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Shipping fish to another state?


illusn8

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Yep. Give Virgin Blue Freight a ring and they'll talk you through the process.

Avoid AAE like the plague, unless you have no other alternative.

I've never had a smooth transaction with AAE, but every time I've used Virgin, they've been helpful, good to deal with and they actually know how to track their consignment numbers laugh.gif

Virgin are also about half the price of AAE. Set up a Virgin account and it's even cheaper (and costs nothing to set up).

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Yep. Give Virgin Blue Freight a ring and they'll talk you through the process.

Avoid AAE like the plague, unless you have no other alternative.

I've never had a smooth transaction with AAE, but every time I've used Virgin, they've been helpful, good to deal with and they actually know how to track their consignment numbers  laugh.gif

Virgin are also about half the price of AAE. Set up a Virgin account and it's even cheaper (and costs nothing to set up).

thank you Vis, I will give Virgin a call and see how its goes thumb.gifthumb.gif

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I don't know if AAE are that bad Andy. I have been using them for about 10 years and never had a problem. As for the rates I understand there is not a great deal of difference. dntknw.gif

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Your probably right Nigel, AAE may not be as bad as Andy says, but after dealing with Virgin, it makes them seem so horrible. Virgin absolutely blows AAE away with Customer Service, even though there seems to be less staff on hand (could just have been my visit times) they are friendlier, more helpful, and don't leave you waiting for as long while they finish their cup of coffee and read the paper in plain view blink.gif

And Virgin wins the rates race hands down, and then they still always make it cheaper on the day for me, but that might be because they want my dad's business dntknw.gif and they can see the company logo on the truck.

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I don't know what you people mean by customer service. dntknw.gif When I have to ship fish I take them to AAE they weigh the box I pay the charge fill out the con note and walk away. I don't know what else there supposed to do apart from bow and kiss my hand as I leave. woot.gifLOL.gif

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I got fish from Andy via virgin. The rate was definately cheaper at the time sending fish from there to here in Adelaide. There was maybe $20 difference or close too.

Anthony :8

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Step 1 would be offer a greeting... Actually Step 1 would be put down the paper and attend the desk, than a greeting would be nice.

At some point, they could try speaking in discernable English and not grunts.

I feel bad for saying this, as there is one guy who works at the AAE desk in Sydney and he is fantastic and I have dealt with him twice, but other occasions I have been bitterly disappointed. In fact, on 2 occasions now I have turned up with a booking, and walked out to use Virgin instead just due to general rudeness, even though flight times didn't suit me. (Flight schedules are the only thing that gets me to AAE)

I am sure they don't care, to them I am worth maybe $60-$100 every month or 2.

I expect a certain level of service. After all, these people work in Customer Service. Being polite and weighing the boxes is what their job consists of. They manage the weighing part alright...

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My wife used to work at AAE in Sydney. There is no no no no way in hell I would ever ever ever send anything with them if I could avoid it knowing what I know now. As they do almost all the air freight most of the time you are using them anyway. sad.gif

(Please don't sue me, that's just personally speaking, others may have a different experience, maybe if she worked at Virgin I'd think the same, but I doubt it :-) )

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I can only speak from personal experience, but I used AAE half a dozen times before Virgin started flying out of Newcastle, and EVERY SINGLE TIME they "Lost" where the fish were. I rang every time, as the fish always had to go through melbourne because I shipped to either Adelaide or Perth, and EVERY TIME they couldn't tell me if they made the connecting flights, even though I had all the info (con notes etc).

I would end up ringing the Qantas desk at Melbourne and asking if they could send someone out to make sure my boxes weren't still sitting on the fright room floor somewhere rolleyes.gif

As Nigel said, everyones experience with companies is different, but I cannot give one reason why you should ever pick AAE over Virgin.

As for customer service, Andrew at Virgin Newcastle knows me by name and face, even though I've only used them 5 or 6 times so far. He has my con notes all written out except for weight and signatures when I get there. He actually enjoys his job (or is a very good actor).

AAE are not "Bad". They just don't come within kooee of Virgin. AAE will do the job (most times), whereas Virgin will do the job more efficiently and make you feel confident about the whole thing, which is especially important for a first time freighter.

With a Virgin account, my costs to send a single box to Melbourne is half what it used to cost with AAE. With larger amounts, the price gap would narrow a bit more I'd expect.

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After using Virgin I will never use AAE again. At least 80% of the times I used AAE I had problems/rude staff/no-care attitude/lost fish/off-loaded fish...etc. The Virgin staff were very friendly and treated the fish as their own. They knew where they were at all times and when the last lot had to wait overnight in the depot for AQIS inspection (the next day), they were kept up off the cold concrete floor. They rang AQIS for me where as AAE told me there was a payphone about 2 kms away that I could use. Very different attitude between the two companies.

merjo smile.gif

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and so say most of us, [sorry could'nt help but say it,]

but as a pickup customer at syd. i was begining to think my fish had'nt arrived. i was left standing at the counter for 20 mins, after being told

"aint seen any foam boxes off that flight" [my [uhm] rear end hit the floor] then "yeh their here". 30mins latter i had my boxes.

Merjo, we're very lucky here, we have a pay phone in the waiting area.

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Merjo, we're very lucky here, we have a pay phone in the waiting area.

I had to drive into the airport, pay for parking, go into the terminal and use the phone over there...even though the sour faced witch at the AAE counter had a phone in front of her angry.gif

Andrea dry.gif

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sad.gif I have never had a problem with AAE and have used them for years.

They pick up and deliver which Virgin dosen't.

200 fish Caboolture to Sydney the other week, door to door, @ 16 cents per fish. With a trace on the consignment all the way !! Hard to beat !! If I had to drive 100 k to the airport and back and then get my customer to pick up from the airport I wouldn't bother sending interstate. Just too expensive time and petrol wise. Two boxes of fish, 19kg, picked up at my end and deliverd to the door the other end for $33 !!!! I ask you ????

Alan.

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sad.gif   I have never had a problem with AAE and have used them for years.

They pick up and deliver which Virgin dosen't.

200 fish Caboolture to Sydney the other week, door to door, @ 16 cents per fish.  With a trace on the consignment all the way !!   Hard to beat !!   If I had to drive 100 k to the airport and back and then get my customer to pick up from the airport I wouldn't bother sending interstate.  Just too expensive time and petrol wise.   Two boxes of fish, 19kg, picked up at my end and deliverd to the door the other end for $33 !!!! I ask you ????

Alan.

Alan, so you mean AAE comes to your home pick up the fish and deliver them to another stated and drop them off to the buyer front door????? dntknw.gif

I rang them up and they said that they don't deliver live stock door to door only airport to airport ...

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Alan even with my dad's courier company account (it is a big company too, who run a massive account with AAE, not a small business) the base rate on a box of live fish is more than $33 airport to airport!!

What kind of account do you have to get you special privilidge? And do you send the freight as "live aquarium fish" or marked as something entirely different (as this is something I know many people have done to save some $$$)

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Alan, do you own AAE By any chance? laugh.gif

I've never heard of that sort of rate for 19kg of fish (with door to door service?????)

As Ducksta said, the base rate for live fish is more than that, then you have a couple of dollars a kg at least on top of that depending on where you send it to.

Please explain the account type you have to get that rate.

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