Man I am sad.

CoralWealth · Sep 30, 2021

Just had to vent to y'all.

I sell a good amount of SPS (acropora) here on the thread as a hobbyist and try to do the best for everyone here and do good prices. I dropped 8 packages off last night 9/29, they did not move anywhere till noon today (9/30) for no good reason. I called Fedex probably 30 times and I got the same response "We promise the packages will be delivered today" when I knew dang well that was impossible as the packages were pretty much all going to the west coast and I am in PA.

They finally transferred me to someone higher up who got me in contact with someone at the local hub close to me about getting the corals brought back today, THE DAY AFTER I shipped to hopefully save some of the corals. They did not bring the corals back till 7pm for me to pickup (again the day after I dropped them off) and a good amount of the SPS are not looking good and multiple dead. These were supposed to be delivered to the other hobbyist by noon today. This was over $3,000 worth of corals, just really upset as obviously there is nothing I could have done and I worked extra hard to get the packages back to hopefully save some of the corals. Sorry not looking for anything, but just had to vent.

Shipping REALLY REALLY sucks sometimes, especially when it is for no reason. No storms, no nothing.

F i s h y · Sep 30, 2021

2nd fed ex issue I have heard of from yesterday . "Box was kicked, smashed, thrown and drove over" or something close to that lol...

NowGlazeIT · Sep 30, 2021

Dang that’s a bummer, i’m sorry for your loss

Naturalreef · Sep 30, 2021

I truly feel for you. I had 3 shipments of coral with FedEx and they all took two days to get to me. FedEx sucks period. They didn’t care one iota. All high end sps rtn’d…..

Idech · Sep 30, 2021

That is s infuriating. Did you have insurance covering the value of the package and can you get money back at least ?

BroccoliFarmer · Sep 30, 2021

CoralWealth said:
Just had to vent to y'all.

I sell a good amount of SPS (acropora) here on the thread as a hobbyist and try to do the best for everyone here and do good prices. I dropped 8 packages off last night 9/29, they did not move anywhere till noon today (9/30) for no good reason. I called Fedex probably 30 times and I got the same response "We promise the packages will be delivered today" when I knew dang well that was impossible as the packages were pretty much all going to the west coast and I am in PA.

They finally transferred me to someone higher up who got me in contact with someone at the local hub close to me about getting the corals brought back today, THE DAY AFTER I shipped to hopefully save some of the corals. They did not bring the corals back till 7pm for me to pickup (again the day after I dropped them off) and a good amount of the SPS are not looking good and multiple dead. These were supposed to be delivered to the other hobbyist by noon today. This was over $3,000 worth of corals, just really upset as obviously there is nothing I could have done and I worked extra hard to get the packages back to hopefully save some of the corals. Sorry not looking for anything, but just had to vent.

Shipping REALLY REALLY sucks sometimes, especially when it is for no reason. No storms, no nothing.

Sorry man. You’ve been nothing but a great person to do business with. Only top quality from you.

Karen00 · Sep 30, 2021

I am so sorry to hear about your loss! I think the crappiest shipper for most people has to be Fedex based on most of the threads posted here and to think they were the global leader at one point. They pretty much wrote the book on how to ship. To see how far they have fallen is shocking! What I really don't understand is how they can be so nonchalant about living creatures. It's appalling!

BroccoliFarmer · Sep 30, 2021

Karen00 said:
I am so sorry to hear about your loss! I think the crappiest shipper for most people has to be Fedex based on most of the threads posted here and to think they were the global leader at one point. They pretty much wrote the book on how to ship. To see how far they have fallen is shocking! What I really don't understand is how they can be so nonchalant about living creatures. It's appalling!

Honestly, I don’t think it is really fed ex per se. I think that employers just can’t find enough good people to work. I don’t want to make this political, but since the pandemic hit, people seem to have other priorities than getting a job in the service / labor industries . And what are left are people that could care less (generally speaking). As such, I don’t really blame fed ex because other than they have not replaced people with robots fast enough. Everything else is just dealing with the worst of the pandemic.

Gtinnel · Sep 30, 2021

NJTaxMan said:
Honestly, I don’t think it is really fed ex per se. I think that employers just can’t find enough good people to work. I don’t want to make this political, but since the pandemic hit, people seem to have other priorities than getting a job in the service / labor industries . And what are left are people that could care less (generally speaking). As such, I don’t really blame fed ex because other than they have not replaced people with robots fast enough. Everything else is just dealing with the worst of the pandemic.

I agree with most everything you just said other than I still would blame FedEx. If they don't have the ability to make a delivery at the scheduled time they shouldn't accept the package. The reason they can't make the delivery on time should be their issue and not a problem for the person shipping the package.

OP sorry you had this happen. I think if I were shipping corals I'd spread the shipments out over several days to not put all of my eggs in one basket as the saying goes.

Karen00 · Sep 30, 2021

NJTaxMan said:
Honestly, I don’t think it is really fed ex per se. I think that employers just can’t find enough good people to work. I don’t want to make this political, but since the pandemic hit, people seem to have other priorities than getting a job in the service / labor industries . And what are left are people that could care less (generally speaking). As such, I don’t really blame fed ex because other than they have not replaced people with robots fast enough. Everything else is just dealing with the worst of the pandemic.

You're absolutely right, it is all of the shippers but FedEx seems to get the most posts on here but maybe that's because they're used more than the others. One thing I really don't understand is how they can take people's money for overnight shipping knowing they can't deliver (I'm talking about all of the shippers, not just fedex). If it's not possible because of what's going on with getting good people then they shouldn't offer it as an option or not offer it to places they know are problematic right now. Like there was something with FedEx and their Memphis hub being all messed up so if that's a problem for on time delivery for overnight then don't offer it until it's resolved, especially for livestock.

Karen00 · Sep 30, 2021

Gtinnel said:
I agree with most everything you just said other than I still would blame FedEx. If they don't have the ability to make a delivery at the scheduled time they shouldn't accept the package. The reason they can't make the delivery on time should be their issue and not a problem for the person shipping the package.

OP sorry you had this happen. I think if I were shipping corals I'd spread the shipments out over several days to not put all of my eggs in one basket as the saying goes.

You and I said the same thing at the same time.

If the shippers know they can't make the delivery on time they shouldn't even offer it as an option! It ridiculous to take people's money then just shrug their shoulders at the problem and if Covid is the reason then having that posted is not a solution, it's an excuse to get away with taking people's money. The solution is to offer delivery options they can actually commit to.

sfin52 · Sep 30, 2021

Karen00 said:
You and I said the same thing at the same time. If the shippers know they can't make the delivery on time they shouldn't even offer it as an option! It ridiculous to take people's money then just shrug their shoulders at the problem and if Covid is the reason then having that posted is not a solution, it's an excuse to get away with taking people's money. The solution is to offer delivery options they can actually commit to.

Makes me nervous to ship.

saltyhog · Sep 30, 2021

FedEx is horrible! They let a package with fish sit in the hub in Memphis for a WEEK! I only live 2 hours away and offered to drive over there and pick them up but they refused, said they would be there the next day! I despise FedEx. I've never had anything like that happen with UPS. Heck even USPS is better here than FedEx.

Gtinnel · Sep 30, 2021

Karen00 said:
You and I said the same thing at the same time. If the shippers know they can't make the delivery on time they shouldn't even offer it as an option! It ridiculous to take people's money then just shrug their shoulders at the problem and if Covid is the reason then having that posted is not a solution, it's an excuse to get away with taking people's money. The solution is to offer delivery options they can actually commit to.

It's honestly pretty alarming that as a business they can not fulfill their end of the arrangement and at the end of the day there are no repricusion on their end and everyone is just okay with it. That wouldn't be tolerated in any other industry.

Imagine going out to dinner and paying for your food and after waiting they just tell you they aren't going to give it to you and you have to leave without getting refunded. No body would be okay with that, and in my opinion it is essentially the same thing.

Naturalreef · Sep 30, 2021

Idech said:
That is s infuriating. Did you have insurance covering the value of the package and can you get money back at least ?

FedEx will not honor delivery guarantees due to covid is what I was told. Their Memphis hub is garbage.

Smite · Sep 30, 2021

That's inexcusable service. Sorry to hear for your loss of coral and the financial loss as well. No one needs that right now.

I was starting to research shipping a few months back but it just doesn't seem to be worth the risk right now.

Karen00 · Sep 30, 2021

sfin52 said:
Makes me nervous to ship.

After reading so many horrific shipping stories I only buy local for livestock even if it costs me more and I feel good about supporting local so win/win.

Dry goods and equipment are obviously no problem to ship. I know some people aren't so lucky to have LFS's that do saltwater so have to rely on shipping. If that were me I think I would have to wait until things return to some semblance of normality before I would trust shipping livestock. The stress of wondering if they're going to arrive alive would kill me.

Karen00 · Sep 30, 2021

Gtinnel said:
It's honestly pretty alarming that as a business they can not fulfill their end of the arrangement and at the end of the day there are no repricusion on their end and everyone is just okay with it. That wouldn't be tolerated in any other industry.

Imagine going out to dinner and paying for your food and after waiting they just tell you they aren't going to give it to you and you have to leave without getting refunded. No body would be okay with that, and in my opinion it is essentially the same thing.

Well said and spot on! They know they hold all the cards so don't mind giving their customers the finger. They could easily implement solutions and the simplest is to offer only the services they can commit to but they choose not to. It goes to show how much they care about their customers and their reputation. I get mad and sad in equal measure when I hear of stories like the OP's!

Adolfo · Sep 30, 2021

Really sad for your corals loss ... specially sps

agame2021 · Sep 30, 2021

CoralWealth said:
Just had to vent to y'all.

I sell a good amount of SPS (acropora) here on the thread as a hobbyist and try to do the best for everyone here and do good prices. I dropped 8 packages off last night 9/29, they did not move anywhere till noon today (9/30) for no good reason. I called Fedex probably 30 times and I got the same response "We promise the packages will be delivered today" when I knew dang well that was impossible as the packages were pretty much all going to the west coast and I am in PA.

They finally transferred me to someone higher up who got me in contact with someone at the local hub close to me about getting the corals brought back today, THE DAY AFTER I shipped to hopefully save some of the corals. They did not bring the corals back till 7pm for me to pickup (again the day after I dropped them off) and a good amount of the SPS are not looking good and multiple dead. These were supposed to be delivered to the other hobbyist by noon today. This was over $3,000 worth of corals, just really upset as obviously there is nothing I could have done and I worked extra hard to get the packages back to hopefully save some of the corals. Sorry not looking for anything, but just had to vent.

Shipping REALLY REALLY sucks sometimes, especially when it is for no reason. No storms, no nothing.

Is fedex going to compensate for the dead corals?

This is another reason Amazon cut contracts with fedex and they want to cut their contracts with USPS… I have had nothing but problems from both of them!