Chicken Hill Freedom Farm
In the Brooder
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.
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.
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