Mt. Healthy Hatcheries

Has anyone had a bad experience with this company? They were extremely rude to me. I ordered chicks from them and was expecting them to arrive this week. I called the hatchery last week to find out when the birds would arrive so I would be home. The person I spoke with confirmed that they would be coming by Tuesday, at the latest. Well, it got to be around noon, and no call from the Post Office. I called the hatchery and they told me they didn't have an order from me for delivery this week. I told the woman I have my confirmation from their website and spoke with an employee last week. She wouldn't listen to me. She just kept telling me they would refund my money. I said I didn't want my money, I wanted the chicks I ordered and paid for. She just wouldn't hear it and kept telling me they weren't in the wrong. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated at this point, and used some language that I shouldn't have. I will NEVER order from this company again.

a few here have ordered from them with good results. gee, you must be frustrated, persoanlly i would be LIBID! i would also call back and ask to talk to her supervisor. if i were her supervisor i would want to know how she treated our customers.

another way to express yourself and get their attention at the same time is to post your problem in the Garden Watchdog here on Dave's Garden...

and although they seem far from you in NY, there are NYers who have ordered from Ideal in Texas with good results. and they are having a bantam special today...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/864058/

I agree with TF, I'd call back and talk to the supervisor about her and if she was the supervisor let her know that you will be posting online how bad their service is. Order elsewhere, they are not worth the frustration.

pjmcguinn seems that with the increase in orders many of these hatcheries aren't able to handle their customers. I got so frustrated with Cackle that I canceled my order with them. I figure I'll just wait till next spring and buy elsewhere.

MollyD

Molly........I thought exactly the same thing.....AND we also ordered from Cackle. Oh my gosh, I was so frustrated with them as well. We put in a phone order with them for our turkey poults and ducklings, then we didn't get a confirmation on the order and forgot the exact amount of the order. I e-mailed them 3 different times and my DH and I both tried several times a day each to get them on the phone........it took 3 days to finally get them to answer, but by then we just guesses at what the total was because we were worried that if we didn't get them paid in time, we wouldn't get our order when we were supposed to. It turns out we ended up sending them too much and they said they would make up the difference in chicks......then our order finally got here 2 weeks late, and no chicks.
I read an article on them not to long ago where they said they had never had a busier year and even though they had 5 phone lines, the office was having a hard time keeping up. I think 2 ways on all this......if they are so busy they just can't keep up then they need to hire extra help before they upset so many customers they no longer have to worry about being so busy......on the other hand, it seems like all the hatcheries (or most) are having such a hard time keeping up and getting orders filled and out on time that I wonder if it would be any better to go somewhere else with my business? I have a feeling that this 'trend' is going to stay for awhile.......so what are we going to do? We have to get our youngens from somewhere. Its hard to know what to do.

That being said pjmcguinn.....I agree with TF and smedgekles......even if the hatcheries are so busy they can't keep up there is absolutely no excuse for the lady to have been so rude about it or to act like it was not their problem. If it was me, I would put a call into the supervisor and if the supervisor doesn't want to hear it.....talk to the owner! If you can get them on the phone...........

ladybug I bought from Ideal this spring. Now I ordered 10 New Hampshires (str run), 10 Buff Orpingtons (st run) and 5 Delaware males (plus 4 Cayuga ducks and 1 sexed pair of WC geese). The order arrived exactly when they said. I had a confirmation # when I placed the order. I had emails from a specific person in the company who became my contact person for all emails. I got a phone call the Friday before the chicks were due to arrive on Monday. Everything went smoothly with them. Problems? The 5 Delawares turned out to be 1 iffy male and 4 all white not sure of gender somethings. One duck died day after they arrived. Ideal sent back the money on the Delawares and the duck so I'm not unhappy with them. Next spring I'll order early and place my order with Ideal. Hopefully they'll have the breeds I want.
No reason Cackle can't answer emails at the very least since a customer can't tie that person up like they can on the phone.

MollyD

I checked DG WatchDog and nobody had posted on Mt. Healthy. If I were upset enough about my treatment I would post it there and forward the link to Mt. Healthy. They need to know that we "small holders" do communicate and the word of poor treatment spreads. Not being nasty, just realistic.

I saw a post by someone who said they had bought via Mt.Healthy and had a good experience. Can't remember when this was but I think it was early spring.

MollyD

I remember it too, MollyD.

Molly, I tell ya....the more I read posts the more and more I hear about Ideal and how happy everyone has been with them. You having a loss and a wrong order was not good but mistakes do happen and it sounds like they did what they could to make it right which is the way it should be. I'm with you.....I wouldn't be unhappy with it either.

I couldn't agree with you more Catscan.......the big suppliers need to know that us 'small
peanuts' folks do communicate and bad treatment spreads as fast as a wildfire and we will not put up with it! I wonder sometimes if they treat bigger customers a lot better because they don't want to lose a big account. What they need to realize is that one person on their own may not be able to do much in a way of hurting them, but A LOT of individual people who do not want to deal with rude treatment and bad service can put them in the red and fast!

I have to wonder what changed from the spring to now with them? Why there would be good reviews and then this happened?

Christy (a bit fired up)

All that I can think of it they weren't prepared for the volume of extra work and don't have a good system to deal with it. Problems like that usually begin at the top.

btw Claire I just went and signed up with two freecycle groups in my area. Posted my request on both of them. Thanks for reminding me they're out there!

MollyD

That's what I think too Molly.

I just did a google search on Mt. Healthy hatcheries and found some interesting reading and other posts about them. One of them that popped up was the post from the spring that Molly and Catscan were talking about.....and I even responded to it and forgot! It is titled
"Has anyone ordered from Mt. Healthy in Ohio?" and was posted by gallesfarm. (sorry, don't know how to make the hypo link thingy) You are right, the review of Mt. Healthy then was VERY different!

Molly....btw.....Claire? You didn't mean me (Christy) by any chance did you? : ) Hope you find what you are looking for!

I'm sorry Christie. I don't know why I've decide to change your name to Claire! LOL Yes I meant you Christie. Not sure who Claire is. Blame the dog who got me up at 4 am whining and carrying on cause she wanted company. This is the 3rd night she's pulled this. Paul gets up and talks to her and sends her out to run around. I told him he's just making it fun for her. Last night he got up at 3am with her and back to bed at 3:30. At 4am she started whining again. Grrrrrr. he ignored her and I had to deal with her instead. Of course then I couldn't get back to sleep. I told him this has got to stop!!

MollyD

I've had good experiences with both Mt. Healthy and Cackle hatcheries. That sucks that you got treated so badly by them. Come to think of it, I don't think I've had a bad experience with any hatchery. The closest would be Murray McMurray...I didn't have a bad experience, I just think their prices are getting out of control. I hope you get it all straightened out.

That's ok Molly, about every time I type out Molly, I hit the i and it comes out Milly, then I have to backspace. Hope your dog gets her early morning risings figured out and stops doing it....now that could get old FAST!

Christy

Well I've got a goat named Milly LOL

MollyD

and I've got a beagle dog named Molly! LOL

Molly seems to have become very popular for dogs! LOL When we go on picnics or anywhere people bring their dogs I always hear someone calling Molly! I almost feel like woofing at them LOL

MollyD

Molly...LOL is right.

If you look at Ideal's website, you will notice that they are not a small hatchery. They claim to be the largest backyard flock supplier in the nation. Could be true, I don't know. I also had a very good experience with them.

GG

Yes they came across as very professional outfit.

MollyD

i have never ordered from a hatchery before, only breeders who hatch, and i was quite pleased with my experience with Ideal this week.

on top o fall others reasons for business to pick up, you know folks who cancelled their MMH orders went to these smaller ones. but if it were me i woul dhave had a voice mail that basically said, "we are swamped and can't take any more business, here are some other places you could call"...

tf....I thought the same thing about the voice mail thing when we had so much trouble getting Cackle to answer the phone. I thought if they were so busy that customer's can't get them on the phone, but they are still able to fill orders, they should leave a message explaining that they are sorry they missed your call, that they are very busy, and then let you leave your # and the nature of your call. That way, they could call you back when they get the chance and customers aren't left getting madder and madder that they can't get through.

I still say it is understandable that the hatchery's are so busy right now, but how much business are they going have and keep if they make everyone mad? I still say there was no excuse for the rude treatment from Mt. Healthy......if they are so busy they are messing up orders or overlook orders all together....then they should explain why instead of acting like it was not their problem in any way.

I wonder what next year will hold for all of us and if these hatchery's that are having problems will have a better system worked out?

Christy

Christy, I very much doubt that it will be better next year. We have been running into problems with businesses for a while now. They seem to think that you will come crawling back to them no matter how angry they make you by being rude. But, guess what? I know that if someone treated me that way, I would definitely go elsewhere for my business even if I couldn't get what I wanted that time. Someone else would very likely have what I want next year.

BTW, I quit buying from ABC Warehouse (a local company, I think) because they tried to bait and switch a dehumidifier on me. And that was over 35 years ago. I STILL don't buy anything from them.

GG

I know what you mean Granny. My worry is that this huge increase in the demand for chicks is not a fad and may be with us for awhile. If these hatcheries that are unable to handle it this year don't figure out a solution or want to hire the help they need, then others are also over run with orders they can't fill, that only leaves a few good ones left. And what happens if then they end up not being able to handle it? I could very well be wrong in this thinking, who really knows what the nest few years hold?
My point is.....if we are left no where else to go because of bad service or the few good ones left are all sold out.....what do we all do?

btw.......my DH, the kido's and I used to go to this one restaurant about every other Friday and did this for a couple of years. (they had the BEST beer battered cod) Anyway, we went on a Tuesday once and my DH ordered the special. Meatloaf. In the five years we had been together at the time, I have NEVER seen him not clean his plate when we ate out. He is the least pickiest eater I have ever met. He finished eating and the meatloaf was still there.....all but one bite. It looked like it cardboard (it was even an off color) and he said it tasted like it too. So he tells the waitress, who took the complaint to her boss, who proceeded to then trough back his head and laugh. You know, we were not looking for a free meal, we would have been more than happy if they would have taken $1 off the bill. (really) Needless to say, we didn't go back. They lost regular customers over a backwards manager (or owner) and a buck. I couldn't have pouted about not getting that fish anymore, but I figured out how to make it instead. YUM!!

Christy

Christy, we had a similiar experience recently. And, it was a Ponderosa Steak House. We went there and they had an empty buffet. We thought, we maybe they were really busy and that's the reason. We gave them another try, went back another time, and the same thing. We also haven't been back. I have noticed, over the years, that most of those places soon end up going out of business.

We do, however, give word of mouth about the good places that we deal with and hope that others have good experiences with them also.

GG

Granny, I know what you mean.....businesses that continue bad service over and over again eventually make so many people not go back, it puts them out of business.

I have to wonder if businesses are catching on to the fact that customers can talk and share bad service and good service more than ever on-line. Word of mouth is HUGE! That is why I have gone over the importance of doing everything we can to sell nothing but the cleanest and best eggs with my kids.....that we have to build a good reputation and all it takes is once or maybe twice of someone getting something not so good and we will have a bad name. It is a lot harder to clear a bad name than it is to keep one!

I wonder how pmjcguinn made out?


Christy