They lost a bag of finished rats that I mailed to FHA in Stoughton WI. I mailed it with them because they had to be there by a certain date. Two weeks later I get a call that said they had found them in their warehouse in MN. I have shipped tons of finished fur with them and for the savings they are worth using. I still use them. Just insure the package for way more than it is worth. Their insurance is cheap too.
We too have shipped quite a bit of fur with them. However . . . if you're looking to have the package picked up at your door, and you use the "On Call" system, you should know you can't insure your fur for more than fair market value. That includes tanned fur that you've done something with.
I've had this conversation several times with the head honcho in this department. We ship hooped furs nationwide, and use Speedee for the upper Midwest. I used to tell the gal on the phone it was "art work" and insure it for what it sold for. Well, one time she asked me what the art work was, and I explained, and she said you can't insure it for more than what the tanned fur would be replaced at. I said I need to speak to someone higher up. And got the same line.
So . . . nothing has ever disappeared before, so I haven't had to file a claim. Can't say the same about UPS.
The only problems we've had was one summer three hooped beaver, packages all marked with destination addresses, went to three wrong addresses. That issue was repeated a month or so later with two packages. I had destination labels on both sides of each box. Apparently the person who was picking them up off the front porch was just slapping their label on em without looking at mine.
I called the head honcho and explained the issue. You want to hear his solution? This is unbelievable. He told me I can't leave more than one package on the porch at a time for pickup OR I had to be present when the driver picked more than one up at time. I replied back "you mean to tell me your driver is so incompetent that you can't trust him/her to read my label (BIG FONT by the way) and slap the appropriate Speedee label on each one?" He said that's right.
So I played the one package at a time game for a year until one day I stopped at the Dodgeville outlet and dropped off packages since I was heading towards Madison anyway that morning, and explained my frustration with this issue. It was costing me another $6-$7 bucks per pickup this way. The fella there told me the driver was fired a while back and just go ahead and start setting out as many packages as I want.
So I have, and there have been no issues.
SIDENOTE: I believe Minnesota Trapline uses Speedee Delivery for all Midwest deliveries. There would be a good source of info on the dependability of Speedee.
I do know one thing. They are VERY reasonable. What would cost me $30-$45 to delivery a boxed hooped beaver via UPS is under $14 and that's from my porch to the customer's door.
