chickens in VA
In the Brooder
Hi, I'm new to chickens (just posted in the intro forum) and I bought an Eglu Cube for the 4 girls arriving soon. I chose the Eglu based on a lot of reviews, and was excited that it is supposed to be super easy to clean, predator proof and less prone to mites than wooden coops. The price made me cringe, but unfortunately I'm not at all handy and paying someone else to build a durable, predator proof coop would have cost even more than the Eglu.
So far, though, I've been pretty upset by the Eglu experience and wondering if anyone else has had similar issues/wanting to warn potential Eglu purchasers. In the US, they only ship them to Greyhound depots, and since the boxes were too big to fit even on top of my car and I live very far from the nearest Greyhound, I had to pay someone else a small fortune to pick up the coop. I also couldn't get it in any of the colors I'd wanted, since despite their website showing them as available at the time, they apparently weren't. Still, both of these issues I was aware of when I paid for the coop. The problem was really after it arrived...extremely scuffed up, scratched and dirty. I do of course realize that a chicken coop is going to get very messy once it's used, but for the very high price of the Eglu I did expect that it would arrive in decent condition. Instead, it looks like it's been mauled by a rather annoyed creature.
I sent pictures to the people at Omlet, the manufacturers in the UK, and they've basically blown me off in a rather patronizing manner. They sent me an email ''assuring me that my coop was fine'' when it clearly isn't. According to them, the scratches will either come off with mineral spirits (they don't) and/or will fade after I've had the coop a couple of weeks. I've had it a week and no sign of fading. They also suggested that I sand the deep scratches down with very fine sandpaper. Fine sandpaper won't make a dent in those, and for the price of the Cube, I really don't feel I should have to be making a big indentation in it with rough paper...or actually, fixing damage at all.
If the coop were much less expensive, or if it were secondhand, I probably wouldn't be bothered about it, but at this point I'm very irritated. I haven't even started putting it together yet, and am also wondering, given that Omlet's response was so bad to clear damage, what it will be if there are more issues assembling the coop or it it turns out not to be nearly as durable as advertised. I did find, especially on Omlet's own forum, that a number of other people have had similar issues with the coop arriving super scuffed. It's partly a packing issue, as there is no protective material around any of the pieces, so they rub against each other in transit. Apparently Omlet refused to take any remedial action for these other customers either...and of course, especially for US buyers, it's practically impossible to return.
Anyway, hopefully I won't have more problems with it, but I did want to warn other potential buyers not to expect their coop to arrive in great shape, or any help from the company when it doesn't! I'm still hoping the chickens will like it better than I do.
Below is a sample of the scratches - much of the coop looks this way.
So far, though, I've been pretty upset by the Eglu experience and wondering if anyone else has had similar issues/wanting to warn potential Eglu purchasers. In the US, they only ship them to Greyhound depots, and since the boxes were too big to fit even on top of my car and I live very far from the nearest Greyhound, I had to pay someone else a small fortune to pick up the coop. I also couldn't get it in any of the colors I'd wanted, since despite their website showing them as available at the time, they apparently weren't. Still, both of these issues I was aware of when I paid for the coop. The problem was really after it arrived...extremely scuffed up, scratched and dirty. I do of course realize that a chicken coop is going to get very messy once it's used, but for the very high price of the Eglu I did expect that it would arrive in decent condition. Instead, it looks like it's been mauled by a rather annoyed creature.
I sent pictures to the people at Omlet, the manufacturers in the UK, and they've basically blown me off in a rather patronizing manner. They sent me an email ''assuring me that my coop was fine'' when it clearly isn't. According to them, the scratches will either come off with mineral spirits (they don't) and/or will fade after I've had the coop a couple of weeks. I've had it a week and no sign of fading. They also suggested that I sand the deep scratches down with very fine sandpaper. Fine sandpaper won't make a dent in those, and for the price of the Cube, I really don't feel I should have to be making a big indentation in it with rough paper...or actually, fixing damage at all.
If the coop were much less expensive, or if it were secondhand, I probably wouldn't be bothered about it, but at this point I'm very irritated. I haven't even started putting it together yet, and am also wondering, given that Omlet's response was so bad to clear damage, what it will be if there are more issues assembling the coop or it it turns out not to be nearly as durable as advertised. I did find, especially on Omlet's own forum, that a number of other people have had similar issues with the coop arriving super scuffed. It's partly a packing issue, as there is no protective material around any of the pieces, so they rub against each other in transit. Apparently Omlet refused to take any remedial action for these other customers either...and of course, especially for US buyers, it's practically impossible to return.
Anyway, hopefully I won't have more problems with it, but I did want to warn other potential buyers not to expect their coop to arrive in great shape, or any help from the company when it doesn't! I'm still hoping the chickens will like it better than I do.
Below is a sample of the scratches - much of the coop looks this way.
