A misguided buy :/

[NovaAman]

Or the one you purchased.

 

[DanyyChicken]

Quote:
Are you in NH? If your in the market or area check out "Swings and Things" on Rte 125 in Kingston NH. Sometimes you can get super deals there at the end of the season. They have Amish built coops there but they are very pricey unless on mark down. What I did was buy a "run in shed" which is basically a large animal shed without doors to keep livestock out of the elements. It was amish built with an 8x10 footprint on clearance for $699. There is a delivery gent by the name of Mike who was super nice. My husband made some doors for it cut out a pop hole and built an attached run. It came out pretty sweet. If I ever get around to taking my final pictures I would love to post. This is my first time with chickens as well. Check them out if your close by to see if they have any deals right now! Good luck!

 

[gale65]

Well I still stand by my opinion. If the coop includes a roost and nests, it's meant for overnight confinement at the very least and it's still not big enough for 3-4 chickens even to stay in overnight. I think most people don't leave their chickens confined to the coop 24/7 so that's a given.

 

[ChickenScratchin]

Quote:
Actually, it's on the same page as the coop, right in the first paragraph.

I suspected they would say that the "entire" structure, meaning the coop and run, is what is used for the dimensions to meet the space requirement, and that it's intended for use with free ranging at least part of the time. While I agree a novice could be unaware of the actual needs of chickens and might not understand the way the manufaturer is intending you to use this set up, they do actually spell it out somewhat under Product Features.

Honestly, the only thing I see that's truly misleading, unexplained or inaccurate is the panel on the back, where OP got hardware cloth instead. That clearly is different than the picture and could actually have an effect on the functionality/safety of the coop, mostly due to weather. But I'm still guessing that they would insist that since the rest of the run is hardware cloth, that one panel shouldn't make a difference. I would disagree there, but it would be tough to "prove" that damage would occur because of that one missing panel.

I doubt you have much recourse here - under Conditions of Use (link at bottom of page that you linked initially), it states:

Product Descriptions
My Pet Chicken attempts to be as accurate as possible. However, My Pet Chicken does not warrant that product descriptions or other content of this site is accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free. If a product offered by My Pet Chicken itself is not as described, your sole remedy is to return it in unused condition.

So even if you assume that the product description IS inaccurate, they stipulate that there's no warranty of accuracy and if there IS a problem, you have to return it unused.

Unfortunately, I think this is one of those times where the site perhaps isn't crystal clear, but they CYA pretty well. And I have to say I somewhat agree with the reply regarding "guidelines" - lots of people keep their chickens in different ways and there are some very general standards for what is considered "ideal" conditions, but what individuals do often veers far from that. And if you use this coop as it is "intended", you're meeting the recommendations for space and what is considered necessary for housing.

 

[gale65]

Just read the letter again and I disagree with them that the coop and run count as the 4 sq ft per bird. If that's the case, then we are all making our coops and runs way too big. Between the two we will have over 24 sq feet per bird. Methinks my birds are super spoiled.

 

[gale65]

Oh and another thing-I would do as a pp suggested and wall up the whole thing, since you're using a bigger run anyway.

 

[AZBootsie]

Quote:
I like this response. No threats, but firm. The worst they can do is say no. If they do, rebuild the darn thing and make it all a coop. I would express my unhappiness to friends and family about their product.

 

[Ole rooster]

Yes yes, now that MPC has responded it is time to go a little further. They need to know for one thing the "chicken world" they depend on is reading about their handling of a problem they can and should correct. Something such as this could cut into their business if it's not handled promptly and properly. I know I would have reservation dealing with them. The letter was a lot about nothing. Such a waste of time in someone's day. Tracyree has it right.

Still they need to understand we all are reading this and know of their handling of customer care.

 

[Raen]

That letter was a wee bit condescending, no? Kind of: we know you're stupid, so we'll explain this slowly and say the same thing several times.

They do have their asses pretty well covered with that description, so I don't really think you have much of a legal leg to stand on, but it's also obvious that that coop is not big enough for four standard chickens.

MPC caters to people who are new to chickens; they have a cute website with mostly good information and their main selling point is that they allow small orders with mixed birds. For that perk, you pay at least double what you would from other hatcheries. Knowing that the people who buy that coop are mostly going to be new to chickens, they should be more clear that the run is not actually intended to be a run space, but somehow counted in the coop square footage. I'm not impressed.

 

[mikecnorthwest]

These "internet" coops are notorious for being smaller than pictured, of very shoddy construction, and way overpriced for what you get. Obviously My Pet Chicken knows this and they've built their documentation around the fact that they expect people to complain. Too bad we don't have a page on this website for pictures of chicken coops not to buy.