[Chookster]

This is a weird one but I feel that I should warn people of what's happened.  I don't understand it but it has caused me and one or two others I know doing the same as me a lot of irritation.

I produce quite a few quails per month and I also sell my chickens and ducks too.  I had a 'customer' ring up, very interested in all that I sell, especially my olive green egg layers and the quails. 

He asked me to produce 300 quail chicks for him and he would pay me cash.  I told him when they were due and we agreed to make contact again when they started hatching to arrange collection.

I phoned him at the weekend and we arranged that he would collect them on the Monday morning.  Well, half eleven came and so I rang him to ask what time he would be coming 'this morning'.  He then delayed til he had had his lunch - a bit annoying as I had waited in all morning for him, had deliveries to do for my loyal customers and had birds at home waiting to get to the farm.  I went off to make a cup of tea and when I came back - I had receivede a text message saying - sorry to be a pain but I had a customer bring 500 in this morning for half the price of yours - any movement on the price at all??

Well this was very annoying and a smack in the teeth seeing as we'd arranged everything and agreed the terms.  I tried to call him but nothing.  The next day I text him with an offer but again nothing.  I was left with all these chicks which were supposed to be with me temporarily and then taken away to his facilities which I believed to be much better than mine for raising so many chicks and now the poor things were overcrowded at my facilities.  I was going to use the money to get properly set up at the farm in future and also to buy in more poultry etc for my business.

I thought I had just been a bit naive, should have taken a deposit  and that although i was extremely angry at his tossy and arrogant attitude towards the whole affair I would learn by this experience.

Until.....

this evening - I went to buy some chicks from a fellow chicken lady and I told her a bit about me and what I was doing and she said "I don't suppose this guy's name was Chris was it???"

I couldn't believe it - she has had a similar experience with him leaving her disrupted also.

What is he up to messing people around like this?? NOt only that but I have lost money, had my incubators full when I could have been supplying other customers and lucky for me I sell quails and raise them but for God's sake don't buy anything in especially for him and DO take a deposit - better still - really, don't deal with him.  He has caused a lot or irritation and annoyance.  I believe he is based near Ramsgate - he advertises on Preloved amongst other places and appears to have rather a lot to sell including expensive cats, poultry and so on.

If anyone else has dealt with him I hope they did get their money and that it wasn't fake money!

Hope you're all well, Chookster.X

[joyfull]

Chookster - so sorry to hear this, ahat a pain.
I am just going to pop this over to the chicken chat section as it's probably more appropriate there.

[Chookster]

thanks Joyfull.  Just don't get what his game is???  Any ideas??xXx

[joyfull]

guess he was hoping you will let him have them for next to nothing probably.
I know Grannie Annie had somebody a couple of years ago who kept stalling her about collecting some turkeys - he ordered 50 days olds off her and then kept making excuses as to why he couldn't collect. Well turkeys eat an awful lot so obviously the older they got the more expensive they became and he didn't like the new price so never collected them. Turkeys take up an awful lot of room so it left Annie with a bit of a problem but luckily for her she had several huge freezers for them to end up in - kept her going all year 

[Chookster]

Gosh - that's a very similar story! Same thing though - I was bursting at the seems with the poor little things.  They're all ok now though - although I had some horrid losses due to overcrowding 

[GrannieAnnie]

Doesn't seem worth putting my story on here now, Joy beat me to it!


I don't know what he's playing at apart from trying to get on the cheap, but then why not answer your calls ?  I hate people like this.  We had a similar situation 2 years ago.  Chap came to buy some chooks off us, seemed really nice, and when we told him about us growing turkeys, asked if we'd get him 45 day olds.  We said he would have to pay up front BEFORE we went to collect because of the money.  He agreed.  He called me twice to up the order to 60 then 80 poults and promised to pop the money round.

The day before we went to collect the poults, I rang him and asked where he was.  Up in Scotland he said.  Oh when are you collecting the turkeys?  Tomorrow I told him!  I'll come rund tomorrow night and pick them up he said.  But Brian said leave it until Tuesday morning so they can get a rest in the brooder.  He never turned up.  I called him and he said he was busy will be there in a day or 2.  Then I called again and he said he was having trouble getting the money that was owed him from the man in Scotland.  I know the feeling I said!

I'll be over Thursday, he never showed up.  When the poults were 3 weeks old I emailed and said if he wasn't here by the time they were 5 weeks old I was selling them on as growers at £10 each and that's what he would have to pay.  He never turned up and stopped answering the phone!

We managed to sell 30 of the 80 as growers, but after Christmas we were left with 50 full grown turkeys!  and it cost us nearly £400 to buy a BIG shop freezer and get it delivered, and in the first 3 months of using it, our electricity bill doubled, so we ended up giving most of the turkeys away, switched off the freezer and swapped it in part exchange for a hindquarter of Dexter beef!

We've never eaten so much turkey in all our lives as we did that year!

I hate people who do these things.  I hope someone does the same to this chris as he's done to you Chookster!

[Chookster]

right - this is now worse - I have spoken to one or two others 'in the loop'.  He has even threatened one person.

[mumofstig]

Report him to the police just in case things get worse..................

[GrannieAnnie]

Threatened them with what?  He's the one messing people about.

Like MumofStig said, he should be reported.  You could also complain to Prelived and other places he's on.

[chookies]

i know him well he has struck 6 times with me now he needs to be stopped and i will help you all the way hun ,had threats of him stopping me selling, threatening me with defra, knowing that i had just started out and then i wasnt too sure what i was doing, he made me nearly give up everything i had and tried to trick me into buying 300 pol hens from him to sell to a person that i know now doesnt exist!! i was risking 2,000 big ones and nearly lost the whole lot because i put my trust in someone i didnt know he appeared charming and genuine saying he has been breeding poultry for over 7 years.
 but not now he has screwed me over so many times now i will not be having it anymore im a young girl trying to rescue animals and breed and sell  my own to pay for food costs i dont need people like that in my life, we wont let him get away with this anymore, contact me if you need any support thanks chookies farm xx

[Chookster]

I'll contact the auctions - and Michelle on here re Maidstone ones - see if they can do what we said about a flyer on the auction list to warn people, and will see what the police say tomorrow.  Will keep you informed.X

[Yorkie]

Sorry to hear about this awful set of circumstances.

From the brief facts posted here - and of course they will not be the full story - you will probably find that the police will not get involved at this stage.  Breach of contract is not a criminal matter.

I have spoken to one or two others 'in the loop'.  He has even threatened one person.

Assuming this is a threat of violence, it will need to be the person threatened who formally reports it - the police can't really act on the hearsay of someone else.

Certainly go down the concerted action route to alert others - but be very careful not to get too specific because of the slander / libel rules.  And that applies on this forum as well - please don't enable this person to be identified on here or John could get into legal trouble.

[John]

Whilst I don't want to end up with legal cases, thanks Yorkie, people like this make me sick.  There's been a tradition in farming that a person's word is kept - but these people destroy trust.

Ideally you should have a written contract and a deposit with people you don't know.  Then if they don't go through with the agreement you have cause to sue. However, you can't get blood out of a stone and winning in court is not getting paid.

The person who welshed on Grannie Annie also tried to do me - he'd paid for work done that he was happy with (a web site) until some idiot in the pub said he could have done it for tenth of the price. Of course, this wannabe web designer hadn't a clue what he was doing and couldn't even cut 'n' paste

So the welsher claimed the payment he'd made via PayPal was a fraudulent transaction who froze my account for 3 days until we got them to believe us.

We had the last laugh, I fulfilled my part of the contract to the letter and to the day it ended. Then that was it - no I won't extend the contract, no I cannot advise you on how to transfer to other hosting (it's very easy)

so he lost his investment in a new site and started again.

As for the quail man - what goes around, comes around.

[Chookster]

John - if anything needs to be removed on here, please do.  I don't want to get anyone into trouble.  I want to warn people and hopefully help to stop this happening though - hopefully he'll get bored of this game the more people know - but he seems to have been at it for years???

[John]

We're OK Chookster - personally I'd like to put his name, address and phone number up but cooler legal heads protect me from myself.

What really annoys me is that this is livestock who could suffer. Annie was left with a load of growing turkeys that required space she was hard pressed to find. 300 birds is not a small number, even of quail for you.

You were foolish not to take a deposit in one way but it's very, very sad that you should need to.