Season's Greetings!
With the holidays upon us, we will have special retail store hours and updated shipping news. This page is dedicated to providing all the information you need to make educated shopping decisions this holiday season with King Koi Goldfish.
As we are committed to the health and safety of your pets, we will be making changes to our shipping schedule this Holiday Season. You can find all of the information on how your order can be impacted below. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to visit our Customer Support Portal to reach out to us.
Thanksgiving
- Wednesday, 11/25 - 10am to 2pm (Holiday hours)
- Thursday, 11/26 Thanksgiving - Closed
- Friday, 11/27 Black Friday - 10am to 5pm (regular store hours)
Christmas
- Thursday, 12/24 (Christmas Eve) - 10am to 2pm (Holiday hours)
- Friday, 12/25 (Christmas) - Closed
- Saturday, 12/26 10am to 5pm (regular store hours)
New Years
- Thursday, 12/31 (New Years Eve) - 10am to 2pm (Holiday hours)
- Friday, 1/1 (New Year Day) - Closed
- Saturday, 1/2 10am to 5pm (regular store hours)
We will suspend regular FedEx shipping beginning on 11/24 to 1/3. Exception shipping will be available during this time. Please refer to the calendar.
Air Cargo Same Day Shipping - OUR RECOMMENDED OPTION
Air Cargo Same Day is an excellent option and the recommended shipping option during the busy holiday season. Due to the expected reduction of holiday travelers this year, the airlines should be quicker to unload planes and get boxes to pick up sooner. We recommend this option.
USPS Priority and First Class Shipping
We will continue to ship dry good USPS during this time as they are not live products. Please keep in mind however transit times may be longer. All shipments will come with a tracking number.
Why is regular FedEx shipping suspended?
From our experience, there are always significant delays with shipping during the holidays. We have worked with all the major carriers and have experienced significant delays with all of them. Every holiday season, carrier companies like FedEx and UPS hire many temporary employees to handle the increased volume of packages shipped. This increased volume of packages and number of employees have resulted in delays, lost packages, and other horror stories. Please read this excerpt from our FedEx representative on what they expect for the holidays;
“...we typically move 9-10 million packages/day pre-pandemic, and now are moving close to 17 Million packages/day with a projected additional 30% increase during the holidays. Just to give you an example of the last major holiday, Labor Day Weekend, our Ground Network processed 2.1 Million packages in 2019. In 2020 we processed 9.4 Million packages.”
According to our local FedEx Hub, by mid November, they have already seen a significant increase in packages this year. All this being said, we want to minimize the chances of your fish showing up delayed or DOA due to rough handling from temporary or overworked workers and/or packages just lost in transit! We deal with both every year.
Can I still request Exception FedEx delivery during the suspended period?
Yes, kinda. We can still ship FedEx or UPS NEXT DAY ONLY during this time. There will be two changes to our regular policy. All orders will default to ship after the holidays (January 4). IF you would like your order shipped during the suspended period, please contact our customer service to schedule a day. Secondly, we cannot offer Live on Arrival Guarantee during this time. To be eligible for Live on Arrival guarantee, please ship via Air Cargo (more info below). Please expect delays. Our FedEx rep informed us that they expect 80% of Next Day packages to arrive within 2 days. We will pack all orders with enough water and air for the fish to last several days. However, these are less than ideal circumstances. If possible, we would recommend shipping Air Cargo during this time with up to Same Day delivery. We cannot ship FedEx 2-Day during this time as they expect all 2-Day packages to take up to 5 days. We don't feel comfortable with this arrangement.
When will my FREE 2 DAY SHIPPING fish ship?
All FREE 2 DAY SHIPPING fish ordered during the suspended period will ship when regular shipping resumes, after January 4, 2021.
What is the last day I can order fish to have regular FedEx delivery?
To ensure your package is shipped on time, please place orders by 8am PST Monday, November 23. All orders placed after 8am on November 23, will ship on or after Monday, January 4, 2021.
What day will regular FedEx shipping resume?
Regular FedEx shipping will resume Monday, January 4th 2021.
Will it cost me more to ship during the holidays?
No, while we do incur peak season surcharges, we have never passed on the shipping charges to our customers.
Is Live on Arrival still guaranteed during holidays?
Yes, our (LOA) Live on Arrival guarantee is in effect for all Air Cargo shipments! However, if an alternate method is requested, we cannot offer the LOA guarantee.
What is the exact date my fish will ship?
We are expecting 6 times the volume of shipments on the first Monday of the new year. We are planning on starting early, doubled our shipping staff for that week, and have been training our staff since late October. Unfortunately, our team will still not be able to handle that many packages on Monday. We anticipate it will take us until Wednesday to catch up. We can comfortably say, all orders placed over the holiday suspended period will ship no later than 1/6/21 assuming no order complications. Please reach out to us directly at our Customer Support Portal for any questions about your specific order.
I need my fish before Christmas or by a specific date, what do you recommend?
Our recommendation is to ship via Air Cargo. We can ship via Southwest and Delta Air Cargo. With Air Cargo, we can pack extra water and air. And for orders over $100, we can provide the $50 flat rate shipping!
What is Air Cargo?
Air Cargo (our recommended shipping option during the holidays) is a popular shipping option for fish keepers. Essentially, we ship via the extra unbooked cargo space on passenger airplanes. Transit times are as long as it takes a human to fly from Los Angeles to wherever you are (plus 2 hours at the destination airport to transport packages from the plane to the cargo facility)!
There are pros and cons for this type of shipping.
Pros
- High minimum weights for each cargo (allows us to pack in much larger boxes and add WAY more water and space for the fish.
- Transit times are always much shorter
- There are fewer hubs the packages must travel through. Results in a lower chance of mishandled or dropped packages because of the fewer number of people moving packages.
Cons
- You must go to the airport to pick up your package.
- Please note: you don’t actually enter the airport in most cases. There is usually a cargo facility in a commercial building near the airport that the airlines distribute packages out of.
