Should I complain? Shipped eggs

[Wyleiria]

I ordered duck eggs on ebay on January 28th and just received them today. I was supposed to receive them on February 4th and it would have been perfect time to set them with my other eggs. The seller kept telling me took them to the post office on the 2nd. I asked for tracking and he wouldn't respond, just kept saying they were shipped and he would send me a tracking number "soon".

Today he finally gave me a tracking number. He didn't even ship the eggs until the 6th and I got them today, the 10th.

I could deal with the frustration of his bad communications and lying about the shipment date, but the way they were shipped has irritated me. The entire box was plastic wrapped, like with saran plastic wrap. So were the eggs, around bubble wrap and all the eggs were on their side. I am pretty sure they are scrambled. I haven't candled yet because I was mad. The eggs had no oxygen and were set to failure. On the listing it says to give them a couple of days to gather the best of the best eggs. These eggs are absolutely filthy. They are covered in mud, grime, poop and grass.

I have never given anyone negative feedback, but this seller has not been honest in shipping, so how can I expect anything else from him? Advise please!

 

[Spangled]

It's no fun, but what has happened to you is not out of the realm of what's going to happen sometimes and I wish it weren't so. I don't think there's a way to avoid the situation.

I think it's about expectations. You expected X and the seller expected Y and thought he/she was fulfilling the order (except for being late). But at least the eggs didn't spend days in shipping! That's a big plus.

Dirty eggs are standard and desired by some breeders. Washing ruins the eggs according to some experts and old-timers alike. I know dirty eggs can infect the incubator, the chicks, other chicks in the incubator, etc., etc., etc., but not everyone agrees.

This isn't an easy situation any way you slice it.

I've had similar things happen. And I have had people try their absolute best and do absolutely everything with integrity, even replacing a batch of eggs with a larger batch of eggs and still I only got 2 chicks hatched out of about 38 (or right around that many). And I'm not bad at hatching. One of those 2 chicks was from an egg that had a scrambled air cell, but it hatched. So I wouldn't give up on your eggs yet.

I pretty much decided to only try to hatch from shipped eggs if I had money to blow because chances are that is what I was doing ... just throwing money away. They are a often a mess when they arrive and a hatch is unlikely, but sometimes it's worth the risk.

I have had eggs shipped to me on their sides, in little indentations where the eggs could jiggle the whole time in transit, in newspaper, wrapped in plastic, etc., etc., etc. I usually only ask for shipped eggs for something rare or something I can't get elsewhere. And yeah, rare breed eggs are sometimes shipped in the least protected ways.

But I don't think shipping eggs on their sides is necessarily going to be the problem because I think the boxes are put in the truck/place whichever way they fit. The shippers don't set all boxes right site up.

I only sound sorta calm because it's been a couple years ago that I last ordered shipped hatching eggs.

You can always give him a neutral feedback. Or you could write him/her a nice letter after the eggs don't hatch asking him/her to consider adding X, Y, and Z protocols to their hatching egg delivery system in the hopes that the next customer doesn't end up with the same bad results.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Well trying to hatch shipped eggs is gambling. They pre-empt in the beginning and say there are no guaranties. I ordered eggs from ebay, they came with the aircells not in place. I don't blame the shipp-ie I blame the whole process.even under the best conditions things can go wrong, I shipped a lady for free to her some eggs from a near by farm. I live in WA she lives in FL they came in only 2 days all intact, and no loose aircells, but they still didn't hatch. Best bet, hatch local if you can.

 

[Bryam]

I would definitely complain, as the seller was dishonest! That I don't accept.:/

 

[sdm111]

I would wait a week and candle if i have some developing I would leave neutral feedback if they were all not developing I would message the seller and ask to resend x amount of eggs on his her dime or negative feedback would be sent. I ship a lot of eggs and with caring handling and packing u can have great hatches. Your eggs were mishandled it seems from the start and that's bad business IMO

 

[norcalbirds]

I agree bad business no matter if they hatch or not. I would leave negative feed back, if he wanted or cared for positive feed back he would of been more upfront and honest.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I would leave bad feedback on the shipping time alone. I have never left bad feedback either. The couple times I wasn't happy with shipping, I just didn't leave feedback, but with something like eggs, I would hold them to a higher standard. There's no excuse for the lying. If there was an honest reason for the delay he should have been up front with you in the communications instead of insisting that they were already shipped. That would be my deciding factor, he's obviously not a trustworthy seller.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Ditto, he'd be getting negative feed back from me simply for the lying. But, couple that with disgustingly dirty eggs and poor shipping practices, I'd also be sure to leave a detailed explanation as to why he got that negative feed back. There are so many honest breeders out there, and buyers need to be able to find them. Help them do that, give this guy the rating he deserves.

I am sorry about your eggs though :/ I think I would still give them a try if you don't have anything special in your Bator at the moment. If there is something important in there, I'd just scramble the shipped eggs up and feed them to my other birds.

 

[Wyleiria]

I think I am going to wait and see what other feedback he gets because he has listed many other eggs. I really hate to leave bad feedback for someone, but I would want to know as a buyer what I would be dealing with. Thanks for all the responses. We shall see what his other customers have to say!