13/06/2024
🌟To anyone that knows us personally, or through the business, we as people will help in any way we can, that is our ethos. We just want to give the best service for the best possible price. Animal welfare is so I important to us so we have worked hard to keep our prices down so that any animal will have the optimum size viv, and be as affordable as possible.
We don’t offer cable holes in our vivariums as standard, this is due to that we don’t believe in putting in unnecessary holes and the customer can get their viv set up exactly how they like. The second reason is that if the customer needs to upgrade the vivarium, they can sell on the vivarium without lots of extra holes. We try to think of every eventuality.
However, if a customer requests cable holes in we are happy to pop them in, we literally just put a couple of hand drilled holes in where they’ve been requested. It’s just a quick add on. Because the requests for this is few and far between, we’ve always been happy to do this free of charge.
Again, our ethos is help. Over recent orders and deliveries we’ve been happy to help assemble vivs, have even taken vivs way to cut down free of charge (other than a re delivery charge) when a customer has miscalculated. We’ve made a frame up free of charge when a customer collected so they could fit the vivs in their van safely, we take the time to talk through set ups and have helped carry vivs up a flight of stairs. We give our time freely and with a smile on our face. We always try to help, and it’s important to us that we give a personal service, either over the phone (apologies I’m a bit chatty 🤪!!) or on delivery either by Richard himself or R***, our new driver (who has worked in reptile shops etc).
Richard today, however, innocently forgot to put cable holes that were requested on an order of three 4ft x 18 x 18 vivariums, it was a complete oversight and Richard delivered today without realising. The customer this evening was understandably unhappy that it had been missed. I immediately offered that Richard could come and rectify the week after next when he was back in the area, to quickly go back and pop the small drill holes through.
The customer requested compensation, so I immediately refunded £10.00 for the inconvenience. Initially the customer then requested that we cover the cost of a drill, but I said this unfortunately was not possible. They have since requested a 10% discount of the whole amount plus the £10.00 already refunded. For three - 4ft x 18 x 18 vivs (£95.00 each) and a pigeon hole stand it was £380.00. With a few back and forths, we’ve offered 10% of the 4ft vivs.
We truly understand the inconvenience of our oversight, and we were happy to rectify that in person. From our pov, we’ve offered a free service add on trying to help, but from the customers pov they feel they haven’t got what they paid for.
A month ago we had a customer require financial compensation of £100.00 for a viv not being able to be assembled straight away. We offered to assemble free of charge, but when R***arrived the space was not clear. He then spent the next hour of his own time helping the customer take apart their existing vivarium and cabinet, then when he tried to assemble the stand there was not enough space to do so and by this point was a bit flustered. Due to this and R*** needing help, Richard at 7pm drove 3hours to assemble the vivarium (this was after starting at 6am). Between them and moving some furniture, they managed to get the 6ft x 2ft x 2ft bespoke stand and 6ft x 3ft H x 2ft viv together (Richard had to assemble the viv on the stand itself due to lack of space) and they left at near midnight. It was then four hours drive back and they had to sleep on and off on the road. They did all of this free of charge. The next day the customer then requested £100 financial compensation for the inconvenience of R*** not being able to assemble in a non existent space without help….
Sooooo, due to all of the above and it really upsets us to do so, but we will no longer be offering free cable holes, or any extras for free. It will be decided on an individual basis depending on the extra requirements. Any vivariums delivered that do not fit in their property, will have not only a re delivery fee, but also a further charge for reworking and cutting down product.
In our 16yrs of trading we’ve never had to put a post out like this. If we’ve made a mistake we’ve held our hands up and rectified it. We just put our heads down and work harder (no drama). This again has always been our ethos.
We know we’re not always the quickest (so sorry!), but we try our best and we are as honest as possible. We are so grateful that customers come and order from us, we have been busier than ever and it means so much to us that the customers (and animals!) are happy.
Anyone that’s spoken to myself or Richard we are always transparent, try to help and just want to do our best.
If you got this far, thank you for listening!
Mich and Rich x
