I can't believe she did that!!! What would you do?

[wombat]

That sounds like a good idea, if they'll take the feed back.

 

[citrusdreams]

Well, you have a few choices IMOHO:

I would simply tell her that the feed is not appropriate and I would say specifically why. Then I would accept the two bags of feed since you agreed to get two bags to try. And then I'd ask her to return the other eight bags. Then I would make it clear to her that there would be no more bartering in the future. It just complicates things. If you're gong to barter, you need more information about the items being bartered and they should have equal value.

OR, You can also ask her for the receipt and return all of them, that way, it's a wash. Then I would make it clear to her that there would be no more bartering in the future.

OR, you can just suck it up and accept the ten bags and make sure it is crystal-clear to her that there would be no more bartering in the future.

If you think for a second she will ask you to reimburse you for the ten bags, I would load them back onto her truck and have her return them. I would not pay for an acceptable product.


I'm sure her intentions were honorable (or maybe not, after all, I don't know her), but she probably thought she could bring down your expenses. Sometimes cheaper products work and sometimes they don't. But both parties have to agree on the value of the bartered items. It's not something one person can just take upon themselves to decide.

And in the future, I would not have anyone get anything for you "to try". If you were to exchange goods for feed, I'd give the potential barter a copy of acceptable feed with item numbers and no negotiations. I would never try anything new in trade, you just never know what you'll get. And frankly, it could be gold, but if you don't find it acceptable, it's not worth the paper it was bagged in.

We, as our animals' caregivers, are very particular about what we want for our livestock/pets. Whether it's feed, medications, supplies, whatever, we should get what we use, not what's cheaper for someone else. I know someone who used to borrow stuff from me and then replace it with a cheaper product. After third time, when the person asked if she could borrow something and replace it, I specifically told her that I wanted THAT specific item to replace the ones she borrowed. She doesn't ask anymore. I also know someone who swears by a particular feed for her animals, and she and her animals love it. But when I tried a bag, I had to feed it to the chickens because no one else would eat it. It works for her, didn't work for me. That just happens.

Let us know what you decide, and good luck

 

[kuntrygirl]

Thanks to all who replied. Here is an update.

I haven't talked with the lady yet. I fell asleep at 7pm last night and wasn't able to call her. But to update you all about the feed and how my chickens are responding to the feed. Out of curiosity, I put some feed in the feeders for the chickens and they pecked at a few pieces, turned their heads and walked away. I have over 100 chickens, so the quality of food that I feed to all of my animals is very important. After reading reviews about the feed, reading and researching the ingredients and noticing the EXTRA LARGE size pellets, I knew that this feed was NOT going to work but I tried it anyway. I guess I tried it so that I could honestly tell the lady that the chickens did not like the feed.

Well, I called the feed store where she purchased the feed and explained to them the problem. Their policy is that they DO NOT accept returns and they do not do exchanges BUT being as though my situation was an isolated case, they would accept all of the feed back and exchange it for whatever I need. When the lady told me that, I felt totally relieved. So, I will bring back all of the feed (except the opened bag) and get the type of feed that I use.

Being as though, they will exchange the feed, I don't think that I will tell the lady anything. But I will mention to her that the chickens did NOT like the feed and that she should not purchase any feed for me in the future. I will write off what she owes being as though I will get another type of feed. I will put this in the past and move on but I have learned a few lessons from this.

Lessons Learned:
1. DO NOT allow anyone to buy feed for me.
2. Do not extend credit to customers.
3. Do not barter. I'm just not good at knowing "what's equal value".

 

[HEChicken]

Thanks for the update. I guess we're all entitled to a few mistakes along the way. Thanks for sharing your experience so that others can learn from yours. It can be hard not to be "talked into" something, especially when it is someone we know well, but I like your idea of just not extending credit to anyone. I hope that won't cause any problems with this particular customer in the future, since she is used to getting eggs on credit.

 

[citrusdreams]

That's excellent, that worked out well for you. It avoided any anxiety and sounds like it was really easy. I'm glad the feed store worked with you.

I know you're getting an even exhange moneywise, but I'm wondering, did the feed you regularly get cost as much as the feed your customer was suggesting? How far off was the price difference? Did you end up with nine bags of your own feed?

I don't think you're bad at bartering, you're just not used to it. Everything we do better is because we didn't do it as well the time before. If you want to consider a barter for feed in the future, maybe get them to bring you an ingredients tag and a price first, then set up the specific arrangement as it applies to you. If she would have just picked up your regular feed, it would have saved you a trip. Sometimes when I don't have a truck available, I'd love it for someone to send me feed

And when someone asks me if they can purchase feed for something I have (milk, eggs, whatever), I tell *them* what to get and where and don't give them options.

 

[greathorse]

Perfect, for the thirty bucks I would avoid all the hasslle with the neighbor possible. No more feed and back to the old ways is a good solution

 

[Julie08]

thats great.

 

[cmjust0]

I'm glad it all worked out so nicely.. I don't think you could have found a better solution than this....now the trick is to make sure she didn't think the whole deal was a rousing success, or you may wind up swapping out A LOT of feed.

To that end...as I was reading through all the advice to sorta come down a bit on the customer, I kept thinking...yikes...if she's buying 15doz at a time, I might just eat the one-time miscommunication and tell her later how unfortunate it was that my silly chickens had the gall to turn their beaks up at the feed, and that I was really disappointed it didn't work out better because being able to use $4 feed sure would have been nice, blah blah blah.. I'd probably even throw in a "But hey, at least now you know I won't be troubling you to haul more of it out to me all the time, right?" for good measure.

And...just for what it's worth...some of you hard-liners might consider taking a business writing class down at your local community college. It's basically a BS class, where you learn to turn negatives into positives and make people feel good about getting shafted.

Like my bank did to me recently by offering a new "service," whereby instead of refusing purchases if account funds were too low, they's just spot me up to $500 for a minor fee of $39. Though I'm fairly well versed in that kind of stuff, it honestly took me a minute to figure out that what they'd just done was handed me a new rope with which I could hang myself.

 

[wombat]

And...just for what it's worth...some of you hard-liners might consider taking a business writing class down at your local community college. It's basically a BS class, where you learn to turn negatives into positives and make people feel good about getting shafted.

I know a lot of people in sales through the course of my work. None of them are friends, though they like to act like they are. They've all had that same business course you speak of, and I know the relationship runs only as deep as my employer's wallet. One of my duties is negotiating contracts, and I love making them squeal.​