First and foremost, I have bought hatching eggs on Backyards Chickens that have been from wonderful breeders. If I can't hatch they replace them no questions, and I've had good hatches of beautiful chicks. All were packaged very, very well. Bad hatches were just either my fault or the postal service handling.
I have purchased excellent chicks and show birds from awesome breeders on facebook as well. Wonderful breeders. And then there is the *breeder* of Silkies in Tucson, AZ I made the sorry mistake of buying eggs from. They arrived with very little packaging, in a styrofoam egg carton with 1 yes that is 1 little, itty, bitty piece of tissue paper on each egg, most were broke the rest didn't hatch. And this was after I waited 3 weeks for her to keep giving me excuses about why she suddenly couldn't send the eggs. She surprised me by offering to replace the eggs for shipping costs. Stupidly I went along with it and paid her more. You guessed it, she still hasn't sent the replacements, lots of excuses and when I asked for a refund, she suddenly didn't have the money. So I made a claim with Paypal. I don't know how I did it, but my original purchase was mistakenly paid as personal, my stupid mistake, so I ate the fee. I tried to make a claim for the shipping costs and you know what? This woman knows exactly how to work the system and stupid trusting buyers like me. Paypal refused to separate the transactions and said I had no buyer protection. But since I am an honest frequent user of Paypal they refunded me anyway. But this woman didn't have to pay it.
So let this be a lesson in how to make sure your transaction is covered by buyer protection through PayPal, and get reviews from others before you buy from someone off of facebook. Use goods and services! Make notes in there about the product purchased! I still have all of my conversations with this woman and the name of her *breeder business* if anyone is interested. I don't get email notifications from Backyard Chickens but I try to check it frequently.
I have purchased excellent chicks and show birds from awesome breeders on facebook as well. Wonderful breeders. And then there is the *breeder* of Silkies in Tucson, AZ I made the sorry mistake of buying eggs from. They arrived with very little packaging, in a styrofoam egg carton with 1 yes that is 1 little, itty, bitty piece of tissue paper on each egg, most were broke the rest didn't hatch. And this was after I waited 3 weeks for her to keep giving me excuses about why she suddenly couldn't send the eggs. She surprised me by offering to replace the eggs for shipping costs. Stupidly I went along with it and paid her more. You guessed it, she still hasn't sent the replacements, lots of excuses and when I asked for a refund, she suddenly didn't have the money. So I made a claim with Paypal. I don't know how I did it, but my original purchase was mistakenly paid as personal, my stupid mistake, so I ate the fee. I tried to make a claim for the shipping costs and you know what? This woman knows exactly how to work the system and stupid trusting buyers like me. Paypal refused to separate the transactions and said I had no buyer protection. But since I am an honest frequent user of Paypal they refunded me anyway. But this woman didn't have to pay it.
So let this be a lesson in how to make sure your transaction is covered by buyer protection through PayPal, and get reviews from others before you buy from someone off of facebook. Use goods and services! Make notes in there about the product purchased! I still have all of my conversations with this woman and the name of her *breeder business* if anyone is interested. I don't get email notifications from Backyard Chickens but I try to check it frequently.
