Layne Labs - Fail When Put to the Customer Service Test

First off, I will openly admit that I have pimped Layne Labs for years. For almost 4 years I have received nothing but flawless service from them.

However, there have never been any instances in that time in which customer service has come into play. The true test of a company is when things go wrong - and how they deal with adversity.

On December 11th I placed a fairly small order with them consisting mainly of quail. I have a number of animals that will eat only quail and keeping a steady supply of them handy is necessary - especially when dealing with young and finicky animals.

Layne Labs always ships out early the following week. While I immediately was charged and got confirmation of my order, the 16th and 17th passed without a shipping notice. On the 17th at noon I phoned Layne Labs and received a message. I left a message asking for a call back and inquiring in the status of my order.

Nothing.

Last night, I sent them an email, reminding them of my call, my order and the lack of tracking number.

This morning I got a call from customer service who claimed that my order was "lost" - despite the fact that I was charged and received not one but TWO confirmations of my order from Layne. I was also told that they called me back and left a message.

Hmmmm.

The only phone number Layne Labs has for me is my cell. Every call on my cell - in or out - shows up in the history. No calls from Layne Labs. A BS story. When I pointed this out to the service rep, the story changed - maybe they called and maybe they didn't - they were fairly sure they had called everyone back, but now weren't positive. The conversation then went roughly as follows:

OK, well let's ship the darn order out now.

Can't do, FedEx is shutting down for two weeks. It will be three weeks before you get your order Mr. Loder. So sorry.

Well, since we are both in the same state, how about using a courier service?

No sir. Can't do. We are bound to using FedEx exclusively. So sorry.

We'll, Ms. Layne Labs representative, since I am a loyal customer who has spent thousands of dollars with your firm over the years, how about shipping it overnight?

Can't do sir. That would be too expensive for us. You will just have to wait the three weeks.

At this point, I explain that this is THEIR fault. It is THEIR screw up and spending an extra $50 in shipping this out to me may be in their best interests as, in the balance, lies thousands of dollars of future business with me.

Again, so sorry. Maybe, if we have enough dry ice, we can send it ground and you can have it by the 24th. We'll see and get back to you.

So folks, unless Layne Labs does the right thing and pays for THEIR mistake, I am done with them and I would recommend that anyone who does business with them takes a good hard look at how they deal with an issue of their making - which is to burden the customer with it.

The claim that they called me was a bald faced lie and frankly their attitude on the phone was one of indifference. Again, I place an order with them every three months and have done so for about 4 years. Again, when they screwed up they first lied and then told me I was stuck with the consequences of THEIR mistake.

Time to find another frozen feeder supplier. Too bad - I was really liking the $30 shipping fees - but I'll be damned if I do business with people who treat their client base like crap.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Can't do, FedEx is shutting down for two weeks.

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No they're not: http://www.fedex.com/us/holiday/holi...-schedule.html

Wow. That's horrible.
I occasionally buy rabbits from them and have always had a good experience with the rep. Although they never have guinea pigs in stock whenever I do order, so it makes me wonder why they even bother having it up on their web site.....

That is a real shame that they lied and did not own up to their mistake. I'm sorry that happened to you.

It might be worth looking into local quail breeders.

Keep us updated on what they do.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

No they're not: http://www.fedex.com/us/holiday/holi...-schedule.html

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I guess when you deal exclusively with two day shipments, the hours coupled with the midweek holidays, create a problem.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Wow. That's horrible.
I occasionally buy rabbits from them and have always had a good experience with the rep. Although they never have guinea pigs in stock whenever I do order, so it makes me wonder why they even bother having it up on their web site.....

That is a real shame that they lied and did not own up to their mistake. I'm sorry that happened to you.

It might be worth looking into local quail breeders.

Keep us updated on what they do.

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They decided to ship the prey via ground. They should be here by Tuesday, but the odds of a thawed shipment are high and there is a possibility they may not get here until AFTER Christmas. They are crossing their fingers that they dry ice will do the trick today, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (best case scenario).

Plus, shipping ground is much cheaper that two day - do you think they offered to refund me the difference in shipping charges?

That's right - no.

Luckily, I bank with USAA who understand that on Tuesday, charges may need to be reversed.

So Nikki, do you know any local quail breeders?

That's awful. I've used Them for a few years now. Back when I started I would get a call when it shipped and a call when it had been delivered. But lately I haven't even gotten shipping confirmations via email. The rats just show up kind of unexpectedly. I'm lucky I haven't dealt with any real issues, but I have noticed I'm not getting as much customer service in general as I used to. I'm still very happy with the rats I get from them, but now I'm worried about what will happen if they mess up like this.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

I guess when you deal exclusively with two day shipments, the hours coupled with the midweek holidays, create a problem.

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I'm still not seeing why they can't ship two-day; even if the package goes out tomorrow instead of today it should still arrive by 12/24. It also knocks a day off of the shipping which makes it more likely the stuff will arrive frozen.

BTW I agree that this is their problem to figure out and not yours, and I've had to eat costs to make things right with the customer where I screwed up, and it was worth it to keep my reputation.

Think I might have demanded an immediate refund and went looking somewhere else. The lying is what would have killed it for me.

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

Think I might have demanded an immediate refund and went looking somewhere else. The lying is what would have killed it for me.

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USAA has informed me that - if the shipment has not arrived by the 24th, or if it is spoiled - they will reverse the charges. USAA is awesome when it comes to this sort of thing.

I have a limited number of quail suppliers - I don't deal with Rodent Pro because of several issues and the one time local guy who bred them for raptors has quit the business. I got two heloderms who will only eat quail and a colony of thrasops that rely on it for 99% of their diet.

My first instinct was to tell them to cancel the order - but I need the birds. A sucky position to be in.

There were actually two lies told: the most obvious was the phantom phone call. The second was that the order did not show up in their system. I received not one but two confirmations of the order, complete with an order number and a transaction number from Layne Labs - not the CC. When I spoke to another person in out industry that uses a similar generating system, he said that it is impossible to have the order and transaction numbers generated and claim that the order is not "in the system".

Again, the simple response could have been two fold - one, admit the problem and ship it next day air. Or two admit the problem and ship it next day air.


Shann:

I also noticed that they stopped calling in the shipping info last year - which was a great personal touch.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Can't do sir. That would be too expensive for us. You will just have to wait the three weeks.

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I got this same line when I received an order awhile back where a package of some smaller mice arrived thawed out since they put them farthest away from the dry ice in the box (and the bigger feeders closest to the ice). They offered a credit to my next order: I still feel they should have ponied up and ate the shipping costs on their end and shipped me out new feeders asap to replace the thawed out ones.