01/06/2024
So, I can’t believe this needs to be said but…
We operate in the hours available to us and stay very busy. As any small business, we tend to take holidays off. On the weekends, we work when we can. If you don’t get a response right away, this does not mean you won’t. Life happens. People get sick. Things come up. We do not have specific hours despite making ourselves the most available as possible. We don’t give our personal number out because people have abused this and text at all hours. For this reason, our cell remains on silent. Each one of our customers is given a private chat with myself and many others who combined, are almost available at any time. The collective knowledge in there is huge, whether it be sharing, advice, is this safe, ect. We also have our website with a wealth of knowledge combined in one easy convenient location. We did this so we can be of assistance and teach others at the same time. One person may ask a question that when answered, it benefits everyone who didn’t know that specific topic. Despite desire, the amount of time it takes to answer every text or pm greatly diminishes the time we dedicate to making the best possible pet companions we can.
We recently had one of the worst customer experiences we have had. After finding out someone very special to us had an incurable cancer, we had a man contact us about a bird. He preferred male but stated that gender wasn’t important. Another breeder had referred him to us and had given him our cell. Perfectly okay, but he later was directed to chat. I took the time in late night to video the bird, get photos, and work on delivery. He did not want to wait for the weekend, potentially the following weekend for delivery despite being several states away. Even after explaining it was not a good time for us on a personal level and needing time, he continued to push coming to get this bird despite our tragic news and time to heal. We caved and he came to get his bird.
He chatted in the group, said the baby was great and loving, was told dna sexing would be sent to the lab when things calmed down. Everyone else waited patiently for dna. Dna was sent in and this guy contacted our cell phone and we did not answer for three hours not seeing it, and he sent a snarky eyeball emoji as if he was entitled to a response right then. Also, it being New Year’s Eve, when we did see it, we answered in chat politely again that when we know DNA he would immediately. Apparently, not answering his text and answering in chat where contact should be, he was offended that we couldn’t answer his personal text but could be in chat to answer. We chose to take time to check in on new birds that went home and answer him. There was nothing personal about his text, it was business and we are not obligated to answer a non emergent issue on a holiday, let alone an emergent one as we direct people to emergency avian vets for those although we do try to assist to a degree in chat.
Instead of understanding, after again politely explaining circumstances, he continued to berate and assert that he was entitled to our time because he spent money with us. First off, he did not pay for dna. That is extra. We voluntarily paid it and told him when it came back he would know. A few chat members, who know how overly available we are to our customers and how dedicated we are to the birds, answers him and as he continued asserting his false sense of entitlement, they explained outright he was rude and out of line. He then decided to send threatening texts about not being the last we hear about it and bashing us. He was promptly blocked from our phone and removed from chat because we don’t tolerate that nonsense.
We are explaining all of this because we will no longer tolerate this from people. The tantrums and impatience and sense of entitlement to our personal lives and time off is unacceptable. Should you adopt from us, if you don’t already know gender, you will know seconds after we do. In this case, dna came back two days later. Usually you will have an amazing community and support behind you with plenty of tools. However, we do not control the mail, especially during the holiday season, nor do we control the lab and when they have results completed. We are not available for “personal messages” as we have the opt in for the group which we are also in and it has run beautifully for years. We will not tolerate being harrassed for not responding on your time to your messages. You will be blocked, denied adoption, or banned from the page. We do not ask anything other than simple decency and respect that is becoming rare these days. We go above and beyond but sometimes lines are crossed and we are finally saying no more. Our reviews speak for themselves. Our customers will vouche for us. And our quality birds speak for the love and dedication poured into them.
2024 our New Year’s resolution is to continue supporting our customers and birds while not depriving ourselves of self care due to bullying and disrespect. New Year, new us❤️
