Sad Fish Store Tale

[Ursus]

I went into my favorite LFS to get some rock today and also to check out the new shipment from Hawaii. The first thing I noticed was that there were a ton of new yellow tangs (go figure), but no purple tangs like they said they were getting. So as I was looking through the various tanks, I noticed a lot of fish laying on the sand either almost dead or recovering from almost dying. Among those struggling were several kole tangs, achilles tangs, fairy wrasses, and a tang that looked like kole, but had blue lines and apparently is a bit more spendy. After talking with one of the employee's, it turns out that they had been waiting on the shipment all night last night but never got a call that it had arrived. So today the UPS guy calls to let them know their shipment came in. Well Paul (the owner) goes down to get them and the UPS guy straight up tell's him that the shipment arrived last night, but he didn't call because he wanted to leave early and calling would have taken to long.

Basically most of the fish were starving for oxygen and one of the yellow tangs bag had burst and had no water in it. Suprisingly he made it as did all but 3 of the other 25 some odd ordered in. The worst part is they finally ordered some more male blue jaw triggers and one died after they put him in the display. The other seems to be doing well. All in all, I think John said they lost somewhere around $600+ worth of fish, but it could have been worse.

[Nano Chris]

I dont like ups, i like fed-x better, ups has send me a damaged package before, and delayed my package before.

I would be getting on the phone with ups. Take a look at the BBB (Better Business Beuro - i think thats how its said) reports.

[dc]

Boy that would tick me off. I'd probably be raising a little cain. I know my friend has her fish flown to Salt Lake City and we drive over to pick them up.

[Ursus]

Yeah, I too prefer Fed-Ex. When they say they need a signature, they get one as opposed to the classic UPS drop at the door, ring and run. Paul is looking into getting re-embursed for the lost livestock as it was clearly UPS's fault. Also they are missing a shipment of lights and have been gutting they're own displays for temporary lights for customers.

[troybob333]

I really hate oops, err, ups. They are the most expensive out there but the worst customer service. I just wonder why so many people use them.

[reeferman06]

When microsoft was sending my xbox360 back to me, UPS called me on monday to get my correct address(the same address they picked it up from 2 weeks before), the driver said that he was in route, well I did not get my 360 until friday, I had to go get it, for some reason the driver I talked to monday could not find my address and just took it back to the hub...they didnt even call back to tell me he could not find my apartment, he just said forget it!

[Ursus]

Ouch. I thought most of the repaired 360's went with DHL. That sucks it went UPS. I haven't had any experience with DHL yet, but I've heard mixed reviews.

[Tripspike]

UPS blows chow...my cousin and her husband own a mail room and have kicked UPS out the door because of poor service. They prefer DHL and I have had some great experiences with DHL...like when my live rock got shipped on a Wed 2nd day from Florida to CT....Thursday morning @ 8:30 AM I get a call from the driver who is CONCERNED because there is a Live Fish sticker on the box. She delivered by 10am...great service...next day even though it was 2 day.

Trip

[smstrick20]

Hey,

First let me say that its terrible that the fish were lost and that you should definitely file a claim with ups, and considering that most of your shipments im sure any problems will be fixed and costs refunded. Whether its fedex, dhl, or ups they all have the same problems just like cell companies some of us have luck with one but hate another, even though we know someone that has had great service with them. I have ordered and shipped fish for the past 5 years from all over the US and even from Africa to the US and of all the services ive used UPS is still the most reliable, followed by fedex, but only for next day. From the sounds of it your driver deserves to be diciplined and does not reflect the companies standards, in fact if you know the drivers name and let me know where your LFS is located and I will definitely send an email to his corporate dispatch manager for you(did i mention Im in operations mgt for UPS) Seriously let me know and Ill send the word along, that is completely unacceptable. Best of luck.

[Ursus]

I understand that the service varies from place to place, but for me, UPS just doesn't cut it around here. Also, it was UPS at the airport, not a driver. The guy at the airport terminal didn't let them know it had arrived. Idk what Paul is doing about it but I will let you know when I talk to him again.

[JamesJR]

Originally posted by Ursus
I went into my favorite LFS to get some rock today and also to check out the new shipment from Hawaii. The first thing I noticed was that there were a ton of new yellow tangs (go figure), but no purple tangs like they said they were getting.

Minor note: Purple tangs don't live in Hawaii.
that is terrible. That driver should be fired.

[neotekz]

u guys are lucky that u don't have to pay the insane brokerage fees that ups charges. with taxes it usually comes close to 50% of the cost of the item. i won't buy from any online stores that ship with ups.

[Amphiprion]

From experience, this happens all the time. They were lucky to get any alive. We have had the same thing happen many dozens of times and we usually get NOTHING in alive when it does happen.

[LargeAngels]

It is sad that UPS did not contact and that is completely unacceptable, but a couple of things.

Why use UPS if you are a fish store ordering boxes from a wholesaler in Hawaii? Why not use airport service? Or is there not one close enough?

The wholesaler SHOULD pack the animals such that they can handle a delay. One of my favorite LFS here had a shipment from Quality Marine ( in LA) lost by Northwest Airlines for 5 days!! There still were fish alive that made it.

[dcombs44]

My LFS is 2 hours from the closest airport, and to avoid such a situation, he actually tracks the flight into the airport and drives to pick them up himself. It's a bit extreme I know, but it does solve the problem unless of course the plane is extremely delayed.

[rae820]

my LFS owner does the same thing (also in IL)

[mthedude]

I work for a large appliance manufacturer who was recently purchased by Whirlpool. We ship mostly by semi carriers but for small peices we use FedX and UPS. UPS sucks so hard core for me anyway. They will always drop a vacuum off at the front door and guess what? The customer calls back saying they never got it. So what do I do? File a claim w/UPS........and guess what that gets me? Nothing. UPS says once they drop a package off, it's out of thier hands, even if they drop it off at the wrong house, give it some bum on the street....doesn't matter, we get stuck having to ship another item to the customer.....by UPS again no less and eat the charges.

My local UPS is very good though. Same driver in the area for 30 years and he's great.

[stereomandan]

I've had great luck with UPS in the 6+ years I've been using them for buying stuff for the fish tank. For a while there, they had the best, most up to the minute tracking of packages, which I like to check. Now Fed-Ex and DHL are getting better though. Very seldom have they ever missed their sheduled arrival date for my packages either.

Want to talk about terrible ground shipping, talk about USPS.

Sorry to hear about your LFS experience.

Dan

[92cg60]

Few years ago my LFS was occasionally having similar problems...UPS, FedEx, etc. At the time I happened to be working for a small air freight company and hooked him and his shipper up with Alaska Airlines goldstreak service, which includes riding the next flight and notifying the consignee immediately upon arrival.
For about the SAME price as the competition he has his fish in transit an average of 6-8 hours. Only disadvantage is that you have to drop the shipment off at the airport and pickup. But to him its worth the drive not having his fish fly halfway across the country to a "hub" and then all the way back, doubling and sometimes tripling shipping times.

[Ursus]

It was shipped to the airport through an airline, but for some reason UPS was in charge of tracking and letting them know when it arrived.

Also I realize that Purple tangs come from the red sea, but one of the employees was sure they were arriving with this shipment. Could have been confused with yellow tangs though.

The Boise airport is close to the store (no more than a few miles), but considering the flight arrived a day late and they werent notified, a lot of the fish suffered.

[zemuron114]

If it was shipped freight, then UPS will have nothing to do with it. UPS is completely seperate from any airline, so he had to of shipped UPS in order to get them involved.

I ship Delta airlines. They are great so far. I try to avoid atlanta because it is a black hole and boxes get lost. In fact they lost 8 boxes i shipped once to CT. the guy picked them up 48 hours later and everything was alive except a male psych head wrasse (extremely bad shippers to begin with)

UPS is way to much money as well to ship from Hawaii (at 100$ a box roughly compared to Deltas <40$)

[smcnally]

I always find these UPS vs FedEx posts funny. It all comes down to the driver. I used to swear FedEx was way better than UPS, then I moved, and now I swear UPS is way better than FedEx. I often have to make my FedEx driver look through his truck when he insists my package is not on it (and I know it is). He also has damaged many shipments. My UPS driver is always on time and never damages anything.

[bigcdc]

Which Fish store did it happen to?

Chris