Waited too long!

isn't there a report you're supposed to fill out while still at the PO when you get a shipment of live chicks. i thought i read some time back you should open the box while there to prove the losses to them so they would cover it since it is their fault they delayed the shipping. i could be wrong since i've only ordered once and haven't since i've heard all the stories since.
 
Chickie'sMomaInNH said:
isn't there a report you're supposed to fill out while still at the PO when you get a shipment of live chicks. i thought i read some time back you should open the box while there to prove the losses to them so they would cover it since it is their fault they delayed the shipping. i could be wrong since i've only ordered once and haven't since i've heard all the stories since.
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The post office lady looked inside before she called me and forewarned me that many had died before I came to get them. I will ask her about reporting it this next time.

thistlebloom said:
Oh no.

I wonder how many replacement chicks hatcheries have had to send this year because of the postal services problems.
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This is looking like it will be habitual. I will ask MMH about that too when I call them. I have done business with them for 7 years now and my chicks have always come on Mondays. They always ship on Saturdays. They are only a 12 hour drive from here. I know it is the USPS to blame, but unfortunately I will have to get my chicks somewhere else if it happens again.

I never thought it was inhumane to ship chicks until NOW. They always do great when they arrive on time, but 5 days--surely they don't think it is in any way acceptable to deprive them of food and water for that long. MMH sends them by 2-day priority mail, but apparently the USPS has other priorities. :\
 
journey11 said:
The post office lady looked inside before she called me and forewarned me that many had died before I came to get them. I will ask her about reporting it this next time.



This is looking like it will be habitual. I will ask MMH about that too when I call them. I have done business with them for 7 years now and my chicks have always come on Mondays. They always ship on Saturdays. They are only a 12 hour drive from here. I know it is the USPS to blame, but unfortunately I will have to get my chicks somewhere else if it happens again.

I never thought it was inhumane to ship chicks until NOW. They always do great when they arrive on time, but 5 days--surely they don't think it is in any way acceptable to deprive them of food and water for that long. MMH sends them by 2-day priority mail, but apparently the USPS has other priorities. :\
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I don't have anything on order , but we and everyone in our neighborhood haven't had anything delivered to our cluster mail box since Thursday. Our post office has been underfunded and understaffed for several years . Every time we go to the Post Office, there in only one person manning the fort and the waiting line goes out the door. Executive branch of government blowhard promises, but only funding pet projects to buy votes. :caf
 
No call again today. Tomorrow I get to wake up to a box full of dead chicks. This is unbelievable.

I checked on BYC and this seems to be happening quite often. I'm sure I could order every week and get the same result. I have always ordered from MMH, but now I have to chose another source and hope for the best. How many people were they going to let find this out the hard way? From what I can tell from the tracking, they have sat in a sorting facility in St. Paul, MN for THREE DAYS both times. This is completely unacceptable.

Our local post office was going to be closed, but they cut back to a handful of hours instead. Wonder how much longer the USPS can keep this up? Paying out on all of those insured packages can't be good for their budget either. The hatcheries will have to change the way they ship or lose customers as well. MMH is only 12 hours from here, but if I don't buy an incubator or find a breeder locally, I'll be using Meyer next time instead.
 
This sounds so unbelievably tragic from a chicken raiser's point of view. No reason that I can see for not keeping the two day delivery promise.

And they wonder why the USPS is losing money and customers.
 
Sorry Journey. That's terrible news. I wonder why the hatcheries don't ship with private companies since this tragedy is being repeated so often.
 
thistlebloom said:
Sorry Journey. That's terrible news. I wonder why the hatcheries don't ship with private companies since this tragedy is being repeated so often.
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I am told that UPS and FedEx won't ship live animals at this time. From what I've been able to figure out, the cutbacks have led to a restructuring in how mail is sorted and shipped. They are directing all mail through hubs in major cities which takes longer, but supposedly saves them money. These chicks are sent a couple hours north of MMH in Iowa to St. Paul, MN. Then they go an hour and a half south of me to Charleston, WV. THEN on to my post office. They can't move them any faster by going this route.

Two-day is no promise and actually means NOTHING (so IMO, they need to quit calling it 2-day Priority, if that is not a guarantee--it's false advertising.) Only way to get them any quicker is Express shipping and I am told MMH doesn't use that. And you pay more anyway. So I won't be going with MMH anymore.

I imagine this will affect a lot of people and a lot of chicks will die this year. It's going to have to change the way the hatcheries do things. It's not much skin off of the hatchery's back, because the package is insured and they get their money back either way, then refund me. I'm sure the cost per chick is negligible to them. I could reorder 20 times and this would probably happen each time. But people will be very upset by it and they're going to lose business in the long run.
 
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