I'm sure many would agree that the concept behind Reptster was great. Many of us had high hopes for the site and the shipping program. The site allowed me to save myself and my customers a lot of money.

The events that have recently transpired got me thinking. If Reptster could have a discount shipping program, why can't someone else do it? Why can't we the community do it?

Today I talked with my FedEx rep. I explained to her the whole concept around Reptster. I explained the potential for very large quantities of packages being shipped. She asked many questions about how Reptster worked and how it printed up the shipping label.

She seems very confident that we can easily setup some kind of discount shipping program. However, instead of having to maintain a site like Reptster, we would be able to use the FedEx portal. What this would be is an alliance program. From what I gathered, there would be a master account on the alliance program. Each shipper would then have their own login to the portal under the alliance program. I'm not sure, but I think you will still have to get certified to ship.

That's about all the information I have right now. My rep is checking into this in more detail for me and I will talk with her again tomorrow. As I get more details, I will post them here.

Please tell me your thoughts, worries, etc.

Im no expert when it comes to shipping but on the surface it sounds like a great idea to me.

So we get certified and join this alliance program and we all ship under this umbrella thus qualifying for quantity discounts through a group effort. Is that the basic concept? If it is sounds good to me.

Thank you, sir, for taking the time to look into this. Whether or not it pans out I still say thank you very much!

So we get certified and join this alliance program and we all ship under this umbrella thus qualifying for quantity discounts through a group effort. Is that the basic concept? If it is sounds good to me.

Yes. That is the idea. I'm really excited about this. I really hope it pans out!

It sounds like a great idea!

Would the individual still have to go through the same certification process? I understand having to individually certify...probably a safety for FedEx to cover their butts, and make sure the people under the umbrella group are following the rules and regulations for shipping live animals. It probably also insures that the umbrella group is not responsible if someone is shipping incorrectly or breaking the rules otherwise.

Keep us updated!

Sounds great to me, I just have a question about the billing. Would each individual login be linked to its own CC, so each login is responsible for its own bills. Would existing FedEx accounts like my own simply be linked to the allience account, or how would that work? Sounds like an exciting proposition.

Rising from the ashes of Reptster...is it possible we could do it ourselves Bush-League style?

This could get really interesting.

Just thought of a question. Would we..and when I say "we" I mean theoretically the people in the alliance..have any control over who could sign up under that account? Would someone have to be accepted into this group and would someone be in charge? Like a rep for the herpers.

I vote for Larry Petty! :yessir:

These are all great questions that I will ask. I do know that you would use your own CC on their SECURE site. I'm not sure about linking accounts, but I will ask. I'm hoping billing will be between the individual account and FedEx. My worry is that the Master account would get billed and have to settle up with FedEx. I think this is how Reptster was able to get a deep discount and only pass 40% onto shippers. I want to see if we can set this up so the master account does not make a profit and thus passes the full discount onto shippers. I'm sure these are details that can be worked out.

Keep your questions coming and I will pass them along.

I don't breed or sell, so I don't ship, but this sounds like a great idea if it works.

You da man Larry.... :yourock:


Sounds good in these early stages, be interesting to see what unfolds.... details etc. What is expected and what it takes to get on board.

I'm already certified and have an account, but would be interested to see what happens and if linking is possible.

Way to do the leg work Larry!

That is awesome news, hopefully we can see something good come out of a concept that was executed poorly.

yeah.... if you already have to have a fedx account... at least they know you should know what to do.... and thus may be more likely to do the umbrella account. It will be nice to see how it unfolds.

IF this works out.... I not sure how we would adverstise it :cool: (Larry, BT... any ideas :) )

I guess my next shipment will be sent out via the BLBC!! Lets do it!!!:machinegun::machinegun::machinegun:

I'm in... just keep us updated...

Sounds real promising Larry!! Definately keep us updated on your progress.. Also thanks for doing this..

Alan

i'm in also. and the fact that making it a group community and having like a group decision or 3 to 5 person panel approving who could come on board and so on would be a great idea. that way not just any one can get in on it for the discount and not be affiliated or atleast a well known member here at the bush league. i would say perhaps if it would only be a 3 panel decision, make it you if you got it in the works and perhaps larry and bt.

Well, I hope it works out. I've talked to a few people about it and they don't think it will work. Not enough in it for FedEx. Whatever happens, it is worth a try.

One of the main things I like about this is being able to use the FedEx portal. No site to manage, secure, etc. The Reptster site was not secure. I mentioned this many of times too. SSL was only running on the CC page. The whole site should have been SSL. Think about this. Did you login to the forum with the same user name and password as the shipping section? Well, the forum login is in clear text. Someone could easily sniff your login on the forum and then use those credentials to access your CC info which was in clear text.

Another thing... When you take credit cards and store them, you have to follow PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards. You also have to get PCI vulnerability assessments which are required.

OK, now stop talkin in a foreign language!

i'm in also. and the fact that making it a group community and having like a group decision or 3 to 5 person panel approving who could come on board and so on would be a great idea. that way not just any one can get in on it for the discount and not be affiliated or atleast a well known member here at the bush league. i would say perhaps if it would only be a 3 panel decision, make it you if you got it in the works and perhaps larry and bt.

See that's right were I walk...no offense to anyone but I would want the biggest discount possible and if that meant going to all the forums and posting up about it then I say go for it.

If each individual person has to become fedex certified (which would involve them having their own account) then they could contact whoever is running the fedex program to be added. Puts more on the us to go that little bit extra but it would even be something beneficial for all of the community even the big breeders who ship out hundreds of boxes...$5 is $5 if it is easy enough to do.

Somehow they could just link everyone involved account numbers to one main account, then when you log in to your account you automatically get the group discounts, etc....don't know how complicated it would be but from the sound of it they already have similar things in place (probably with companies with a few different locations).

OK, now stop talkin in a foreign language!

It means your personal info was/is not secure, pretty scary.

See that's right were I walk...no offense to anyone but I would want the biggest discount possible and if that meant going to all the forums and posting up about it then I say go for it.

If each individual person has to become fedex certified (which would involve them having their own account) then they could contact whoever is running the fedex program to be added. Puts more on the us to go that little bit extra but it would even be something beneficial for all of the community even the big breeders who ship out hundreds of boxes...$5 is $5 if it is easy enough to do.

Somehow they could just link everyone involved account numbers to one main account, then when you log in to your account you automatically get the group discounts, etc....don't know how complicated it would be but from the sound of it they already have similar things in place (probably with companies with a few different locations).


well see the problem with that is though if you allow any and all then basically if someone isnt overseeing things then it would allow all scum and scammers to use it to benefit there scams and crap also. theres alot of them out there and most you can find on the BOI so if we dont limit them and allow them to use it as well that would only mean the bush league would be allowing even known scum and scammers to to get in it also and in my opinion wouldnt that hurt a little if not alot on some ways. then you lose shippers and customers due to no one wanting to deal with people like that. IMO and like i said just an opinion if something got set up and worked and it was due to some bush league members fighting for it and getting it done and then allow known scammers and such use of it also then that would make some think that we think its ok to do it and basically promote it in a very small way just by allowing it knowing what they do. i may not even make sense or you may not understand what i am trying to say because i cant either find or get the right wording out but i hope you understand the concept of what i am trying to say.

This actually seems like it would be a solid program.

Keeping it in-house with Fedex will probably make them feel a little more confident too, maybe give better discounts.

I think that if this endeavor does go through, it would benefit a lot of people.

well see the problem with that is though if you allow any and all then basically if someone isnt overseeing things then it would allow all scum and scammers to use it to benefit there scams and crap also. theres alot of them out there and most you can find on the BOI so if we dont limit them and allow them to use it as well that would only mean the bush league would be allowing even known scum and scammers to to get in it also and in my opinion wouldnt that hurt a little if not alot on some ways. then you lose shippers and customers due to no one wanting to deal with people like that. IMO and like i said just an opinion if something got set up and worked and it was due to some bush league members fighting for it and getting it done and then allow known scammers and such use of it also then that would make some think that we think its ok to do it and basically promote it in a very small way just by allowing it knowing what they do. i may not even make sense or you may not understand what i am trying to say because i cant either find or get the right wording out but i hope you understand the concept of what i am trying to say.

I don't have any issues with someone (this is Larry's baby right now) starting it up small just to see how it works...worst case your already certified so you can still ship with your account so it's not as if you wouldn't be able to like with the issues under the repster site.

I understand completely about the scumbags and flippers and all the rest utilizing the system...I wouldn't want them either but I don't know if a panel could control that but it is worth looking into if something like this is an option. It would also be less of a headache for who ever fedex assigns to oversee the program...that way they would only have to deal with a few instead of 5000 people who bombard them with simple questions...that could be a deal breaker to if every 2 package a year shipper sends 30 questions about becoming certified to this person.

Lots of avenues to explore yet if they get a program together....but a small pilot program maybe the best solution.

Sounds like a great idea but I agree there would be a lot of issues to work out before we could ever implement something like that. I don't ship currently but our breeding groups are getting bigger and so next year or the beginning of the year after we'll definitely be putting out a LOT of babies (well for me lol) and having something like that in place would be GREAT!

Awesome idea Larry I really hope your rep can make it work!

It looks like it will be Monday before I will get more information. The person in legal my rep was going to talk with was out sick today.

Good luck Larry! Keep us posted.

Well getting certified is no big deal because it doesn't cost anything but time to get certified so that wouldn't really be much to ask, especially if you're serious about selling quality animals.

Any updates?

Its good to know we still have a voice out there. Hope it goes into play. Let her know who we are and that we mean buisness .GoodlucK Larry

any updates or news from the lady yet on this?