Customer service

I would like your input on different aspects of customer service for you chick sales.

I had a lady contact me about chicks I delivered to her this spring. They were 10 barred rock chicks. She also got 2 pilgrim geese and I told her to let me know if they both turn into ganders as I was having some color issues in the pilgrims.

Well it was about 2 months past that she finally called and said that the geese were both white so she figured both boys, I agreed, told her to keep them both and I would refund her for the wrong sexed one. She wanted to wait and see if I had any females hatch and if so then make a trade. I told her ok.

So another 2 months passes and she calls me up to see how I was making out, said nope, all boys. So will refund her the money.

Then she starts into me about her barred rock chicks, that 7 of the 10 were boys and that she wanted a refund or exchange on them. I stated that all my chicks are sold UNSEXED, and that I cannot exchange chickens as it is against my biosecurity policy. She was insistant that I agreed to selling her pullets, but I know there is no way I can sex day old chicks so not sure how I would have agreed to that.

So I felt bad so I offered her pullets with chick price discounted off. She said that she wasnt interested and that I should just trade her straight across.... Not gonna happen I am afraid.

So my question is what would you all do in this situation? Refund her chicks price on 7 roosters? Stand your ground and say you know for sure you wouldnt sell day old pullets because you can't sex them? Or what???

I think you have been very fair on your offers
If it was me I would stand my ground and not give her Pullets or refund because they are Roosters
I dont believe any of us sell day olds as sexed Unless we hire a sexxer or order sexed chicks to resell
\if she keeps saying she wants pullets say that is fine and give her POL pullets and adjust the price and tell her she wants a guarantee that they are pullets that is the only way you can do it.

Just my opinion

PS if you guarantee Sex on your day olds Maybe I should start getting Day olds from you LOL

That is rediculous. She is taking advantage of you.

I would kindly tell her you would be happy to SELL her older, SEXED pullets, but the chicks she bought were sold unsexed as advertised.

Good grief.

You have been more then accomodating so far.

I agree with the others, stand your ground. I honestly don`t have time for people like that anymore. I hate confrontation, but I am getting better about standing up for myself.
Chances are she will not be a repeat customer now anyways and truly would you want to have to deal with her again?

Seen it , heard about it , but I can't understand why prople don't just make up a bill of sale ? Stateing what the sale was for ? sexed , unsexed ?? takes all this right out of the picture and the seller has nothing to say ! Would save a lot of confusion and frustration .My thoughts

Yea, I agree with appway, when you buy chicks you take your chances on the male\female ratio. I also agree that taking back chickens and replacing them would be risky to your own flock and an unreasonable request. We would all like to get all pullets on unsexed sales but we all know that isn't the way it works.
There are always difficult customers in any business, don't feel bad about it. Perhaps a disclaimer of some sort at the time of sale may make it clearer to customers, and protect yourself from this kind of backlash.

I think that woman is being unreasonable. IMO I think you are being very fair in wanting to help her.

I don't know of anyone selling chicks, seller next door or big hatchery, that will do any sort of refund or exchange on chicks sold as UNSEXED if the buyer gets more roos to hens. That's the gamble you take buying unsexed. I think it's also known by most poultry people that odds are you will get more males to females when you buy unsexed anyways.
I recall one order I bought from a hatchery that was unsexed where out of 15 birds, I only ended up with 5 that were hens.

I think you are being generous with the geese. You did offer her a refund and she made her choice. It's not you fault that no other girls hatched out. And again you made the offer of refund. What more does she want?

The fact that she doesn't understand biosecurity amazes me, especially these days when not only poultry people practice it.

You are in the right. The buyer is being unreasonable.
Stand by your decision and if she doesn't like it then there is really nothing more that you can do.

prairie dog wrote:Seen it , heard about it , but I can't understand why prople don't just make up a bill of sale ? Stateing what the sale was for ? sexed , unsexed ?? takes all this right out of the picture and the seller has nothing to say ! Would save a lot of confusion and frustration .My thoughts

That is the biggest issue right now PD is that I did give her a receipt, and of course the one time I don't write unsexed on the chicks...I will have to be more stringent on that from now on. I always give everyone a receipt, helps me to keep track of orders and income/expense. But unfortunately that can cover my butt this time since I forgot to put UNSEXED on there...

stand your ground...... Respect is what you will get from this... Just my opinion.

Hidden River wrote:

prairie dog wrote:Seen it , heard about it , but I can't understand why prople don't just make up a bill of sale ? Stateing what the sale was for ? sexed , unsexed ?? takes all this right out of the picture and the seller has nothing to say ! Would save a lot of confusion and frustration .My thoughts

That is the biggest issue right now PD is that I did give her a receipt, and of course the one time I don't write unsexed on the chicks...I will have to be more stringent on that from now on. I always give everyone a receipt, helps me to keep track of orders and income/expense. But unfortunately that can cover my butt this time since I forgot to put UNSEXED on there...

That one little word sort of changes things.
In light of that, I would change my opinion to this.

You likely already pointed out to them the unsexed part. I would tell the buyer that as far as this hatch season goes, there is nothing left available. Would they be agreeable to maybe a discount towards next year?
If they don't, then offer them a refund, either partial or full on the chicks, and they keep the birds. Be clear to them that due to biosecurity there is no way you will take the birds back. Period! But you will give them a refund.

Take the loss on your part and be SURE that all future sales clearly state UNSEXED chicks.

If the buyer still isn't satisfied, then tough chips on them.

If she didn't know they were unsexed then she... needs to learn a lot more about poultry (struggling to be polite here).

Anyone with the most basic of knowledge would not expect sexed chicks (excluding those autosexing breeds/crosses) from a small producer.

Unless the reciept states they were pullet chicks or cockerel chicks, specifically, I still wouldn't refund because it doesn't say unsexed. Just me.

I of course struggle with all this, this lady is a local person so yes she will most likely not be a customer in the future. I did what I could to try to make things right but she is still not happy.
On my website, where people do the ordering, it states ALL CHICKS ARE UNSEXED as day olds.

I have decided to give her a partial refund, hoping she doesnt tarnish my reputation because of some measily $6 chicks...Not that I do a lot of local sales anyways but always nice to be thought of nicely in your community.

Wouldn't worry about tarnishing your reputation Jayme...I think you're too well liked and known for that!

I think it's sad when we have to cover our butts every which way from Sunday. We are talking a few chickens, not big corporate deals. There are always those people who want to get something for nothing, and they will make your life miserable if that's what it takes to get their way.

I agree with you HR, as I would also try to keep peace in my neighborhood and do what it takes to keep her from bad mouthing you. But if she ever wants to buy from you again I'd have to say sorry, I'm all sold out.

Sorry to say she sounds like the kind of person who is going to bad mouth you anyway. YOu can refund her all you want and my feeling is that she's still isn't going to be happy. She may eventually tell someone you refunded her her money, but not before she tells them the woeful story of too many roosters.

I know this puts you in an awkward postion. But you are right, we all know chicks don't come out sexed. I think she's just one of those people. They are out there.

Good job standing your ground don't let people like that get to you.

It's just the way that society works ! If WE feel ripped off or mistreated we want something to make it better , you hear it all the time and yet we seem to think that we are different ? I agree that by making peace with the neighbour will lessen the tension and in the end it's a small price if you like the person .But as I said it never hurts to safeguard yourself .I worked for my brothers years ago as a cabinet installer and they had learned that getting a customer to sign off made good busness sense .One guy tried to get a discount stateing that what he got was the wrong color on his Kitchen Cabinets and wanted a discount , he would accept the cabinets if he could get a redused price ? He had signed off the papers clearly that he had choosen the color in question and my brother just told him that he would send out the installler ( me ) and if there wasn't a check ready for the amount agreed on that I should remove the cabinets ! He thanked me for a great job and handed me the check .....Full Amount

I agree with all of the above Jayme, and then better to offer a refund than have to deal with her ever again. A credit just means it can happen all over again next year. Sorry, some people eh?

.

uno wrote:Sorry to say she sounds like the kind of person who is going to bad mouth you anyway. YOu can refund her all you want and my feeling is that she's still isn't going to be happy. She may eventually tell someone you refunded her her money, but not before she tells them the woeful story of too many roosters.

I know this puts you in an awkward postion. But you are right, we all know chicks don't come out sexed. I think she's just one of those people. They are out there.

Sad to say, but I agree.

If there’s one thing working in retail customer service for four years taught me, it’s this: some people won’t be satisfied, no matter what you do. And I think you’ve been more than fair in this situation. (though I can't say the same for her. Geez.) So try not to sweat it. These people are out there, born complainers and trouble makers. It's how they get their kicks.

coopslave wrote:I agree with the others, stand your ground. I honestly don`t have time for people like that anymore. I hate confrontation, but I am getting better about standing up for myself.
Chances are she will not be a repeat customer now anyways and truly would you want to have to deal with her again?

I totally agree with you!

She sounds like a lady who has learned through experience that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. She is relying on your discomfort with the situation to get what she wants- fairly or unfairly.

Sue

She sounds like a lady who has learned through experience that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. She is relying on your discomfort with the situation to get what she wants- fairly or unfairly.

Sue

Jayme, I am sorry that you are going through this but I would not give her a refund as it teaches her that what she is doing pays off and she will continue with her behavior with someone else.