Fluker Farms AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! Filthy

I used to use Flukers yrs ago. I now use a competitor Armstrong I get a cpl of these bettles in my orders but nowhere near that many. You should have asked for a refund and taken your business elsewhere. You should have voiced your displeasure and if you were that upset sent a written letter to the owner of the company explaining why you would never order from them again. Hit a company where it really hurts, in the wallet. Esp in these tough economic times companies cant afford to lose any customers even small orders add up and affect the bottom line.

Houwever, I dont think they deserve a bad guy thread esp since they volunteered to give you a replacement order and then gave you your $$ back.

Originally Posted by Chris Kennard

I disagree. Their were no statements provided at all. If Sandra asked a hundred people if they disagree with a post, and they simply say no or just nod, should she be required to post their names here? No third party was quoted as implicating, or even insuating any wrongdoing by the company in question in any way. Some people here take things too far. JMHO

Regardless of what your opinion might be, I'm afraid that I am the one who makes the rules here. And when push comes to shove, it is my interpretation of those rules that really counts. Quite simply, if you make such statements without naming the SOURCE (as in NAME of person or persons making such statements that you are quoting, regardless of how many that may entail), then you will incur an infraction for an ANONYMOUS THIRD PARTY QUOTE.

Please let me know if you need any further help interpreting the rules here.

I order from flukers every 2 weeks,if i ever had a issue with a order they refunded me asap or sent me a replacement,i also had these beetles in my order but not as much

but flukers is great when it comes to fixing these issues and making things right for the customers

I apologize for paraphrasing, but this

Originally Posted by Alexandrina

they should be shut down. I am going to contact the authorities and find out if the health dept , agriculture dept , or whoever might oversee businesses like this should be pressed in to conducting an investigation. Someone told me that shipping pest species over state lines is a federal offense. ( I have no idea whether that's true, but if it is, I hope they get nailed.)
...
If you decide to order from them, you may get a high DOA level if the crickets are diseased. You'll probably also get mites and who knows what else if their warehouse is filthy enough to support this infestation level of flesh eating beetles.
...
they are not only ripping customers off, they are endangering our health and the environment. It may also be mail fraud.

Seems unreasonable to me considering

Originally Posted by Alexandrina

If they had responded differently and assured me that they take the issue seriously and would do an in-house inspection and cleaning, I would have given them the benefit of a doubt and dropped this issue.

So their response is what did it? Because in my opinion it seemed pretty fair, but vice-versa not so much. Not the BOI thread or anything, you do have a valid complaint and I can understand you being mad, I'm talking about trying to get them shut down using anything you can grasp at. You're trying to take away people's livelihood over this. Now I'm thinking that buying from Fluker's may come with a risk, but selling to you may come with a worse one. =\

BTW No conspiring clique here and I honestly don't mean to "attack" you, I'm just trying to state how things appear in my eyes.

Originally Posted by Alexandrina

I am furious with Flukers and now consider them to be an unethical business. IMO, they should be shut down. I am going to contact the authorities and find out if the health dept , agriculture dept , or whoever might oversee businesses like this should be pressed in to conducting an investigation. Someone told me that shipping pest species over state lines is a federal offense. ( I have no idea whether that's true, but if it is, I hope they get nailed.) From the way they responded to me it is obvious they know they have an issue and they don't care.

I believe the larvae are Dermestes maculatus. I am not an expert but the pattern on the larvae looks more like this species than lard beetles. If they are maculatus it means Flukers has a filthy warehouse and the beetles are feeding on massive amounts of dead crickets. If you decide to order from them, you may get a high DOA level if the crickets are diseased. You'll probably also get mites and who knows what else if their warehouse is filthy enough to support this infestation level of flesh eating beetles.

Wow, what a read! Lots of emotional driven statements that prove nothing. While I would not have been happy to get those "extras" in my shipment (before realizing what good they could do), I can't imagine letting that cause me to make false statements to others about how they might get diseased, dead crickets and MITES, if they ordered from Fluker's!!! MITES from crickets????

Call me crazy, but I just don't see how emotions have any place in a business transaction. Again, I can see being upset from the shipment, but that has nothing to do with the transaction part, itself. They DID agree to ship another order out...until you started threatening them. At that point, I too would have done the same thing by offering a refund and asking you to find another supplier.

I don't do business with Fluker's, as I no longer have a need for crickets. Had the OP come here with her recent experience and left out the crazy allegations, opinions, and emotions, I would have been more understanding. From some of the other statements, it sounds like I'm not the only one that felt this way.

Originally Posted by Alexandrina

You can defend Flukers if you want, but in my opinion, this is evidence of a filthy facility and bad customer service.

I'm not defending anyone. Just not seeing how you could come up with "this is evidence of a filthy facility and bad customer service" all of that with what you received. ESPECIALLY the "bad customer service" when they were extremely professional, courteous, and quick to fix their mistake!

Originally Posted by TattooLost

I personally see nothing to prove she received the amount of dead crickets and beetles she claimed. Just going by her reaction to all this, I personally am inclined to believe she is overreacting. Just so we're not arguing over more semantics instead of substance, let me clarify that this is just MY personal opinion. If others are inclined to agree, let them feel free to say so.

Did you miss this picture?



I order between 6-8000 crickets a week and I have never got that many larve in a months worth of orders. I understand why she is mad I pay for crickets not pests. I think she went a little overboard with the health department and threats, but she proved her case on the infestation with that picture.

The problem with that picture is that all the crickets seem to be in a fairly small container. It looks like a chinese take-out container, which gets narrower the deeper you go. If most of the crickets arrived dead, then the beetles would naturally rise to the top of the container, giving a perception that there are more beetle larvae than there should be. Without seeing the crickets and beetle larvae on a flat surface and then estimating the proportion of beetle larvae to crickets, it's hard to tell if this is "too many" beetle larvae or not. I estimate 75 beetle larvae in that photograph, but with an order of 3000 crickets, that's a proportion of only 2%.

I have no need for crickets so I've never used Flukers but the customer service after the subpar order was good as long as they followed through with the refund. I would never ever knowingly deal with the type of person that wants to cost you your job over a mistake. The op is a nightmare customer in my opinion.

Originally Posted by kerrek

Did you miss this picture?



I order between 6-8000 crickets a week and I have never got that many larve in a months worth of orders. I understand why she is mad I pay for crickets not pests. I think she went a little overboard with the health department and threats, but she proved her case on the infestation with that picture.

This is the statement I was referring to. That picture looks bad, but it in no way proves this statement. I'm not doubting she got a lot of beetles, or that she received a lot of dead crickets, but that picture does not back up her claim to me. I'm also using my judgement and the fact that she completely overreacted to this whole situation.

I am very displeased with my recent order. First of all, more than half the crickets were dead, secondly there were no where near 3000, more like 1000, and thirdly there were more of these strange larvae than there were crickets!

Originally Posted by snowgyre

The problem with that picture is that all the crickets seem to be in a fairly small container. It looks like a chinese take-out container, which gets narrower the deeper you go. If most of the crickets arrived dead, then the beetles would naturally rise to the top of the container, giving a perception that there are more beetle larvae than there should be. Without seeing the crickets and beetle larvae on a flat surface and then estimating the proportion of beetle larvae to crickets, it's hard to tell if this is "too many" beetle larvae or not. I estimate 75 beetle larvae in that photograph, but with an order of 3000 crickets, that's a proportion of only 2%.

There are over a hundred larva in that picture and no there shouldn't be that many in the order period. She paid for crickets not beetle larva 5-10 per thousand I would put up with getting that many in an order of 3000 crickets isn't acceptable.