Hoovers canceling orders and forcing customers to the end of the line

[Socalchickens1]

I placed an order through Hoover's Hatchery for shipping on February 1. They were informed by USPS on Jan 31st that they would not be able to ship. Instead of letting customer's know right away, they originally pushed my ship date out to February 2. Now I received a follow up email letting me know that they will be canceling my order and forcing us to reorder. I looked and the first available ship date is May 1.

I understand that they have challenges, but they should have just pushed everyone out instead of forcing customers this week to the end of the line. This is terrible customer service from Hoovers.

Email I received is below:

We were informed Tuesday morning that USPS would not allow us to ship orders via air freight this week due to inclement weather in Memphis, TN, which is the main shipping hub for USPS air shipments of live chicks. We at Hoover’s Hatchery made every effort this week to ship your order, but unfortunately there were not any options that would ensure the well-being of the chicks in transit.

Due to the increasing egg prices and egg shortages, we have experienced a surge in demand, causing us to be sold out all the way through the end of April (might change to May). With this in mind, we are not able to re-schedule your shipment for several months. We will be canceling your order and issuing you a full refund.

You should be receiving an email confirming the cancelation and a refund going back on the card you used to place the order. You are welcome to visit our website and re-order on the next available ship date.

Please understand that due to high call volumes, this is the most efficient way for you to reschedule your order. You are welcome to call our customer service team, but please understand that hold times have been very long and we are doing everything that we can to help our customers through this difficult time. If you wish to communicate with us, email is the most efficient way and we will answer your email as soon as we can.

We greatly appreciate your business and are very sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding during this time.


The Hoover's Hatchery Team

 

[nuthatched]

Frankly, it sounds reasonable to me.
You can't-t ship chicks in a polar vortex, they'd likely die, not shipping them is the responsible thing to do.
since the essential yolk sack will be gone by the time the vortex passes, they can't ship.

"but they should have just pushed everyone out instead of forcing customers this week to the end of the line. This is terrible customer service from Hoovers."
No, it isn't.
It's reasonable that they not steal chicks from later scheduled orders to fulfill earlier scheduled orders. 'Robbing peter to pay paul".
They've done what they could and offered the only logical option, it's unreasonable and a bit selfish to complain about 'poor customer service' when they've done what they could and to suggest that other people not get their chicks so you can get yours.
I had the same thing happened last year when mcmurray had to cancel my order for bird flu, it's frustrating to change plans but it will work out fine.
If you're set on an earlier ship date, try Mt. Healthy, they have fairly open ship dates still.

 

[3KillerBs]

And now they've blocked me on social media because I tagged them in a post where I complained about their bad customer service.
Instead, they have put up misleading information stating they are contacting customers via email about their orders. I guess technically that is true, but they are simply emailing people to tell them they are canceling all the order this week.

These are live animals, not products that can be rushed by hiring temp workers and making employees work mandatory overtime on the production line.

When we CHOOSE to order chicks in the winter we CHOOSE to accept the risk of weather problems.

Which is why I didn't order any chicks at this time of year -- because even though my prefered hatchery, Ideal, is in Texas and I live in the south I knew that there could be problems in transit if storms struck.

 

[theoldchick]

The weather has caused many difficulties for hatcheries in the north. Not only can they not ship but the power outage has caused serious problems with industrial incubators. Thousands of eggs had to be discarded and thousands of chicks died. I feel your frustration but I also feel for the hatcheries who were hit by power outages. Cleaning and rebooting digital incubators will take time. I know it is inconvenient and frustrating but they are doing the best they can.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, these hatcheries are in a hard position. The eggs were set 3 weeks ago, they did not know the polar vortex was coming. The chicks have to be shipped within 24 hours of hatching by regulations, otherwise they will probably die during shipment so they cannot be held over. So they have tens of thousands of chicks on hand and nowhere to take them. Credit to McMurray for trying to do something with some of theirs, the layers and meat birds.

Different hatcheries are handling it different ways. Hoover's is making a clean break. Cancel all orders so next week's and the weeks further down the line are not affected. McMurray's is delaying this week's shipments for a week. That means a lot of people who have orders in for next week will not get their chicks. I don't know how many weeks this will cascade down or how many customers will have their orders disrupted while this sorts itself out. Both methods are going to be disruptive.

When I order chicks I often put some eggs in the incubator so I can raise them together. I don't have the facilities so I can brood two broods at the same time so I'd have to rely on being able to integrate them successfully. Often that works but sometimes it doesn't. I've set eggs to hatch or ordered chicks so the timing coincides with other events in my life. Delaying a week or having to start over with the order are both disruptive.

Two independent small businesses chose to handle this disruption which is not their fault in two different ways. I don't consider either one poor customer service. They chose to deal with this weather related disaster in two different ways.

The issue isn't even the weather necessarily, it is the canceled USPS flights out of Memphis.

Actually it is the weather. Those flights would not have been cancelled if it were not for the weather.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hoovers had the choice of bad options. At least they forthrightly issued refunds, rather than "credits".

 

[EggSighted4Life]

This is terrible customer service from Hoovers.

I understand your frustration and empathize with you.

I would move onto another hatchery or even feed store.. chick days at TSC is starting soon.. which is where a good number of the Hoover chicks will be going. My other local feed stores also start carrying chicks around the first of Feb. Maybe call around and see if they know what breeds they'll be getting in.

I've had good luck with Cackle, and Meyers, even Ideal but the Ideal birds are lower quality in MY experience.Are you looking for something specific.maybe we can help you find, since your original plan didn't come to fruition?

Hope you find some to your liking soon!

 

[JeffandLori]

Be glad they didn't ship.

I ordered 15 Rudd Rangers and 5 Black Jersey Giants in early January.

Thursday morning I received an email (12:06 AM) stating that they had shipped on Wednesday.

They finally arrived at my local PO box (West Palm Beach, FL) Saturday morning. It looked like they were only coming from Decatur, Ga. and spent a couple days in ATL.

However, there were only 10 Rudd Rangers packed. Of those four were DOA. One of those was outside the foam blocker.

I lost a Black Jersey Giant yesterday afternoon and another Rudd Ranger this morning. I have another RR I'm watching. Could be I just caught it at naptime. The remaining eight seem to be currently running around like maniacs, so that is good. But the RR seemed good this AM as well.

I'm pretty sick as this is my first time trying baby chicks and yeah "they're just chicks", but I feel personally responsible to do all I know to do for the animals in my charge while I have them.

 

[3KillerBs]

Again, I understand there can be problems. There are tons of things that happen in any industry, including this one. I'm not complaining about there being problems. I'm complaining about how they are resolving and handling those problems.

They are handling them the way I would expect them to.

Bumping other customers' orders in a cascade of ongoing delays is far more disruptive than refunding the money of customers who knowingly took the weather risk of ordering chicks in the winter.

 

[Brooks_]

but they should have just pushed everyone out instead of forcing customers this week to the end of the line

Frustrating, yes. But by doing that, they would be inconveniencing 1000's? of customers instead of the 100's? that had ordered for that window. Not to mention the commercial contracts, though those were probably already separated.