I Need A Different Way To Ship Besides USPS!! 10/7/UPDATE

[Wifezilla]

Get a Fedex account. Print your own label and drop off at the nearest authorized MANNED ship center. The Fedex website posts when pick ups are at the various locations.

We are an authorized Fedex shipper. We ship quite a few packages and have only had 1 not make it since June. Before that we were DHL and that was a total crapshoot

 

[Nana2KJS]

FedEx Terms and Agreements - Live Animals:

"FedEx does not accept live-animal shipments as part of its regular scheduled service. Live animals will be accepted when the shipment is coordinated and approved by the FedEx Live Animal Desk. Acceptable shipments include, but are not limited to, zoo animals (to and from zoo locations only) and horses (from gateway to gateway locations only). Household pets, such as domestic cats and dogs, are not accepted. For more information, please contact the FedEx Live Animal Desk at 1.800.405.9052."

 

[SunshineSilkies]

Tammy,
Thanks for offering to assist me. I love the people at my local PO. They were very concerned and upset as well. They are hard working people and I always appreciate their professionalism and knowledge. They are suffering cutbacks just like everyone else. It is not their fault the birds arrived late...it is just frustrating knowing that the poor babies were out there...somewhere....I have more to ship next week....already dreading it..hoping it will go better.

 

[pips&peeps]

How old are these birds you are shipping?

I'm afraid that you are shipping chicks that are too young a well started bird would have made the trip.

 

[emvickrey]

I shipped a book once that I sold on Ebay. The book was no where to be found but I received the top to the box back. It had been cut off with what seemed to be a box cutter. I know it was stolen. I would be willing to bet that some of these birds that don't make it to their destination are stolen.
I recently had one shipped to me and it took 4 days. He was scanned in the state he came from but not anywhere else. I called every post office that he should have passed through and amazingly, NOBODY had a live bird come through their office. One of the offices in my home state told me not to be surprised if I see later that night that it had been scanned somewhere. That sometimes it shows up later in the night or early morning. Sure enough. Just after midnight it showed he was scanned at that place that told me that about 2 hours after I spoke to the Post Master General. I left messages at all post offices to call me when he arrives at their location. Finally around 1 am I get a call from a P.O. about an hour away that he had arrived. I told them not to put him on another truck. I will come and get him now. And thats what I did. He was safe in my house with food and water before he would have gotten to my post office.
If it hadn't been that this bird was exactly what I was looking for I would not have done shipping.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
I don't think that I'm wrong at all because I talked to employee after employee for two days straight and got no help whatsoever. If it hadn't been for a BYC member's telling me a special number to call, the chicks would've been dead. USPS employees need more training, and the "administrators" need to set humane, caring policies.

 

[vicki2x2]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Joe. There are far too many USPS employees that just couldn't care less. The proof is in the many, many repeated horror stories, just like this one, on here of this type of thing happening and the reaction of the USPS when it does is almost always negative.

My Postmaster is one that is awful and could care less and he told me so. When my birds were missing for five days, he said there was nothing he could do. In the end, turned out it was his fault, long story, but I asked them to check to make sure it was safe to ship when we did, and in fact, we were not supposed to ship then and they sat in a warehouse for days and then were returned to me after 5 days. Then he tried to tell me he couldn't refund my money, even though they didn't deliver the birds at all, let alone in 3 days! He said it was because I bought the postage online, I had to get my refund online. I couldn't find anyway to do that and thought I was out $70, but thankfully someone on here pointed me to the right spot that proved I had to get my refund from the P.O. I printed it off and marched it in to him. He was NOT happy.

 

[georgem]

I own and operate an online book store and depend upon USPS for my livelihood, of the thousands upon thousands of books I've shipped, none have been lost and the vast majority of my parcels arrive at their destination within three days using priority -- lower 48.

Using the full nine digit zip code really seems to help. Another thing you should do when shipping something that is time sensitive, is to be absolutely certain the destination address is written out correctly and confirmed through the USPS online service. You wouldn't believe the number of people that place orders for expensive books, requesting expedited service even, but neglect to include a proper address.

I'm not suggesting this is the case with your chicks, but it does happen and people should be conscious of simple mistakes.

Personally I think the USPS does an amazing job at a great price. Remember, the coordination required to manage millions of letters and packages is nearly unfathomable, of course there will be occasional mishaps (clicky here) . We don't live in a perfect world and it's sad that these things happen, but that is life.

I placed an order for something last winter and paid a premium for second day delivery, the carrier was UPS (not USPS). They didn't deliver it because there was snow on my driveway. I drive a little tiny hatch back and manage my driveway just fine, this has never happened to me with the United States Postal Service. UPS did not refund the additional charges I paid for second day service.

 

[rainplace]

I see more posts around here that go something like this, "Yay, I got my chicks in the mail today!" than I see of any other post about the post office.

 

[swheat]

Quote:
The mail carrier won't come down my driveway to deliver. I asked why at the PO and they told my driveway was too long. It is about 400 feet.