McMurray's New Shipping Practices...has anyone heard about this?

[IggiMom]

How do you all get stuff on Sunday? Our PO is not open on Sunday, and I thought that was always the case. Guess not if people are able to get deliveries on Sunday.

I would never be able to.

Catherine

 

[cocosandy]

McMUrray hatches on Thursday and friday for ONLY saturday shipping via priority mail...its fine in your birds keep moving on sunday and get to you on tuesday, but in my case they hatched on Thursday and didnt get to me till Tuesday. That is animal abuse in my opinion.
The USPS has been fine for me in all bird shipping, but in the town where McMurray ships from they have made a rule that the birds can only go on saturday because they were messing up the post office schedule. They are one of the largest shippers of birds and apparently it is too much for their post office.
I didnt make this up, I was told on the phone and sent an email confirming it which is at the beginning of this thread.
The crazy thing is that people seem to think that if THEY got a live shipment with no problem then there is no problem....but there IS a problem in a hatchery that only ships on Saturdays. The health of the birds depends on the mail keeping moving on sundays....it doesn't always...and these are pallets and pallets of birds.....and its hot now.
So its a little odd to have so many people answer that since they got their birds live, that its fine...or its the post office's fault.
Look at the whole picture and not just your one shipment...If you were lucky, as I have been previously with McMurray, then congratulations, but if you were unlucky, and too many birds are unlucky as well, then you will be horrified to hear what they say is the truth of their new practices.
They need to sue the post office or create their own shipping hub or spread out their operation...its unacceptable to only hatch on thursdya and friday and to only ship on Saturdays if you are the largest hatchery in the country!
Most hatcheries ship in the first few days of the week and they only use overnight mail...that is because they dont do the bulk that mcmurray does....and their town post offices dont have a problem with their bulk and process.
I personally wont order from them anymore. The stress on the birds is too much. in my order of 20 chicks, all were dead but 2, and those ended up dying in the followng weeks because the stress was just too much for them.
The USPS has been great for me. and no, fedex and UPS dont ship birds..only the USPS.

 

[IggiMom]

Cocosandy, I think you make good sense.

And I, too, have had very good experiences with the USPS. I know not everyone does, but they have been good for me, with few exceptions, and I get a lot of eggs, not so many chicks, but I have gotten a number of orders of chicks, also.

Catherine

 

[Show Me Chick]

I got my order of 27 chicks from McMurray's today!!! All look very healthy.

 

[bigstack]

My local PO is Great! They called me on sunday Morning at 0500 (5am). They said I could come get my chicks any time befor 1400 (2PM). I got there ASAP and they told me to just go around to the service door on the side of the building. The lady answered the door and it was sooooo funny! She brought them over to me as if she was carrying a bomb! LOL She was Soo careful and walking very slow and gentle. I almost busted out laughing! She was so sweet! Now as for my local delivery driver......... I will just leave that unsaid!!!!!! Mostly, He actually had the gall to complain to me because HE got egg yolk on his carpet in his car!!!! I explained to him that if the Postal carriers were more careful with peoples packages then that would not happen! He got mad and sped off! We all have complained about him ever since he got the route 3 years ago. Nothing has changed! BUT the PO itself is GREAT! at least here!

Good Luck and God Bless!

P.s. It is not Mcmurrays fault, They have to abide by the rules set out by the PO just like we do!

 

[AlixS]

I ordered my chicks from Meyer Hatchery. They shipped on Monday from ohio, they we waiting for me at the post office bright and early Tuesday morning here (tampa,fl). They had really friendly customer service! Very happy with them!

 

[kla37]

I guess I was lucky when I ordered my chicks. I ordered from mypetchicken.com and they shipped on a Monday morning, and the local PO called Tuesday around noon and told me I had a "peeping package" to pick up! I have had 2 separate orders of 9 chicks each with them, and they all came alive and peeping! When I got there, they all wanted to see the chicks, and were really very nice and sweet! Glad my chicks shipped on a Monday. Seems to me that if the PO won't allow some hatcheries to ship on certain days that they could plan their hatches for Sunday night/early Monday morning to get them out ASAP after they hatch.

 

[suzannaski]

Last week I got a call from a friend at our local PO. The postman couldn't deliver 6 Wyandott chicks because the recipients weren't home, and could I take them to make sure they'd survive the night! I don't know what hatchery they came from, but the PO had called the hatchery, and they said that if the recipients didn't show up, then just keep the chicks and they'd send out new ones. (They finally found the people that night)
We live in a farming community, and our little PO gets poultry delivered all the time, so much that they know how to take care of them.

I usually buy my chicks from the bigger farmer up the road who buys them regularly. I've never mail ordered. The farmer lets me pick my chicks.

 

[woodmort]

I got my 32 chicks from McMurray's on the Tuesday after Memorial day and all were fine--still are.This is the 7th or 8th shipment I've received from them over 25 yrs and never a dead bird. Having, years ago, shipped and received tropical fish via the USPS I'm not surprised that there is a problem--I once received a shipment of tropicals where the outside of the package read "Keep Warm" and the water was frozen--the package came from Chicago and took 24hrs--fish were DOA. Apparently the problem here lies with the PO in IA, probably some supervisor with a little authority used it to make a decision that helped him. I'm sure if McMurray is getting enough flack they will try to rectify it, after all this is big business for them. The short answer is that the USPS is going to heck and, except for a few of their better workers, most of which are going to be laid off, the employee don't know the meaning of "service". Unfortunately, right now, it's all we got.

On a further note: If you want to see postal employees move fast get a shipment of bees. When I had one delivered here they called, got me out of bed and when I got to the PO the package was sitting on the dock.

 

[suzannaski]

I love it! From now on, I'm writing "Live bees" on all my packages.