Semen from Canada cleared customs at 5:26 am Wed in Memphis, no movement yet. It is 8:30 pm. Have called FedEx twice, SO called at noon. No word back on multiple traces, mare no longer in heat. Mare had 47 mm follicle yesterday at 9 am and deslorelin was given. Should I give up on this cycle? Keep chasing fedex? So frustrating!
I have no good advice, but I will say these companies jump like hell when you tell them its perishable horse semen. I wish I could also say this is a unique situation but its not. Shipping semen gives me anxiety like no other. I’ve been fortunate so far to have them all arrive on time before ovulation but not without a lot of phone calls a few times.
I would keep track of your costs associated with the missed cycle, collection fees ect… and put a claim in. Most are pretty good about compensating you, although that may be different with everything going on with covid.
I will also say Fedex is historically the shipper that has given me the least problems.
Sorry this happened to you!
The SO was on top of it & called Fedex the minute things went sideways. At this point, the shipment has gone from delivered by 5/27 before 10:30 to delivered by 5/27 end of day to pending with no delivery date. The last time it was scanned was still 5:26 am yesterday. The folks I spoke to from Fedex customer service were kind, sent multiple traces BUT hit a wall every time they tried to contact Memphis. They were able to set up priority transport from my airport but that was no good. My vet was hoping we’d get it early Thursday but at this point, I think this cycle is a wash. So frustrating… especially since I know there was a flight that left Memphis last night and arrived in my town at 8 pm. This has never happened to me before, what a waste of time, money, perfect timing with the mare and semen. To make matters worst it was a last minute collection, so the sweet SO busted their butt to get it to Fedex. It will be another several hundred $ even if semen gets here first thing in the am and that will likely be flushing money down the toilet. Also I must confess that I feel guilty being upset about this at this particular moment in history… 🙈
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It sounds like you are likely out of luck on this cycle. If the Stallion Owner hasn’t done so already, have them call back and speak with a manager and demand that a “Priority Trace” be put on the package…and also mention they will be filing a claim for the screw up. This normally jumps them into action. When this has happened to us in the past when we send out semen, we are able to get it to the Mare Owner the same day by using the suggestion above.
As a side note, in the past we have had to file two claims with Fed-Ex. Not only did they refund the shipping charges, they also reimbursed the Mare Owner for her veterinary fees for that cycle (to a maximum amount but I cannot remember what it was). It is not easy to do, is time consuming and is a HUGE pain in the butt. It requires calling multiple people at Fed-Ex and demanding the problem be resolved. The squeaky wheel gets the grease! 
I’m pretty sure I’m known at Fed-Ex as “the bitch.” Though, I’m sure some might say I’m known as that in the rest of my world too. :lol::lol:
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I may have elevated myself to bitch status at FedEx today as well. I hate having to be tough with the people who are actually trying to help me. It is unclear what happened other than no one felt like putting the package on a plane from Memphis, but we did get extremely lucky that the semen was still cold when it arrived, and that my blessed mare literally held on to her follicle until hour 48. Semen was a couple of days old and a couple of hours late, but her cervix was still pretty open and at least we tried. God bless the local fedex folks who called my driver and rerouted him to our farm.
Who knows what will happen, but I feel like everything worked out as well as it possibly could given the holdup. I must say, I was going to take a break from breeding and the past 3 days gave me a refresher course on why! I don’t know how multiple mare owners do it.
Fingers crossed that in 11 months we’ll be welcoming a new addition.
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in my experience its quite common when shipping from CAN missed cycles delayed shipments
Glad it may have worked out for you! It is for reasons like this that we always ship semen in an Equitainer. If things go sideways, those containers are able to ensure the semen stays cool, which is advantageous if the mare happens to hang on for another day and the Equitainer is found. You’ll have to give us an update in a few weeks.
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I used to oversee the shipment of critical equipment repair parts to various government facilities, I just learned that it is pretty much standard operating procedure the greater the need the great the probability the shipment would be lost/destroyed/miss shipped to another world/delayed because some protected species was endangered… or as I had to happen twice… you as the shipper get notification “Aircraft burn on taxiway, shipment destroyed”
Just got to the point that I would make two shipments (from different parts of the country if possible) telling the receiving party to refuse a second shipment if it ever got there as it was cheaper to pay two shipping costs than have a guard in place.
@clanterThat is so depressing but a brilliant solution.
Daventry, will post in a couple of weeks… I think you will like this cross. Trying not to be optimistic, otherwise when she’s not pregnant it feels like we lost a foal.
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