eddie_van_quailen
Songster
Apologies in advance for the long and emotional post. It's been an incredibly stressful and sad day. We got the aviary finished a couple days ago, and our first 3 quail have been enjoying it immensely. We've had so much fun watching them run around, climb the logs, burrow under them, and roll around in their sand bath.
A month ago, I ordered 3 more quail from Southwest Gamebirds and they shipped on 5/16, right on schedule. A pearl fee, falb fee, and golden Manchurian, all hens. I was so excited, they would complete my all-jumbo flock perfectly. My first 3 girls are all Pharoahs, so I was excited for the infusion of color as well. I got the shipping notification on 5/16 and eagerly watched the tracking history as they made their way to California. The shipping should have been next-day, since I'm in CA.
I want to start off by saying that none of this reflects poorly on Southwest Gamebirds at all. Their ordering process was super easy, straightforward, the birds shipped on time and were packaged well, and as far as I can tell everything that went wrong went wrong because of the US Postal Service.
SWGB suggests calling your local post office to make sure they will call when your package arrives at the local office, so you can go pick it up rather than having the postal carrier attempt to deliver it. This is where the problems began. My local post office didn't seem to understand what I was asking when I did this. Maybe I got unlucky and ended up on the phone with someone who didn't know what they were doing? Who knows. Anyway, I gave up and checked online and discovered there's a "package intercept" option to have the package held at the local post office, but it wanted a $211 fee?? So I noped out of there. I was so confused at this point. So I called the general USPS customer service line to ask what to do, and the customer service rep informs me that, somehow, I've already put a request on the package to have it held at the post office?! I have no idea how that's even possible, but I thank him and leave it at that. I continue watching the birds' tracking, and it still says their delivery is scheduled by 6:00pm on 5/17.
So 5/17 comes, I'm waiting all morning & afternoon... still no call. This whole time the tracking still shows the birds scanned in AZ on 5/16 but nothing after that... all day. Suddenly, a full 24 hours later, they scan in San Francisco at 3pm. But I'm at least an hour from there and the guaranteed delivery is still showing 6:00pm. I'm starting to get worried, so I check the USPS website again. On the "delayed packages FAQ" page, it says to contact customer service "after 6pm local time on the guaranteed delivery date if the package has still not arrived." So decided to wait a little longer and see if they called me before 6. 6pm comes and goes, so at 6:05pm I called customer service, and surprise, they close at 6pm. Are you f%#king kidding me? Why would it say to wait until after 6 to call if they close at 6????
So now I'm completely helpless, with no recourse, no birds, and nothing to do except wait. I did yard work outside in case a delivery person came until well after 9pm. Kept my phone off silent all night long in case I got a phone call. Went to bed late, woke up early. Throughout the entire night last night and early this morning, by the way, the tracking still said "delivery guaranteed on or before 6:00pm Wednesday 5/17"
I have a screenshot at 1am 5/18 that says "guaranteed delivery Wednesday 5/17 by 6:00pm." Then, suddenly, at 7am the package disappeared from the system and I got an error message when checking the tracking. WTF??
Just as I'm really starting to freak out, FINALLY, someone calls and tells me I can come to the local postal annex to pick up a live animal package. I fly down there, knowing that by now they've been without food and water for nearly 48 hours, and get the birds. (There was a whole confusing saga about them giving me terrible directions about where to go for after-hours pickups but that's another story).
Sure enough, the golden Manchurian was dead in the box. I was (and still am) devastated. But not at all surprised, considering they were more than 12 hours delayed. The box didn't look damaged, but who knows what happened. I'm livid with the USPS. I can't believe their incompetence. The incompetence of the worker not understanding what I was asking for when I called the first time, the incompetence of their tracking system to update in a timely manner and to reflect accurate delivery expectations, the incompetence of their deliveries to arrive on time, their incompetence when handling live animals, all of it. This was a terrible experience. I had doubts about shipping live birds, which is why I chose to buy local birds in the first place. I don't know why I went back on that. After this experience I can confidently say I will never ship live birds again. It's not fair to them.
The pearl fee and falb fee are still not out of the woods yet. The pearl fee is in the best shape, she seems the most alert. The falb fee has been very puffed, with half-closed eyes most of the time. I've gave them only room-temp electrolyte water for the first few hours, and every hour since then have been making them a mash with crumble and lukewarm water that they've been eating eagerly. I don't want them eating too much too quickly or getting too dehydrated with food, so I'm trying to take it slowly and keep moisture intake up. I feel terrible about the whole thing and I feel selfish for putting them through this. I also buried the golden Manchurian in the backyard under our apple tree.
Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this was other than maybe catharsis, and to share my experience with shipping live birds. I hope maybe it helps someone. I know not everyone has bad experiences with it, plenty of people ship live birds every day and it works out just fine. I know that. But I won't do it again.
A month ago, I ordered 3 more quail from Southwest Gamebirds and they shipped on 5/16, right on schedule. A pearl fee, falb fee, and golden Manchurian, all hens. I was so excited, they would complete my all-jumbo flock perfectly. My first 3 girls are all Pharoahs, so I was excited for the infusion of color as well. I got the shipping notification on 5/16 and eagerly watched the tracking history as they made their way to California. The shipping should have been next-day, since I'm in CA.
I want to start off by saying that none of this reflects poorly on Southwest Gamebirds at all. Their ordering process was super easy, straightforward, the birds shipped on time and were packaged well, and as far as I can tell everything that went wrong went wrong because of the US Postal Service.
SWGB suggests calling your local post office to make sure they will call when your package arrives at the local office, so you can go pick it up rather than having the postal carrier attempt to deliver it. This is where the problems began. My local post office didn't seem to understand what I was asking when I did this. Maybe I got unlucky and ended up on the phone with someone who didn't know what they were doing? Who knows. Anyway, I gave up and checked online and discovered there's a "package intercept" option to have the package held at the local post office, but it wanted a $211 fee?? So I noped out of there. I was so confused at this point. So I called the general USPS customer service line to ask what to do, and the customer service rep informs me that, somehow, I've already put a request on the package to have it held at the post office?! I have no idea how that's even possible, but I thank him and leave it at that. I continue watching the birds' tracking, and it still says their delivery is scheduled by 6:00pm on 5/17.
So 5/17 comes, I'm waiting all morning & afternoon... still no call. This whole time the tracking still shows the birds scanned in AZ on 5/16 but nothing after that... all day. Suddenly, a full 24 hours later, they scan in San Francisco at 3pm. But I'm at least an hour from there and the guaranteed delivery is still showing 6:00pm. I'm starting to get worried, so I check the USPS website again. On the "delayed packages FAQ" page, it says to contact customer service "after 6pm local time on the guaranteed delivery date if the package has still not arrived." So decided to wait a little longer and see if they called me before 6. 6pm comes and goes, so at 6:05pm I called customer service, and surprise, they close at 6pm. Are you f%#king kidding me? Why would it say to wait until after 6 to call if they close at 6????
So now I'm completely helpless, with no recourse, no birds, and nothing to do except wait. I did yard work outside in case a delivery person came until well after 9pm. Kept my phone off silent all night long in case I got a phone call. Went to bed late, woke up early. Throughout the entire night last night and early this morning, by the way, the tracking still said "delivery guaranteed on or before 6:00pm Wednesday 5/17"
I have a screenshot at 1am 5/18 that says "guaranteed delivery Wednesday 5/17 by 6:00pm." Then, suddenly, at 7am the package disappeared from the system and I got an error message when checking the tracking. WTF??Just as I'm really starting to freak out, FINALLY, someone calls and tells me I can come to the local postal annex to pick up a live animal package. I fly down there, knowing that by now they've been without food and water for nearly 48 hours, and get the birds. (There was a whole confusing saga about them giving me terrible directions about where to go for after-hours pickups but that's another story).
Sure enough, the golden Manchurian was dead in the box. I was (and still am) devastated. But not at all surprised, considering they were more than 12 hours delayed. The box didn't look damaged, but who knows what happened. I'm livid with the USPS. I can't believe their incompetence. The incompetence of the worker not understanding what I was asking for when I called the first time, the incompetence of their tracking system to update in a timely manner and to reflect accurate delivery expectations, the incompetence of their deliveries to arrive on time, their incompetence when handling live animals, all of it. This was a terrible experience. I had doubts about shipping live birds, which is why I chose to buy local birds in the first place. I don't know why I went back on that. After this experience I can confidently say I will never ship live birds again. It's not fair to them.
The pearl fee and falb fee are still not out of the woods yet. The pearl fee is in the best shape, she seems the most alert. The falb fee has been very puffed, with half-closed eyes most of the time. I've gave them only room-temp electrolyte water for the first few hours, and every hour since then have been making them a mash with crumble and lukewarm water that they've been eating eagerly. I don't want them eating too much too quickly or getting too dehydrated with food, so I'm trying to take it slowly and keep moisture intake up. I feel terrible about the whole thing and I feel selfish for putting them through this. I also buried the golden Manchurian in the backyard under our apple tree.
Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of this was other than maybe catharsis, and to share my experience with shipping live birds. I hope maybe it helps someone. I know not everyone has bad experiences with it, plenty of people ship live birds every day and it works out just fine. I know that. But I won't do it again.
I will keep that in mind, actually, my grandparents spend every summer on the Oregon coast and I often go up to visit them! 
Thank you very much 
They’re just too fragile! Should have trusted my gut on this one. Oh well… live and learn I guess 
I’d be much less sad about a couple cracked eggs than a dead bird, at least. But you’re right, none of it is ideal. Time to set myself up as the premier Northern California fancy quail breeder I guess 
(big baby over here, in case you couldn’t tell by my original post 
