Help with Unscrupulous Seller

[LunarRyou]

I found this woman through Craigslist (stupid of me) and bought eight chickens from her on the understanding they'd be hens. Three or four actually turned out to be girls, I lost a lot during a fox attack so now I only have one laying hen, a suspected hen and three confirmed roos. When I bought from her, she said if any of them turned out to be boys, to bring them back and she'd exchange them.
So when they started crowing, I found her on facebook, contacted her and we chatted for a bit. She said lots of people had this problem, there had been a big mix-up at the hatchery. She seemed nice, said I could bring them back (she'd cull them, yeep) and give me new chicks in the Spring. I asked her to give me a bit of time to figure out which boys I wanted to get rid of and she agreed to it, said to take as much time as I needed.
A while later, after I had to isolate my laying girl from the hormonal boys, my mother called her to ask if we could find them homes would she still give us the new chicks. In our talks earlier she had stated she wasn't going to bring them back to the hatchery, since she didn't really consider the refund worth the trouble and I was kind of distressed at the idea of these boys being killed. They are jerks sometimes but, we've all been through a lot together.
Anyway, she was very rude to my mother, said she had never said anything of the sort and would not give us new chicks come Spring. I figured, it was just a misunderstanding, I sent her an e-mail that night, copying and pasting our conversation from facebook, the things she had said and told her could look at that same conversation on her own facebook page. She has never responded, that was about a month or so ago, I gave her time because I know sometimes I don't check my e-mail as often as I should.

What do I do? This is my first time buying from a farm, not exactly a glowing experience so I'm just, really unsure of how to proceed.

Also, does anyone know reputable people in Connecticut? I still need more hens. Thanks.

Edit: Just for clarification, we didn't demand to be able to keep the roosters. We only asked if she would mind that, since as she had said in our conversations on facebook that she had many dead roosters from other customers. She didn't seem to care too much about the bodies, and if she didn't care, we thought it might, possibly be okay to keep them. All we did was ask, and what she said wasn't "No, I want the roosters", it was "No, I never said I would ever exchange anything with you, ever".
Even though she said she would exchange them, both when they were purchased and when I contacted her on facebook, she denied having ever said that. If she had said she couldn't exchange them, or she wanted the roosters, I'd have understood and accepted that.

 

[CountryMom]

I realize you are thinking of them more as pets, but I am sure she is thinking of them as merchandise if this is her business. If it were a store selling a product they would expect a return of the original item for exchange. They normally wouldn't just give you a new item for nothing because you didn't like the original one. That is all I can think of in her thinking.

It would upset me if I sold off say one of my guinea pigs to a home that decided they didn't like it and wanted a different one, but decided to give away the original without returning it for exchange (if that was the original deal.) Then come to me expecting a new one for free. What she does with the original roos should be her business....meaning cull them to freezer camp.... if you exchange them. If not maybe cut your losses and go else where.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

I had a very similiar problem.
Was told, (should have gotten it in writing) that if they were not going to work well, they would take them back.
Hah!!! THey knew full well what they passed off to me, and had no intention of making it right!
Best thing to do?
Raise the roos to stew pot age, enjoy them, buy hens elsewhere, and if anyone askes if she is a good person to buy from, say no!

 

[prov31gal]

im going to have to agree here with the poster above, i send my excess roos to the refridgerator, and thats really pretty standard with chickens, if she wants to replace after you return the roos, that asounds fine, they would be hers and she has every right to put them in the pot. you cant keep them and want new.
but, if the problem is that you are now willing to return the roos for the exchange and she is no longer honoring her agreement to do that, then you have a problem, harrass her till she responds, go to her house with the birds and a printout of your correspondance. or...just try one more time, then give up and make chicken soup and order new babies from a hatchery where you can be more sure of what you are getting, sex wise, you can just order pullets from most places. like cackle or ideal.

 

[LunarRyou]

Yeah, we just figured we'd ask her whether or not she'd be okay with us keeping them or finding a home for them, since she has a LOT of dead roosters from other customers of hers. Worst we figured she'd just say, "no I'm gonna need them back for the exchange", then I'd have said sorry to the boys and sent some off.
She's just straight out lying though and ignoring me. I guess, I'll try contacting her a couple more times. If nothing comes of it I'll either drive down there if the truck is in good enough shape or, sigh and shrug my shoulders.
I hope it's okay for me to say this: if I'm gonna warn people about her, might as well start now. She runs Pisgahview Acres in CT. I shoulda known things were gonna go downhill when I tried searching for info and couldn't find ANYTHING related to that farm.
I have definitely learned my lesson though, I am going to get chicks from well established hatcheries from now on.

We're...huggy-feely kinda people I guess, (when it comes to animals) so I doubt we'll be having roo stew. They'll prolly just grow old in a separate pen and house. From what I've seen and heard, they get along fairly well as long as they're isolated from the girls.
Thanks for the advice

 

[pascopol]

According to your first post the seller agrreed to exchange roos for hens, meaning you needed to give her back the roos in order to get replacement hens correct?

And then you asked for more time "to figure out which boys you wanted to get rid of" right? So after all you wanted to keep some roosters correct?

Then your mother called her asking for replacement hens without giving her back the roosters right?


She refused? I would refuse too.

That was you who tried to change the terms of the agreement not her, by delaying rooster exchange and then demanding hens without giving back the roosters.

Why would you want to "rehome" roosters instead of exchanging them as originally agreed?

Don't you get it?

 

[redhen]

you agreed to return the roos in exchange for more hens... thats what you need to do. or keep the roos and drop it.

 

[prov31gal]

maybe i am confused now.................were you trying to keep the roos and still get hens? its kind of unclear now that i go back and look. did she know you were willing to exchange? if she is not answering you it may be because you want to keep roos AND get hens. i would be upset too if it were my own chicken business.
so it it that you were willing to exchange and she renigged........or was it that you wanted to keep the product and get more too ?

 

[greathorse]

I think one needs to realize that chickens are a relatively inexpensive thing to purchase and the profit that one makes from selling them is zero most of the time. If I buy a 10,000 dollar horse with all sorts of promises and it doesnt work out that is one thing. A few dollars for a chicken and folks want to niggle away at details and so on and so on. It is transactions like this that go on forever that will make it difficult for any of us to sell chickens.

I represent them the best way i know how, and when they are gone they are gone. I did sell a woman a few Marans recently and she paid a pretty good price for them. I told her that if none of the four turned out to be pullets that I wanted nothing back but I would give her one of mine as soon as she could tell what they were. I dont want the rooster back I just want her to have at least one pullet. I dont want to spend a bunch of time and energy fussing, calling and emailing about the matter either.

 

[Vanessabuffsnsilkies]

I bought 15 straight run Buff Orphington chicks from a woman on Craigslist and they were all roos. "Fry pan special"
Then after that I bought 4 "pullets" for 7.00 ea from another guy on Craigslist and one by one started crowing. Now, the chicks I can somewhat understand. But to sell 15wk old pullets at that price they had better be what you say they are. Needless to say I sent him a STRONGLY worded email.
There are some honest people who sell on Craigslist believe it or not you just have to be careful.