Hoovers canceling orders and forcing customers to the end of the line

[saysfaa]

Maybe ask for them to make a waitlist for you or people affected this week? Even if they don't usually.

It is probably a long shot, but maybe...

 

[Socalchickens1]

And now they've blocked me on social media because I tagged them in a post where I complained about their bad customer service.
Instead, they have put up misleading information stating they are contacting customers via email about their orders. I guess technically that is true, but they are simply emailing people to tell them they are canceling all the order this week.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I placed an order through Hoover's Hatchery for shipping on February 1. They were informed by USPS on Jan 31st that they would not be able to ship. Instead of letting customer's know right away, they originally pushed my ship date out to February 2. Now I received a follow up email letting me know that they will be canceling my order and forcing us to reorder. I looked and the first available ship date is May 1.

I understand that they have challenges, but they should have just pushed everyone out instead of forcing customers this week to the end of the line. This is terrible customer service from Hoovers.

Email I received is below:

We were informed Tuesday morning that USPS would not allow us to ship orders via air freight this week due to inclement weather in Memphis, TN, which is the main shipping hub for USPS air shipments of live chicks. We at Hoover’s Hatchery made every effort this week to ship your order, but unfortunately there were not any options that would ensure the well-being of the chicks in transit.

Due to the increasing egg prices and egg shortages, we have experienced a surge in demand, causing us to be sold out all the way through the end of April (might change to May). With this in mind, we are not able to re-schedule your shipment for several months. We will be canceling your order and issuing you a full refund.

You should be receiving an email confirming the cancelation and a refund going back on the card you used to place the order. You are welcome to visit our website and re-order on the next available ship date.

Please understand that due to high call volumes, this is the most efficient way for you to reschedule your order. You are welcome to call our customer service team, but please understand that hold times have been very long and we are doing everything that we can to help our customers through this difficult time. If you wish to communicate with us, email is the most efficient way and we will answer your email as soon as we can.

We greatly appreciate your business and are very sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding during this time.


The Hoover's Hatchery Team

The canceling moving to the end of the line is very normal, especially with sold out breeds. Much easier and better businesswise to reroute one weeks of orders in the system and have those people mad than to reroute months of orders and have all of those people upset

 

[theoldchick]

The weather has caused many difficulties for hatcheries in the north. Not only can they not ship but the power outage has caused serious problems with industrial incubators. Thousands of eggs had to be discarded and thousands of chicks died. I feel your frustration but I also feel for the hatcheries who were hit by power outages. Cleaning and rebooting digital incubators will take time. I know it is inconvenient and frustrating but they are doing the best they can.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

Did I ask for them to ship chicks into a polar vortex? The issue isn't even the weather necessarily, it is the canceled USPS flights out of Memphis. Pushing back all orders is standard practice in all industries when there is a delay.
Its funny that you mention McMurray - they are actually doing exactly what I suggested and pushing orders back a week.

Me ty ers did itdifferently.they pulledchicks soldlocally .basically shut the website to zero through february and then told most people 21 days they would get their orders ( so basically setting eggs to get the orders out) honestly to me thisisprobably best way..does delay orders but just by 3 weeks and can keep shipping. With that said Hoovers supplies a huge , huge numbers to tsc, rural king and farm stores..so i suspect with chick days kicking off they cany afford to screw up those orders

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

Yeah, these hatcheries are in a hard position. The eggs were set 3 weeks ago, they did not know the polar vortex was coming. The chicks have to be shipped within 24 hours of hatching by regulations, otherwise they will probably die during shipment so they cannot be held over. So they have tens of thousands of chicks on hand and nowhere to take them. Credit to McMurray for trying to do something with some of theirs, the layers and meat birds.

Different hatcheries are handling it different ways. Hoover's is making a clean break. Cancel all orders so next week's and the weeks further down the line are not affected. McMurray's is delaying this week's shipments for a week. That means a lot of people who have orders in for next week will not get their chicks. I don't know how many weeks this will cascade down or how many customers will have their orders disrupted while this sorts itself out. Both methods are going to be disruptive.

When I order chicks I often put some eggs in the incubator so I can raise them together. I don't have the facilities so I can brood two broods at the same time so I'd have to rely on being able to integrate them successfully. Often that works but sometimes it doesn't. I've set eggs to hatch or ordered chicks so the timing coincides with other events in my life. Delaying a week or having to start over with the order are both disruptive.

Two independent small businesses chose to handle this disruption which is not their fault in two different ways. I don't consider either one poor customer service. They chose to deal with this weather related disaster in two different ways.


Actually it is the weather. Those flights would not have been cancelled if it were not for the weather.

Meyers sold thousands in a flash sale at their store.the pictureswerecrazy. It looked like Black friday sales of yesteryear they sold common/ some rare breed sexed chicks $2-3 and the ultra rare breeds for $20... they sold out over 6000 chicks that had to be picked up from the cincinatti airport in just under 2 days

They gave the option of refund or ship in 3 weeks

 

[3KillerBs]

And now they've blocked me on social media because I tagged them in a post where I complained about their bad customer service.
Instead, they have put up misleading information stating they are contacting customers via email about their orders. I guess technically that is true, but they are simply emailing people to tell them they are canceling all the order this week.

These are live animals, not products that can be rushed by hiring temp workers and making employees work mandatory overtime on the production line.

When we CHOOSE to order chicks in the winter we CHOOSE to accept the risk of weather problems.

Which is why I didn't order any chicks at this time of year -- because even though my prefered hatchery, Ideal, is in Texas and I live in the south I knew that there could be problems in transit if storms struck.

 

[Socalchickens1]

When we CHOOSE to order chicks in the winter we CHOOSE to accept the risk of weather problems.

Again, I understand there can be problems. There are tons of things that happen in any industry, including this one. I'm not complaining about there being problems. I'm complaining about how they are resolving and handling those problems.

 

[Hopin]

I was going to put up a thread about my winter chick experience, but I'll just share it here.
I ordered from McMurray to be delivered week of Jan 16th. 25 chicks shipped, only 7 made the trip! They offered me several options, but to get the breed I wanted would be end of April! I finally opted on a refund and seeing what the feed store would have soon. A week later I got 6 more so I have chicks a week apart in the same brooder. I'm brooding them outdoors in a coop with heat lamps, dry and ventilated. Then we catch the ice storm! I've been on pins and needles with a contingency plan in the event of a power failure! Fortunately we didn't have power outages and the chicks are thriving. I live about 2 hours north of Memphis and they got slammed! We had treacherous roads, but missed the heavy freezing rain for the most part. I wanted to get the jump on my chicken project, but told my wife I'd never order chicks in winter again! There is just too much that can go wrong!
I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hoovers had the choice of bad options. At least they forthrightly issued refunds, rather than "credits".