People in Canada, have you ever used UPS shipping to ship corals?

[starfishguy869]

If you have used overnight shipping UPS in Canada to ship corals, what was your experience? Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[starfishguy869]

Bump

 

[Joe Kennedy]

Bump

I would not recommend UPS personally. In all of our shipments, we've tried UPS, FedEX and Purolator.

Ranking from Best to Worst

1. Purolator - No issues, they've become our primary shipper doing hundreds of shipments, great prices

Delivered on time, as quoted, every time, even in extreme weather / Freezing rain situations. Have been entirely impressed. Occasionally their automated dimension scanner gets things wrong and we need to fight extra charges.

2. FedEx - Have misplaced boxes.

We've had a few situations where multiple boxes are going out in the same delivery. 2/3 are delivered and 1 is missing, undelivered. No automated system to let them know that the shipment is missing pieces. Needed to be manually notified to look for missing box.

Was found 24 hours later and delivered the following day. Always pack 72 hour warmers when shipping coral JUST IN CASE of delays.

3. UPS - Only used a handful of times.

Missed deadlines, delivery quotes are off by days. Feels like they hold shipments until there's a threshold to deliver on that route. Local deliveries quoted as 1 day for instance can take 4. Definitely hit or miss with deliveries and would NOT recommend. Purolator is cheaper and more reliable in our experience.

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With coral, always ship with the Express option. (or next day) definitely worth the extra $'s to make sure there's no headache...

For context, we ship Live Copepods, Live Phytoplankton and coral dosing products all across the country from BC to Nova Scotia.


Reef Solutions

 

[BryanM]

Not in Canada, but I will offer this re: UPS, advice I just received. Don't ship Thursdays, if there's an issue, and it doesn't get delivered Friday, its also almost certainly not getting delivered Saturday.

Plus personal experience, I've had damaged packages received, and items lost for almost 1 month, previously.

 

[Joe Kennedy]

Not in Canada, but I will offer this re: UPS, advice I just received. Don't ship Thursdays, if there's an issue, and it doesn't get delivered Friday, its also almost certainly not getting delivered Saturday.

Plus personal experience, I've had damaged packages received, and items lost for almost 1 month, previously.

Sounds right in line with our experiences!

And yes, to second his advice, don't order / ship on Thursdays. Mondays - Wednesdays are best depending on the receiving location.