warning about www.georgiacrickets.com

[igotit]

http://www.georgiacrickets.com/default.aspx

maybe this is a 1 time thing....but heres my georgiacricket experience.

on dec 28th (Saturday) I placed an order for 500 medium crickets,i knew they wouldn't process and ship till dec 30 (Monday)....so I was banking on receiving the crickets on Thursday-Friday ...jan 2-3.
turnsout it wasn't processed or shipped till jan 2nd.
their web site states they were open for business on jan 30th.

this morning jan 4th at 10:45 am fedex dropped off the package.it was not damaged,perfect condition.at 11:00 am I opened the package to see a large pile of dead bodies,rotten potatoes that were starting to mold and a heat pack.
sofar ive counted 22 active crickets,78 alive leg twitching,lying in there back crickets.
and about 400 dead crickets.
I ordered medium....1/2-3/4 size.over 80% were about 1/4 -3/8 length.

so I paid $24 total fedex 2 day ground shipping,and a heat pack to receive dead crickets 7 days after I paid.

even more alarming...the package was 2 boxes,outter box has Georgia address,inside box has a California insect stamp,and customs insect approval,and their phone number is a ohio number.

this vendor was recommended on this website in a thread for a good known supplier.

 

[Claudiusx]

Have you contacted the supplier to see what is up? That is ridiculous they should be willing to send a refund.

It was the holidays recently, and they might have been closed on new years which would explain them taking a bit longer to get to you, but it doesn't explain the 80% die off, or the two boxes.

-Brandon

 

[igotit]

ive called 5 times,left 2 voice mails,sent 3 emails.
my first mail was on jan 2nd...asking on an update for my shipping......4 hours later I got email with tracking from fedex.
I understand the holiday shipping issue....im fine with them not shipping till the 2nd in transit 3-4th.
but 2 days travel killed over 400 crickets....probally not.
either the food was bad.....or they were packaged on the 30th.....and not shipped till the 2nd of January....that would be 5 days in a box eating bad food and stale air.

or as the import stamp states......they were imported to California,shipped to Georgia....reboxed the shipped to me.that would be a long journey with plenty time for them to die off.

this is just speculation as to what I think may have happened.

 

[igotit]

eitherway....wrong size crickets,80% or better doa,and rotten food source....I don't want to feed the remaining 22 to my dragons.

their site stated they will be shipped in a ventelated box with cloth or screen mesh.....just 2 boxes sealed up that says live crickets.no ventilation.
a punchout tab on the inner box that housed the crickets was taped shut.


this was my exact order before shipping method

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=203003&p=1606320#p1606320

 

[igotit]

Georgia crickets contacted me by email this morning,they are blaming the temps for the arrival of over 400 dead crickets.bassicaly implied that it was not the right timing on my end which resulted in the doa package,and the live replacement doesn't apply because I didn't choose the correct shipping method.....which wasn't available due to holidays.

no reply on the non vented packing and rotten potatoes.....the wrong size crickets....ect.

on a side note...last night they all died.

 

[mortitia]

Hi
Seems customer service is not high on their list of priority's

Marie x

 

[igotit]

she offered advise....on my next order....I should place next Thursday because it wont be cold for transit,and I should pay the overnight shipping.
it would cost me $50 for 500 crickets.

edit
received another email stating that Georgia crickets is praised for the way the crickets were packaged,box didn't have vents because the cold would kill them,and that's how they always send them out with no issues.

 

[igotit]

after a few emails of debating and blame game,my last email was something like this.

even if the crickets arrived alive,they were still the wrong size,packaged wrong,and were eating from a potato that was starting to mold.

Georgia crickets is now sending me a new shipment of 500 medium that cost me $4.95.
ill update once I receive them.
I can live with 100 dead out of 500.

 

[Sauzo]

When I used to feed Harley crickets, I used http://www.ghann.com/index.cfm. They are alittle more expensive but they came right sized and all alive and very active. They grew into full grown chirping and hopping nightmares since I ordered too many(over 1k) and ended up switching Harley over to dubia roaches. But honestly, this big blast of arctic cold across the US plays hell on shipping anything living. Thus why I just breed my own dubia roaches so I don't have to worry about this stuff.

 

[Guinness]

I ordered from georgiacrickets.com for the first time this week and had delays as well but had a better outcome.

I ordered on the 1st knowing they would ship the following day which was last Thursday. I placed it as overnight delivery only to see the package sit all day Friday at the Memphis FedEx hub then again all day Saturday at the Greer, SC hub. They finally arrived on Monday but because they were 4 days late I was unable to be home to meet them. So they ended up sitting outside for the better part of 4 hours in 10 degree weather.

With the 4 day shipping fiasco and the 4 hours outside I thought for sure the whole order would be DOA but of the 250 superworms I ordered only 1 was dead. Of the 1000 crickets I ordered there were probably 100-200 dead but it looked like they had add extras in case of die offs so I was fairly happy with the outcome.

I had been in contact with Mike at GeorgiaCricket since Friday and he said that if they were DOA it would only be a 4.95$ service charge to replace the order. I think if they arrive DOA on an overnight delivery it should be replaced at no cost to the customer but it is hard to get too upset over 5$.

 

[igotit]

I received my package today.......everything was fine.
estimated 550 crickets....about 90 doa.
the alive are very healthy and are all medium.

bottom line Georgia crickets came through.