AAE stuff up again!

[SnakePower]

Hi all a little storey to tell...
Last night I was supposed to pick up my brand new pair of NT blackheads but there was a little problem with the pick up last night. AAE stuffed up and lost them in sydney! They never made it on the plane to coolangatta and they didn't call me! I spent 2 hrs and 4 phone calls to aae during the day to confirm their arrival time. They kept giving me the run around and transfering me from person to person, and all I got after all that was yes arrival at 955pm. No flight numbers or details. So like a good little herper, I jumped in the car and drove the hour to the airport only to find them not there, and no one to help me!!!! Anyway after another hr and a half on the phone back and forth between aae head office, they finally found them and said they couldn't come till lunch time today. They had been "misplaced" in sydney and they forgot about them.
This on our only freight choice????!!!!
Doesn't say much for AAE!
Don't know if it was worth while, but I thought that I'd let you know. Last week recieved herps supposed to arrive at 1030pm and actually got to the airport just after lunch! Bit of clerickal errors going on.. though that time they did ring me to say they arrived.
Just thought I'd bounce this of you guys for a general opinion!
Cheers!
S.P.

[shamous1]

I've got an opinion on this that I have bought up in the past.

I work for Virgin Blue and have been trying to get their policy on freighting reptiles reversed. Not sure if everyone is aware that they stopped freighting reptiles due to a Goanna getting out inside an aircraft (I believe at Cooly airport).

When I posted the topic some time ago I asked everyone what their thoughts were about AAE having a monopoly on freighting reptiles. I personally have never had any really bad experiences with them apart of bit of mis-communication, so I am not bagging them. It is just that if they want to they can up their prices at any stage and there is nothing any of us can do about it due to them being the single carrier.

Apparently it appears that there are a few people out there that do nbot package up animals in the correct manner and this scared Virgin off. what I proposed was that anyone who cared about Virgin policy to write me an email and I could present a load of everyones emails to a meeting. I could explain that the majority of reptile owners and breeders are responsible people with the animals best interest at heart. I also believe that if the reptile community can incorporate a code of practice for shipping animals then we would look professional etc etc etc.

I think from memory I could count on one hand the responses that I got. All I can say is that I can try and do my best. Maybe at the expo someone (maybe one of the mods) could draft up a petition and have it next to the front door for everyone to sign. This could come in handy. JMO anyway.

[Luke_G]

Well thats no good mate. I personally dont freight becouse im worried that something like that will happen. Better luck next time .

[Luke_]

Thats nothing!!!

A friend of mine was sending some baby beardies down south, they never arrived... Turns out they ended up in New Zealand, they spent three weeks there in holding area in the middle of winter before they made it back. Not alot survived.

I hear you asking what about the small matter of them having left the country? Well they came back with a letter attached that said the box was not opened in new zealand, apparently that ment every thing was ok.....

[olivehydra]

Originally Posted by Luke_

Thats nothing!!!

A friend of mine was sending some baby beardies down south, they never arrived... Turns out they ended up in New Zealand, they spent three weeks there in holding area in the middle of winter before they made it back. Not alot survived.

I hear you asking what about the small matter of them having left the country? Well they came back with a letter attached that said the box was not opened in new zealand, apparently that ment every thing was ok.....

I dont condone it, but it is service such as mentioned above that promotes the already common practice of shipping via express post parcels with Australia Post.

[Azztech]

i have noticed, that direct flights (say brisbane to sydney) are usually alot more reliable than flights to regionals, as the go from major to major airport, then change over planes, then fly out to the regional, as a result alot of things get lost in the "change over"

however, we've all had horror stories with AAE, regardless of flight types...

fact is, (and i even have a mate working there) they are all bloody hopeless :roll:

[Luke_]

I personally was sending 30 rainbow lorikeets to Mildura via melbourne. They were well packed with plenty of food for what would be an overnight journey. However they did not get put on the connecting flight in melbourne. I called and they found them and said they would put them on the next flight, again stuffed up. After this things started to get heated. I was told that if they died they were not responsible and i should have got insurance. I told them it wasn't an Insurance issue it was negligence and that I would have to get the authorities involved, at which point they started taking it seriously. Among other demands I made them give up any suitable food in there lunches so it could be fed to the birds, that way they could feel what it was like to go hungry.
In the end the birds were in the boxes for over 36 hours. Luckily all arrived healthy.

[triptych_angel]

*shakes fist at AAE*

[salebrosus]

Your not the only one matey. Everytime i have picked up Herps i've been told- oh no we cant find it come back tomorrow....oh it hasnt arrived blah blah blah. I refuse to leave my animals overnight with them. Once they told me it hadnt arrived and i could see the box with my name on it behind the counter.
Other incidents involved me picking up a package that was red hot and had been left in the sun i am sure. The animal was was suffering heat stress so i am glad i fought with them that day to and didn't leave the animal overnight till they could find him then.They are hopeless but it would seem they are our only choice.

Simone.

[Doc]

Shamous1 if you could do anything to get Virgin Blue to change their minds it would be great. We send a lot of animals interstate and have had very few stuff ups with AAE. However, any monopoly is not good becuase of the lack of consumer power and choice and what would we all do if suddenly AAE said no more reptiles!!

I think it is grossly bureaucratic and unreasonable for Virgin Blue to ban all reptiles because of one stuff up and one person's foolishness. Why can't they just have a policy that is appropriate for the various kinds of herps. A large goanna requires a bit more restraint than a hatchling snake and I would have thought they could have worked this out?

Simon.

[PilbaraPythons]

I really don't know if they treat you abit different if you have an account or not, but my experiences with AAE have all been good and I have even had one customer say that were telephoned from AAE to say the their reptile had arrived.

[boa]

My experiences have been mostly OK, it might be stretching things to say good. I had a box of snakes coming down from Nth Qld that stopped in Brisbane then went to Sydney, sat there for a few hours then had to come back to Brisbane. It went 2 trips to the airport in 4 hours. A few hiccups but generally pretty good.

[TrueBlue]

Ive used virgin in the past and AAE, and mostly everything goes well. It is sad that AAE has the monopoly atm cause as doc has said it may cause major hassles in the future.
If virgin were to start up again it would be all good for the hobby, as the future for reptile keeping in aust is looking like it will soon take off in leaps and bounds, hell it already has compared to 10 years ago.
Shamous, anyting you can do to change their minds would definitly be a blessing.

[Magpie]

I find AAE stuffs up one out of two.

[Kersten]

So far we've only had one bad experience with AAE. A large tub which was clearly labelled explainging that it needed to be kept out of direct sunlight was left in the middle of a tarred area in the sun for about half an hour.

Monopolies are never a good thing, it's not hard for people to become complacent about delivering good service, and even to charge exhorbitant fees as there is nowhere else for people to go when they are dissatisfied.

If Virgin could be persuaded to join the market in freighting reptiles again it'd certainly be handy.