This week has been a trying one. It started with "Hey my order of Roaches arrived dead" to this morning when I put on my Yoga Pants, sat down with a cup of coffee and suddenly felt piercing burning pain on my hip just to discover a Pine Scorpion had found its way into my pants overnight and didn't take too kindly of me sitting down and squishing it. (No worries, after rubbing my hip with an ice cube, we fished him out, took some pictures and released it into the wild.) Here is a picture of the butthead Scorpion that stung me... in the butt!
The entire week seems to be going like that. We've spent a lot of time talking on the phone with the major carriers to see whether their trucks are air conditioned. Surprise, surprise, they are not. We also found out that due to COVID-19 the post office essentially has a card blanche on denying insurance claims and has no guarantees for anything. UPS isn't all that much better without air conditioned trucks. That said, by the end of the year we're hoping to add additional shipping options to our store. It's just not quite happening yet. Add to that these blistering temperatures and you have a shipping disaster!
We use to take for granted that our bugs would make it alive to their destination. These days we breathe a sigh of relief when a customer messages us and let's us know that their order arrived safely. I mean it's not that we have a ton of dead arrivals, but to us, every single roach that perished in transport it one too many!
That said we had to come up with some sort of policy to try and protect our bugs, you as a customer and us as the business owners.
Effective immediately when purchasing Discoids Roaches from us:
You MUST select HOLD FOR PICKUP. - Let us explain. When we package your order we take it to the post office directly rather than having the post office come to pick up the orders. We do this to minimize the animals sitting into a hot car and being driven around all day before they arrive at the post office. We imagine that is what happens on your end as well. The local Post office loads their trucks, your box of roaches somewhere amongst a bunch of packages. Now you could be the first stop on the Postal Route or you could be towards the end of the day. That entire time your Roaches are sitting in their truck/car that is not temperature controlled slowly perishing in the heat. If they remain at the post office for pickup they are at least in a temperature controlled environment.
Check your local Temperatures: - Please also check your weather here to assure that temps do not go above 94 degrees for the next three days following your shipping date. If temperatures go above 94 F for three days following your shipping date the probability of your insects arriving dead is extremely high. If it does we reserve the right to hold your order until temperatures drop below 94 F for those 3 consecutive days or offer to cancel and refund you.
When do we ship? - We've added a detailed image to when you order vs. when your order gets shipped in our Shipping section you can access from the FAQ link above.
So what happens if my Roaches arrive dead? - If something goes wrong in transit between us dropping them off at the Post Office and you picking them up from the Post Office, please notify us immediately. If we send a replacement order you will be charged $7.02 for the shipping charges or whatever amount we originally paid to ship your roaches to you. We appreciate your understanding that conditions are beyond our control and that we do what we possibly can to assure the arrival of happy, healthy insects to your location but at this point we can NOT GUARANTEE LIVE ARRIVAL but we will work with you on case by case basis.
Visibility: - We've ordered some Neon Stickers to let the Postal service know NOT to keep the animals in direct sunlight as well as more Neon Stickers for better visibility for the "Hold for Pickup" labels. We hope they can't miss them period!
What else has changed? - We're glad you asked! We now have subscription options for the small and medium Roaches. You can choose from weekly automatic deliveries, monthly automatic deliveries or one time purchases. You get a few bucks off for Subscriptions just for subscribing for auto deliveries. It's just a few bucks but who doesn't like to save money you know? How does it work? You just subscribe and that's it. Every week or month we send you your roaches automatically on the day you subscribed and you never have to worry about whether something is listed out of stock. With a subscription order, we'll send it to you no matter what. You'll still get a tracking number as always, during the summer months you just have to go pick it up at your local post office.
And that's pretty much it. Oh, the store is restocked as well! Be sure to come check out our Facebook Page sometime. We do have random Trivia and giveaways as well as interact with our customers there. We also have a Facebook Group where you can hang out with us, post funny stuff or ask questions. Come say Hi sometimes! :)
Have a fabulous upcoming weekend!
Mel and Chris