Any Aqua Huna shoppers? How is the package labeled?

[JoCinWB]

On 11/4/2022 at 3:26 PM, anewbie said:

But surprise you are allowed to do that - i would think the sender has to file the claim.

USPS gives either as an option

[MrWestCoast]

I started having this issue with USPS since the pandemic. The carrier will mark the package as delivered but it's nowhere to be found. For the most part the package will get delivered the next day, or not. I've had packages delivered across the street and to my surrounding neighbors. It became a real PIA.

[Miranda Marie]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:41 AM, Pepere said:

So they will not issue a refund if the package can not be found?

Good to know.  I was planning on a purchase with them but likely will not if that is the case.

To be fair, it's the fault of the postal service and they *should* be the ones to re-emburse the person whose package they lost. Aqua Huna has an extremely fair DOA policy and has never given any issue refunding for anything that can be considered remotely their fault.

In this case, the USPS should be the ones penalized, as it was their error.

[anewbie]

On 11/5/2022 at 1:34 AM, Pepere said:

Well, the customer may not always be right, but they are always the customer and always get to choose where they spend their money.

 

in this case, theseller chooses what shipper to employ and they contract with the shipper.  In essence the selleris the customer of the USPS.  Yes it is out of the shippers hands after they hand it off to the shipper, I agree.

the vast majority of retailers will guarantee the delivery of their packages and refund or reship in the case of packages reported delivered but not found and not require the customer to file the claim.

 

I worked in Customer Service for years for a large major retailer and know how very common this scenario is.

the seller in this case is well within their rights to have this policy, and I am well within my rights to say,”Thanks for the heads up. I choose to do business elsewhere.”  I would rather pay a bit more to not have to deal with filing a claim with the post office.  And this is from the perspective of never personally experiencing a case of a paxkage reporting as delivered but unable to locate it.

In this specific case I disagree since the post office has already all but admitted the package was never delivered. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be 'nice' for the seller to cover it if the post office fails to do so but ....

[JoCinWB]

On 11/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, anewbie said:

In this specific case I disagree since the post office has already all but admitted the package was never delivered. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be 'nice' for the seller to cover it if the post office fails to do so but ....

I don't know what case you are referring to, but the USPS has not admitted that my packages were never delivered. I have no idea how long I will have to wait to see if the USPS pays my claim.

I have not in any way blamed Aqua Huna, I have stated my problem is with USPS and I am not bashing AH. However, unless I missed it, AH did not offer me a choice of shipper. If the company would let me choose FedEx for example, I would consider shopping there again. 

[anewbie]

On 10/24/2022 at 11:40 AM, JoCinWB said:

Update: I just caught the mail carrier. He said he did not have any live animal packages last week. He checked his truck and it's not there, either. He is going to look into it at the USPS branch, but suspects someone scanned it as "delivered" when they were sorting and it never was put on a truck at all.

fingers crossed, it's been a week so maybe they're still alive and he can find them

Quoting you from an earlier post in this thread - would this not be an admittance the package was never delivered ?

[JoCinWB]

On 11/7/2022 at 12:49 PM, anewbie said:

Quoting you from an earlier post in this thread - would this not be an admittance the package was never delivered ?

He said he didn't see it, not that the USPS didn't deliver it. Packages sometimes are brought out with a driver later in the day. He said he would look into it but I am here every day and he never tried to talk to me about it, even when I asked him about the 10/31 package that didn't arrive.

None of it makes sense. Whoever changed its status to "delivered" did so at about the time our regular mail arrived (this is also the case with the package I never got 10/31). Is our carrier stealing? Maybe. If I were a thief I'd probably be looking for electronics, not "live animals." But who knows.

[anewbie]

On 11/7/2022 at 12:10 PM, JoCinWB said:

He said he didn't see it, not that the USPS didn't deliver it. Packages sometimes are brought out with a driver later in the day. He said he would look into it but I am here every day and he never tried to talk to me about it, even when I asked him about the 10/31 package that didn't arrive.

None of it makes sense. Whoever changed its status to "delivered" did so at about the time our regular mail arrived (this is also the case with the package I never got 10/31). Is our carrier stealing? Maybe. If I were a thief I'd probably be looking for electronics, not "live animals." But who knows.

I can't comment on your post office but i can state for sure that our post office for a few months was incorrectly marking packages delivered when they move them from one truck to another. It happened for a period of 3 to 6 months (I didn't track it closely) and then suddenly stopped happening... but i had quite a few packages (maybe 6?) during that period that were incorrectly marked delivered. I know what was happening because on the first package I drove to the post office to check why it wasn't delivered when marked as such (I live in a condo with a dedicated package room); and the postmaster figured out what was happening and said the truck with the package would be back at the post office after they close so i couldn't wait to get it - but the next day it showed up.

[JoCinWB]

On 11/7/2022 at 1:19 PM, anewbie said:

I can't comment on your post office but i can state for sure that our post office for a few months was incorrectly marking packages delivered when they move them from one truck to another. It happened for a period of 3 to 6 months (I didn't track it closely) and then suddenly stopped happening... but i had quite a few packages (maybe 6?) during that period that were incorrectly marked delivered. I know what was happening because on the first package I drove to the post office to check why it wasn't delivered when marked as such (I live in a condo with a dedicated package room); and the postmaster figured out what was happening and said the truck with the package would be back at the post office after they close so i couldn't wait to get it - but the next day it showed up.

Backing up even further--the morning the fish package was supposed to be delivered, I got a notification that it was ready for pickup at the local post office. It wasn't supposed to be held for pickup but I rushed down thinking something was wrong, maybe it was leaking or something. The guy at the counter said if they didn't have someone to drive the truck out to deliver packages, they put packages "on hold," which generates a "ready for pickup" message. Insane, right?

My carrier, when I asked him about the live animals package, said somebody probably scanned it wrong when they put it on a truck. But if that happened, wouldn't it have been delivered eventually?

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/7/2022 at 10:10 AM, JoCinWB said:

He said he didn't see it, not that the USPS didn't deliver it. Packages sometimes are brought out with a driver later in the day. He said he would look into it but I am here every day and he never tried to talk to me about it, even when I asked him about the 10/31 package that didn't arrive.

None of it makes sense. Whoever changed its status to "delivered" did so at about the time our regular mail arrived (this is also the case with the package I never got 10/31). Is our carrier stealing? Maybe. If I were a thief I'd probably be looking for electronics, not "live animals." But who knows.

I did order from AH and haven't had any issues.  Potentially you might be able to talk to them beforehand about shipping it a different method.

That being said there is a few issues...
1.  Fedex won't ship it
2.  UPS straight up might refuse it, which really sucks when you have live items to ship
3.  USPS will ship it, but they often have issues with packages.  Keep in mind, the history of USPS was such a way that you were able to order chicks via mail and have them delivered alive.  USPS also defaults constantly to having the mindset of "if it's not there and we said it was delivered via tracking, then give it 2 weeks.

All of that being said....

I have had a ton of issues with the local USPS and I would recommend you go into the post office and speak with the actual postmaster about your specific address.  Explain to them what you're going through, what issues you're having, and that it's been a constant flow of packages not arriving.  That is what started to turn things around for us.  We lived previously in a gated community and they would decide to deliver items based on whether or not they felt like they could get into the gate (they always do and always can) and whether or not the mailbox had one of those package boxes open instead of going to the house.  They would often say "it's delivered" and then would often express how "it'll show up if we have it".  After 4 packages in a week and 10+ packages in a very short amount of time, we opted to have items delivered to the local UPS store mailbox just so we could actually receive mail. 

It's been a hassle, and that took almost 5+ years to sort out just ordering something or having an important letter in the mail and actually being able to receive it.  If it continues to happen, go in person, talk with the actual postmaster of your address.

[anewbie]

On 11/7/2022 at 2:03 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I did order from AH and haven't had any issues.  Potentially you might be able to talk to them beforehand about shipping it a different method.

That being said there is a few issues...
1.  Fedex won't ship it
2.  UPS straight up might refuse it, which really sucks when you have live items to ship
3.  USPS will ship it, but they often have issues with packages.  Keep in mind, the history of USPS was such a way that you were able to order chicks via mail and have them delivered alive.  USPS also defaults constantly to having the mindset of "if it's not there and we said it was delivered via tracking, then give it 2 weeks.

All of that being said....

I have had a ton of issues with the local USPS and I would recommend you go into the post office and speak with the actual postmaster about your specific address.  Explain to them what you're going through, what issues you're having, and that it's been a constant flow of packages not arriving.  That is what started to turn things around for us.  We lived previously in a gated community and they would decide to deliver items based on whether or not they felt like they could get into the gate (they always do and always can) and whether or not the mailbox had one of those package boxes open instead of going to the house.  They would often say "it's delivered" and then would often express how "it'll show up if we have it".  After 4 packages in a week and 10+ packages in a very short amount of time, we opted to have items delivered to the local UPS store mailbox just so we could actually receive mail. 

It's been a hassle, and that took almost 5+ years to sort out just ordering something or having an important letter in the mail and actually being able to receive it.  If it continues to happen, go in person, talk with the actual postmaster of your address.

fedex and ups will ship the packages - as i've received fishes via both methods from different vendors; however the question is will aquahuna use them and how much will it cost you - certainly a lot more than $12.99. I will also state that for the cost of those method of shipping there are other vendors I would use. I use aquahuna for cheap fishes with cheap shipping but i've never been perfectly happy with their non-schoolers and frequently wonder if they are shipping 'b' stock. 

 

 

[JoCinWB]

On 11/7/2022 at 3:31 PM, anewbie said:

fedex and ups will ship the packages - as i've received fishes via both methods from different vendors; however the question is will aquahuna use them and how much will it cost you - certainly a lot more than $12.99. I will also state that for the cost of those method of shipping there are other vendors I would use. I use aquahuna for cheap fishes with cheap shipping but i've never been perfectly happy with their non-schoolers and frequently wonder if they are shipping 'b' stock. 

 

 

I see. I don't know what quality and pricing are like elsewhere, but here (NEPA) fish stock is awful and/or expensive. I considered starting a thread to ask about this actually.

We have a few local fish stores, plus Petco, Petsmart, and a regional chain. Mostly bad experiences at all the chain shops. I wanted corydoras.

A week ago I went to local shop 1. He had a few of several different species. I could not afford half a dozen $14.99 panda corys. He didn't have more than 2 of anything less than $10. The albinos, which I read are usually inexpensive, were $9.99. Is that high? It seems high to me. I ended up paying about $50 for 2 pepper, 2 green gold, 1 sterabi. The sterabi was I think $14, the others less than $10, he said he would give me a deal on them. The receipt wasn't itemized so I cannot say what they cost individually. I wanted 6 of 1 kind, he said it didn't matter the species would school together. I think he fed me a line.

Local shop 2, which I visited this weekend, had very little stock. The "assorted corydoras" were $4.99. Not sure what species they were, but once the 4 I have (1 died after 4 days, outside of 48-hr guarantee) are out of quarantine I'll go to shop 2 again and see what they have. I still want pandas but if I can get more green gold (I didn't see any of those at shop 2 though) at least I'll have a good-sized group. 

[nabokovfan87]

I recently had to ship fish.  Fedex flat out says they won't do it.  From a business is slightly different then what a residential shipment can be.  UPS says they will, but I was rejected when I brought the box in to do so and had to go to a different facility.

Correct though, It's up to Aquahuna and they likely chose USPS for those same reasons.

Edited November 8, 2022 by nabokovfan87
fix link

[anewbie]

On 11/7/2022 at 9:59 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I recently had to ship fish.  Fedex flat out says they won't do it.  From a business is slightly different then what a residential shipment can be.  UPS says they will, but I was rejected when I brought the box in to do so and had to go to a different facility.

Correct though, It's up to Uquahuna and they likely chose USPS for those same reasons.

Weird - i don't know what to say. Guess maybe different locations have different policies.

[JoCinWB]

Update: 2 ppl showed up a little while ago with the box. They said it was one of THREE packages mistakenly delivered to their house on another block on my street. My other missing package is not among them. They also said one of their kids opened my AH box. Why they didn't bring it to me, or give it to the carrier, 2 and a half weeks ago when it got there they did not say. (Just an aside, given the small size of the box, the "live tropical fish" label was not showing at all except on the bottom of the box, so a carrier might not even have noticed it. The tape on top was almost completely covered by the shipping label.)

So the 2 snails are in a bucket of fresh water and don't look dead. They don't look lively either but after more than 3 weeks in a box I can't expect much can I.

Of the 6 panda corydoras, 1 is alive, 1 is a partial body, and the other 4 dissolved completely. The survivor is in another bucket with some additional water until I can set up a second Q tank after work. I don't want to be running 2 Q tanks but I don't have much choice. 

So, shocking right?

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/8/2022 at 10:52 AM, JoCinWB said:

Of the 6 panda corydoras, 1 is alive, 1 is a partial body, and the other 4 dissolved completely. The survivor is in another bucket with some additional water until I can set up a second Q tank after work. I don't want to be running 2 Q tanks but I don't have much choice. 

Use a bucket if you can with a sponge filter.  If you don't have a tank I mean.  Make sure to run meds, salt, etc.  I would start with salt + food + air.

Thankfully, there is an answer to the mystery now.  Very unfortunate what those little fish went through.

I believe you had already mentioned you have a door cam now. Hopefully that helps track future issues. 

[JoCinWB]

On 11/8/2022 at 4:03 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Use a bucket if you can with a sponge filter.  If you don't have a tank I mean.  Make sure to run meds, salt, etc.  I would start with salt + food + air.

Thankfully, there is an answer to the mystery now.  Very unfortunate what those little fish went through.

I believe you had already mentioned you have a door cam now. Hopefully that helps track future issues. 

Thanks. I'll set up a bucket and get the Q meds going after work. The snails were moving around when I checked.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/8/2022 at 1:10 PM, JoCinWB said:

Thanks. I'll set up a bucket and get the Q meds going after work. The snails were moving around when I checked.

What all do you have in terms of animals in QT from that box?  I would try to keep that panda and the snails seperate if you can.  Especially so you can dose salt for the fish.

[JoCinWB]

Aquarium Co-op's blog says snails don't need quarantine so I gave them a good rinse and once they started moving around I put them in my main tank.