AIRFREIGHTING BIRDS JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS

[gouldianpaul]

Hi All,

I wanted to share my experience from the past 2 weeks with everyone, because as a result of these events I will never freight birds during the pre-Christmas period.

2 weeks ago I sent birds to Sydney (with Jet Pets). It was Melbourne airport drop off and delivery to Sydney home of my Uncle. The driver had been expected to pick up birds once they reached the Sydney depot and deliver immediately to Prospect (50 Km's from airport). Well he let the birds stay in the depot for 3 hours, meaning that the birds had been in the freight box from 6AM to 2:30PM in a transfer from Melbourne to Sydney....not good enough. The reason for the delay is that the driver wanted to deliver the birds at the end of his run for the day.

1 week ago I did the return trip with birds picked up from my uncle in Prospect and I picked them up from Melbourne airport. Jet Pets used again and all was well.

Today I picked up birds from Melbourne airport after a trip from Brisbane (airport to airport freight with Australian air Express). The breeder was asked to drop off birds by 5AM, but the birds didn't leave until 9AM....meaning they spent 2 unnecessary hours at the depot...they missed their original flight due to AaE's incompetence.....but wait it gets worse.....when the AaE staff member handed me the freigh box, she handed me a box that was up side down. Despite well marked instructions and clear markings that it was livestock (birds)....I expressed my discuss to her unprofessionalisim....I think if a bloke had of done that to me I would have clipped him on the chin.

So my leasons....1) Never freight from mid December to Christmas period 2) Do not use AaE again.

Wonder if anyone else has had some horror stories

The first 2 batches of bird are fine. The ones delivered by AaE today were fine when I put them in the holding cage today. I hope the shock of their ordeal doesn't result in some birds with their toes in the air tomorrow.

Cheers
Paul

[ColouredFeathers]

Yes you are right paul we do not send birds at xmas but same times we have no choise

[Brooksy]

Mate i think your frustration is well within reason, i would certainly be jumping up and down. Craig has got a good story about some painteds

[Craig52]

thats right,sent 13 split fawn painteds and a few tri coloured nuns to GMac in kalgoorlie,via Perth.They arrived in Perth and were inspected and photograghed in the unusual way they do things in WA.They were then taken to AAE to load on the next flight to Kalgoorlie,this where things went wrong.
That night Gary rang me franticly telling me that he had just recieved the box and there's only one bird in it,and the box was damaged and had been stuck back together with sticky tape.
To cut a long story short,the box had been runover/dropped and all the birds escaped on the tarmac except for one oldish cock painted who couldn't fly so they shoved it in the box and sticky taped it up and sent it to Kalgoorlie.
If it wasn't for CALM? taking the photo's,we wouldn't have had a leg to stand on and some rare mutation painted spits and tri coloured nuns have probably made their home around Perth airport.
Gary was compensated for the birds after a few weeks,but what price do you put on split fawn painteds.
Gary has got these birds up and going from a pr i sent him in a previous shipment,thank god as i sent him every bird i had in that stuffed up shipment and the mutation could have been lost. Craig

[gomer]

story one:I sent some pictas to Tassie early in the year they should have arived at their destination at 2pm that day but missed the flight for some reason, even though they had a good three hour wait between flights. They did not arrive untill the following day at about 11 am after being in the box since 5 am the previous day.They all fared well but there wasn't much water left.

Story two: I got birds sent from a Auction in W.A.I told them to send it to Mt Gambier S.A. My address was Portland Vic on the import permit.The birds did not arrive at Mt Gambier when they were meant to. I rang the after hour number ( 11 pm) and found they were in Melbourne.The next day I rang the shop they told me that they thought Portland must be a Suburb in Melbourne.This was even though they were told to send them to Mt Gambier airport S.A. So they had flew from Perth to Adelaide over me to Melbourne the next day Melbourne to Adelaide ( over me again) then to MtGambier then driven another 115 kms home. That also had taken over 24 hrs.Again lucky no birds died.

[garymc]

I sit here reading this thread waiting to for the plane to land. We live quite close to the airport, really Its shades of the movie The Castle. Birds should have been on the lunchtime flight which landed 6 hours ago. Birds were sent from over east yesterday afternnon so by the time I get them they will have been in the box for almost 30 hours.

[Misso]

Im off to the airport tomorrow to collect some birds, fingers crossed all goes smoothly at AAE. iv had no issues with them so far.

misso

[Craig52]

Mate,keep your fingers crossed they put plenty of water or cuccumber in there,thats a long time Craig

[jusdeb]

Last 2 lots sent to Brissie have been left at sydney adding 7 hours to the trip .
Not suppose to put food or water in but I hide apple under some bottle brush and lucky I do .
Not confidant about sending birds in the heat of summer now , losing me some sales but not to worry .

Have a lady driving from Qld to pick up a hand reared Maroon Belly rather then risk AAE making another stuff up ..now thats a bird lover .

[Craig52]

Last 2 lots sent to Brissie have been left at sydney adding 7 hours to the trip .
Not suppose to put food or water in but I hide apple under some bottle brush and lucky I do .
Not confidant about sending birds in the heat of summer now , losing me some sales but not to worry .

Have a lady driving from Qld to pick up a hand reared Maroon Belly rather then risk AAE making another stuff up ..now thats a bird lover .

Hey Deb,what do you mean by not allowed to put food or water in.I wouldn't send birds with out it Craig