I ship fish. I have shipped many fish. It is a PITA to ship fish, because I have to take into account my 10" x 10" x 3" box filled with precious expensive fishy life is nothing more then an easily thrown crush me magnet for freight unpackers.

I shipped fish via Fedex, UPS, USPS, and DHL. 70% went overnight, the rest went 2-3 day.

Who has the best record?

UPS. Not one damaged shipment, all fish arrived alive, and ontime.

The worst record?

The spawn of satan that is DHL. No seriously these morons exploded my fish. THEY EXPLODED THE FISH!
I mean dude, how crappy of a carrier do you have to be to BLOW UP A FISH?! The customer sent me a picture (like is required to get a refund for fish) and the bag not the fish exploded... how the hell...

I have had bags explode before when the cargo planes decide to play higher then they are supposed to. This is why we double bag and why the bags are always half empty so they can fill up from pressure. But... I have to this day been unable to explain how a fish explodes.

But as if that wasn't bad ENOUGH, DHL also lost a fish. Completely. Like it disappeared off the face of the planet. Someone through it off a plane. Most likely it fell off one of the automatic conveyors and laid in a warehouse unnoticed for 3 months, or one of the dock boys saw the giant LIVE FISH DO NOT CRUSH, THIS SIDE UP, FRAGILE, PERISHABLE, DO NOT FREEZE custom stickers I have and took it home dunno, but it was never found.

This is why I now have a NO DHL policy on the site.

I have always thought Fedex had special ninja training because I have NEVER heard one at the door. And I have dogs! Not once. I have this working theory that they use telekentic Yoda powers to transport the box without getting out of the truck or stopping onto my doorstep. Cause I can sit all day looking at the door and wait wait wait, then get a text message alert, Package has delivered. WTF?? I didn't even HEAR a truck! Sure enough there it is on the step..

Now you have ruined my awesome theory with factual information that is not quite as cool... they just don't bother knocking (or stopping in some cases).

USPS for their part has been okay, they have a bad habit of being late but eh the price is low and they never killed nothing. Better there late then never I guess.

I will say that UPS has gotten a wee bit nuts on prices as of late, 2x what fedex charges.

Also... anyone who breaks my 20.00 insulated shipping boxes must die.

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I am a Camaro Girl because IROC!

You have unlimited chances to go too slow, but only one to go too fast.

I agree i use to work in the shipping department, and i can say i seen some things go on that if i was shipping goods i wouldnt use them. They do just throw everything around crunch things to make things fit all kinds of damage things to get things out.

We won't use DHL anymore either due to it. FedEx is horrible about throwing stuff around...they are FAR from professional to be sure! I mean I would NEVER go to a customer and just throw stuff around right in front of them! They flat don't give a crap...

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Back in my former life, we would periodically order stuff. Big stuff. Little stuff. Cheap stuff. Expensive stuff.

We'd periodically call in UPS or DHL or even a LTL company. We always went back to FedEx (in any of its iterations).

UPS/DHL - we may or may not see it on time, and it may or may not be damaged beyond recognition (we had one item that was sent *triple* boxed (box in box in box). We got it in just the most interior box, and that was damaged)

FedEx was rarely late - and would make a special run from the local sorting floor if we asked them to. Try and get THAT kind of service from Brown or Yellow!

In rare cases, our suppliers didn't ship via FedEx. We'd call FedEx and have them pick up on our dime

If you are ordering $50 worth of pre-printed letterhead, who cares who hauls it? But when we ordered quarter million dollar gear, we called FedEx.

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Keep the big doors at the back!