- Jan 14, 2009
- 18
- 1
- 24
I had written a long, angry rant but decided to abbreviate for the sake of time.
McMurray has the worst customer service of any hatchery (or livestock vendor in general) that I have EVER had the misfortune to deal with. Having talked to two separate people there today, I can safely assume that it isn't an individual person, but a systemic corporate culture of folksiness that actually turns out to be stupidity when you dig deep enough. Conversation:
K: "Hi! I was trying to place an order earlier, but there was a problem with my card, so I'm trying to have a friend of..."
M: "How do you spell your last name?"
K: "H _ _ _ _ _ _. But I didn't place an order earlier. What I'm..."
M: "Kate?"
K: "Yes. But like I said, I didn't place an..."
M: "What's your zip code?"
K: "4 _ _ _ _. Okay, please listen. I didn't end up placing an order earlier. I was trying to order Cayuga...
M: "There isn't anything in your shopping cart."
K: "Perfect. Great. As it should be. Please listen, I don't think you're hearing me. When I tried to place my order earlier, there were Toulouse..."
M: "There are notes here. It looks like your card was declined."
***At this point I'm starting to get a little annoyed. Why is she interrupting me like this?***
K: "Right. So I'm trying to have a friend of mine place the same order..."
M: "On a different card?"
K: "Okay. Please listen to me. I'm not calling about payment terms. When I called earlier, there were still geese available to be shipped the week-..."
M: "Your card has a hold placed on it at your bank. You need to call your bank."
***Already taken care of, no problem at my bank, roughly $4,000 in my account, more than enough for my $105 order, but the bank had no record of any attempt to charge it. Also bought some electronic rodent deterrents from Amazon in the interim, no problem there either.***
K: "Okay, PLEASE JUST STOP AND LISTEN TO ME. I am NOT calling about my card. The geese that I tried to order this morning are no longer available on the website, and I wanted..."
M: "We have geese available on our website."
K: "Okay, but I'm looking for 2 female Toulouse geese. Earlier it said that there were 24 available, but now there aren't any. What I want to know..."
M: "The website has the latest availability. If they aren't shown as available, you can check back."
K: "But it shows that there aren't any more females this ye...
M: "Birds are sold first-come, first-serve."
K: "Can I talk to your supervisor?" <--- The ONLY TIME SHE DIDN'T INTERRUPT ME.
M: "With pleasure. Hang on."
***So I sit, and wait. Now, I'm p____d. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this woman?***
M: "I just spoke with the president of the company and he says birds are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis."
K: "I'd like to hear that from him."
M: (Condescending, I've told you this a thousand times tone) "Ma'am, he specifically told me to tell you that birds are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm afraid there's nothing else I can do for you. You really need to be talking to your bank about this."
So, per her patient and thorough instructions, I called up my friendly banker Janice and asked for 2 Toulouse geese. She had a good chuckle, but as it turned out, I really needed a simple, straight answer from the hatchery.
My question for their customer service was: "Since there are still straight run geese available in June, is there any way I can pay for 4 of them and have you sex them and send me the females?" Honestly, if the answer was yes, they would have had my order. If the answer was no, I would have ordered 4 straight run geese anyway and just sold the goslings on craigslist. The fact that this rude, oblivious, rude, condescending, rude, incompetent, and did I mention RUDE woman wouldn't even get out of her tunnel-vision existence long enough to let me ask the question is what made me so angry.
I will never, EVER order from that hatchery. Not if I live to be a hundred and they have the last heritage waterfowl stock on the planet. I'd rather have a Thanksgiving pigeon than ever deal with such a ridiculous level of willful incompetence and stupidity.
This is no reflection on the quality of their birds, which I have obviously never seen. However, another hatchery in Iowa told me that if Metzer was out of Toulouse, then of course McMurray was because that's where they got their birds. So for my money, I'll just skip the ridiculous and aggravating middle man next year and just order my birds from Metzer.
McMurray has the worst customer service of any hatchery (or livestock vendor in general) that I have EVER had the misfortune to deal with. Having talked to two separate people there today, I can safely assume that it isn't an individual person, but a systemic corporate culture of folksiness that actually turns out to be stupidity when you dig deep enough. Conversation:
K: "Hi! I was trying to place an order earlier, but there was a problem with my card, so I'm trying to have a friend of..."
M: "How do you spell your last name?"
K: "H _ _ _ _ _ _. But I didn't place an order earlier. What I'm..."
M: "Kate?"
K: "Yes. But like I said, I didn't place an..."
M: "What's your zip code?"
K: "4 _ _ _ _. Okay, please listen. I didn't end up placing an order earlier. I was trying to order Cayuga...
M: "There isn't anything in your shopping cart."
K: "Perfect. Great. As it should be. Please listen, I don't think you're hearing me. When I tried to place my order earlier, there were Toulouse..."
M: "There are notes here. It looks like your card was declined."
***At this point I'm starting to get a little annoyed. Why is she interrupting me like this?***
K: "Right. So I'm trying to have a friend of mine place the same order..."
M: "On a different card?"
K: "Okay. Please listen to me. I'm not calling about payment terms. When I called earlier, there were still geese available to be shipped the week-..."
M: "Your card has a hold placed on it at your bank. You need to call your bank."
***Already taken care of, no problem at my bank, roughly $4,000 in my account, more than enough for my $105 order, but the bank had no record of any attempt to charge it. Also bought some electronic rodent deterrents from Amazon in the interim, no problem there either.***
K: "Okay, PLEASE JUST STOP AND LISTEN TO ME. I am NOT calling about my card. The geese that I tried to order this morning are no longer available on the website, and I wanted..."
M: "We have geese available on our website."
K: "Okay, but I'm looking for 2 female Toulouse geese. Earlier it said that there were 24 available, but now there aren't any. What I want to know..."
M: "The website has the latest availability. If they aren't shown as available, you can check back."
K: "But it shows that there aren't any more females this ye...
M: "Birds are sold first-come, first-serve."
K: "Can I talk to your supervisor?" <--- The ONLY TIME SHE DIDN'T INTERRUPT ME.
M: "With pleasure. Hang on."
***So I sit, and wait. Now, I'm p____d. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this woman?***
M: "I just spoke with the president of the company and he says birds are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis."
K: "I'd like to hear that from him."
M: (Condescending, I've told you this a thousand times tone) "Ma'am, he specifically told me to tell you that birds are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm afraid there's nothing else I can do for you. You really need to be talking to your bank about this."
So, per her patient and thorough instructions, I called up my friendly banker Janice and asked for 2 Toulouse geese. She had a good chuckle, but as it turned out, I really needed a simple, straight answer from the hatchery.
My question for their customer service was: "Since there are still straight run geese available in June, is there any way I can pay for 4 of them and have you sex them and send me the females?" Honestly, if the answer was yes, they would have had my order. If the answer was no, I would have ordered 4 straight run geese anyway and just sold the goslings on craigslist. The fact that this rude, oblivious, rude, condescending, rude, incompetent, and did I mention RUDE woman wouldn't even get out of her tunnel-vision existence long enough to let me ask the question is what made me so angry.
I will never, EVER order from that hatchery. Not if I live to be a hundred and they have the last heritage waterfowl stock on the planet. I'd rather have a Thanksgiving pigeon than ever deal with such a ridiculous level of willful incompetence and stupidity.
This is no reflection on the quality of their birds, which I have obviously never seen. However, another hatchery in Iowa told me that if Metzer was out of Toulouse, then of course McMurray was because that's where they got their birds. So for my money, I'll just skip the ridiculous and aggravating middle man next year and just order my birds from Metzer.
