We purchased a Model HSS-R Coop with 2 runs. Everything went OK until the Coops arrived by UPS. The boxes (4) were beat up and the strapping that held them together had cut into the boxes or were missing altogether and one of the boxes had holes in it as if it had been speared by a forklift prong. On March 6, 2012 I opened the first box and there was a hole in the screen in one to the side panels corresponding with the hole in the box it came in, and some of the inner packing material, white foam, had disintegrated into little pieces. I called the company that day and spoke to Murray, apparently the owner (although when you look at the company information it makes you think that it’s a part of a much larger company, it’s not… just a shell game it appears). I told him about the damage and he shrugged it off and made no offer to repair or replace the damaged panel saying that it was too expensive to ship it back to their location in Canada. I am a reasonable person, so I agreed to go ahead and fix it myself.
Upon opening the rest of the boxes I found a whole lot more damage. A couple of the solid wood panels were broken or split; the sliding door on the coop was warped and would not slide; and there were some other damage issues as well. The overall quality was considerably less than I expected, and was just cheap Chinese junk not manufactured in Canada as one would expect.
After finding all of the additional damage, I asked my husband to speak with the company. On March 7th he called and spoke with Murray who refused to speak to him, instead insisting that he send an email. That same day he sent a detailed email to the company advising them of the damage and a request to return the damaged coop for a refund. He further asked them what they would like us to do to return it. Having received nothing from the company late on the evening of the 8th, he re-sent the previous email. Hoping to hear something so that we could get all the pieces of the coop out of our living room, he sent a third copy of the email on the 9th. Finally after receiving nothing from the company and no returned phone call, he sent a fourth email on the 14th at 4:32 PM. At 4:48PM he received the following email from Murray; “Sorry to hear this. Please send pictures.” NOTHING MORE. He could have asked for pictures on the 6th when he first spoke to me, or during any of the calls that my husband placed to the company.
By this time we were completely frustrated with Murray and his ignoring of the problem and my husband emailed to advise him to pick up his coop and that we would not be keeping it. After more emails we received an email from Murray on the evening of the 14th: “The March 6th phone call settled it.” We then contacted American Express to begin the process of charging back the transaction.
My husband advised Murray that he should file a damage claim with UPS, but he refuses, probably because he has had previous claims and UPS will not pay claims if the packaging is substandard as this is.
We own a small business which has both a retail and business-to-business operations. It ships to customers nationwide, and while we realize that providing good customer service is expensive, that’s business. We have found that it is less expensive to give fantastic customer service than it is to get another customer. Further, while you may save a few dollars buying a cheap product, in the end your customers will like you a lot more if you sell them a great product at a reasonable price. Murray needs to learn these principles. So the answer is--and I really hate to say this--but, DO NOT BUY FROM THEM! Keep looking. There are lots of great resources on chickens--like this website!
