Need help with shipping ASAP!!!

[AP27]

So here's the deal, I'm trying to figure out how to get my tegu as well as 2 king snakes, 2 leopard geckos, and 2 bearded dragons to my new home in DC by Sept. 25th. I originally thought I could go through Fed Ex and ship-your-reptiles until I found out that is for business to business only, no household pets. Well, seeing as my husband and I are leaving for DC on the 25th, we don't have time to find two pet stores that would send and recieve them for us and go through package testing. UPS will accept the tegu, geckos and beardies as far as I know, but I don't know if the boxes have to ge through package testing or not. And I still have no one who will take the snakes. Does anyone know of a shipping service that will allow me to ship all of our reptilian pets from a household residence to a household residence? Or at least a shipping office we can pick them up at(running into problems with the destination address being on a military base). But if anyone at least knows a service I'll figure out details. Just a starting point would be great, I don't know what to do if I can't find a company that will do it...

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Also, driving them is not an option as we are moving from CA to DC. ...and already have plane tickets. How have some of you shipped your animals when giving them to a new owner, etc.?

 

[Logie_Bear]

Are you sure ship-your-reptiles is business only? I was pretty sure anyone could print the lables and then it goes thru fed-ex.

 

[AP27]

You can print them, but when I contacted fed ex they said it had to be from business to business. They told me if the shipping label had a residential address they wouldn't ship it.

 

[Logie_Bear]

According to the FAQ on the ship-your-reptiles, you can try contacting them at 303-730-2125 to have them help you. They said if FedEx refuses (like they did to you) they might be able to roll out the fedex themselves. Worth a shot?

 

[AP27]

Definately worth a shot. I tried contacting them today but it was already to late in the day. So hopefully be Monday at the latest i'll have an answer. Really hope this works out!

 

[laurarfl]

FedEx can be tricky. I can't ship through my closest hub because I'm not certified, but I can drive 20min away and ship through a bigger hub with no problem. They never ask about residential delivery. I just find one that works for me and stick with it. And avoid all the Kinkos type of services.

 

[AP27]

FedEx can be tricky. I can't ship through my closest hub because I'm not certified, but I can drive 20min away and ship through a bigger hub with no problem. They never ask about residential delivery. I just find one that works for me and stick with it. And avoid all the Kinkos type of services.

So they won't intercept it or something if they find out its a residential address? I found a facility where they will send it for me, they girls there were very nice, but I'm just worried about it not turning out right.

 

[chelvis]

I have shipped to a resident through Ship-your-reptile, so that sounds weird. You could also have the package held at the fed-ex office, see if that could be an option if they are strict about the no resident to resident shipping.

 

[AP27]

I have shipped to a resident through Ship-your-reptile, so that sounds weird. You could also have the package held at the fed-ex office, see if that could be an option if they are strict about the no resident to resident shipping.

I haven't been able to find an office in the DC area that will hold live animal shipments. The woman who helped me at the fed ex office here in CA said that it shouldn't be a problem shipping them to the house, even though it's on a military base.
When you shipped through ship-your-reptiles did you have to go through any sort of package testing or were you able to just send as is in the boxes you can get through the site?

 

[chelvis]

I did no package testing. Package tasting is for certification. If its that much work look into Delta Dash, its more expensive but that's how zoos and those with venomous animals ship.

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http://www.delta.com/business_programs_services/delta_cargo/products_rates_shipping/products/us_shipments/dash/index.jsp

They will hold the package at the cargo center until someone picks it up. Rates are not too step espcaically if you package it all together and keep the weight down. Got a good size monitor that way, no special permits or nothing.

 

[Robyn@SYR]

Hey everyone, some clarification and answers : )

Please DO NOT ship reptiles directly with FedEx without being certified. You are putting our entire hobby/industry at risk by "winging it".

You can become individually certified, or you can use the ShipYourReptiles.com site and you are shipping under our certification. You can create an account at our site and have your first label in hand in less than 5 minutes.

When you use SYR, you agree to meet our Shipping Standards. That includes temperature parameters and packaging requirements (meeting the FedEx packaging requirement).

With a typical certified account, you are restricted to shipping ONLY to and from business zoned addresses. That does not include home based business, the address needs to be zoned as Business. Pretty restrictive.

We also offer a 20% discount from the FedEx retail rate to start (discount can go up with shipping volume).

One of our best features is our On-Time and Live Arrival Insurance, a program that NO OTHER reptile shipper offers. The Live Arrival Insurance can give you great peace of mind!

We offer terrific customer service by phone or email. If you need further confirmation on something like the Residential exception, I can put you in touch with the FedEx Live Animal Desk. If a FedEx counter person gives you bad info, I can have the LAD contact them as well.

Making live reptile shipping safe, responsible, and easy is our job, I think we provide a great service : )

It is against UPS TOS to ship snakes, and it is illegal to ship snakes with US Postal, just a note.

 

[AP27]

Thank you for that. I actually just got in contact with Andy today and all is well =)

 

[laurarfl]

Just to clarify...I did use a SYR and my Fed Ex still refused me because I wasn't certified. They just wouldn't acknowledge the contract (years ago). But I can ship out of another Fed Ex facility with SYR or ReptilesExpress.

 

[got10]

you can use S y R thats why they are called SYR and yes they ship to residences. bit pricey but they will and do ship

 

[Robyn@SYR]

you can use S y R thats why they are called SYR and yes they ship to residences. bit pricey but they will and do ship

Our "bit pricey" rate starts at 20% LESS than the FedEx rate, and can improve from that as you gain shipping volume : )

Laura- if you send me the info on the FedEx facility that has given you grief, I can have the FedEx Live Animal Desk contact them directly and get them up to speed, in a totally polite way. Happy to do it!

 

[AP27]

you can use S y R thats why they are called SYR and yes they ship to residences. bit pricey but they will and do ship

They're the cheapest and easiest method I found.

 

[TeguBuzz]

Completely off topic, but has your husband returned from service yet? Haven't spoken to that guy in a very long time! How is Odin doing? I'd like to see some new vids or pics!

 

[AP27]

No he's still out in DC and I'm finally going to join him at the end of this month, hence the shipping need lol. Odin's doing great. He's about 38in long now and around 6 pounds, so he's grown a bit. He's totally cool with all people and places now and actually seems to enjoy traveling. I'll post some pics of the little monster soon.

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I posted an update thread on him if you want to see some pics.