Orscheln's employee LIED to me

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He is right, everyone should research breeds and basic care before buying, but as a manager who works in a store that sells live animals he should also be well aware that many more people buy animals on impulse (not saying you did this at all) with absolutely zero knowledge about what they are getting or even how to care for them than people who have researched their breeds. The employees that sell these animals are considered by many of these uneducated buyers as "authority figures" when it comes to knowledge about what they are buying and how to care for them. For an employee to tell a customer that cornish cross chicks will lay brown eggs for up to 3 years is simply appalling. I don't expect feed store employees to know "everything" about the chicks they are selling and some of the responsibility for knowing what you are buying should be on the consumer, but the employee should at least know and tell customers that cornishX are meat birds and not an appropriate breed for someone who is looking for a laying breed. You may be ok with processing your meat birds, but a lot of people who are just looking for laying breeds would not and they would then be stuck with 6 birds that will eat a lot and require special care to keep alive past 8-12 weeks if they choose not to find someone to take them who does want to process them.
 
I am sorry... we only have a TSC, but they have the 6 bird required for purchase.
They only had 4 sex-links and all the other were Columbian Rock Crosses... Eventhough, I didn't want the Columbian Rock Crosses, in order to get the sex-links... I had to get two. Both turned out to be roos
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I knew almost NOTHING before purchasing my first chicks this year... been around chickens and knew the "shortbread" (actually found out they were buff orpintons) and "dominiquer"

I have learned quickly from all of you in the past 6 weeks and now I have a sweet flock of lots of different birds (Polish, Silkie, bantam BO, NH, Partridge Rock, Sex-links, and of course my 2 Roosters
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As for where to purchase birds... I don't always feel cheaper is better.... now on other non-perishable supplies... definitely.

Good luck with the Cornish X, maybe you can find someone local willing to trade?? One of our Roos will be going to my son's German Teacher when he gets bigger (I still hold out hope it is a hen, though... even with the red comb
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Here the orscheln's employee's know what they are doing some have chickens of their own. One day there was a family in getting chicks because their son wanted to raise chickens for eggs. The little boy had picked up a white chicken the lady working asked the mom and dad do you want this meat bird they said no, the boy had picked it because it was the biggest. He asked me to help him pick another chicken. So I found him a nice looking EE and said you might be surprised what color this one lays. He was happy the mom and dad where happy. So I trust the people who work at our orscheln's tractor supply I had some really bad information given to people there this year they had the birds I wanted and 2 people working did have more knowledge then last year so I did buy 7 new chicks from them.
 
His response was that you should do research? That is lame imho. They are selling livestock and should know something about their product. I'm glad that he made good on it but it is obviously an area where they need some improvement.

Imagine going into Lowes and asking a question about a pipe fitting and getting the answer that you should have researched it before going to their store.
 
Im sure that employee didnt "LIE" to you. She probably just repeated what she was told. Ignorance on her part. For all you know, their previous order could have had egg laying white chicks.

Truthfully, you should know what you are buying. Seems we had a thread here some time ago about this same issue. Most store employees are there to ring up items, cash their minimum wage check, and go home.

When I got my cornish x chicks at Tractor Supply, there were people buying them to take home, Im sure having no idea what they were buying. Most people buying chicks think they will grow up to be egg laying hens. Often doesnt turn out that way.

It is important, when buying ANYTHING, that one does their due diligence before spending hard earned money. Impulse buying will often get you disappointed.
 
I think it is wrong of teh store manager to put it back on you to know the breed. There are hundreds of breeds of chickens and if you are new to chickens it is impossible to know every breed. My MIL just bought chicks for my kids 5 Yrs and 2 Yrs for Easter. When she asked me what to get I told her RIRs, EEs, BAs, BRs or BOs. She came home with Leghorns. She couldn't find what I had asked for so she asked the feed store employee what chicks were their best layers and told him we wanted them for eggs. If he had sent her home with CX I would have been livid not to mention my kids would have been devistated when their new pets would have had to go back to the feed store or be eaten. There is a burden of responsibility that should be places on the employee as well to at least know the basics (straight run vs pullets, meat bird vs egg layer) I am sure as they get the animals in they are told the basics and if not they probably have some kind of chart to look at to tell the difference. At the very least the manager should be educated on what they are selling.
 
I see it both ways. When investing in something, especially a live animal that will be dependent on you for its care and life, it IS important to research things out, especially the basics. However, it is also important that the employees either know the basics to help educate customers (there will be impulse buys, no matter how perfect I wish the world was!
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) and/or have humility to say "I don't know" when they are not sure of the answer. This is complicated, though, because ignorance runs rampant and employees are often given incorrect information. When I worked in a pet store the manager often used to tell us wildly incorrect information, sometimes to the point where it was dangerous either for the animal or the owner! We used to butt heads on this a lot. You also have to remember that most chain retail employees are making minimum wage (or close to it), and were offered little to no training or education in the products they sell, so there is sometimes little or no motivation to learn about these things on their own time. It bites, but it's the reality of it.
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So while I agree that that corporate, the manager, and then the employee should be educated or at least instructed to honestly say "I don't know" (this would save a lot of grief), the reality is that it is usually not the case and so the responsibility of education falls on our own shoulders... fair or not.

Regardless, I do hope you enjoy the time you have with your chickens even if they are not the ones you were hoping for!
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I agree! I expect well-informed assistance in every other store -- why am I resigned to such low performance from (in my case) TSC employees? My husband manages a technology/office supply store, and sometimes he hires people without any real background or knowledge in what they'll be selling, but they're expected to learn and to ask for help if they're asked a question they can't answer. Telling a customer who's trying to choose a new computer that he should already know everything before coming in the store is a good way to send him a mile down the road to the competition!

Yes, a customer should have some idea of what he's shopping for, but like someone else said, there are SO many kinds of chickens, and a lot of people are going to assume that the employee knows what she's talking about, especially if she's speaking as confidently as this woman apparently did. Even if the employee was given bad information, the store manager should have taken responsibility for that and not blamed the customer. My husband would be dealing with a corporate complaint if he implied that a customer was to blame for not knowing more than one of his employees.
 
You know a lot of this could have been prevented with a few well placed signs. Yes, I know chicks get mixed up and moved around, but my local feed store does a great job of placing laminated signs in the bins to identify each breed. These signs have information about sex, size, egg color, laying rate, etc. Very helpful for the customers. I know you wouldn't have purchased these chicks if the sign said meat chickens on it.
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I bought chicks forge first time this year... My local TSC was out soni drove 45 min. Away to get them! I was ESTATIC! They said they had red pullets. I had done 2 years of prior research to buying chicks, but I thought many they knew better... Which they didn't!!! Anyways I was going tog get 8, but there was only 9 so I didn't want to leave it alone all by itself in the store!!! So I got 9. He said they laid brown eggs and they were red chickens. I said are you sure , are you positive?? Because I am not driving out there for nothing! He said yes I'm positive. So there I went got my nine chicks the feed and shavings ( I already had everything els ) I found out when they were about a week old that they are light brahmas that are STRAIGHT RUN!!!!!
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..... I called and made sure they knew I wasn't happy, AT ALL! I think my mom was more mad then I was. But they said they wouldnt take them back because of laws that they have to follow. But they said they would refund me with 10 red sexlinks. Which was fine. But what do i do with all of my roe's?! A nice ladythat works there that will take all of them!
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I had to go the whole waymback out there but o well. Plus I had to get another brooder and another heat lamp, more feed more grit more treats, it ended up coasting me more than I would like, but o well more chickens are good
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I think I got all roo's but one...
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o well
 

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