Bad Marans egg color - What would YOU do?

[erinnyes]

I need advice! I am a Marans breeder and have been raising chickens for about 2 years now. Recently, I purchased some hatching eggs from an Ebay auction from a seller who claimed her Marans were Davis/Greenfire silver birchen Marans. In the Ebay ad, she claimed that her birchens were laying eggs just as dark as her Black coppers, and included a picture of a decently colored egg. Knowing it was a gamble, I did buy the eggs.

However, once they arrived, I saw to my disappointment that half the eggs were TERRIBLE color. They don't even make a 4 on the Marans color scale! The other half of the eggs were good color, however. All were clean and packed well.

I am wondering, should I contact the seller and complain? I hate confrontation, and I have the feeling that it might be a moot point, because if a seller is willing to ship such poor color eggs, I doubt they'll do much about upset customers. The breed standard of Marans does specify that a hen should be able to at least lay a 4 on the color scale at all times of the year, so technically speaking, these eggs do not qualify as true marans!

What would you do?

 

[Chick Charm]

Do yourself and others a favor....Tell em. Confrontation is not unpleasant unless someone wants it to be. They should be told, "Marans eggs should and can only be DARK brown. And you sent me eggs the color of a ...(sex link, or whatever)." The main reason I would ever have a Maran is for the egg color being so special. I think this is what most like about them.

Let it be said so that there is no misunderstanding about the eggs being the WRONG color. Simple. If they don't want to take care of the issue let that be on them. Wish them well and never do business with them again. If you are treated badly, give them a bad rating.

I would be nice and cordial and all that stuff, but it would still get said.

Wish the best for ya. If you don't speak up you will never get the eggs you paid for.