Our Guarantees: Safe Shipping, Live Arrival, and Customer Satisfaction.
Over the years of doing business, it has been my good fortune to rarely have to refer to this page of my website! This new website is going up in early 2025, and I am thinking back on 2024, and I don’t believe I had a single animal arrive in less than excellent shape last year. I am proud to stand behind the animals and products that I sell, and believe that happy and satisfied customers are the most important outcome of any transaction. In doing business this way, I believe I’ve established a great reputation in the hobby. In fact this would be my main advice to you, as a customer considering placing an order, and wondering “is this business/website legit?”…that is, do some searches online. Use my name, Patrick Nabors, or search for Saurian.
However, for those of you who want the fine details, here you go-
Live Arrival Guarantee for Animals
We stand behind the health and safety of every animal we ship. All our frogs and geckos are covered by our Live Arrival Guarantee, which says, basically, if we ship it, your animals are guaranteed to arrive alive and in great shape. This means that unlike many other vendors, we take full responsibility for carrier delays or errors by FedEx. Here’s how we make this guarantee work:
Obviously, we put the animal’s safety first, and temperatures, weather and other conditions will be taken into account before shipment. Once you place your order, we will email you and discuss possible shipping dates. We prefer to ship orders immediately (within our usual shipping days, Monday through Wednesday) if possible, but we are generally happy to hold off on shipments for your convenience. Shipment can also be arranged before you place your order, feel free to email us or call to discuss this. We ship via FedEx Priority Overnight, and depending on conditions, we may require that you pickup the package at a FedEx Ship Center. Live animal shipments will only be sent to your home/business or a FedEx Ship Center. You can help by taking the first step, which is to contact us and let us know what your preferences are regarding shipping as you place your order.
Animals are shipped with various safety features, such as heat packs and gel packs, to help to ensure temperature stability inside the solid Styrofoam box we use. (Geckos are sometimes shipped in cut Styrofoam boxes). Sometimes we may suggest additional safety measures, such as larger outer boxes, to allow us to safely ship in more extreme weather conditions than usual. There may be additional costs for this but it may make shipment possible/safe during periods of colder weather.
We do have the following requirements for you, as the recipient, as set out below.
- Delivery Responsibilities:
You must be available to receive your shipment at the agreed-upon time and address. If you cannot be available, consider arranging for pick-up at a local FedEx Office or similar facility. Packages sent “Hold for Pickup” must be picked up within 2 hours of arrival, unless other arrangements are made.- Notify us right away, within an hour, if there are any concerns.
- Packages delayed by weather or mishandling may require immediate action on your part to retrieve the shipment as soon as it is available.
- Health and Care Post-Arrival:
Animals are guaranteed to arrive healthy. Please notify us if you have any concerns on arrival, regarding your frogs or geckos. If you encounter issues at any point, contact us immediately for guidance. We will work with you to address potential husbandry concerns, animals failing to thrive may be replaced at our discretion, but replacements are far more likely if you have contacted us early with concerns.
Fruit Flies and Plants Guarantee
Fruit Fly Shipping Tips and Guarantees
(This is all applicable to plants as well!)
First, if you are willing to make the effort to follow my suggestions for receiving your flies in good condition, I’ll generally replace flies that arrive dead, although I’ll expect you to pay shipping for the replacement order. The costs of replacement shipping are generally not covered in our guarantees. Our remedy for most live arrival issues is replacement of the product. That being said, once temps at the hubs and your location are above 90 for the daytime high, or below 20 degrees, you are kind of taking your chances and my replacement offer will likely be void.
Below I present a bit of information on how the shipping process works, and the issues that can affect your fruit fly order. The main preventative measure you can take is to arrange to have your order held at a local FedEx counter for you to pick up, and you should consider this if the temps are going to be over about 90 in your location, or at the hub cities, as described below. If there is bitter cold in your area or around Indianapolis, you may also need to be concerned. That’s the short version, see below for more information!
Weather is the primary concern for fruit fly shipments, and the main danger is overheating. This usually occurs on the truck on its way to your home, the delivery guarantee for 2nd day shipping is as late as 8 pm, which means that if it is hot at your end, the box can be exposed to high temps on the truck as it travels to you. The best remedy to this problem is to have the box held at a local FedEx station, the larger and closer to your airport, the better, since the closer to your nearest large airport, the earlier the box will be placed inside out of the heat or cold. Please feel free to contact me for help in finding your FedEx locations, although this is a fairly simple process, just google “FedEx Hold At locations near me”!
Unfortunately, there is also another way for your box to be overheated, which is as it routes through the hub city. I apologize, this is a bit in depth, but it will help you to understand what we are up against! All FedEx Express (as opposed to Ground) shipments travel through one of three different “Hub” cities on their way to you. In the past this occurred during night time hours, but now it generally occurs in the afternoon of the day after the package is shipped. Part of this process involves being unloaded and moved around outside, and when temperatures are very hot, this can result in your fruit fly order getting overheated. There is little to be done about this, sometimes when temps are hot at my end, I will put icepacks in the box, but my expectation is that these are going to have long melted by the time they get to this point, after all it will have been 24 hours since the box was packed. The three hub cities are Indianapolis, Memphis and Fort Worth. Unfortunately, it is difficult to say through which hub boxes will route, although in some cases I can guess accurately… My main tips for guessing- Any destination address within about 300 miles of a hub is going to be served by that hub. The South East region will generally be served by Memphis. If you have placed orders with us in the past, you can look up the tracking info on a previous shipment, and see which hub the box routed through, this is generally going to be the same for each shipment, but things like storms or unusual conditions at one of the hubs can throw everything off.
Fruit flies can generally be shipped safely during the spring, fall and winter, or to be more clear, cold weather is rarely an issue with fruit fly cultures unless temps are going to be below about 20 degrees, in particular at the hub or at your end. Overall, I get fairly few issues with doa boxes of flies, but it is something to be aware of!
Payment and Shipping Policies
Accepted Payment Methods:
We accept Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, money orders, and personal checks (allow two weeks for checks to clear).
Shipping Process:
- Live animals are shipped Priority Overnight via FedEx for $49, which includes packaging.
- Special packaging, such as heat packs or oversized boxes, may incur additional fees.
Weather Conditions:
We prioritize the safety of our animals by shipping under optimal weather conditions. Shipment schedules will be discussed upon order placement.
Returns and Refunds
Merchandise:
If you’re not satisfied with a product, you may return it in new condition with all accessories for a full refund. Shipping costs are refunded at our discretion.
Live Animals:
While we do not guarantee long-term survival beyond delivery, we may replace animals that fail to thrive under appropriate care. Replacement shipping fees are the buyer’s responsibility.