USPS Scare

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Pepito

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2008
102
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Phoenix, AZ
About a year and a half ago I attempted to mail live fish for the first time. I read a whole lot about it and was confident that I had done everything correctly. I double bagged all my fish, padded them, had them in a styrofoam container inside of a cardboard box, labeled it LIVE FISH FRAGILE, showed which side was the top, and shipped them overnight.

Contents of the box were 2 german blue rams, one pleco (6"), and one kuhli loach, all individually bagged. I was mailing them from my folks' house to my house (where I had someone there to unpack them when they arrived).

Well, I was stalking that tracking number like crazy. For a good half a day nothing changed, and then it said "returned" after the package got a state away. I called, nobody could give me a reason or even confirm exactly where it was. Eventually it got back to the post office I mailed it from.

The package was in a huge trash bag, soaking wet, with a huge dent in the top of the box. I took it home, terrified that all my fish were dead only to find out it was totally dry inside the styrofoam inner box. Not a single bag popped or leaked. All my fish were fine and I placed them back in their original tank.

Now, I'm puzzled as I know there are people who mail out live fish regularly. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong or why my package was soaked and returned when the contents were undamaged. Was someone just lazy? Was someone offended I was mailing live animals and decided to soak the box? Did something spill on it and people assumed it came from the inside because it was labeled as live fish?

I am afraid to attempt to mail live fish again.
 
wow that is some experience.. you could not find any info out from people who handled your package as to why this happened? i would be afraid to ship again too.. but there must be a logical reason..Maybe because package was damaged they sent it back so you could collect insurance money if the live fish had perished??
 
Don't use USPS they are the worst shippers out there. They recently lost my package for 4 days and killed $600 in fish. The tracking never changed from day one.
 
ha or maybe they just dont care? Prob got something thrown on it and they assumed the leak was from you since it said live animals or fish. Post office people might be some of the worst out there..just generalizing tho
 
I support the Post Office and am very happy with their service. With that being said, DO NOT use them to ship Live Animals. You'll see that any retailer will not use USPS for shipping live animals.

We want to use them because they are the cheapest option. Contrary to belief, they DO NOT guarantee exact arrival times. [as in an overnight delivery is an estimated time, but NOT guaranteed. It can take up to 2-3 days. If it takes longer than 2 days they will refund your money. UPS and Fedex guarantee delivery time; it's why you pay twice as much for it].

This is taken from their site:

Mailing Live Animals
Customers shipping live animals must ensure all packaging requirements are met. Live animal shipments may be presented at any Post Office; however, the service standard may be affected depending on the availability of transportation from the drop-off site.

Customers sending Express Mail shipments containing live animals should expect a 2-3 day transport of their shipment. Shipping early in the week is suggested, and holiday weeks may have limited acceptance days and times. Express Mail postage will not be refunded unless the delivery or attempted delivery is more than three days after the day of mailing.

http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/specialhandlingservice.htm

As other have said, they also don't update their tracking (like other carries do).
 
UPS even lost a fish that I was sending to another member a few months ago but at least we were reimbursed.
 
I never got my money back or insurance as it was proclaimed to be my fault because of improper packing. Had I opened it up at the post office they would've refunded me, but since I declined doing so (I was scared the fish WERE dead and I'm pretty attached to them so I didn't want to be all emotional at a post office), I didn't get a refund. It's not too big of a deal, though, money is replaceable. It was relief enough to find them just fine in their baggies.

Thanks for all the comments! I see now that USPS was a bad very choice. Who should I go through, then? I seem to remember UPS and FedEx not allowing live animal shipments, though I could be mistaken. I've never purchased fish online or I would've checked out what courier they used.

*edit*
Oh, I didn't look to see for new comments. Is UPS generally a good courier to choose?
 
Pepito;4212131; said:
Oh, I didn't look to see for new comments. Is UPS generally a good courier to choose?
Click to expand...
Most of the vendors that I've dealt with on here have shipped via UPS and I've shipped by UPS before and there have been no problems up till that incident...I guess it was bound to happen at some point or another.
 
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