Shipping Woes and Lessons Learned

[jajeanpierre]

Wednesday night--the 13th; do you think I should have been worried????--I shipped off two shipments of quads to two different breeders. I printed the label up the day before I shipped. When I got to the FedEx Ship Center to drop them off, the clerk printed up another label--I think it was the whole label including the address but am not sure since I didn't see it. He tore the label in two and put the bar code over the bar code of my shipping label.

I asked why and he said my label's barcode said delivery was for the day I was shipping since I had printed the label the day before I shipped. He said it needed a new bar code. He was wrong.

Lesson #1: FedEx does not ever need to change a shipping label from Ship Your Reptiles. The labels are good for a full 30 days after purchasing.

I am so angry with myself, I didn't demand he show me that the bar code he attached to each package was the correct bar code for the label's address. He did them one at a time--printed the label, ripped it in half, attached the bar code over my bar code leaving the address showing, and then did the second box. I would expect he actually checked that he put the bar codes on the correct packages.

How could he get it wrong???? But he did.

So my two shipments of four baby quads went to the wrong places. The Kentucky baby went to North Carolina and the North Carolina babies went to Kentucky. My overnight priority shipping was approaching the weekend...... I discovered this when the breeders each tried to pick up their babies and the names/addresses didn't match.

Lesson #2: If FedEx clerks don't know the above and insist on changing your label, demand to see that the label really is for the box it is supposed to go on.

The next morning when I found out the error, I immediately called FedEx to try to straighten it out. I shouldn't have. I should have called Ship Your Reptiles who has a special team in place at FedEx that has a lot more authority than any miscellaneous person you get on the phone in FedEx Customer Service. Since I had already called FedEx myself, there was already some sort of resolution going on that I arranged and didn't realize the ramifications of what I had done. Before calling Ship Your Reptiles, I arranged to have both shipments expedited to their destinations. Mistake.

Lesson #3: If there is a problem, call/email Ship Your Reptiles first. They monitor their emails and get right on it. They have a special FedEx team that are experts in shipping animals and can make all kinds of changes to the shipment, but who also understands the big picture better than any Customer Service clerk you will get on the phone. They have a complete understanding of the ramifications of each solution.

In my phone call to FedEx, I asked they be expedited to their destinations. Sounded like a reasonable plan to me. It wasn't. To "expedite" a shipment, FedEx contracts with a courier company. It isn't FedEx that would have gotten my packages delivered. Who knows how they would have been cared for or even when they would have arrived. This I discovered when I called Ship Your Reptiles. They had to undo the mess I created, which they did.

Because one box had several babies in it, I was worried about them being in the box for another 24 hours. Ship Your Reptiles arranged to change the person authorized to pick up, so the one shipment with three babies was picked up by one breeder who will took care of them yesterday, boxed them up late afternoon and put a new shipping label on and sent them on their way. He wasn't concerned about his own baby, since it was a single baby in a bigger container so we just left that baby in FedEx's hands to be shipped that night. Thankfully, the mix up happened with two experienced breeders who were comfortable with each other handling their babies.

Lesson #4: Even though the odds are very much in your favor that everything will work out as planned, pack the shipment as if it won't work out.

I was not happy I packed the three in one box, but we discussed it and it was only for a short time. Just overnight.... They were boxed up at their bedtime and should have been unboxed an hour or so after their lights would have been turned on at my house. I never expected a 24 hour delay.

Ship Your Reptiles were great through all this, spending lots of time with me and making sure it was fixed and also explaining everything. They were really great. They arranged for the shipment for North Carolina to be released to the breeder in Kentucky and they kept on top of it, making sure the other Customer Service person in the office was aware of everything, too.

They cancelled the shipment that was picked up. I booked a brand new shipment to get the (picked up) babies to their final destination.

Well, there's a glitch in the system....

They have a new shipment booking system where you can book multiple shipments to different places at the same time. When they cancelled the shipment that had been picked up, it cancelled the shipment that was in FedEx's hands waiting to be shipped...

I received a cancelled shipment notification. I was in a panic. Would they be shipped that night? Now I'm worried that they would be lost in North Carolina's FedEx system and not ship that night (last night). It was mpw getting close to the weekend. I'm worried the baby will be in a box for 55/60 hours, which is a lot more than the 14 hours we expected when I boxed her up. And then what if it wasn't straightened out and was held over the weekend. Shipped Wednesday night and delivered Monday???? Fortunately I did have the breeder at that end. but not everyone does. See Lesson #4.

Ship Your Reptiles got right on it. They spoke to the people at the station that actually had the baby--everyone knew what was going on with this shipment. I found out that even though a shipment was cancelled, it could/would still get scanned and go through the system properly. We discussed that sometimes the tracking numbers don't update in as timely a manner as you would expect since everything is scanned.

Lesson #5: Tracking Numbers and notations are not always accurate or updated in a timely manner.

I checked the tracking number at 6:30 a.m. this morning and it still had a "Shipment Cancelled" notice. I was just waiting for Ship Your Reptiles to open to call. As I was typing out an email to them, I checked again to get the tracking number and miraculously the history came up and I was super happy to see it was where it should be waiting for pick up. The other shipment arrived where it was supposed to as well.

(Just got word from both breeders--babies arrived in good order. WHEW!!!!)

This was a complete and total mix up by one FedEx clerk in San Antonio. It should never have happened. I did not care about getting a refund for the difference between Overnight Priority and 2-Day delivery but the delay wasn't from something like weather, it was from a mistake that should never happened. I wondered how they would handle it but didn't ask because all I was worried about were my babies. That could wait.

Ship Your Reptiles explained that FedEx gave no guarantees for anything on live animals. I expected they would automatically refund the difference when the delay was so obviously caused by their error. Not so.

Lesson #6: Buy the minimum insurance to cover the cost of shipping.

Had Ship Your Reptiles not stepped up to the plate and given me a coupon to pay for the shipping for the babies that were picked up and then reshipped last night, I would have been on the hook for another $60 shipping charge. The $2.50 insurance on $100 value would have more than covered it. Also and maybe most importantly--Murphy's Law would have been thwarted by insuring the shipment.

One more shipping worry to deal with today. Yesterday, one of my horses shipped from the training center in South Carolina to Toronto, Canada. I'm just waiting to hear if she arrived. She should be there now but I haven't heard... I'm sure she is okay but until I hear, I worry. I'm a mother. Mothers worry. It's what we do. And I do it better than most!

 

[bobcochran]

Ouch! When I print out my shipping labels the scanner doesn't read the bar code and the clerk has to reprint them. Now I'm going to be nervous about which goes where. I guess the thing to do is to hand the clerk one box at a time, to reprint the label, then go to the next box. What a nightmare! Thanks for the info. Janet.

 

[Carlton]

I can't even imagine how I'd react to all this. Basket case probably. I've shipped and received several types of birds over the years without that amount of trouble and it was almost too much for me then! I am SO GLAD your little darlings arrived OK!

Just to lighten the mood, here's a story about my toucan Nanner and his trip from Juneau AK to southern CA.

I adopted Nanner from some naive buyers who believed a scummy dealer's claim that he was hand raised. Hand raised toucans are very sweet, loving snugglers. Um...wildcaught birds are anything but. Well, his leg band was evidence he was fresh off the boat from Central America and was wild as a March hare. He was also the size of a raven with an 8" bill, and pretty intimidating. Toucans don't have much jaw muscle so they can't really bite, but they will jab right at your eyes in defense instead. I had wanted a toucan for many years and knew what he'd probably be like, but was willing to take him on his own terms. Over the next 8 years he mellowed a little and was a lot of fun to live with (except for my stupid idea of giving him recycled office paper to shred...he found my income tax forms all ready to be mailed and shredded THEM!). How's that for an excuse? He was messy, noisy, but a true clown who could catch tossed blueberry Jelli Bellies in mid air from across a room. However, he was wc, male, and would never really bond with a human. I was always a little worried that he was lonely.

When a fellow bird keeper down in CA lost her elderly male toucan, his mate was pining away. We decided Nanner would be happier with a mate and with a huge outdoor aviary in sunny CA instead of my indoor flight cage. So, I planned to take him with me on my next trip down south. He was too big to go in the cabin, but had a medium sized dog crate with burlap over the grilles so he wouldn't panic, try to jab anyone, or injure himself.

We arrived at the Juneau Airport in plenty of time for TSA to do their thing. They insisted that they must inspect INSIDE the carrier, under the bedding, the food dishes, etc. Very bad idea. I pleaded, warned, but they didn't budge. Finally I convinced them to do all this in a closed office instead of the open bag check area of the terminal. When I unlocked the carrier door, I tried to grab Nanner by the bill before he escaped (toucan beaks are handy handles), but he was out like a shot. Flapping and bounding around the office, barking and growling (it sounds like an overexcited puppy combined with one of those coiled spring door stops BOIIINNGGG!), scattering papers, shitting blueberries, grapes, and papaya all over the orange airport carpets. The TSA guys stood there wide-eyed and backed into the corner leaving me to chase him around desks, behind file cabinets, coffee maker supplies, and coat racks. I finally threw my coat over him stopping the fun. Meanwhile someone did the stupid carrier inspection with fruit poop-coated gloves, and I got him locked inside again. Oh yes, this office had a large picture window overlooking the check in area, so passengers had a view of a hurtling Swainson's toucan and scattering TSA agents. Bet they hadn't seen anything like it before or since. The Juneau International Airport's carpets will never be quite the same.

 

[KLowery88]

Yikes, that sounds like quite the tangle. Good to hear that Ship Your Reptiles managed to work everything out and everyone got to where they needed to be. Thanks for sharing everything, I'm sure it will come in handy for others.

 

[Lathis]

What a nightmare! Having been the victim of my own "take charge" attitude more times than i can count, I'm glad SYR was able to straighten everything out for you. Those guys need a medal or a muffin basket or something. A great lesson on why there exist companies like SYR - not only is it for the safety of the animal, but they have the contacts and power to address issues with the carrier when they do occur. Glad your babies made out through okay.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I can't even imagine how I'd react to all this. Basket case probably. I've shipped and received several types of birds over the years without that amount of trouble and it was almost too much for me then! I am SO GLAD your little darlings arrived OK!

Just to lighten the mood, here's a story about my toucan Nanner and his trip from Juneau AK to southern CA.

I adopted Nanner from some naive buyers who believed a scummy dealer's claim that he was hand raised. Hand raised toucans are very sweet, loving snugglers. Um...wildcaught birds are anything but. Well, his leg band was evidence he was fresh off the boat from Central America and was wild as a March hare. He was also the size of a raven with an 8" bill, and pretty intimidating. Toucans don't have much jaw muscle so they can't really bite, but they will jab right at your eyes in defense instead. I had wanted a toucan for many years and knew what he'd probably be like, but was willing to take him on his own terms. Over the next 8 years he mellowed a little and was a lot of fun to live with (except for my stupid idea of giving him recycled office paper to shred...he found my income tax forms all ready to be mailed and shredded THEM!). How's that for an excuse? He was messy, noisy, but a true clown who could catch tossed blueberry Jelli Bellies in mid air from across a room. However, he was wc, male, and would never really bond with a human. I was always a little worried that he was lonely.

When a fellow bird keeper down in CA lost her elderly male toucan, his mate was pining away. We decided Nanner would be happier with a mate and with a huge outdoor aviary in sunny CA instead of my indoor flight cage. So, I planned to take him with me on my next trip down south. He was too big to go in the cabin, but had a medium sized dog crate with burlap over the grilles so he wouldn't panic, try to jab anyone, or injure himself.

We arrived at the Juneau Airport in plenty of time for TSA to do their thing. They insisted that they must inspect INSIDE the carrier, under the bedding, the food dishes, etc. Very bad idea. I pleaded, warned, but they didn't budge. Finally I convinced them to do all this in a closed office instead of the open bag check area of the terminal. When I unlocked the carrier door, I tried to grab Nanner by the bill before he escaped (toucan beaks are handy handles), but he was out like a shot. Flapping and bounding around the office, barking and growling (it sounds like an overexcited puppy combined with one of those coiled spring door stops BOIIINNGGG!), scattering papers, shitting blueberries, grapes, and papaya all over the orange airport carpets. The TSA guys stood there wide-eyed and backed into the corner leaving me to chase him around desks, behind file cabinets, coffee maker supplies, and coat racks. I finally threw my coat over him stopping the fun. Meanwhile someone did the stupid carrier inspection with fruit poop-coated gloves, and I got him locked inside again. Oh yes, this office had a large picture window overlooking the check in area, so passengers had a view of a hurtling Swainson's toucan and scattering TSA agents. Bet they hadn't seen anything like it before or since. The Juneau International Airport's carpets will never be quite the same.

I've traveled with and shipped parrots many times. I absolutely demand a room with a door if they insist on my taking the bird out. I've never had a softbill pooping and making a ruckus though. That must have been fun. I would have thoroughly enjoyed that as pay back for all the times they insist on running their hands between my legs when I'm wearing yoga pants. I mean, what can they feel that they can't see????