Guarantees

KarenSoCal said:

I once bought a baby skunk

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ALDABRAMAN said:

~ We have one, most friendly and sweetest little girl.......

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wellington said:

My hub wanted a skunk. He's not one to even want a pet.

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ALDABRAMAN said:

~ Guarantees in the tortoise community. Almost every customer asked me what kind of guarantee we have on our aldabra tortoise hatchlings. I see that some breeders, sources, etc. offer guarantees of some sort. Besides the guarantee of successful delivery, my question basically is on guaranteeing how long a tortoise that was sold will live. Does anyone offer guarantees on how long a tortoise will live? How long a tortoise will be healthy? We had a shipper that we contracted with and always had the lost/stolen insurance, however the airlines would never guarantee live arrival, just the arrival dead or alive. When a tortoise is delivered dead, what do most of you do? I have talked to many about this subject, on both sides of the transaction. At times it can be an enormous loss for one side or both. We have never had a dead delivery, however in full disclosure we usually avoid shipping. I have simply declined sales at times instead of taking a risk. What do you do if someone gets a hatchling and it dies a few weeks after delivery?

~ I guess i am interested other opinions and perspectives of guarantees when it comes to hatchlings in the tortoise community. Also would like to hear if any have had issues and how they were resolved.

~ All opinions, thoughts, perspectives and experiences welcome.

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ALDABRAMAN said:

~ We have always had a skunk, truly a awesome pet. They are still available, permit (class III) required.

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KarenSoCal said:

@Pearly wrote

"Just like if dealing with Tom or Yvonne, I’d feel like no matter what happens there is plenty of integrity on their side to make things RIGHT."

I absolutely agree with you, but that's because we know them. If a buyer is not familiar with the breeder over a period of time like we are, I can't fault the buyer for wanting some assurance.

(for some reason, it wouldn't let me edit Pearly's post, hence the quoted portion.

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Pearly said:

Good point, and then, another thought: to always check reviews, do some background check on the seller bfr money changes hands. Or, maybe have the seller (@ALDABRAMAN in this case) refer potenti buyer to this forum or parts of it. Encourage them to join and get educated about the species while obtaining very valuable information about the potential source of a future PET, a companionlikely for a lifetime! Which is to me like getting married, you want to be sure you chose wisely, right?

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wellington said:

@Will @Markw84 @Tom @allegraf @HermanniChris
Any breeder/sellers want to add what you do or think?

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Will said:

These are two slightly different statements I am pondering on using. In short many things can happen that are out of my hands, no my fault, or responsibility. In many cases I would suspect I'd offer some measure of resolution where neither of us are made whole, but neither of us are burdened fully for some thing that may happen. I already know some folks will never be happy, so I don't worry about them in the first place.

2)LIVE ARRIVAL GUARANTEE. I guarantee that I am putting a healthy vibrant tortoise in the box to be shipped to you. You must express any concern within a hour of FedEx's declared delivery time. ANY concern should be expressed right away, or no later than one hour after FedEx's declared delivery time. Be prepared to backup concerns with clear, in focus well lighted images.

If you do a pick up at the local FedEx ship center (which I strongly recommend) you must pick-up within the first hour that location is open.

All remediation (righting a wrong or correcting a fault) will be negotiated. If I did not do anything wrong or the problem is not my fault I will not have a solution, (but I am willing to assist you in negotiating with the carrier if the above conditions were met.) I offer lifetime support for husbandry and care.

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KarenSoCal said:

You didn't ask for input, but my opinion is that I prefer the second statement, "Live Arrival Guarantee".
I would add 2 lines to it (in parentheses above.
When I picked up my skunk, I went directly to the airport, where I was told she had actually arrived the previous evening, and I had not been called. The worker had brought her shipping carrier into a warm office, so at least an attempt was made to keep her well.
On a funny note, she was a 5 week old unweaned baby that fit on the palm of my hand...and her container had stickers all over it that proclaimed "WILD ANIMAL-CAUTION!"

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TylerStewart said:

Long story short, we guarantee live arrival and 7 days beyond that if the tortoise is set up as described on our website. We guarantee them through shipping mistakes and delays as well which is out of mine and the customer's control, but I assume that's a risk I take in selling tortoises online, it's my problem to get them to the customer safely. Our website description (on every page that sells baby tortoises) is how we have been raising them, and works well for us and has for years. Perfect, smooth, firm tortoises. I can't rely on what the internet told them was a correct setup because it's usually not. If a tortoise is not eating well or inactive for someone, I will ask for photos of the setup, and there's almost always a correction that can be made that resolves the problem. In the rare case that a tortoise dies in transit, usually only after a delay in hot or cold weather, we immediately replace it at no cost, and no cost for shipping the second time. In the winter, we use the larger 60 hour heat packs so even with the occasional 24 hour delay, it's still warm all the way to the customer. If a tortoise dies within the 7 day window, we will replace it as well. If the customer appears to have the setup dialed in and seems to have their head on straight, we will cover the cost of shipping the second time. If a customer is rude or disrespectful or anything like that, we will refund what they paid for the tortoise and be done with them. I have a pretty short fuse for that stuff. Fortunately it's not common and we only have these issues a few times a year, if that (shipping roughly 400-600 tortoises a year). It's less than 1% that we replace.

We had someone recently get a tortoise that didn't do well, a leopard, and died after a few days. He pretty quickly asked for a replacement which I agreed to, and agreed to at no cost with no new shipping cost for the customer, then in passing he asked me if 15 watts was a hot enough bulb (it isn't unless the tortoise was basically in direct contact with it). I got photos of the setup and suggested changes. The UVB strip bulb was a few years old, he kinda just wasn't ready.... More than once in the past, I have had people send me pictures of their setup that did look good, I replaced a tortoise, and I later found the same image on google (they stole a nice looking setup photo from google and sent it to me as if it was theirs). I love when customers email me and tell me they have the setup ready and warmed up and are now ready for their tortoise (which happened this morning), because so many do not do that.

We never never use a little dumb loophole buried in a lengthy Terms and Conditions page to skip out on our guarantee, and we have never denied someone because UPS screwed up in any way. We are honest and workable and want everyone to be happy with our transactions. We make exceptions to our guarantee occasionally as well, extending it, particularly if someone bought a full setup from us at the same time so we know they are making that effort to set them up right.

There will always be the customers that are never happy as I think someone mentioned above. We try our best, but unfortunately, there's no flag that pops up and tells me that this customer is going to be a headache LOL. Myself and a few other tortoise/turtle vendors used to have an email list we would bounce back and fourth of bad customers that we all wanted to avoid and help each other avoid. It came in handy for them a few times, refunded a sale as soon as it happened, etc.

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TylerStewart said:

Long story short, we guarantee live arrival and 7 days beyond that if the tortoise is set up as described on our website. We guarantee them through shipping mistakes and delays as well which is out of mine and the customer's control, but I assume that's a risk I take in selling tortoises online, it's my problem to get them to the customer safely. Our website description (on every page that sells baby tortoises) is how we have been raising them, and works well for us and has for years. Perfect, smooth, firm tortoises. I can't rely on what the internet told them was a correct setup because it's usually not. If a tortoise is not eating well or inactive for someone, I will ask for photos of the setup, and there's almost always a correction that can be made that resolves the problem. In the rare case that a tortoise dies in transit, usually only after a delay in hot or cold weather, we immediately replace it at no cost, and no cost for shipping the second time. In the winter, we use the larger 60 hour heat packs so even with the occasional 24 hour delay, it's still warm all the way to the customer. If a tortoise dies within the 7 day window, we will replace it as well. If the customer appears to have the setup dialed in and seems to have their head on straight, we will cover the cost of shipping the second time. If a customer is rude or disrespectful or anything like that, we will refund what they paid for the tortoise and be done with them. I have a pretty short fuse for that stuff. Fortunately it's not common and we only have these issues a few times a year, if that (shipping roughly 400-600 tortoises a year). It's less than 1% that we replace.

We had someone recently get a tortoise that didn't do well, a leopard, and died after a few days. He pretty quickly asked for a replacement which I agreed to, and agreed to at no cost with no new shipping cost for the customer, then in passing he asked me if 15 watts was a hot enough bulb (it isn't unless the tortoise was basically in direct contact with it). I got photos of the setup and suggested changes. The UVB strip bulb was a few years old, he kinda just wasn't ready.... More than once in the past, I have had people send me pictures of their setup that did look good, I replaced a tortoise, and I later found the same image on google (they stole a nice looking setup photo from google and sent it to me as if it was theirs). I love when customers email me and tell me they have the setup ready and warmed up and are now ready for their tortoise (which happened this morning), because so many do not do that.

We never never use a little dumb loophole buried in a lengthy Terms and Conditions page to skip out on our guarantee, and we have never denied someone because UPS screwed up in any way. We are honest and workable and want everyone to be happy with our transactions. We make exceptions to our guarantee occasionally as well, extending it, particularly if someone bought a full setup from us at the same time so we know they are making that effort to set them up right.

There will always be the customers that are never happy as I think someone mentioned above. We try our best, but unfortunately, there's no flag that pops up and tells me that this customer is going to be a headache LOL. Myself and a few other tortoise/turtle vendors used to have an email list we would bounce back and fourth of bad customers that we all wanted to avoid and help each other avoid. It came in handy for them a few times, refunded a sale as soon as it happened, etc.

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