Shipping Stories - Good and Bad!

spanglish · #1 12/19/2006, 03:07 PM

I have always been afraid to have fish shipped!
While I am comfortable with the concept of shipping
snails/shrooms, I've just always been gunshy about
fish. I am fortunate to live near numerous LFS's with
plenty of livestock.

Yesterday, I was confirming an order for some sweet
orange/ multi color ricordias

from phishy business
when the conversation turned to a particular fish I had
seen on their site that had already sold (an Eight Line
Flasher Wrasse from the Red Sea) and they indicated
they had another one.

Well, I had to
have it!

So, I ordered and waited with baited breath (no pun intended)
I had it shipped to my office (own my own business) so I
could rush home to acclimate immediately upon arrival.

After one false alarm (some Christmas packages

)
in walks the Fed X man with a box marked in HUGE letters
LIVE FISH.... handle with care, etc.

As I am saying, " Be extra careful with....." he drops it on the
table like a sack of potatoes!

I nearly lost it!

" Hey buddy don't you see where it says LIVE FISH?!"

spanglish · #2 12/19/2006, 03:12 PM

He just shrugged and said,"really, huh I read that but I thought
it was a joke"

.

The good news is the fish is fine but I will think twice before
doing it again. It made me think there are bound to be some
interesting shipping stories out there.

Please share!

cubber · #3 12/19/2006, 03:47 PM

A few years ago I picked up some extra cash working the graveyard shift for UPS over the holidays. I had to unload the big trailers and send the boxes down a conveyor belt to be put in the trucks to go out for delivery. Well whenever the fish boxes would come in on my trucks I would make sure to take extra good care of them, but I watched other people chuck them as hard as they could and be very rough with them and laugh about it. It was very sad to see someone get so much enjoyment out of causing suffering to another living creature. My father-in-law also works for the post office and I cannot belive some of the stories he tells us about what some of his co-workers do to the packages.

easye123 · #4 12/19/2006, 04:11 PM

well if the fish dies cant u get ur money back

dcombs44 · #5 12/19/2006, 04:58 PM

Some retailers have an arrive alive agreement such as drs. foster and smith, but I'm not sure all of them do, and if you can't tell that there's damage to the box, I'm not too sure.

deansreef · #6 12/19/2006, 05:04 PM

sick bastards that defile the packages; they should be put in a box and shipped across the U.S and handled improperly!!!

JokerGirl · #7 12/19/2006, 05:17 PM

I"ve ordered about $600 of live fish online, but all of them except for two came from private breeders online. They are Mpimbwe Frontosa, a type of specialty freshwater fish... the king of the cichlid world.

They were sent through USPS overnight and were extremely well cared for by the lady that delivered them to me. She said all the guys at the post office were making fun of her, going "live fish??!!" my question is how many times they were run through the x-ray machine just to see for giggles if they really were live fish.

All of them arrived safely except for a pair of freshwater gold Severums I ordered from aquariumfish.net... THEY DIDN"T EVEN PUT HEAT PACKS IN AND IT WAS ABOUT 30DEGREES OUT!!!!! I was so ****ed off.. of course, they were dead, but the company more than happily refunded ALL of my money, including the shipping charges. They came through UPS and the box was so cold I knew what I would find when I opened it.

That's the only bad experience I've had in buying live fish online though. All the rest have come very healthy, never got ich, and were obviously very well cared for.

spanglish · #8 12/19/2006, 08:00 PM

Well, with the exception of the fedex guy it was a perfect
shipment. Phishy Business did an excellent job of packaging.
Multiple bags permanently heat sealed, styrofoam enclosure in
cardboard, heat packs, the works. I also noticed that they also
followed up with fedex to confirm that the package was delived.
Serdar did a first rate job!

siding88 · #9 12/19/2006, 08:13 PM

just last week a terrible experience 200 bucks worth of cleaners died becuase of ups call the company up any they said they would replace it no problem, granted they didnt have to but since i spent nearly 3 grand in the last year on stuff, this was one great customer service by this company,,, i will post if people wantto know this is the only place i puchase products from because of their service

spanglish · #10 12/20/2006, 09:48 AM

bump

phenom5 · #11 12/20/2006, 10:46 AM

i haven't had any problems with fish/ frags/ inverts...but would it kill these guys from FedEx & UPS to ring the doorbell when they drop off a package?

one of the worst i've heard of happened to my father-in-law. i can't remember which company it was (FedEx or UPS), but they left his brand new 17" Powerbook on his door step with no one home. they left a freakin' $2500 laptop just sitting there for the taking. the package was supposed to require a signature so something like this didn't happen. needless to say, he got refunded his shipping costs, but he was not happy.