- Joined
- May 1, 2004
- Messages
- 2,290
I recently bought an adult female Aphonopelma bicoloratum(Mexican Bloodleg)tarantula, through an ad on Kingsnake.com's classifieds, from "Off-The-Ark Exotics" in Mildothian, Virginia. The seller goes by the online name of "VFerra". As per my instructions, the seller was to send the spider by FedX's Standard Overnight service, "bill recipient", which means that I would pay shipping upon collecting the package at the FedX counter, rather than have it delivered to my home. I do this for two reasons; one, I am not AT home during the hours that the FedX truck delivers, and it is far too risky to leave ANY package, let alone one containing a live animal, outside on my doorstep, out here in the country, for who-knows-how long, and two, I have a close friend who is a FedX employee, and all employees are given a 75% discount on shipping, and are ALLOWED to designate up to two other people who can receive packages in their name, to take advantage of the discount. I am one of those two people, and this fact is known by all the people who work out of this particular FedX office. I simply have the packages shipped bill recipient, to be held for me to pick them up at the counter, and I pay shipping when I get them. The only difficulty is that if the shipper takes them to a Kinko's or such business to be picked up by FedX, they won't send it because those businesses require an account number, and few FedX employees have them. An actualy FedX office will ship them out with no problems, as will any FedX carrier who picks them up at a drop-off box.
Well, to see where this is going, the T was shipped out, and arrived on schedule. When I opened the shipping box, though, I was shocked-inside the pink styrofoam container, the large adult tarantula had been placed in a deli cup, with absolutely NO padding of any kind, whatsoever! The only thing in the box itself was a small wad of newspaper on one side. There was nothing at all on top or underneath the deli cup, and there was a good two inches of space between the deli cup and the top(or bottom)and two sides of the styrofoam container, within which the deli cup could, and obviously HAD, bounced up and down. The insides of the deli cup itself were nearly opaque with smeared BLOOD from my spider; both of her back legs had been badly broken, and she was very, very weak and dehydrated. I got her out immediately and got her into "ICU". She is hanging on, though still very weak, and one of the back legs has dropped off completely, while the other remains more or less useless.
I emailed the shipper/seller to complain about the condition of the animal and the way it was shipped, especially the total lack of padding inside the deli cup and the inadequate padding inside the box itself, to prevent the deli cup from being jostled around. I got a VERY nasty reply, which can be read under "Tarantula Announcements", stating that the reason the spider arrived in such horrible condition was because I was "cheap", had made him ship the thing illegally and in a manner that was against FedX policies, and he did not owe me anything if the spider died. Furthermore, he threatened to report me and my "sister" to the FedX office for "violating" their policies, and that he was "done" with me!
DO NOT do business with this person; I should have figured something was up when he kept referring to the A. bicoloratum as a "Colombian" Blood Leg, and tried to sell me a large adult female P. formosae "Ornamental" as "tame" and "very easily handled", but I had always been wanting an adult bicoloratum, and you seldom see them offered, not females, anyway.
pitbulllady
Well, to see where this is going, the T was shipped out, and arrived on schedule. When I opened the shipping box, though, I was shocked-inside the pink styrofoam container, the large adult tarantula had been placed in a deli cup, with absolutely NO padding of any kind, whatsoever! The only thing in the box itself was a small wad of newspaper on one side. There was nothing at all on top or underneath the deli cup, and there was a good two inches of space between the deli cup and the top(or bottom)and two sides of the styrofoam container, within which the deli cup could, and obviously HAD, bounced up and down. The insides of the deli cup itself were nearly opaque with smeared BLOOD from my spider; both of her back legs had been badly broken, and she was very, very weak and dehydrated. I got her out immediately and got her into "ICU". She is hanging on, though still very weak, and one of the back legs has dropped off completely, while the other remains more or less useless.
I emailed the shipper/seller to complain about the condition of the animal and the way it was shipped, especially the total lack of padding inside the deli cup and the inadequate padding inside the box itself, to prevent the deli cup from being jostled around. I got a VERY nasty reply, which can be read under "Tarantula Announcements", stating that the reason the spider arrived in such horrible condition was because I was "cheap", had made him ship the thing illegally and in a manner that was against FedX policies, and he did not owe me anything if the spider died. Furthermore, he threatened to report me and my "sister" to the FedX office for "violating" their policies, and that he was "done" with me!
DO NOT do business with this person; I should have figured something was up when he kept referring to the A. bicoloratum as a "Colombian" Blood Leg, and tried to sell me a large adult female P. formosae "Ornamental" as "tame" and "very easily handled", but I had always been wanting an adult bicoloratum, and you seldom see them offered, not females, anyway.
pitbulllady
