TBC Terms & Ordering Info

You're probably wondering why this looks like so much information? Because it IS! We consider customer satisfaction to be of the utmost imporatance, and believe that buyer and seller both share the responsibility in creating such an experience, especially when live animals are involved.  Our TOS covers every situation we've run into in the past 20 years (and some we haven't), and we provide thorough details throughout this section to ensure that we're all on the same page.  If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us for clarification. 

All sales are subject to the following:

We reserve the right to refuse sales to any party at any time, at our discretion.
 

Payment Information

Payment in full is required prior to shipping your order.  We accept the following payment methods:

• Online invoicing via Square. 
  
• US Postal Money Orders.  If you require an animal to be placed on hold, please remit your Postal Money Order via Priority Mail with delivery confirmation. When sending anything via Priority Mail, you must ask for Delivery Confirmation to get a tracking number.  We require that tracking number within 24 hours of placing the animal on hold so that we know you are indeed intending to purchase said animal.  If we have not received a tracking number within 24 hours, the hold on your animal will be released & it will again be placed for sale.  We've put this policy in place to keep our customers from missing out on an animal they want that is placed on hold, and then never paid for by another party. 
• Personal checks, cashier's checks, non-postal money orders.  We will accept these, but as a security measure, your order will be held for 10 business days until all payments are processed and verified as legitmate by our bank.  Any exceptions will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. 
• Bank Wire Transfer - please contact us for our bank details. 

Credits & Refunds

• Payments and deposits are considered non-refundable unless we are unable to provide your python as mutually agreed upon. Authorized refunds will be offered in the form of a replacement animal or equivalent credit towards another python of your choice.
  
• If we are unable to provide a specific animal as selected by the customer and agreed upon by both parties, a full refund will be issued to your original method of payment.
• In the unlikely event of a return within our 7-day guarantee, we will provide a pre-paid return shipping label via ShipYourReptiles.com, which you may use to return the python to us in the IATA-approved shipping container in which it was received. Upon receipt, our veterinarian will examine the animal at our expense, and a refund (less shipping) issued to your original method of payment.
• Shipping fees are non-refundable.
  

Placing Animals on Hold
Animals are not considered sold until a deposit has been made - NO exceptions. We cannot hold an animal until a 50% down payment has been made via credit card. If you can only pay by Postal Money Order, we will hold the animal for 24 hours and then a tracking number (proof that payment has been mailed) will be required to hold the animal any longer than that.
This policy was not put in place because we're trying to be difficult, but because placing animals on hold without a deposit is unfair to customers that want to buy those animals. We have had customers purchase an animal that was their second choice, only to see the animal that was their first choice become available (due to buyers backing out) after they've received their animal.
Any time a deposit/payment has been made on an animal, it is non-refundable unless the animal can no longer be provided.

Payment Plans

• Our average payment plan is approximately 60 days. We may accept payment plans on a case-by-case basis, and tend to be fairly flexible as long as suggested plans are within reason (Note: Stuff like $15/month for the next 2 years is NOT reasonable, so let's keep it realistic!).  Let us know your timeframe for completing the transaction, as well as the minimum payment we can expect from you each week/month, and again, will be happy to work with you to come up with something that is mutually agreeable. 
• Payment plans aren't available on every animal we sell.  Please inquire if you have any questions as to whether or not a specific animal is available on a payment plan.
• ALL payment plans require a 50% non-refundable down payment via any of the payment methods listed above.  Subsequent payments are also non-refundable.
• Prices for animals purchased on payment plans are as posted.  Please do not expect discounts on an animal that you are paying off over an extended period of time. 
• While you are paying for your animal, it will be fed, housed & cared for professionally, just like the rest of our collection. We do not charge extra for maintenance while you are making payments.
• We will be happy to send you updated invoices reflecting your payment schedule during the course of our transaction.  If you have questions pertaining to your balance, don't hesitate to contact us. 
• When your balance has been paid in full (including shipping fees if applicable), we will contact you to make shipping arrangements on a mutually agreeable date.

Terms & Guarantees

Health
We offer a one-week health guarantee on our pythons, provided there is no evidence of gross negligence after receipt. If we do not hear from you within 12 hours of the receipt of your animal(s), we will assume that you are completely satisfied with your purchase and consider our transaction complete. If you do not confirm live arrival within the first 12 hours of receipt, we reserve the right to waive our standard guarantee.  We absolutely stand behind our animals and ultimately customer satisfaction is our top priority.  By the same token, we do expect you to notify us within a timely manner of any concerns or issues that arise. 

Because we have no control over how you will keep your reptiles or what your existing collection has been exposed to, we cannot offer a guarantee longer than one week.  Exceptions will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.  We urge you to stay in contact with us post-purchase for husbandry questions or any issues that arise. We are HIGHLY INVESTED in insuring that you have a positive experience with any snake you receive from The Blood Cell, and want to be an ongoing resource for support for your husbandry questions or concerns. Please communicate with us, as we are happy to work with you in the best interest of the snakes you acquire from us.

If there are any issues, (i.e. incorrectly sexed), please bring it to our attention immediately - DON'T wait days or weeks. We cannot help with problems that we don't know about, and we want you to enjoy your snake-keeping experience & be successful with your animals.  If you have ANY questions pertaining to the health or well-being of your snakes, PLEASE do not hesitate to contact us!!!  

We want you to be happy with the animals you receive from us if there are any problems we need to know about them right away.  Also, in the event you need to contact us regarding any issues with animals you receive from us, PLEASE CALL in addition to e-mailing us.  We get so many e-mails in the course of a day that we may not have a chance to address them all at once, thus cannot always guarantee a fast turnaround.  If you have an urgent or pressing issue regarding a shipment, please call us at 515.468.7725. 

Sex
When an animal is sold as sexed, we offer a 100% guarantee to that effect. We do, however, expect you to double-check the sex of the animal and to notify us within 48 hours if it appears to be the wrong sex. Again, if we have not heard from you within 48 hours, we will consider our transaction complete.

Color
Depending on factors such as environment, stress, and age, the color and/or intensity of the color on blood pythons may change significantly. With this in mind, our guarantee does not apply to color. We have never had a customer complain about the color of an animal purchased from us, but we feel that it's best to avoid any confusion.

We believe that our blood & short-tailed pythons are some of the finest available, and we make every effort to represent our animals as accurately as possible. We have gone to great expense purchasing photography equipment for this purpose. However, monitor settings vary across different computers, tablets, and phones, so it's impossible for us to make each photograph appear the same on everyone's digital screen. Having said that, we do not offer refunds due to lack or misinterpretation of color. We are confident, however, especially in the case of baby bloods (brongersmai), you will most likely have a very pleasant surprise in store as the animal grows to its adult size. 

Live Arrival
We offer a live arrival guarantee when temperatures are between 38-90 degrees (Fahrenheit), when someone is available to pick up at FedEx or the airport within 4 hours of arrival. Should an animal arrive expired, you must notify us within 12 hours of receipt. Please preserve the expired animal by freezing it - you will be asked to provide proof that the animal arrived dead. If we do not hear from you within 12 hours of delivery, we will assume that the animal arrived live & that you are content with the transaction.

Domestic Shipping

The following policies apply to ALL ORDERS from BloodPythons.com that require delivery to the customer.  Please read this section CAREFULLY!

• Shipping Methods: Shipping is done carefully via FedEx, through Ship Your Reptiles.com.  We ship in accordance with SYR standards and recommendations and follow their shipping suggestions very closely.  If they state conditions are unsafe or there is any kind of FedEx backlog, we will hold off on shipping until conditions allow.    At this time we ONLY ship to your nearest FedEx ship center and hold for customer pick up.  We no longer ship direct, due to issues with delivery driver errors.  If you do not know your nearest FedEx ship center, we will be more than happy to locate it for you.  
  Delta Dash is available for airport-to-airport shipping, overnight or same-day if possible.  We always try to book same-day arrival when using Delta Dash, but sometimes this is not available due to airline scheduling constraints.  
• Shipping Fees: FedEx shipping via SYR is included in the price of our animals for all shipments within the USA.  Delta Dash is approximately $125 on most standard shipments (17"x17"x9") Oversize shipping crates/containers may cost more, and we will be happy to get a quote and notify you ahead of time. 
• Scheduling: We ship FedEx Tuesday and Wednesday, and Delta Dash Monday - Saturday.  Delta Dash shipments must be arranged no less than 48 hours in advance of actual ship date.  When you purchase an animal, we will contact you to let you know that payment was received & discuss shipping options.  We DO NOT ship animals without first verifying that the customer will be present to receive them, so if we are unable to reach you, please contact us to make shipping arrangements.  Otherwise we will hold your animals until we hear from you.  We are happy to feed and care for animals until they can be safely shipped.  Your animal(s) will be cared for no differently than ours until they leave our facility.
• Receiving your shipment: FedEx shipments MUST have someone available to pick up at your nearest FedEx ship center within 4 hours of arrival. Please bring a form of identification and be prepared to sign for receipt of your snake(s).  Airport shipments must be picked up within 4 hours of arrival. Please discreetly inspect your shipment at the airport, as you must file a claim form before leaving in the event of a problem or DOA.

**Note: When inspecting packages at the airport, please be sensitive to other customers who may be uncomfortable around reptiles. Open the package, check to ensure your animals arrived as described, and be on your way. Do not pull your reptiles out to show off or try to scare other customers. Keep in mind that the actions of individual reptile keepers DO reflect on our hobby/industry as a whole.

• Friday & Saturday Deliveries: We do not generally ship FedEx on Thursdays due to the fact that a one-day delay would mean that your animal(s) wouldn't arrive until the following Monday.  We DO NOT offer FedEx Saturday delivery. If you must have your animal delivered on a Saturday, please be prepared to use Delta Dash, or make arrangements to meet us for pick-up.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

• Extreme Weather - VERY IMPORTANT!!! With the exception of sensitive species, live arrival is guaranteed when temperatures are between 38° and 90°. It is the customer's responsibility to check their local forecast before requesting a shipment.     Regardless of the temperatures required for live arrival guarantee, we reserve the right not to ship an animal if the temperature in either city (yours or ours) exceeds 90° or is below 38°.     Delivery trucks are not air-conditioned. This means that in the summer sun, they can get up to 30 degrees warmer than the temperatures outside. On a 90 degree day, that's not good.  In the summer, it doesn't cool off until after 8-9 pm...much later than our daily pick-up occurs. When weather is bad, waiting really is in everyone's best interest...a live, healthy animal next week beats a dead one tomorrow.
• We do everything we can to make our customers happy, but the health and well-being of our animals come first. We are firm believers that all animals deserve the best possible care when they're in captivity, so please don't ask us to risk their health by shipping them when it's not safe. We have been shipping animals for years with a very good track record, and this is due to the fact that we will hold off shipping in unsafe conditions. We do not offer refunds because a customer doesn't want to wait for an animal to be shipped safely.
• We use heat/cold packs as necessary, but this is only to make things less stressful for the animal(s), not to offset temperatures that would otherwise be lethal. If there were a delay in shipping for whatever reason, a cold or heat pack may stop working and be of no benefit to the animal inside.

International Orders

• Our minimum international order is $5000.00 (US), and may vary according to destination.  Customer is responsible for all CITES application fees, inspection fees, freight/shipping charges, health certificate processing fees, and importation taxes (if applicable).  We will apply for your CITES permits upon receipt of a 25% non-refundable deposit.  Animals must be paid in full prior to shipping, and before your CITES permit(s) expires. Please be aware that turnaround time for CITES permits ranges anywhere from 1-6 months, and may take longer in some cases.
• IF YOUR SHIPMENT REQUIRES A HEALTH CERTIFICATE, you MUST make us aware of this fact WHEN YOU SEND YOUR DEPOSIT!  We do not want shipments to be confiscated because we were unaware that you needed a health certificate to be sent with your order.