Beware using Fed Ex this week.

[gooch]

All I can say is I have had very bad luck this week with Fed Ex Priority Overnight.

Ordered 40 Nudi's from Salty Underground and Fed Ex Dropped the ball. Ordered over $500 in livestock from one of my vendors and Fed Ex dropped the ball again. That being said almost $1,000 in livestock was killed thanks to Fed Ex. I am sure claims will have to be filed on both orders. If they pick them up ok but in all honesty it is more about the dead livestock than it is the lost money. Don't get me wrong the money is important too. But for these items to get killed because a third party screws up sucks.

Of course both cases will get blamed on weather. Even though both shipments had either altered shipments or mechanical failures. One of the vendors was told they had a mechanical failure. Then he had another rep say it was weather. Raise any doubts to you?

And of course to make matters worse I used my fed ex account when both wanted to ship using alternate methods. This is what happens when I try to save myself a couple of bucks.

I had hoped to come on here and give Crystal a big thumbs up but we will have to wait a little while. I do have to say that she has been awesome. She called me the moment she found out there was a problem. Even arranged to have the package shipped back to her so I didn't have to deal with the dead livestock. We have also PM'ed back and forth a lot. I am confident we will get the issue resolved.

Sad thing is one of my best friends is a customer service rep for UPS. He has offered more than once to give me a good account. Til now I have resisted. He handles million dollar accounts and I don't feel right about asking him to take me on. I would hate to put him in an uncomfortable situation. But now I may just have to. I have been shipping with Fed Ex for over seven years and over the last year the rates have skyrocketed(no suprise) while the level of service seems to be in decline. My local Fed Ex is great and I love the people but it may be time for a change.

 

[TyreeUM]

thats really to bad to hear...fedex was the only company I fully trusted to get my coral places...I had a few bad runins with UPS and a whole lot more than a few with DHL

 

[kellyjn]

I was supposed to receive some corals today. Looks like UPS dropped the ball though.

 

[Hypertek99]

I use fedex myself as UPS has let me down plenty of times here. You can't really blame fedex as ups could have done the same thing.

 

[aquarius77]

He certainly can blame fed ex because it was them that failed to do their job.

 

[pookstreet]

It's funny that with all the carriers I've used personally, USPS Express has been the best of the bunch. They are not the easiest and their tracking system is worst than suck, but they come through for me more than FexEx and UPS combined. And if a shipment didn't make it on time, they'll refund you without questions, while the others will try everything to deny you or make you jump through hoops to get your money back. Of course, this is all based on personal experience only so please take it with a grain of salt

 

[gflat65]

I get good rates from Fed Ex, buyt 4 out of the last 5 ordes have been wrong (one overnight took 5 days to get here and according to the trackign info left th eoring three times, then left memphis three times... good thing it was only LE's... I've been told numerous times that I will not get anything abck for them not honoring their overnight guarantee because I shipped live animals. A clam order I got months back arrived with the box in pieces and many of the bags completely without water. Filed a claim (camera in hand when the delivery person arrived),btu was told they are not responsible for honoring their guarnatees when i ship live animals... You can chose live animals when you file a claim, so something is amiss. Fed Ex has been declining lately, IMO... When they can't get the tracking information even 10% correct on an overnight order, it makes you wonder who is runnig the show these days. I still use them, but with so many of the last few attempts screwed up royally, it may be cheaper in the long run to go with someone else and pay more for it. I love living in a country where I have to work for the person I give money to to perform services for me... It seems to have been spreading through various service industries for several years now.

 

[oceaninabox]

Let me know how you file a claim with fedex. I didnt hink they honored claims on live coral or fish.

 

[Reef Pets]

The weather is really bad across the northern states this week, many delays and that includes Fed Ex, UPS and USPS. Fed Ex, UPS nor USPS will cover live coral or fish. And, if the delay is due to weather then they will not refund the shipping cost either.

 

[gooch]

I have gotten Fed Ex to reimburse me for loss of livestock in the past. I do not think it will happen in either case here and it is unfortunate but it is the cost of doing business. They told me they credited my shipping charges already for the second order. Since I never recieved the first order I do not think I will be charged for that one. Normally claims have to be filed by the vendor but I think in this case since it was my shipping number and the vendor got no results when he called so I called. It does help that I have shipped a lot of stuff with fed ex with almost no claims. I think this is maybe the fourth time in seven years. Just two in a week is not good. My way of looking at it is this. If I purchased anything perishable other than livestock and Fed Ex dropped the ball it is now on them to make good. With computers and technology they should be able to look at a package and its destination. Factor in weather and determine if it is possible the package will be delayed. Then tell the shipper.....we will not guarantee 10:00 AM delivery. They have no problem taking the extra money for insurance and priority delivery. If it is not insurable it should not qualify for the insurance charge. I have eaten my share of damages from shipping companies. The claims are often not worth the headache.

I know weather plays a part in this BUT when it is mechanical failure that causes flights to be delayed or altered they have a resposibility to do what they claim they can do.

I just got off the phone with Fed Ex (they called me)again and they told me the package was delayed due to weather and will be delivered on Thursday. I asked why one person said mechanical failures and as soon as we said the word claim the second person said weather? I asked who I should believe? Of course no one will be here on thursday to receive the package. They did however say that they have started a claim on the order. I know that shipping livestock in winter is scary. When I had a livestock business I hated this time of year. But you would think they could get a package from south of Milwaukee to Green Bay (three hours by car) in 24 hours. Ground is overnight from that location to me. My ground shipment came on schedule. We went priority overnight because it was livestock and we didn't want to take that chance.

 

[reefboy]

Sorry I've had much better service and handling with Fedex then UPS sure we have had some problems but not near as much and we get to talk with a actual person as with UPS spend a hour then finaly get to our rep who has a bad attitude get anthere rep who just lies to you lol so I will stick with Fedex at least they didnt pickup a 500+ order then say they never picked it up lol chalk that one for UPS

 

[reefboy]

sorry you got me started lol

 

[gooch]

They all have issues. We all know this. I ship 99.9% of my orders ground. The package I got from them for supplies today was hammered. Peanuts falling out of it and all tore up. The good news was nothing was damaged. But it made me think. Man are my orders getting recieved in this poor condition? One of my distributers hates that I use fed ex because is local driver is a dink and a lot of his stuff comes damaged(not my stuff but other items). He says his ups items always look less tattered. Anther vendor(a large one) has me ship UPS already.

I was on the phone on hold for awhile before I got ahold of anyone at fed ex too. Not an hour but awhile. With UPS I will call my buddy direct and work around it.

Trust me Jody, I feel for every single livestock vendor out there. Our busiest times of the year are also the hardest time to ship.

Scott

 

[gooch]

And I always go directly to the hub and drop off my packages. I watch them scan every box and get a reciept. Takes more time but I figure it is one less time they handle it.

 

[rdvab]

well check this out
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/012709/loc_382118854.shtml

 

[Tomasz]

I have been shipping corals for a while now and it seems everytime I use FedEx there is a problem. My best luck is using USPS.

 

[gooch]

Well after two days in transit I shifted my schedule around so I could be here when the package came in hopes of salvaging it. So I got here at about 9:30 and still no package. I checked the tracking and it was out for delivery. So I waited. 10:00 no package. I looked at the tracking again and saw that it had arived at the hub at 2:00 yesterday. So I called. And I got the weather excuse again. I told them to stop with that. We had clear sunny skies all day yesterday. Roads were clean and the package was 30 minutes away. When they told me it would be delivered on the second day I asked why the woman who called me didn't tell me it was on a flight to my area and was going to arive in the afternoon. I would of gladly drove to the hub and picked it up if there was no way to deliver it. The guy tried the weather thing again. I again asked him to please stop using that excuse and treating me like I am not smart enough to know better. Asked that they put a rush on the package because I only had a three hour window to try and salvage this order. We'll call the dispatch sir and get it to you but we are having weather issues. When I told them they are 15 minutes and exactly six turns from my driveway to theirs he put me on hold and I got disconnected. Shortly after that I see a fed ex truck drive by. So I go out to get my package and he keeps on driving. It is now one hour before I have to leave. So I call again and tell them I have to have this pakage in my hands in ten minutes or less or I will not have time to try to salvage anything. We are having weather issues sir. I then said i would go meet the driver wherever they are and pick up the package. SIr we can not do anything about the weather. We had a dusting of snow overnight. Nothing to stop anything in Wisconsin. So I then asked him why my ground package could be delivered at 7:30 am but my priority overnight package took 48 hours. Over 20 hours when it was only a half hour away. They are two different divisions sir. It was the only time I got cocky. I told him yeah the ground gets here overnight and the priority gets here in two days. I am not an unreasonable man. I cared enough to take off from work and lose over $100 in pay in hopes I could save the animals. I had to leave at 12:45 to not be late back to work. Corals came at 12:40. I was late and hate to explain to my boss why. Which was uncomfortable but he let it slide.

I did see the post above me about the plane crash and I am glad everyone is ok and I agree if weather truly is an issue I understand completely and i simpathize with the families. But I do not like being lied to or given excuses. I realize the person I was talking to is a average joe like me so I did not disrespect anyone or use any bad language. I accepted everything but did not believe anything they told me. The thing that got my goat was the fact that I could have had the package the day before had they told me it would be there.

Now the good news bad news. The scoly looks ok, the acans look ok, the dendro looks ok. The elegance looks like it will make it. The xmas favia is receeding and the coco worm was out of the tube dead. I had ten minutes to acclimate them which was not long enough. The bags were very cold but I had no choice, they were already stinky. What will die over the next couple of days is anyones guess. The shipper used a 40 hour heat pack but it was exausted by the time i got it. It was wellpacked and I think that is the only thing that gave tehm a fighting chance.

So now I am torn. I will probably not take the issue any further and just eat the loss. I can get another coco worm. But I could tell this one was awesome and huge. The vendor will replace the worm. I am still out the $100 but I will live. Just very dissapointed.