Last month, I purchased a "butterfly adoption kit" at Michigan Native Butterfly Farm (MNBF) trailer at the Hennepin County Fair. I have purchased caterpillars three times in the past from Insect Lore. All three times, at the very least half of the caterpillars survived and became butterflies. The ones I purchased from MNBF, however, ALL died within a couple days.
I called and asked if they were willing to send me replacements since none of the caterpillars lived. The first comment/response was "Well, we can't control what happens after you buy them". Huh?? This isn't rocket science, the entirety of the instructions is "Step 1. Put somewhere out of direct sunlight"...The End! That's it. And sorry, but every company on the planet can make that same claim, trying to blame the customer. Every one of them. So what's the purpose, other than to try your best to NOT take responsibility? You provided a product that did not perform as it's intended, no different then buying a broken TV. How many times has anyone been asked "well, you took this TV home and we don't know what you did with it after that".
She did eventually agree to ship me new caterpillars if I paid the shipping. Gee, thanks. Well since my daughter already had cried that her caterpillars died, not like I have much choice, so ok, I'll pay shipping. I was very amicable and reasonable in discussions, and in an email, I suggested that it would be a great customer service if they decided to upgrade me from the ground shipping to 2nd day to make sure they survived this time. Did they choose to? Nope. Frankly, given the attitude I felt like I got, I'm surprised they agreed to ship new ones at all. Very disappointing from, as she liked to mentioned during our discussion, a "professional" breeding company. When my caterpillars finally arrived, they had sent basically adults, the very next day some started on their chrysalis. So much for watching them grow now too.
Obviously I don't expect anything from MNBF, you've made it clear you don't want to help some single customer that may have tried feeding the caterpillars chocolate and beer when I got home, I mean, who knows what I did! But maybe someone will see this and choose to purchase from a company that values ALL customers. read more