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.