What would you do in my situation?

[wilomn]

Call the police in his home town and file a report for theft. Don't let the put you off.

Save the box and label too.

[DustinB]

Was the hole just punched in the styrofoam or in the box itself? If it was in the box too you will probably have a hard time proving they didn't escape. If he was dumb enough to forget to punch a hole in the box too, then I would imagine you might have a shot. Your only recourse will likely be a civil matter, I don't know if you would actually be able to file anything criminal on this.

Either way, sorry this happened to you. Do you have any of the guy's info? If not you may be able to get local law enforcement to get fauna to release the IP address to you. Then you could locate the owning ISP of the IP and subpeona the customer's information.

It's not going to be a very quick process. Your best bet would be to "threaten" legal action noting what I said about the IP information. Be careful in your correspondence though, you only want to "inform" him of legal action including what can take place, no actual threats or abusive confrontation(language). Keep copies of all correspondence between you and him, note everything to the letter in a sequence of events.

[herpchick]

There were no holes in the box itself only in the top of the styrofoam lid. I'm going to try getting a hold of him and "threatening" legal action, but from what I can tell, all the #'s he's given are not his. Even the phone # on the UPS shipping label was an older woman who had no idea what I was talking about.

[82shovel]

Put the box and ALL the packing and tape together and take it to an UPS office and have it weighed. Then compare the weight to what the shipping weight was. That will tell you if anything was inside the box when he shipped it....

[herpchick]

Put the box and ALL the packing and tape together and take it to an UPS office and have it weighed. Then compare the weight to what the shipping weight was. That will tell you if anything was inside the box when he shipped it....

That's a good idea. I'll try the scale here at home. The shipping label said it was 1.9lbs

[DustinB]

Put the box and ALL the packing and tape together and take it to an UPS office and have it weighed. Then compare the weight to what the shipping weight was. That will tell you if anything was inside the box when he shipped it....

That's a great idea ^^^!

You do have his e-mail address so you can contact him at least, so that's good for the "threatening" part. What about the address you shipped your package to? Have you tried a reverse lookup on it for a phone number?

[82shovel]

Was the UPS man there when you opened it? I am thinking he might be trying to scam UPS for the full value of the package.....If it weighs the same, let UPS go after him for fraud....

That's a good idea. I'll try the scale here at home. The shipping label said it was 1.9lbs

[wilomn]

UPS won't cover animals.

The weight is insignificant. You can put any weight you want on a shipping container and so long as the container does not weigh more, no correction will be made. They make more money off you that way.

Should you put 9 lbs on an 11lb package, you will be charged the difference but will never be credited for putting 11lbs on a 9 lb package.

Your best bet is get a detective from his home town involved.

[herpchick]

I weighed the box and it weighs the same as it said. The UPS man wasn't there when I opened it. I'm going to try and figure out where he actually lives. The address I sent my animals to was, apparently, not his address. They were being received by someone who knew him while he was at work. According to that guy, the kid lives in Lowell, MA but the phone # he gave me for contacting the kid was a cell phone based in Nashua, NH, where I sent my animals. So I'm all confused.

[SilverWolf]

Sorry to hear about all this. I would also report the guy who actually received your snakes. Any info you have on that person should be looked into as well. It might be the same guy, or maybe not. And he could easily be in on the scam. I do hope you get something resolved with this! Too many bad people seem to get away with this stuff.