Plant delivery

[PatrickCooper]

So i ordered some plants, food, and easy green the 24th and was mailed out from the coop the same day my question is its the 1st and i still havent recieved them and tracking says running late. Should my plants be ok? Its only been like 40 here and tracking isnt telling me where its at. It has nothing to do with Aquarium Co op im super impressed with them my order was sent out 4 hours after i ordered it its just USPS

 

[Kirsten]

In my experience, the Co-op packages plants very, very well with insulated pouches and heat packs if necessary, so the plants have a good fighting chance. I recently had a plant package from them take 7 days to get to me and my crypt, anubias and baby tears were all good.

But if any are in rough shape, they also have great customer service and will make it right if you contact them. Time will tell!

[OceanTruth]

I’m pretty much in the same situation. Ordered on the 19th, sent out the 22nd, and I’m still waiting. I’m not crazy worried though. I think the plants will still be all right if I get it within a couple of days.

It seems that USPS has some weird selective shipping or something. I ordered more plants that aren’t sold by the Co-Op from a company in Cali. I think it was 4 days after the Co-Op order and I’m already going to receive it today according to the tracking. I live cross country so the routes can’t be THAT different.

[gardenman]

1 hour ago, OceanTruth said:

I’m pretty much in the same situation. Ordered on the 19th, sent out the 22nd, and I’m still waiting. I’m not crazy worried though. I think the plants will still be all right if I get it within a couple of days.

It seems that USPS has some weird selective shipping or something. I ordered more plants that aren’t sold by the Co-Op from a company in Cali. I think it was 4 days after the Co-Op order and I’m already going to receive it today according to the tracking. I live cross country so the routes can’t be THAT different.

Modern shipping, whether UPS, Fed Ex or USPS goes through hubs. Suffice to say some hubs are more efficient than others. If a package goes through an efficient hub it could be in and out in hours. If it ends up in a less efficient, overwhelmed hub, it could be there for days. And a lot depends on what grade the package is. First class, gets one priority of handling. Overnight, another. Priority mail another. 

A few years back the main east coast hub for the USPS was in Florida. I live in NJ.  An LL Bean order went from Maine to Massachusetts, to Pennsylvania. I assumed it would come to me from Pennsylvania since it was about thirty minutes from my door. Uh, no. It disappeared for three days and ended up in Florida. Then it disappeared for three more days only to end up back in, you guessed it, Pennsylvania. The same facility where it had been six days earlier. Then it came to me. My local post office said that the package had been in an unsorted bundle of packages that had arrived in PA the first time and that the bundle had been scanned, but not the individual package, but the USPS knew my package was in that bundle of unsorted packages so that's why the tracking showed it in PA six days before it got back to PA. That whole bundle, along with lots of other bundles, then made their way to Florida to be sorted. Once sorted, it was bundled again with packages for my area and sent back to PA where it was then placed on a truck for delivery. 

[JettsPapa]

I've shipped plants that took about a week, and they arrived fine.  I also had a package that took over two weeks.  Results weren't so good with that one.

[Maggie]

They pack them very well - even after 8-9 days in transit mine were all OK (keeping them alive in my tank is another story, lol). Almost all my plants were ordered online from various vendors, and Aquarium Co-Op's are packed the best by far. I wish they carried more plants because my LFS is hit or miss on them.

[Hobbit]

Yep! It’s not time to worry yet. I just had an order from Aquarium Co-op spend eight days in the mail and all three plants arrived just fine. A little haggard but very healthy. The tracking did the same thing on mine too—it seemed to disappear for a few days and then randomly start updating again.

[Cory]

I'm looking forward to when more flights are happening and things settle down shipping wise. Rest assured, if there are problems, reach out to customer service after you get it, and we'll find a solution for ya.

[Cyndi]

I suspect a lot of us are in a similar situation. It's definitely not the Co-op's fault - they shipped within hours of the day I ordered - and it was a Sunday - seems like many moons ago.....

On a positive note: I can't wait to get my Ranchu sticker! I have a special place for it all ready on my MacBook  cover. Everyone in the house knows which computer is Mom's!

[PatrickCooper]

12 hours ago, Cory said:

I'm looking forward to when more flights are happening and things settle down shipping wise. Rest assured, if there are problems, reach out to customer service after you get it, and we'll find a solution for ya.

Yes this covid stuff is getting old. I have no doubt in u guys and ur customer service is top notch. Jusy this usps is a pain

[gardenman]

I've had eight snails stuck at Fed-Ex's hub in Boise, Idaho for four days now. I tend not to think of Boise as being all that busy of a hub, but apparently I'm wrong. Maybe they're using snails to move the package given the speed it's going? And bear in mind, this package was sent Fed-Ex two day shipping. It was scheduled to be here on Tuseday, then Wednesday, this morning they're saying Thursday, but it's still in Boise. I have a suspicion it'll be a bit later than Thursday given how things are going. The good news is the shipper used an insulated shipping container and a heat pack when they were shipped. The bad news is heat packs only last 72 hours and they were packed for shipping on Saturday. Snails are pretty tough critters though, but I'd still prefer them to get here sooner rather than later.

[Andy's Fish Den]

USPS definitely has some delays, and weird stuff goping on with how they ship things. I ordered a Fluval light and other stuff from the coop. The light ships by itself and the other stuff in another  package. Both shipped on same day, I had the light in two days, the other package took a week. Both of them went through different distribution centers, until the one right before it came to my local post office. 

[MickS77]

4 minutes ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

The light ships by itself and the other stuff in another  package. Both shipped on same day, I had the light in two days

I've had this happen a few times, the lights always arrive first. 

[Tanked]

I shipped a 2nd. day air package to a customer 30 miles away.  the package passed through the same hub twice, and the customer got the package 12 days and 277 miles later.  Technology is great when it works.

Knowing this, I made my first plant purchase from the Coop last week. We were just emerging from our first ice age event in years, so I was concerned.  The plants arrived in Ohio 3 days later and look great.  Of course as @Maggiesaid, "keeping them alive in my tank is another story"

[PatrickCooper]

They arrived today pretty cold no heat pack. Most everythings fine. Pearl weed is a little shrivled up and Scarlet temple a little squished but i think everything will make it. But nothing againsy aquarium coop but i think in the future i wont be ordering plants anymore. Just buy them locally i think the extra couple dollars is worth plants not being beat up and taking too long in the mail. 

[gardenman]

7 hours ago, PatrickCooper said:

They arrived today pretty cold no heat pack. Most everythings fine. Pearl weed is a little shrivled up and Scarlet temple a little squished but i think everything will make it. But nothing againsy aquarium coop but i think in the future i wont be ordering plants anymore. Just buy them locally i think the extra couple dollars is worth plants not being beat up and taking too long in the mail. 

I was surprised when my January first order to NJ was shipped without an insulated bag and no heat pack. Nighttime temps were in the twenties and daytime temps were in the thirties/forties.  The plants survived but wouldn't have if they'd been left in my mailbox for an hour or two. I bought them in as the mailman was driving away and the plant temps were still in the fifties when I opened the box. I'm early on the mail route and had they been in the unheated mail truck for longer or stuck in the mailbox for long, they'd have been goners. I raised that issue with the Coop customer support and they say they use weather modeling software to determine if heat packs or insulated bags are required. Yeah. If you're shipping something tropical and alive to NJ in January, heat packs and insulated bags are required. The reason I felt comfortable ordering then was due to people here talking about how well packed everything was with insulated bags and heat packs. My $60+ order of plants came with neither. As I told them at least give me the option for a slightly higher fee. I'd gladly cover the cost of the heat pack and insulated bag, but they don't even give you that option. My red dwarf lily is still doing nothing at about eight weeks now since I got it. Is that due to it getting too cool? Is it just a dud? Is it a late starter? I don't know. It's not rotting so that's good, but it's done nothing since I got it. I don't know how cold my plants got along the way I only know how cool they were when I opened the box. I'll likely order from the Coop again, but not in winter. Had I not been there immediately to bring the plants in, they'd have likely all died. If/when I order again it'll be when temps are more moderate. Not too hot or too cold. You just can't safely ship tropical stuff to NJ in January without some protection regardless of what your weather modeling software says.

[PlaneFishGuy]

I just stocked my new tank and sourced plants from 3 different companies, one of which was Co-Op. It was interesting as a first time buyer of plants on-line. The other two vendors were large scale, well known companies, but I felt like I got to see the "good, better, and best" of shipping. I wont name the competition but just want to provide some perspective based on my experience. 

Best - I can definitely say the Co-Op plants were the healthiest and best packaged by far; I could clearly see the packaging was well thought out and of good quality right down to the thickness of the bags and the paper wrapper used to hold moisture. After 1 week in the tank I am seeing new growth and have had basically no melting - this is more of a testament to the plant than my skills as someone coming off a 20 year break from the hobby.  

Better - The second place option was a very healthy plant but was pretty minimally packaged compared to Co-Op. The roots were wrapped in foam and lead, and the plant was sealed in a bag with some added water.   As with the Co-Op plants, I am seeing new growth in a week and have had no melting. 

Good - (by default since I only had three to compare) The last place company was pretty sad for the cost of the product and the shipping. Id like to give the benefit of the doubt and say everyone has a miss from time to time, but I got the impression/feel that this was probably the norm. The plants were in a bag with whatever moisture didn't drip off the plant when it was packaged and it was stapled shut. Bundles were rubber banded together super tight. The roots had absolutely nothing on them for protection, but hey! there wasn't much root to protect. The plants had no color despite a fairly short ship time; they were geographically the closest to me. I planted them and hoping they perk-up/survive.