I just thought I'd share my recent experience with LLL Reptile with you guys...I ordered 1000 1/4" crickets from them...when the box arrived, I swear there's no more than 300 crickets in it :evil:
I don't know why I got so severely under-counted, but they better correct this or they've lost me as a customer for good
Just needed to vent...this happen to anyone else? I don't really care for Mike over at Premium Crickets so I'm running out of places to order from!
Here's my LLL story- cut & pasted from another thread, as I don't have much time.
unless you are in CA, do NOT use LLL. I'm only 2 states away and it always took 4-6 days to get my crickets because they chose to use a carrier that ONLY exists in CA, NV, and UT. When I contacted them, they claimed they have no control over that because it's their farm that makes the call. The final straw came when said delivery man decided to leave 2000 crickets outside (almost a week and a half after my order was placed), in the snow, at the wrong apartment, NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO KNOCK, and then when my boyfriend caught him before he got back into his van, tried to make us sign a paper stating we had received them 3 days before! And LLL wouldn't do anything about it because of the temps even though if they had used UPS and they had been delivered on time, they would have made it before the freak cold snap.
And I always felt really undercut with them too. Try Ghann's. Their crickets are the healthiest I've ever seen, my last shipment lasted nearly 4 weeks with very few deaths.
I ordered crickets and they did come in about 4 days but they died two days later! every single one. I have kept crickets in the same box for well over a year, so I know they had proper ventilation and food. I was so angry.
Well our one and only time ordering from LLL was this . .
We ordered 2000 crix, they were supposed to be sent out on a monday but by thursday were still not here. I called them and they told me that my order was 'forgotten'. And that they would send them out the following monday and overnight them. Which they did but they messed something up and gave us smaller crix than we ordered.There was at least the 2000 there if not more and they did offer to give me half off my next order. I honestly have some of those crix still alive in the bin and that was almost a month ago.
Well they just emailed me back and will be sending me another box of crickets next week at no charge...I'm a little worried though, because my first box of 1000 only contained 300...if this box is similar I still won't have the crickets I paid for!
You bring up a great point here. I've been keeping herps a pretty long time (over 20 years). And though I'll never consider myself an expert since I continually learn from people that are beginners to pros in this biz every day.... I can say w/o a shadow of a doubt that in the reptile business, bargain shopping isn't always the best policy. 9 out of 10 times... Cheap means just that. You are going to be getting horrible goods. Be very careful when shopping online for supplies, feeders, or livestock in this hobby. I'm sure there are many people on this board that will agree w/ me on this subject.
I know that this is a little different....but is LLL reptile still a good place for supplies? I'm reading about all these problems about ordering from there, and I was going to get my lighting, decorations, etc from LLL! Is it just the feeders that aren't too great or is it everything?
i bought a beardie from them about 2 months ago and ive gone to the vet 2 times already i have spent 2 times what i payed for her im not buying anything from them ever again
Ghann's crickets, 1000 count, 20.55 shipped to toledo. ive been ordering from them every week and a half for a little while, 2000 count for $29 and had very few die offs. they run specials once in a while too, couple weeks ago it was 1000 crix+1000 mealworms (we get em for the geckos) for 14 bucks, shipping was around 8, so it was basically 2 extra bucks than normal for 1000 mealies
They are ok for ordering supplies, but do you really want to support a business that doesn't even use heat for their baby beardies? They could care less about anything alive, unless it's handing them money. I try everywhere else first!
exactlly last time i was in there no dragons had heat lamps and they had a camillion in there that was on the bottom of its cage about to die and i asked them what the f*** is up with this and they said o its normal he ok. hahah i think everyone should stop buying from them and then they would get put out of business and make a lot of people happy