LAG or no LAG?

[Driller64]

I know this may sound like a stupid question, since it would be in my (and the tarantula's) best interest to purchase LAG shipping, but when the LAG shipping is $35+, one has to ask is LAG shipping really nesessary?

 

[freedumbdclxvi]

I always opt for it just in case. Is it absolutely necessary? No most spiders in a well packed box can survive days - or longer. However, why take the risk? Shipping is already around $20 usually with no lag. I don't see an issue dropping a few more bucks for insurance.

 

[Keith B]

Only in the, often reported on here, event that your T dies in transit. Then you've purchased a box of air essentially. That's why it's recommended to order more than one T to supplement the value of paying it. Regular shipping is only 15-20 bucks less, so you just assess the risk for yourself. You can probably get away with it in mild seasons, but in the hottest summers and coldest winters, you'd best have it.

 

[Bender]

When you hear this story, I'm sure the answer will be obvious....

I purchased a P metallica and P regalis from ken. The overnight shipping was 40, but a month ago night temps were averaging in the 20's. So he said he could ship overnight whenever I wanted but as long as the lows were below 30 no LAG. SO after waiting a couple weeks, with no end in the colder temps I said screw it, had him ship and had fedex hold for pickup at the ship center. So I picked them up the next morning, got them home and they were absolutely fine. The heating pack actually lasted into the next morning...so I think they would have been fine even if they were on the fedex truck and delivered directly to my house.

I think a big part has to do with the packing quality. If they are packed secured and well, with a heat pack in the winter, there shouldnt be any issues.

BUTTT with an order of two 2's that is about 150 bucks IT IS a gamble, and probably the safer bet would be to just pay the LAG cost lol. If the order total is less than the LAG, what would be the point of paying for the LAG?

 

[Tomoran]

I'm not a gambling man myself, so I always opt for the LAG. I also tend to save up so that I'm getting several things in one order as to better absorb the high shipping prices ($40 shipping for one sling just stings too much). I've also been fortunate in that the majority of my orders have been from Jamie's, whose $17 shipping with LAG is just fantastic.

However, I can understand why one might take the chance and go for the cheaper option, especially if he/she is only ordering a couple things. Like Bender said, paying more for shipping than your actual T is just a bit too much. I just like the piece of mind knowing that I've got a bit of insurance if something should go wrong.

 

[Bender]

I'm not a gambling man myself, so I always opt for the LAG. I also tend to save up so that I'm getting several things in one order as to better absorb the high shipping prices ($40 shipping for one sling just stings too much). I've also been fortunate in that the majority of my orders have been from Jamie's, whose $17 shipping with LAG is just fantastic.

However, I can understand why one might take the chance and go for the cheaper option, especially if he/she is only ordering a couple things. Like Bender said, paying more for shipping than your actual T is just a bit too much. I just like the piece of mind knowing that I've got a bit of insurance if something should go wrong.

Dont get me wrong, I had a tough time sleeping that night

 

[Tomoran]

Dont get me wrong, I had a tough time sleeping that night

Ha! I had an order with Ken's waiting to ship when you received yours. I won't lie...I gave some thought to having him ship, but ultimately decided that I didn't need the stress of waiting to see if they would all arrive save and sound.

 

[viper69]

I know this may sound like a stupid question, since it would be in my (and the tarantula's) best interest to purchase LAG shipping, but when the LAG shipping is $35+, one has to ask is LAG shipping really nesessary?

It isn't necessary at all, no law requires it. If you order w/out LAG, and it dies in transit, do yourself a favor and don't post it, because virtually everyone will tell you "I told you so" faster than lightning striking the ground, including me.

 

[Beary Strange]

Given the temps where you are, that's a gamble where the odds are very much not in your favor, but I can understand your reservations as that is up there for shipping (still not as up there as $50 though :[ ). Like the others said, usually one would buy/spend enough to make the LAG worth it. For example, I don't generally place orders of less than $100. Someone doesn't have enough of what I want to warrant spending that much, I look elsewhere. If it's at all possible for you, I'd add onto the order to make it worth your while; but not using LAG, especially with your temps, is just asking for trouble.

Weird, but I'm sharing anyway because it's relevant kinda: I personally have this morbid fear that if I don't use LAG, some shady seller will intentionally pack a bunch of already dead slings and then shrug and say "Well you should have used LAG". But no one knew they were shady because everyone else used LAG and I'd be the first silly person to do it. Yeah, people probably aren't that awful; it scares me into getting LAG always nonetheless. XD;;

 

[Poec54]

when the LAG shipping is $35+, one has to ask is LAG shipping really nesessary?

All depends on the weather, the distance, and where you live. If you want to buy spiders and have them arrive alive, you will have to do that some times of the year. None of us want to spend the extra money, but often we do.

 

[Emotionlessness]

I live in Ireland, with nowhere to buy from that can ship to me over night so I buy from other places and have to deal with the worry of 5+ days waiting for my animals to arrive which also means LAG isn't an option, we also have very cold weather and I have only lost 1 B. smithi sling to this, I also had an order with 5 P.metallica with no issues, and to be honest not some of the places even had sub par packing.

 

[cold blood]

Weird, but I'm sharing anyway because it's relevant kinda: I personally have this morbid fear that if I don't use LAG, some shady seller will intentionally pack a bunch of already dead slings and then shrug and say "Well you should have used LAG". But no one knew they were shady because everyone else used LAG and I'd be the first silly person to do it. Yeah, people probably aren't that awful; it scares me into getting LAG always nonetheless. XD;;

+1, My brain has gone through the exact same thought process.

 

[litebritedeath]

I view my T's as not only pets but an investment and their safety is the first thing on my mind. I always pay extra for LAG as it's usually overnight shipping which also means less time in stressful transit for my T's.

---------- Post added 03-02-2014 at 04:22 PM ----------

Also NEVER count on a carrier, especially USPS to be on time or even close to on time with their shipments. Sometimes they do great other times horribly. I had roaches shipped via priority 1 to 3 day from Arron Pauling in Arizonia and it took 8 days to get to Kansas. He recently changed his LAG to where you have to to fedex which is perfectly fine with me. The price is about the same and Fed-Ex is more reliable in my experience.

 

[Beary Strange]

I view my T's as not only pets but an investment and their safety is the first thing on my mind. I always pay extra for LAG as it's usually overnight shipping which also means less time in stressful transit for my T's.

---------- Post added 03-02-2014 at 04:22 PM ----------

Also NEVER count on a carrier, especially USPS to be on time or even close to on time with their shipments. Sometimes they do great other times horribly. I had roaches shipped via priority 1 to 3 day from Arron Pauling in Arizonia and it took 8 days to get to Kansas. He recently changed his LAG to where you have to to fedex which is perfectly fine with me. The price is about the same and Fed-Ex is more reliable in my experience.

+1 on the USPS especially. They.are.awful. They once lost a shipment of slings for 7 days...and not actually lost. It kept getting checked out of the facility, then the next night it turned out it hadn't actually left, so the next morning it would get checked out again, and again and again; a couple times it got sent to a local post office, only to go right back to this awful sorting facility. I watched this nightmare of updates for a week and finally called them up, pissed off as all get out and they had to send a special delivery van to my work. The only reason I think those slings were alive was because the packing was so great. And not long ago, one of the carriers who delivers to us outright didn't deliver two females we'd ordered despite the package being on his truck. My boyfriend saw him pull in, no attempt was made to come to our door, he just got out, put in the "Sorry we missed you" slip and went on. Really? Then my boyfriend calls the local post office to complain and they tell him, well, it's going to be kept here so you need to come pick them up tomorrow (because it was too late in the day by that point). So the next day, he goes to get them, only to be told they had been sent back out for delivery. And USPS wonders why they're struggling...Point is, LAG is usually FedEx or UPS, or at the very least Express USPS which they seem to have a bit more care about.

 

[prairiepanda]

None of the dealers I've bought from up here(all 3 of Canada's T-specialized dealers lol) gave me an option whether I wanted LAG or not. They don't ship in unsafe weather conditions unless the customer insists on it, and even then they're pretty reluctant. I like that they care about the welfare of their animals so much. Of course, there are such extreme variations in temperature in this country throughout the year that I have never questioned any dealer's no-shipping times. Although, the example of 30F is not that extreme in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't want to ship without a heat pack in those temperatures, but I don't see why LAG shouldn't be available. I've had good experiences shipping in temps as low as 14F with heat packs and as high as 85F with cold packs, but I did have the peace of mind that comes with LAG. It seems like you guys have much longer seasons of mild temperatures, though, so dealers down there can probably afford to restrict their LAG policies more than our dealers. If dealers up here didn't ship below 30F, they would probably only be making sales for 4 months of the year, and that would be without an upper temperature limit.

We do get LAG with Canada Post as well, even though they sometimes suffer delays. Fedex and UPS are really expensive and annoying to deal with sometimes. I live on the top floor of my apartment building, and both Fedex and UPS will disappear if I don't get downstairs fast enough. It's especially frustrating with Fedex, because their nearest pickup location is really far away. Canada Post at least waits for me, so I don't have to fall down 8 flights of stairs trying to get down fast enough. They even give me enough time to take the elevator if I want to.

 

[exitium]

When It comes to ordering slings, I can see why someone would ask this question too. The price of shipping when it gets up to $35+ seems high, especially when someone can buy slings locally from a breeder in the area. What I'm having a hard time doing is getting myself to pay $35 shipping for feeder roaches with LAG.
I ordered from Ken last month, but I guess It was pure luck to have placed an order when I did. We had 1 warmish day here in Colorado during that crazy cold spell, so there was no delay. I didn't know he held orders so commonly. I grew up in CT and having them shipped in winter temps w/o the LAG would be a brave thing to chance. A lot could depend on where you live. But these guys are going to be with you for awhile. So why not start off on the right foot making sure they are looked after and comfy from the get-go?

 

[Tgrip77]

aside from weather and the chance the seller isnt the best packer...you have to worry about the package being handled by one or more of these guys...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9mmgknvXw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r08N9UPzy10 (skip to 2:00)

 

[pyro fiend]

personally iv never questioned LAG. iv bought many reptiles. and most breeders refuse to ship priority. so 50bucks per box is nothing new to me.[id of payed more then that extra for a local snake lol] but i do see where this is questionable. some people have it as low as 35 with lag. iv ordered from a guy who charges 50 [still not new to me but he had all the slings i wanted lol] but even if i wanted to do priority... i honestly dont think i would. my last snake i bought was shiped overnight ups.. labeled "live animal inside" "fragile" and "this side up"... i was waiting on the porch because a unschedualled coldfront came thru and was 25deg... the ups guy seen me.. WAVED. as i push one of the neighborhood cats off my lap and he jumps out of the truck he tosses the box on his seat to fix his shoes.. it lands on his side... my thought was okay he didnt mean to make it tip but whatever shell be mad... then he grabs it holding right side up.. and TOSSES it to his other hand upside down... like wtf.. i told him to be carefull there is a live animal in there he chuckled and tossed it back to the other hand grabbing the 'pad" for me to sign -.- imagine if that was a T.. that was a 700$ snake if that was a T.. id probably been screwed all within the last 10mins of the delivery..

 

[prairiepanda]

Yeah, you never know what kind of postal workers your package will be entrusted with along the way. The Canada Post ladies on my end are very concerned about the welfare of my Ts. When I ship Ts out, they assure me that they lecture the pickup drivers on proper care for the package, and when I receive Ts the drivers always have my package up in the air conditioned/heated cab right next to them while they're driving. But the box usually goes across the country, so there are a lot of other people that I can never get to see.

I was horrified last time I took the Greyhound when I looked out my window and watched the staff there abusing the parcels that the bus would carry. Many were thrown onto the concrete floor, and some clearly marked fragile boxes were crushed under obviously heavy boxes during stacking. A guitar-shaped box was tossed onto the bus and then other boxes were shoved in against it with a lot of force. I definitely will never ship anything by greyhound after seeing that!

But a well-packed T can withstand a lot of jostling, and if the box is properly labelled and the contents suffer damage that is obviously due to poor handling then Canada Post will provide a refund. So for me, if weather conditions were good and the dealer is familiar, then I might like to save money on shipping. But it also depends on how big the price difference is. Of course, as I said, LAG is usually provided without choice. The dealers normally give me only one shipping option, or if they give me more than one then the option with longer shipping time is only available during certain weather conditions.

 

[Tgrip77]

the last package i received would not have survived many rough throws. the guy used a tiny 6x6x6" box for a 4.5" T that was in a 16oz container which was touching all 4 sides of the styrofoam lining. the 72hr heatpack deactivated due to being stuffed so tightly / lack of oxygen. and i warned the newbie sender about some of those issues prior.

for the USPS to give a refund...they require a lot of hoops to jump through first...including a receipt for the value of the contents.