Recieved an odd suprise with my Locusts

[Harry102]

I recieved my delivery of Locusts today which I was expecting, I put them into my usual holder with my other locusts, until I pulled out the egg carton to shake them off, and noticed this all over!

So instantly I checked the rest of my order, and both locust egg cartons have a nice amount of mould on them. I emailed the company and yet even with their moto being we email back within 4 hours, i'm yet to hear anything. I have quaratanined the second lot of locusts, but half of the first lot are mixed with my original batch.

Just wondering what my options are really? Should I just quarantine all locusts, dump and reorder, or can they survive through it?

I'm definately not using any as feeders until I can be assured they're ok. But even after that, my final carton was Crickets 500 of them I paid for, to which I recieved ~200 with about 100 dead on the bottom of the sack.

Not even sure if I should bother with these guys again, what would you reckon?


Kind Regards

Harry

 

[Menolly07]

It comes down to what you want to do with the buggies. Obviously, you don't want to trust the ones you have. A lot of the bug folks have policies of replacing with like product, shipping responsibility varies between receiver (you) and sender (them). Would you want new crickets if they sent them? Does it look like mold in one spot, the corner of the box for instance? Like, may it have gotten wet due to very poor handling and been exposed to heat causing a swift mold bloom. That would be the fault of the mail carrier/shipping company. I'm a big believer in giving a company the chance to explain/redeem themselves. Did they write you back? How long did it take/has it been? All things to consider.

I'd also Google the company plus the word 'reviews' and try to look them up on other reptile forums. Find if other people had experiences with them. Were they very good, very bad, mediocre. I do know that only 200 of a 500 order seems pretty unacceptable to me. I don't know much about locusts (unless locusts are your 'local' for crickets?'). I can't tell from your picture, it could go either way. Hoppers all look alike blurry.

 

[Harry102]

Thanks for a swift reply!

It was within a batch of 200 Hoppers that the mold was on, one egg carton literally was only a corner, but the other was half and half.

The Crickets were the ones that died, I inspected the dead when I removed them, and noticed some were just shells in very good condition, so some of deads, wern't really dead. But I'm still short ~200-300 crickets I believe compared to what I paid for.

I sent an email yesterday around midday, and to which I still haven't heard back as of yet, but i'm willing to give them until the 24h mark before I call them.

On they're website it does state they replace any DOA, which will be fine for the Crickets, but the Hoppers are totally unusable in my eyes. But again i'll have to see what they say about that. Either way, replacement would be fine. I'm all for giving them a second chance.

I can see what you mean by the Postal Carriers fault, as alot of the critism on the website is due to delivery companies which is out of their control, but I'll have to see what their reply is.

 

[Menolly07]

I would hold my ground. If they're reasonable and have good business sense they should replace the WHOLE lot. Even if it's the carrier at fault to voluntarily replace with little argument and apologies will often guarantee a loyal customer for a lifetime. It sucks because it eats your pocket, but it guarantees you income down the line. Obviously, you can't risk unseen spores being ingested by your little lizard buddy!

I really think you need to call them sooner if they haven't answered their email in a timely way. A lot of bug vendours have a policy that they be told immediately of deaths. Just explain that you wanted to be sure they knew ASAP. Mold can spread. You'd hope they'd see it if they had it. Either way, somebody ought to be checking their email a few times a day, and yours should have meant an immediate really.

OH! Did you double check your SPAM filters? Sometimes customer service mails come from a different originating email then purchase confirmation emails. This makes them prone to getting snatched up as SPAM.

 

[Harry102]

I actually rang them, not long after the 24h mark, and asked about my email getting the reply, we sent you one straight away, "oh really, I didn't get it, what did it include?" to which they had no reply.

I actually got bored of the sales assistant after she abruptly said "So I don't really understand what you expect us to do about it?" and just asked to speak to the owner since I could hear him in the background and he told me, Mould is natural in hoppers bin, due to the heat and cabbages left in there. So a little mould transfer onto the egg cartons were fine, and aslong as no spores got to my dragon, the mould would be digested by the hoppers before it reached him... And his example was we eat cheese with mould on it and we're fine...

He also said the image of the crickets was just shells, which fair enough, some were, but there were quite a few deaths. The order was sent out with enough crickets to hit the margins stated, 350-500 and no replacemets would be made since not enough were DOA, were his words, so I think I shall have to find myself a new dealer in the UK!

Sad times really.

Didn't really make a fuss about a refund or anything, going to be a waste of these hoppers as he doesn't really give me any confidence in using them. But after that conversation, I'd rather just wash my hands and find a new breeder.

 

[Menolly07]

Yeh, that mold was pretty ugly stuff. Lovely customer service. Real shame. Good luck.