Ugh @ Rodent Pro

[KatStoverReptiles]

I don't believe this violates any TOS, but if it does, mods please remove it or quarantine it or whatever.

So Rodent Pro vends at a show nearby every other month or so. This is awesome because if you place a pre-order by the Thursday night before the show (shows are always on Sundays), you get website pricing plus your order is already boxed and ready to go when you get there. Oh...and you don't have to pay shipping!! I plan my orders so that I buy enough food to last my collection until the next show, assuming that even if I can't personally attend, one of my friends surely will and they will pick up my order for me.

So I'm looking through Rodent Pro's website yesterday, getting my order together and I notice that they're saying XL mice are unavailable until Nov 9. Well, I think, that's great, because the show's the 11. So I email in my order and this morning, I receive a confirmation stating that I cannot preorder the XL mice, but they will have a limited quantity at the show. I ask why they would deny a guaranteed sale (preorder) in favor of a questionable one (bought at table) and why I'm being penalized by being forced to pay a higher price as well as having the uncertainty of them not having the product in stock at the show by the time I arrive. They said that because of a competitor going out of business (or perhaps a recent zoonotic disease outbreak?), the demand is really high for large sized mice right now so they cannot allow any preorders. The person I was emailing with encouraged me to arrive early and buy off the table.

So I know a lot of people on here don't like Rodent Pro, and I'm not their biggest fan, and this really grates my nerves. I was half tempted to tell him to just cancel the whole order. The fact is, I just can't find a better deal, especially considering shipping. It just doesn't make business sense to me why they would deny someone a preorder in favor of putting the product on the table where it isn't guaranteed to sell. They've got be between a rock and a hard place because I'd really like to find another supplier, but I just can't find better prices when you add in the fact that by getting them at the show, I don't have to pay shipping.

Anyone have any ideas about this? Anyone know anybody at Rodent Pro personally? This just doesn't seem to make good business sense to me. And if there really was a competitor that went out of business, who was it?

[cschneider]

Not sure about the place that went out of business but I'm in the same boat. I buy only from them at a near by show. There is another place that I can get them from but have had bad experiences so I stick with rodent pro and buy at the shows. I don't know any of them personally but I've never had any customer service issues and I've always gotten good quality f/t feeders.


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[Evenstar]

I also haven't heard of any supplier big enough to be a competitor with Rodent Pro that has gone out of business. I am thinking the "demand" is so high due to that zoonotic disease outbreak.

I don't have the option of picking up at a show, so I order my rodents from Layne Labs. I have been extremely happy with them. Their prices are competitive and shipping isn't too bad. But there is, of course, shipping.....

[DooLittle]

I would imagine its all about the dollar. If they can get more money for them at the show they will. Where else to go, sorry I can't help there. I just go in the other room, lol :p. I don't feed f/t. Hope you get what your babies need!

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[3skulls]

Don't know of anyone that big going out of business.
The only thing I could think of is if they have a contract to bring in x amount product to sell? It's bad service for sure.

[wolfy-hound]

I would imagine that they are required to bring product to sell at the show(not counting preordered product). Otherwise the show would have no reason to have them have a table. People want to come to a reptile show to buy things, not to watch other people pick up their preordered things.

Also, they're really kind of doing a cool thing, to bring preordered stuff to a show, since it's taking up space they could use for sales items for the show. After all, an order of product could be shipped to you... and they could sell all the product they bring to the show 'at' the show at those prices instead of sale online prices. You'd have to pay the shipping, but that's not their problem.

Not going into anything about their product. When I used them, I never had issues with them or the service I got, but I ordered and had it shipped. I wasn't picking up at a show. If I had the option, I would definitely want to do what you're doing, buy online, no shipping, pick up at the show I'm attending anyway.

Now I'm breeding my own rodents, so it's not a issue.

[loonunit]

So what's the story on the zoonotic disease outbreak?

[3skulls]

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=334751

I'll try to find the article from/about the CDC.
They seemed happy how they cleaned everything up and it talks about how they lost $100,000 in product. (or some crazy amount)

[3skulls]

http://www.farmworldonline.com/news/...p?newsid=14991

[rlditmars]

A local supplier in my state jacks their prices up between 15 and 45 percent depending on the product whenever they are at a show. Their logic is you are saving on shipping so they can charge more. I doubt they are turning much of a profit on the shipping portion of their operation anyways. So ask yourself if you were in their position, do they sell it to you for regular price or do they sell at the show for more?

Whenever a situation doesn't make sense, 999 times out of a 1000 the answer to the question why, is money.