Comments regarding eFowl.com

I was stunned to find this company listed as a "Top 5" for anything. Maybe they've cleaned up their act, but they are responsible for the worst online buying experience I have ever had.

In December 2010 I ordered several Khaki Campbell ducklings from them, because they said they had them available. By the end of February I still had not gotten my birds. At first when I called they were very apologetic, promised me priority service, etc. Twice they told me they had shipped, and twice I had no birds arrive. Keep in mind, you have to pick up live birds from the post office, so I spent those failed deliveries at home waiting by the phone. After giving me the runaround for two months they were increasingly rude to me, blamed their supplier, and made excuses about being the middleman. Towards the end of this ordeal I was talking to voicemail and not getting called back. I finally had to hunt down their information and file a BBB complaint against them.

"On Apr 4, 2012 1:36 PM, eFowl.com responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. Our records indicate the customer placed the order on 12/29/10. We originally had the order scheduled to hatch and ship on 01/24/11. This was the initial hatching date for Khaki Campbells for the season. Thus, production levels can be unpredictable, and we did have to delay the order. We rescheduled the order for 02/07/11, but again had to delay it due extremely cold weather which prevented safe shipping. At this point, we refunded the customer 20% of the total order cost, as compensation for the inconvenience. The order was successfully shipped and delivered the week of 02/14/11, and the customer reported successful delivery on 02/17/11. The repeated delays were an unfortunately, albeit atypical customer experience."

I ordered 15 Jersey Giant hens, and was pretty disappointed when two were dead the first day, another one the next. They refunded the money for two, but five of the hens (blacks), are not Jersey Giants. Two of the 10 white chickens are roosters.

It wasn't all bad. They sent an extra one, so I have 13 nice chickens, and even though the black ones are not Jersey Giants, they are cute in their own way. The only problem is the real Giants are getting much bigger, and bullying them. And of course, now I have two roosters I was not expecting.

"On Apr 4, 2012 1:16 PM, eFowl.com responded with:

Thank you for your feed back. I apologize that you received two mis-sexed birds. Generally, sexing is about 95% accurate, but we do guarantee 100% accurate sexing on orders less that 50 chicks (with 95% accuracy on larger orders). If you report a mis-sexing to us within 60 days of receiving your order, we are more than happy to compensate your for that error."