Thoughts? Sold hatching eggs, customer.. Update: We have babies! lol.

[cluckcluck42]

I posted an ad locally to sell some hatching eggs, mostly just to see if there was a demand for it and if we should consider pursuing it. We arranged to sell a dozen EE eggs plus a dozen brown eggs to this gentleman. Well, we sold him the eggs and gave them to him on Sunday March 7th at 6pm. He emails me yesterday saying simply "Guess how many chicks I got? Not one." And that is it. So of course, not adding the dates up yet, I am in a tizzy. Of course he is suggesting it is my fault, but I check fertility constantly and have never seen an infertile EE egg. We also sold him two dozen brown eggs. I told him that I cannot guarantee the fertility in all the brown eggs because there are a few hens that wont take the rooster. So because of this I included an extra 6 EE eggs. All were collected in a timely manner, none were dirty (I do not wash eggs). I have had a successful hatch with eggs I collected right before getting him his eggs. Also I only charged 30 dollars for all the eggs.


Well- So then I do the math about the dates... the eggs are not due to hatch until tomorrow. Tomorrow would be day 21. So... unless he candled the eggs and found them all clear, there is no way to know if they did not hatch. And if he had candled them and found them all clear, why wouldnt he have said that? Also the EE shells are kinda tricky to see through, only one of my flashlights is good enough to see through them.

What do I do? I emailed him back politely explaining that they are not due to hatch til tomorrow and sometimes they take up to 23 days. I asked him how incubation has gone so far, hoping he can fill me in if he is experienced or not. I have no idea how experienced he is with chickens, I do know it is a brand new incubator he just got and its a Hovabator so it *could* be his first but who knows, that is just speculation. I wanted to ask him if he was turning the eggs, what his temps were, if he had stopped turning at 18 days, but then I dont want to insult him if he knows what he is doing... *shrug* Next time I will be sure to ask ahead of time. I just assume people know how to hatch eggs if they are looking for eggs.

I am 100% sure the eggs were fertile (besides possibly a few browns). We did not ship, we brought them to him. We store our eggs pointy end down in a cool spot in our house.

I am also really disheartened. Does this happen a lot when selling hatching eggs? Do people often have no idea what they are doing and blame the vendor?? What do you guys do in this situation?

What do you guys think?


Update: He replied saying he CANDLED them and got nothing. I'm really surprised but I honestly cannot think of a thing we could have done on our side to cause this. I was thinking of giving him a 15 dollar refund? Should I give him a whole refund or what? Very surprising, I mean I am going on my third hatch with no issues. So now this is even more baffling. He didnt give me any more info on how the hatch went or if there could have been troubles, so I have no idea if something went haywire or not. What could have happened to make none of them grow??

Update 2: The babies are hatching as we speak. Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh my!!!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Never happened to me an I only sell locally...

 

[maplesky7]

It's the buyers risk. You can not be held liable because you DON'T know how much experience the person has who's buying nor how the eggs were handled once they left your hands.

Don't worry too much about it. It happens.... people can be clueless.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Woops I just realized he emailed me TODAY. I was looking at the date on my computer clock and it told me today was Saturday, which it technically is cuz its 12:48 am. lol. So his eggs are due in two days.

 

[greathorse]

It's really pretty simple, if you are comfortable that your eggs are fertile, ask him if he wants some help with his incubation, if he is still a smart a$$, tell him to find hatching eggs elsewhere.

If he actually concedes that he was perhaps not on the money with incuation, I would likely offer him a few more eggs to try, especially if they are not ral valuable eggs. If I had real good breeder quality eggs I would tell them to pound sand

If he hatches none after the correct amount of time he/she has a real problem with the incubation process.

I would not fret about someone that cant hatch local fertile eggs.

 

[Olive Hill]

I think if/when the man responds you should ask him what you can do to make it right.

So many people with little backyard flocks decide to -- essentially -- go into business to offset feed costs, but aren't always considering the actual business (sometimes not FUN and almost always a lot of WORK) part of it in the interim. And then these issues come up, however rare they may be, and there's a lot of disappointment all around. You're providing a service to people, if you want more and more people to keep coming back for that service you need word of mouth references and advertising. That's what it boils down to. People will tell everyone they know about a bad experience with a business or service person, but if they have a good experience they'll tell the people that matter and they'll come knocking, too.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Thank you for that, you made me feel better. I really hope he has not turned off the incubator or something thinking they are duds.

Quote:

 

[Zahboo]

With so many incubation techniques and the risks of INCUBATION not dealing with fertilitey, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Cara]

I wouldn't be worried about offending him if he's that rude.

 

[MagsC]

Some people would rather look at the seller than think there is anything wrong with THEIR incubating practices.

I wouldnt stress yourself out about him.