Rant about Delta Dash Shipping

trinitywolf · #1 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 07:54 PM

For all who use Delta to ship your snakes, you may be interested to hear this story.
This morning I pack up an adoption that I am shipping out. The normal routine I follow is to pack the box, go to the terminal about 45 minutes before I report to my "real" job and drop off the snake for shipment. I did exactly that except that when I show up, the employees there tell me that they cannot find me in the system so they cannot ship my snake. I insisted to them that I WAS a verified shipper with Delta and even went so far as to bring in previous airbills only to be told that I would have to contact Marty Latamer (not sure that name is spelled exactly correct) to verify I was a certified shipper and find out what the problem is. By this time, I'm getting kinda hot. I showed up this morning at 7:15 AM and spent an 90 minutes trying to get the problem fixed, then came back at noon only to find out that they were not going to be able to ship her b/c they hand found nothing. Not only was I an hour late for work, this snake should have already been to it's destination by now.
I put in a call to Marty to try to get this fiasco fixed and had to leave him a VM. I was very nice, explained the problem and asked him to call me ASAP about this. About 45 minutes later I get a call. He was very nice and told me exactly how to tell the people at the cargo location how to find my acct. It worked. I went straight back and they found the acct immediately.
The reason I am posting this is to make all of you aware that your acct is listed by page and line number. Delta does not give out acct. numbers, so it can't be looked up that way.
If you ship with Delta, my advice is to call the cargo location you ship through and ask them to look up your verified shipper name and tell you what page and line # your acct is listed on in their GRS system. Once you have that, they will ALWAYS be able to find your acct. I guess, in a way, it's a "hidden" acct. number b/c that position will not ever change (so they tell me).
Anyway, all's well that end's well but I thought this would be very important information that other verified shippers would find quite handy. I hope that no one else has ever had this problem, but I doubt I am the first one.

toker · #2 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 08:12 PM

Yikes.

Thanks for the heads up, I am sure that information will come in handy one day.

Shadraak · #3 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 08:34 PM

how much is delta dash usually? i think the lawton airport here (very small) receives delta flights, and if it does it's a much better drive than to OKC.

trinitywolf · #4 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 09:56 PM

I usually pay between $73 and $78 dollars per shipment with them. More often than not, my snakes get to their destination in less than seven hours.

Kent K25 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 10:45 PM

What kind of temperatures does that put the snake through? Last I was at teh airport they were refusing to ship a ladies dog since it would be below freezing in the cargo hold.

LuvMyBoa · #6 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 10:47 PM

Shadraak, when I worked for Delta for 5 years, they went into Lawton, so I'd imagine they still do. It may be using one of the Connection Carriers, but they should still ship Dash. I can attest (in very slight defense of the Dash peeps) that GRS can be a ROYAL pain. I would have figured they'd have replaced that system LONG before now... sorry for the troubles, Trin.

trinitywolf · #7 (**permalink**) 02-23-2006, 10:51 PM

Hey Kent. I have been assured that the animals, even those dashed are kept in a tempreture controlled hold. Now...if the temps are too low I won't even ship and the package today had heat packs included. Even when they reach the destination the packages are kept indoors in a temp controlled environment.
How cold was it where the dog was going?

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