
0.2 normal Redtail boa
1.1 100% Het Albino Redtail boa
1.1 Bearded Dragon
0.1 GF Eryn (WC)
01 Brindle Boxer (Marley)

what might have gone wrong...

1) what type of heat packs did you use, and what size box? The cloth bag full of iron type stuff use oxygen, so if you used them and your package was sealed up pretty good, the snake may have been suffocated.

2) did you do a test package to see how hot 2 heat packs would take the box to? You may have roasted it...(I've shipped to places like Minnesota in the late fall, without problems. In fact, I usually don't even use any heat packs. One at most, if I'm expecting really cool/cold temps at the fedex hub in Tennesee overnight. Healthy snakes can handle say half a day or so of temps in the low 60s, or even lower; but temps over 100 or so get fatal quickly)

3) maybe you did nothing wrong, and it happened through no fault of your own.

Either way, you'll have to eat this one. IMO, when you make a deal to sell and ship a snake, you are assuming all of the risk. Sorry about the loss. It's especially hard on "the little guy".

On another note, I think its just as important for a seller to "scout" the buyer just as the buyer scouts the seller. I've always feared that I would have a deal go down just like yours did, with the buyer saying he recieved a dead snake. How do you know for sure? How can you be sure you're not getting scammed by the buyer? It's a tough way to do business. When I ship, I pretty much check the tracking like every 15 minutes, and pretty much stay freaked out until they arrive. Fortunately, I've never lost a single animal in shipping...knock on wood.

Even if you did everything right, and the snake died because of a shipping error, and is totally the fault of the shipping company, it makes no difference in how you need to take care of it with your customer. A full refund, or replacement snake. Hopefully you insured the snake, and will get reimbursed by the shipping company. If you did not insure the snake, that is your fault, and will be your loss.

I sent two normal males and two normal females via FedEx. FedEx helped me right "live animal," "harmless reptile," etc., on the box, so they knew what I was shipping. I wrote Ball Pythons on the box and on the shipping form. It was the first shipment I did not insure, because it was just normals. Well, FedEx got the snake to a hub I think in Iniana, but it never got the snakes on the connecting flight. So they sat overnight in a warehouse. The guy I was shipping to and myself made dozens of phone calls, basically getting nowhere. I used an insulated box, and a 35 hour heat pack. It looks like the heat pack was weak at the time they finally arrived, and only the females, which were closer to the heat pack, survived. It was FedEx that did not get them there in time, but FedEx basically refunded my shipping cost and that was it. I did not charge the guy anything, for his time and the hassle. Bottom line, it is your responsibility to get the snake to the buyer, if something happens, you refund their money, and then try to get money from the shipping company. If your snake did not make it because they were cold, but they arrived ontime, that is on you.

Dave

I purchased a ball once and the shipping company threw it over my neighbor's fence during the middle of winter. Luckily I live in California, but still, the temps probably dropped in the low 50s at night. Tracking indicated that the package had been delivered and with a signature, and the shipping company said that they wouldn't do anything for either me or the seller. My neighbor found the package two days later and dropped it on my doorstep. The snake was alive but moving very sluggishly (as you could imagine). The seller (Ben Siegel Reptiles) told me to monitor the snake's progress over the next few weeks and offered a full refund if it died.

This was superb customer service and compels me to pay a premium for snakes purchased from Ben. I'm sure stories like these get around, so I'm sure Ben benefits from this approach in the long run.

Just my two cents. Good luck to you.