Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, what about the holidays?

I have someone putting one of our babies on hold and wants to receive her (weather permitting) near Thanksgiving. I was thinking monday for tuesday arrival would be okay, but nothing past that for the week.., it looks like Fedex doesnt deliver on Thursday, so Weds should be out too..

Also, I know they don't guarantee timely arrival around Christmas Time (unfortunately found this out trying to get my license overnighted so I could fly... it showed up a week later). How many weeks before Christmas do you not ship? How many weeks after?
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1.1 96, 04 Het Albino - "Suzie" & "Lumpy"
1.0 06 TH-Moonglow - "Gargamel"
1.2 01 BRBs- "Gobball", "Larva" & "Tofu"
2.7 08 BRBs

Of course weather is a key gate, three locations to consider.
1) your ship from area (typically daytime highs)
2) the ship to area (typically nightime lows)
3) the carrier sort facility (always nightime lows) I think Fedex is Memphis

Once weatehr is OK then still another factor to think about, overall timing and likleyhood of delays. I do not ship on holiday weeks. I would be fine wuth the week before Thanksgiving. Or the week after, just not that week.

Also, I always leave an "extra" day for delays. ie I do not ship out on Thursday for Friday arrival. If something were to happen and the package missed a connection, it could end up stuck somewhere over the weekend.

Of course I am overly cautious about shipping but then again, I've not lost one (knock on wood) to shipping!!!

For Christmas, clearly at least a couple of weeks before. Then there's the Christmas and new years holiday weeks. After those I would think it OK to ship again but weather may have other plans. I quite often winter over many babies waiting for good weather.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

That is what I was thinking. I'll unlikely be able to ship in December anyway because of the weather here, but in case of untimely heat.. I'll still know to pretty much block all of December out.
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1.1 96, 04 Het Albino - "Suzie" & "Lumpy"
1.0 06 TH-Moonglow - "Gargamel"
1.2 01 BRBs- "Gobball", "Larva" & "Tofu"
2.7 08 BRBs

I would ship on the monday before Thanksgiving but it would depend on the weather. I pretty much plan on not making any shipments in december and january. I have seen that the shippers are so busy with bigger volume during december that they miss seeing which packages are priority overnight more often then. Shipping works good if you just plan on the shipper to screw something up and do not give them the chance to make the mistake or delay a serious one. With a heat pack and small airholes in an insulated box a snake can do fine for 48 hours in the box. Longer than that in cold weather can be a problem. I actually worry more about customer satisfaction than the welfare of the snake if the package gets delayed for just one day and the weather is not extreme.

>>So, what about the holidays?
>>
>>I have someone putting one of our babies on hold and wants to receive her (weather permitting) near Thanksgiving. I was thinking monday for tuesday arrival would be okay, but nothing past that for the week.., it looks like Fedex doesnt deliver on Thursday, so Weds should be out too..
>>
>>Also, I know they don't guarantee timely arrival around Christmas Time (unfortunately found this out trying to get my license overnighted so I could fly... it showed up a week later). How many weeks before Christmas do you not ship? How many weeks after?
>>-----
>>1.1 96, 04 Het Albino - "Suzie" & "Lumpy"
>>1.0 06 TH-Moonglow - "Gargamel"
>>1.2 01 BRBs- "Gobball", "Larva" & "Tofu"
>>2.7 08 BRBs

I would agree with your thinking on shipping on Monday only of that week. I also know that I live fairly close to a major airport, so even if a plane is late I am able to pick up the animal myself.

Before having a snake shipped I check the weather in the sending location, Memphis(if fed ex - but some have gone through Indy) and O'Hare the airport on my end. I am 20 minutes from a UPS air hub, but still check weather on the shipping side and my side.
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Mike

7.13 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King