Purchasing:
When you place an order through our site, the tortoises will ship on the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday following your order. So if you order on a Monday morning, they'll ship on Tuesday. If you order on a Tuesday night, they'll ship Wednesday. If you order between Wednesday and Sunday, it'll ship on Monday. Because I process the orders the night before and prep them all early in the morning, it is very rare that I can ship same day on Next Day Air shipments. For a rush orders (same day shipping), contact us for more information and we'll do what we can to get it to you. If you need shipping delayed until you're ready for recieving it, let us know in the "special instructions" section during checkout, and we can hold your tortoise until you're ready.
Guarantee:
We guarantee every tortoise’s health for 3 days (72 hours) from the time of receipt. In that time, they will eat and act normally. It is your responsibility to make sure you are ready to purchase a tortoise, and your responsibility to have a proper setup ready when he or she arrives. We cannot possibly "scan" every customer we sell to, and this website offers enough information to keep a tortoise alive and well.
It is your responsibility to provide a valid address and to be home to accept arrival on the first delivery attempt. We can't guarantee a tortoise that you weren't there to accept, left on a doorstep, or sent to an address that does not exist. Before any refund or replacement is considered, the UPS tracking number will be checked to assure that you were home for the arrival, and that the address provided was a valid useable address. We will back up a mistake due to UPS or due to weather, but not due to the customer's inability to accept delivery. We have had constant problems with this recently, and can no longer replace animals that sat on a doorstep all day, or that were sent to a vacant lot.
Shipping:
We ship our tortoises anywhere in the continental United States 12 months a year. Our tortoises are packed in an insulated box with heat or cold packs as needed. When shipped, our tortoises leave Las Vegas in the late day (Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday only), and arrive at your door the next morning, usually before 12:00 noon. We have an excellent track record with shipping live animals shipping well over 1,000 reptiles to date, and shipping concerns should not be a reason you don't buy a tortoise from us. A tracking number will be sent to you via E-Mail typically the morning of shipping and once the tortoise is scanned in by UPS, you can follow the progress of the shipment on UPS.com.
Upon arrival, you will need to be there to check the tortoise and put it into suitable housing. Any tortoise not kept in reasonable conditions can decline in health or die within days or weeks. Customers that notice a problem for days and don't say anything give me little room to try and help.
Often some tortoises will be shy in their new home, but once they know they are safe and settle in, they'll liven up. The lower the stress of a new home is, the better. We have tried to make shipping as stress-free for the animal as possible. While it does create some stress, I don't think shipping is any more stressful than it would be to have your tortoise in a box in the car on the way home from a pet store (or a show). They are in the dark, packed snug, and sleep most or all of the way from me to you. We ship with UPS simply because of their track record with being on time more often than any other company. They charge a little more, but I sleep better at night knowing I'm using the best possible company for the job.
Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions about shipping, and we'll get back to you promptly.
In the rare event of a DOA or an animal loss within the 3 day guarantee period, a replacement or refund will be given, assuming all conditions for replacement are met (see above). I will ultimately decide whether a replacement or a refund is offered, depending on the situation and availability of a replacement animal. Any and all shipping charges are non refundable, as they would be with any other company. With any return shipments, shipping is to be paid for by the customer. We do not replace - replaced animals for any reason. If the rare event of a replacement requires another replacement, we are not responsible.
Other:
We cannot guarantee the sex of any baby tortoise. Occasionally, we will have a batch that is temperature-sexed, but this is no guarantee. The older an animal is, the more accurate we can be.
All animals being offered for sale are captive bred and born (CBB). Imported (WC) or captive hatched (CH) animals, if ever offered, will be CLEARLY labeled as such. We do not normally deal with many imported tortoises because of the quarantine areas required, and the health problems involved with some WC species.
All tortoises sold at reptile shows or conventions are NOT guaranteed. You are free to choose the healthiest one you see, but we can’t control how long it’s in transit to its new home, or the temperatures involved in that process. We also do not guarantee animals sold in wholesale quantities at a discounted price.
All prices are firm, and will not be negotiated. If you are buying multiple tortoises, you can ask for better pricing, but it will ultimately depend on availability.
Captive bred tortoises from us can be assumed to be parasite free. Wild caught tortoises from us should not be assumed to be completely parasite free. We almost always do a realistic amount of parasite work on them in the time they're with us, but certain parasites that come in with wild caught tortoises are very hard to get rid of completely.
All tortoises can be held up to one week from date of full payment. We do not take deposits, partial payments, or do payment plans.
We reserve the right to refuse a sale to anyone, for any reason, at our discretion. This includes someone we do not feel is ready to commit to daily tortoise care.
All sales are final and there are no refunds for impulse purchases.
Disclaimer:
All tortoises under 4" are sold for scientific or educational purposes. It is the buyer's responsibility to know the laws in their particular state regarding the keeping of tortoises. We will not knowingly break any laws in selling or shipping you a tortoise; please don't ask us to do so. We guarantee live healthy arrival on all tortoises. We are very experienced shippers, shipping well over 1,000 reptiles to date. We use brand new insulated shipping boxes with cool or heat packs depending on season. All our tortoises ship anywhere in the continental United States via UPS Next Day Air Monday through Wednesdays only. We will not ship any other way. Sorry for any inconveniences.
