Estes Hatchery Made Good! UPDATE***CHICKS ARE HERE***

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Well, something really interesting and GREAT happened.
I woke up on Friday morning and came to check my e-mails with a cup of coffee in my hands and found this e-mail from Estes Hatchery:

Hi Jenna,
Let me start off by saying that I am very sorry that you have had problems with your Salmon Faverolle baby chicks. Also, I am sorry that you were not satisfied with the help that was given to you over the telephone. It has always been our policy to replace chicks that our customers have lost, if it is in a reasonable time limit as to when they were shipped to you. However, if in fact the chicks were in anyway stressed or damaged in shipping it is possible that it could weaken their systems to where they might not ever grow or thrive correctly. If they are in this condition, they just waste away slowly. And that could be what has happened in your case. We have several new office employees that do not know all the exact answers to chicken health issues. They know to replace losses in shipment right after the fact but, with this situation they probably didn't know what to do. But, I assure you that they will hear about your issues again. Your telephone call should have been referred to an owner or a manager that could have better answered your questions and would have fixed any problems that you had. I wish that I personally could take every order and every telephone call that comes in so, that these miscommunications would never happen. But, I can't so, we have to have help. What I can do though is one of three things. 1) I can ship you replacement Salmon Faverolle pullets on June the 17th. (This is our last hatch on those for the season) 2) I can give you credit on your card for all of the SO. Fad. pullets you purchased or we can send you anything that we hatch for the amount you paid for your SO. Fad. Please know that all of our customers are very important to us. But, I was not given all of the information in your case to help until right now. I want to make this right for you if you will let me. I will send enough extra's to compensate for your feed expense as well. Thank you for your time and if you don't respond, we will credit your account for the lost chicks. If you would email us with any problems tor concerns that you have, I personally take care of all communications in that way.

Sincerely,

Judy Estes Keitzer
Managing Member
Estes Hatchery LLC


I am STOKED! New fluffy butts coming!!!

I wasn't even looking for replacement chicks but was simply trying to alert the company of my misfortune in case something was amiss. I cannot believe how nice she was. I wish I talked to her from the get-go.

 

[chickens4me]

That's great! I love the look of the SF.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I would have been so happy with just an e-mail saying they were sorry but when I got to the part about offering replacement chicks I literally started crying.
It was just such an emotional loss watching them die like that when you waited so long for them and saved up your egg money to buy them.
I will be being extra careful with these chicks now that I hear about the breed being delicate and I will keep them brooding and seperated until I am sure they are robust healthy teenage chickens.
I cannot wait to get them.
I even responded and asked if they would please put in one or two rooster chicks because while I ordered all pullets last time, I got two roos in my 16 chicks and I LOVED them and decided to keep them. I was more heartbroken when they died than for the others and she said they would certainly give me a couple of roos!

So Happy!
I am so blessed to have a second chance to raise the birds I want. There is no way I could have afforded to replace them until next spring and with my egg orders far exceeding the amount of hens I had, I needed another 30 chicks to make the eggs I need to sell. I ordered 33 from Estes and I lost about half, so I was in a panic.
So thankful!

 

[TennesseeTruly]

THAT'S what I call customer service!! I'm sorry for everything that you went through but I'm glad that someone in charge was not only alerted to what happened but went above and beyond to help you resolve it.

Good luck with your new fluffy butts and please make sure you post lots of pics.

Estes is okay in my book now!

Laurie

 

[Mrs MIA]

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Hooray for Estes Hatchery! We love good customer service!

I'm glad you contacted them about both the problems with the chicks and with the treatment you received from their representative. And I'm even more happy to hear how wonderfully this company responded. Someone there is doing her best to keep up the good reputation of her family's name & hatchery.

It must be difficult these days, with so many people (not you, PineBurrowPeeps) trying to blame everyone else for problems they may have caused, failing to accept responsibility for their actions. Which is why step stools have warning labels pasted all over them, packets of peanuts have to be marked "warning, contains peanuts". I imagine there are folks calling hatcheries and trying to get refunds for chicks they've pulled out of their cat's mouth.

So it's refreshing to hear of a company that truly listens to their customers, that accepts responsibility for problems, that acknowledges mistakes, and is so willing to make things right with a dissatisfied customer.

I pray for outstanding success for you with these new SF chicks, may they arrive alive & healthy, grow vigorously, and delight you for many many years!

 

[Auntbeast]

Congrats on the situation being resolved in a way that makes you more than satisfied. It is also a great thing that you were so proactive since it is the end of the hatching season, you are getting some from their last batch of the year.

I have dealt with the public enough to know the customer isn't always right, however, reading your post and seeing your post count indicates to me you might have a better clue than a lot of people. Heck, I'm almost completely clueless and my chicks are still alive (so is my daughter for that matter)

The fact that you were nice probably had a lot to do with it. I know I always tried to help the nice people more. That is probably why they are going above AND beyond your expectations.


We expect pics you know.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

No words...

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Oh and sure, I will take pics!

 

[Opa]

I have stated before and I will state it again, Estes is a top notch hatchery.