Not happy with USPS right now.

[deek248]

Quote:
FedEx will not accept Lives unless very speciall arrangements are made $$$$. BTW the post office you are dealing with may well refuse to accept your future shipments and insist you take them to the airport yourself, it is up to the local postmaster.

Fed-Ex has shipped quite a few live salt water fish to me at very reasonable prices. Even had "Live Fish" stamped on the boxes. One of the drivers even wanted to see them out of curiosity

Not sure if this would apply to live birds but have had excellent service from Fed-Ex so far.........

 

[19hhbelgian]

Oh man, I just wanna cry! That is absolutely terrible!! I have had many birds shipped to me, and I have also shipped a bunch out with no problems. Eggs on the other hand

Apparently Priority mail means you might get the package with in a week! It's really starting to get to me. Shipped eggs to OH - took 10 days to get there. Have been waiting on eggs from MD (would have been a 4 hour drive for me to pick them up) for a week now, and my 12 serama eggs from picture perfect poultry... Well, who knows. They were supposed to be here Saturday at the latest. Oh, the eggs from MD were tolbunt polish - any idea how difficult it is to get your hands on tolbunt polish anything???!!!!

Now I'm feeling sick

I'd better stop now...

 

[19hhbelgian]

Quote:
FedEx will not accept Lives unless very speciall arrangements are made $$$$. BTW the post office you are dealing with may well refuse to accept your future shipments and insist you take them to the airport yourself, it is up to the local postmaster.

Fed-Ex has shipped quite a few live salt water fish to me at very reasonable prices. Even had "Live Fish" stamped on the boxes. One of the drivers even wanted to see them out of curiosity

Not sure if this would apply to live birds but have had excellent service from Fed-Ex so far.........

How expensive was it compared to the po? I never even knew fedex would ship live anything.

 

[CityChicker]

I don't think Fed-ex accepts birds. They certainly don't do so regularly. Maybe GD can elaborate on what they require to do it. I have been pretty lucky with the USPS and live birds. Granted, it does generally take 2 days now even with express, but I have been lucky I guess not to have any *major* issues. Holderreads even sent me six adult Runners this week all in the same box and they arrived in good condition. It is just awful to hear when something goes wrong, but overall I have been happy with them. The only true horror story I have had shipping birds was a group of Sun Conures shipped by air that were lost for several days by the airline (and shipping by airline is significantly more expensive to boot). Luckily though, I think that is the only real issue I recall out of hundreds of birds I have had shipped.

I am so sorry for the OP and the other party. I don't think there is anything you could have necessarily done differently. Sometimes, mistakes happen and sometimes unfortunately, you encounter employees that simply don't care (most of them though, I really think *do* care about the live animals). I remember how frustrating it was when I lost my birds and had to deal with an airline employee that just acted like she didn't get at all why we were even in a panic. Thank God, those people are few and far between.

 

[asher]

:-( I'm so sorry. There's no excuse for that.

 

[asher]

Quote:
Correction: SOME of the people at USPS cannot be trusted. Just like any job. MANY of us can be and go above and beyond to do our job.

 

[Laurieks]

Quote:
Correction: SOME of the people at USPS cannot be trusted. Just like any job. MANY of us can be and go above and beyond to do our job.

Poor Ducks! That is rotten service, I would go to the hub or the airport and just skip that PO unless they overhaul their staff.
My first eggs by mail, then birds, began last summer.
I guess I'm lucky; my PO keeps my # and calls me at 5AM when they arrive. The first time I had live birds shipped they called and said they're awful quiet; Roo was dead and the 3 hens (a 4 compartment box-huge box, omg) were fine but sleepy.
We think he tried to jump out and broke his neck, poor guy. He had succeeded once in getting out that way before the box was closed all the way. His fruit wasn't touched so it looked like he died early in the trip. Not USPS' fault!
I later got the tracking info; that box had been 20 miles away overnight before it came to my local PO on the 4AM truck. I asked if I could get my next birds there at the hub; they gave me the back line and I went there at 10 PM for the birds, who would otherwise have come to me the next morning. Again, not their fault, normal procedure, I just found a way around it.

I would definitely recommend asking for the ability to pick up if they're going to sit overnight in the next town. I don't plan on shipping live birds in again, but you never know.

The boxes with pics of the chicks that will hatch from the eggs inside are always pristine; if it just says fragile (the last one was, but the fragile stamp was faint like the ink pad was drying out) they're dented.
I hope all those ducks are in Teal Heaven!

 

[CityChicker]

Since we moved, we have had them only one time call late at night when the birds arrived at the airport. Other than that, we haven't heard anything until they get to our neighborhood post office. I previously had called the two different offices near our house and spoke to multiple people and they all completely *refused* to tell us what hub our shipments come through, citing that they are no longer allowed to as is it a security risk. Anyway, our birds have continued to arrive healthy so I am not terribly upset about it. When we lived in a different part of town though, the main post office that the birds would come through would call us, usually at like 9:00-9:30 in the evening when the birds would arrive. When they did that, we sometimes would receive birds the same day they were shipped.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Correction: SOME of the people at USPS cannot be trusted. Just like any job. MANY of us can be and go above and beyond to do our job.

Yes! and Thanks to all that went out of their way to save so many birds and animals that were stranded at airport postal facilities during the 9/11 event when the government grounded all planes. Of course not all of those birds made it to there intended owners but few starved to death in the postal zones. I was working another poultry board when we were swamped with requests for how to care for these stranded birds by people that had never seen live chicks or ducklings before and didn't know what a feed store was. I invented some strange feeds that day! and I don't know how many I warned that they couldn't just send them on without food and water once the grace period provided by the yoke had worn off. Ended up sending many to contact local rescule groups to care for and find homes for these poor birds.

For those who were hoping for more info about FedEx shipping lives, don't know, but I have seen pictures of FedEx delivering zoo animals, and race horses so they will accept lives under special conditions.

 

[Duck_feeder]

For those of you wondering about FedEx and shipping live animals, they have info in their service guide.
http://www.fedex.com/us/services/pdf/Service_Guide_2010.pdf

See page 114 for the relevant section in their service terms:

live animals and ornamental marine life
(including live Fish)
FedEx Express does not accept live-animal shipments as part of its regular-scheduled service and does not transport household pets such as dogs, cats, birds and hamsters. FedEx Express may accept certain shipments of live animals such as horses, livestock and zoo animals (to and from zoo locations only) on an exception basis if approved and coordinated by the FedEx Live animal desk (call 1.800.405.9052).
If approved by FedEx, we may accept non-venomous reptiles, amphibians, live/tropi-
cal fish 1.
2.
and beneficial insects on an exception basis under the following conditions: Shipments must be from a business to a business (from a breeder to a pet store, for example). the shipper must have its packaging tested and pre-approved by FedEx packaging design and development for the type of animal being shipped. call 1.800.633.7019 for assistance. It is the responsibility of the shipper to adequately package shipments for all temperature extremes and handling conditions.
contact your FedEx account executive for details and additional requirements.

Looks like it is not a part of their normal services but may do it if you contact them first. If any of you are seriously interested, the number to call is copied above.​