Treadle feeder = wet moldy food?

ibarbidahl said:

Al-

I was only complaining about the moldy food issue- I certainly have no complaints about the previous times I contacted you. I did not mention that I overpaid nor any other issue I have had. Be sure to bring up everything you can to show just how stupid I am.

I was only complaining about the wet/moldy food.(which in turn created the issue of my bird not being strong enough to feed properly). And about how my chicken will still topple forward every time she tries and would fall off. So while she may be smart enough I guess she just not physically strong enough.) If you'll notice in the picture the entire run has walls on 2 sides so with a 4' roof over an 18" (Or so) wide feeder I wrongly assumed that would be adequate shelter.

Just for reference I DID mention that it may be my own issue as it is outside and it does rain frequently here and simply asked for advise on how to fix it. I never said it was an issue with the feeder itself. As I said in the first response I made, I was frustrated at the mold issue and was unable to see an easy solution, which has so generously been offered here by the wonderful members.

Keep in mind when you decide to berate someone that these members are the ones that are purchasing from you. I still think that for the money your product can't be beat... if you can utilize it inside. Unfortunately I cannot and now am building it a small housing structure just for it. My hen is slowly putting weight back on and hopefully the combination of her getting stronger and the feeder having a box around it will solve both of my issues.

It's nice to know that you are still around the boards here. So many people come, sell a product and take off. Bravo!

Click to expand...

Sorry, I tend to be too precise and wordy, makes it look like I am hammering someone. No offense intended. I do take our customer service seriously and we have a lady that does that full time, working from the Philippines. She is pretty good about letting me know when there is an unhappy customer or a question comes in. Sometimes you can help them, sometimes it is obvious they bought the wrong feeder for their needs. The challenge is how to keep the price down and still satisfy the pickier customers. Some negative feedback is good for the product, if we can make it better within our budget and with the equipment we have we do that. Everyone wins when a product improves.

I suspect that your bird is too light for the feeder. We have half weights, free if you pay for the shipping but Lord does the Post Office charge for sending a 3# package, almost as much as an entire feeder. Some folks have chipped off some of the concrete or stretched out the spring a bit to allow the lighter birds to use the feeder. However, when you do that you are messing with the reason the feeder keeps rats and some squirrels out of the feed; it takes two to three pounds pressure to open it. So more sensitive = less rat resistant.

Sorry again for the impression that I was thumping on you, just overly precise and I wanted to make sure that customers knew that we answer emails promptly. Phone calls... not so much, we prefer emails so we have pictures and a conversation we can go over so we know what is needed. And spam filters... every day orders and payments come in without phone numbers and I bet we have two dozen reminders in large red type all over the web page reminding people to include their phone number for the shipping company. But you reply back to the PayPal notice and a lot of the people's spam filter catches it or they just don't check their email very often. Five, even ten replies go out asking for their phone number, finally you just wait till they contact you asking where their feeder is. LOL

I should have read better this review of the feeder. For the price it oght to be at least galvanized steel.... I should have looked harder and found someone to make it out of stainless steel or aluminum...
also you mentioned the Phillipines.. You mean you dont make the feeders yourself.... I thought they were USA made....
I am still putting it together.. guess have to make a "cover" for it....ah well

ladyearth said:

I should have read better this review of the feeder. For the price it oght to be at least galvanized steel.... I should have looked harder and found someone to make it out of stainless steel or aluminum...
also you mentioned the Phillipines.. You mean you dont make the feeders yourself.... I thought they were USA made....
I am still putting it together.. guess have to make a "cover" for it....ah well

Click to expand...

Ah, it is galvanized steel on the body of the feeder, only the axle and treadle bar is mild steel and it would take decades for them to rust out.

And yes I make these in the Philippines in my own shop out on the old Clark Air force base which is now a free port export zone. We haven't had to make there feeders here in the U.S. since early 2015 and that has kept the price the same since 2012 and the metal is thicker and the quality is better than what we were making here in the U.S. because of the super cheap labor rates. Don't get me started on imports, I wish they would shut the borders down and have a level playing field but all the other feeders are produced overseas along with 80% of what both of us buy at Walmart.

We do have an exterior version available now and a retrofit kit that is available for the cost of shipping ($3.62) but it is just a couple of nuts and screws, look on our main website or Youtube or Facebook page for a video showing how to do it your self. That said, we did a parts kit promotion in the spring where people sent in videos of their feeders in use in exchange for a $15.00 package of parts/upgrade kits and the offer went out to the 2 year plus or older customer list. Every single video had the interior version and 90% of them were being used outside with no protection. So, IF you have the feeder set up and properly tweaked even the interior model will do fine out side much of the time. Eventually we are going to stop selling the interior versions and make the exterior kit standard once the current inventory is sold off, the newer feeders are all exterior version.