Small Hatchery Seeking Advice...

[Chicken Hill Freedom Farm]

Our small farm, which is brand new to mailing out chicken and duck eggs (through etsy) is having an issue with a certifiable crazy person who basically ran around Facebook and other online chicken groups bad mouthing our services with false statements.

We are working with the US Postal Inspector to figure out what occurred, and we are in the process of refunding the cost for 6 of the eggs that were damaged during shipping.

A little background info...

Now, I don't use the phrase "certifiable crazy person" lightly. Long story short, this customer ran around the internet claiming that we shipped eggs out in a envelope wrapped in a T-Shirt and that we purposefully smashed her eggs before mailing them out, she did all of this hours before even letting us know that there was a problem. She only reached out to us after she had slandered our farm name every where she could possibly slander it.

Regarding the packing of the eggs, she is claiming on Facebook that they were wrapped in a shirt and mailed in an envelope is false.. this is not true. The eggs were individually wrapped, packed in 3 layers of packing materials as suggested by the USPS and other egg sellers on Etsy, and at the customers request we placed the egg shipping carton inside of an extra padded envelope and wrapped it in a shirt because the customer was worried that the eggs would freeze, and then it was sealed safely in a USPS Large flat rate box. We are in Florida and they are a few miles from the Canadian border in Washington State (over 3,000 miles away), had we shipped out broken eggs, or had the eggs broke while in Florida (they sat in a USPS Tampa warehouse for 2 days before catching their flight to Seattle) they would had rotted and leaked through the package long before reaching their destination. It has been hot in Florida lately and broken eggs in a hot USPS Florida warehouse would quickly develop an odor.

Somehow the box arrived in upstate Washington State, in perfect condition, and only 6 eggs were broken, with the other 6 being in perfect condition. This doesn't make sense to us or the US Postal Inspector, especially given that they were broken on the side and not on the top. The only way they could have been broken on the side is if the box was smashed and the box was fine.

Okay, we have a no refund policy, but decided to refund her the cost of the 6 broken eggs anyway. Despite this, the customer is still running around posting lies everywhere she can, actively urging people to not do business with us.

My question to you all here, is what recourse do we have?

So far we have refunded her the cost of the broken eggs, filed a harassment claim with Etsy, essentially gave an affidavit to the US Postal Inspector, and are working with Facebook (actually got someone on the phone) to go through the process of removing her posts there.

Has anyone ever dealt with a crazy customer like this?

Any suggestions would be very appreciative regarding what we should do next. We have dealt with tough customers before, but never one like this.

I would also like to see if anyone has any idea as to how these eggs could have been smashed inside of a perfectly intact box, as if someone squeezed them with their finger, while the other eggs are fine. This does not add up at all, which makes us believe that there is some mail fraud at foot.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I sold clothes on Ebay and had some great experiences, but just a couple bad ones made me not want to sell there anymore. One of my bad ones was a lady ordered a sparkly top, which was nice enough for me to keep, but I sold it. She received it, and I had even bonused a second sparkly top so she got 2 for one. both cute, she wrote back and said she LOVED them both. You would think that would be the end right? Later she said, she wanted a refund because it didn't fit, even though it was sold as small and I said no refund. She got mad because I didn't refund, then complained to ebay saying she machine washed a sequin top and it fell apart. They did not refund her. Some people just like drama, and free stuff.

Sorry you are going through what you are going through.

 

[Sally PB]

Something I do is when I send the tracking number I usually take a picture of the package with the label on it

I used to work in shipping and some things were large and fragile. I learned to take pictures (cell phones are such wonderful things) of every stage of the packaging. The item wrapped in bubble wrap. The box/crate with foam blocks to stabilize. The final box with label and tracking number. We even got special "shock" stickers to put on some things when UPS was damaging a lot of stuff. Were I ever to ship eggs, that's what I would do, and send an email notification of "item has shipped" with those images attached.

I don't know what OP can do, legally, about this customer. The great thing about the internet and social media is that you can find out a lot of stuff quickly and easily. The bad thing about it is that there's no way to tell what's true or false as quickly and easily.

 

[MissMonty]

Out of curiosity, I looked up your Etsy page and see the review you reference. From a customer perspective, I think your response is good through the sentence about the postal inspector. Scolding her about professionalism, as much as she may deserve it, reads as defensive. It would give me pause. I do note the excellent review that follows, so that is helpful. I think your FB page is good--fun, positive. I hope your business does well!

Kind of going along with this, I read reviews as well. A bad/negative review will not automatically turn me away from a seller. Things that will turn me away is review trends, so if you have multiple negative reviews saying similar things. Or seeing how someone responds to a review. Things happen we are all human but for me as a buyer what is more important than the negative review is how the seller handled the review. Don't get in the mud and start slinging like the buyer, keep it professional and personally I'd likely over look a single negative review.

I also went and looked at the review. It probably would have been best to stop before the professionalism piece. The rest of the response was golden and exactly what I'd like to see as a buyer.

You never want customers to worry that if something does go wrong they'll get attacked over it back.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

She may have broken some on purpose. Were they regular eggs or expensive eggs? She may have been hoping to get a refund for all of the eggs, not just the broken ones

 

[MysteryChicken]

I gave a BYC member some eggs(Was a friend of mine), & he was supposed to let me know if they all hatched, but all I got was silent treatment, cuz apparently he's ignoring me for a reason I don't know. They were free eggs. I was trying to be nice because they wanted more silkies.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I always let people I get eggs from know how many hatched. Doesn't affect my reviews because I know not to expect 100%, but i know I would want to know how my eggs did for someone else hatching

I gave a BYC member some eggs(Was a friend of mine), & he was supposed to let me know if they all hatched, but all I got was silent treatment, cuz apparently he's ignoring me for a reason I don't know. They were free eggs. I was trying to be nice because they wanted more silkies.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I always let people I get eggs from know how many hatched. Doesn't affect my reviews because I know not to expect 100%, but i know I would want to know how my eggs did for someone else hatching

That's all I wanted to know, is how the hatch was. I don't understand why I was being ignored. It's frustrating when people decide to be rude.

 

[Araucana Nest]

I will be shipping eggs starting this spring and this is a concern for me. The distance you shipped and the season - especially for the buyer- is an immediate red flag. I wouldn't have shipped 3000 miles to a northern location in the cold weather. That said, I will only be shipping to the eastern half of the U.S. (I'm in Florida too). I was burned by an Etsy seller this year and had to file a dispute to have the money refunded from a seller who did not communicate at all and missed the final delivery date by 10 days. she did finally send eggs but none of them developed. Going by her silence to my emails, even after I filed the dispute, I'm guessing she decided to send something but not necessarily what I purchased. I say this because there is a reason to be suspicious on both sides of the equation and with the booming popularity of chickens, I suspect there will be many more problems this coming year. So my advice is to refund her money minus shipping and to be sure that your ordering/ shipping policy clearly reflects the hazards of shipping eggs and that the risk is the buyer's risk. I ask that you reconsider selling eggs to buyers on the other side of the continent. This could have been a set up- like someone said - premeditated. Her reaction is clearly over the top. And know this will pass. The Online community has an incredibly short memory. Best wishes with your new business. May you have a blessed and prosperous and healthy New Year.

 

[JedJackson]

Is she worth the hassle? Send a refund, and never allow her to buy from you again. That type of person is a scammer, and she will waste a lot of your time and money if you let her.

Yes, it is galling, but you have to remember that it is only a few lost dollars. That woman has to live for the rest of her life being who she is, and let that be a consolation.