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I do my absolute best to ship my fish in the best packaging
available, so that they arrive to you as
healthy and unstressed as possible.
In the 15 years of Select Aquatics, I have had contracts with
UPS twice, once with FedEx, and two
other times when I shipped UPS, Select Aquatics partnered with 2
other companies with UPS contracts
for lower shipping rates. In both cases, within a couple months,
UPS discovered what we were doing,
threatened the company's contract, ending my partnership.
When I set up my own contracts with UPS, the overnight rates
offered were roughly 30% more than
USPS. After spending hundreds of dollars on shipping supplies to
qualify for a FedEx contract, rates
they offered me were roughly 50% more than the cost of USPS. So
I currently ship only USPS,
Overnight Express, when shipping live fish. I am simply a
smaller business, where the quality I aim for
requires extra time and attention, and my shipping volume does
not allow for lower rates from UPS or
Fedex.
Independent shippers offering cheaper shipping do not allow for
immediate refunds if a USPS box
arrives late, so that shipping out replacements when there are
losses is not possible.
PayPal decided a few years back that USPS 3-5 Day Priority was
not appropriate for shipping live fish.
Some customers found that they could order fish 3-5 Day, then
tell PayPal that they had arrived DOA
(without contacting me, or sending photos to PayPal). PayPal
would then refund their payment back to
the customer, including the shipping cost. In one case, the
customer also demanded a refund for their
hard goods as well. I then spent many weeks in each case working
to recover some of their payments.
I stopped shipping live fish USPS 3-5 Priority about 5 years ago
because of this.
Currently, with my smaller box, to a ZIP Code where USPS would
be roughly $85, UPS is $170, and
FedEx is $190. (UPS rate as of 1/1/2025, Fedex rate may have
increased, as that quote is about 2
years old.)
With UPS, the boxes would be dropped off at a large office, and
with FedEx, it would be dropped off at
a local Walgreens, where each day someone who knew that they
were a FedEx pickup location needed
to be located. With USPS, I go to a small local post office,
where everyone knows me, and they fully
support Select Aquatics. I receive excellent customer service.
Though they cannot cause a box to ship quicker than USPS is
capable, I know that they do their best
when a box has had difficulty. They have stepped up for me many
times, and helped locate lost boxes,
etc., when needed.
To make matters more difficult, based on roughly the last year,
nearly all of the boxes shipped USPS
overnight will arrive 1-2 days late. The Fish will generally
arrive fine, but lately the majority do not arrive
the next day.
But Cost and Customer Service are Not the Most Important
Things:
Besides cost, USPS has one other big advantage over UPS and
Fedex. For those who criticise USPS,
and my using her them, there is something that isn't considered,
and is essential to your fish arriving to
you in their best health.
Both UPS and FedEx, from my location north of Denver, require
that their boxes be dropped off to pickup
points by 10:30 AM, to ship out at 11 AM to make overnight
delivery. It takes roughly 90 minutes to put
together each box, and my usual shipping day would require that
I start bagging fish by 3:30 - 4 AM.
With USPS, boxes must arrive by 4:30 pm, and are shipped out at
5. When starting at 7 AM, I am able
to get the boxes to the post office in time without issue. To
ship UPS or FedEx, I would need to bag and
box the fish the day before, adding an extra day to their
shipping. I understand that many do this, but I
want my stock to arrive to you in the best shape possible. To
me, adding a day with fish bagged, sitting
here, runs against spending extra to ship your fish overnight.
USPS Overnight was dependable for
many years, and I am assuming that current problems are
temporary. When a USPS box does arrive
to you overnight, the fish will only have been in the box for
roughly 36 hours.
I do ship 3-5 Day Priority for my hard goods, and from watching
those deliveries, and talking with
others shipping fish using 3-5 Day Priority, deliveries can now
take up to a week, often with fish
arriving in poor shape, or lost. So I do not see myself resuming
shipping 3-5 Day Priority.
I understand that there are many in the current government that
wish to entirely close, or privatize
USPS, the Post Office. Recent comments from analysts estimate
USPS should roughly double their
package delivery costs, putting USPS rates at the current UPS
and FedEx rates quoted above.
I believe this could greatly affect the shipping of tropical
fish between small shippers like myself,
and hobbyists on a budget. Please contact your Congressman to
let them know that raising USPS
rates would greatly affect the study, maintenance and
reproduction of these rare and endangered
species. Most of these fish can no longer be imported, and are
disappearing from the US hobby.
Trust me, it is difficult for me to quote current shipping
rates. Depending on what is being shipped,
the cost to ship can be twice the cost of the fish that you are
receiving. Most customers will
justifiably then become angry when their box does not arrive
overnight. I understand. I follow the
tracking on every box that I ship, and will keep in close touch
during the process. I can also tell
you from experience how things will likely go, and when your box
will arrive, based on where it is
according to your tracking. The fish will be boxed exceptionally
well, and rarely are there losses.
Thank you for your understanding!
Greg Sage
selectaquatics.com
selectaquatics@gmail.com
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