Worm Weight Loss During Shipping
Good question from John:
Hi Bentley, What is acceptable weight loss for worms in transit? I ordered 10 pounds of reds from {Business Name Omitted}. The box came across the p.o. scales at 9# 11 oz. The empty box/bags were 13oz making the worms and peat under 8#. They were shipped Mon and delivered Wed am. The box did not have any air holes for moisture to escape. I want to get into the business and this doesn’t seem quite right. {Business Name Omitted} has not answered my enquiry. Thanks
I actually responded to John already via email, but then decided this should be posted where everyone can see it. Obviously I’m not going to name names here, but I’ll be honest – there is ONE particular name that continues to come up over and over again (in emails I receive) linked with reports of poor product and terrible customer service. It makes me angry, and I’m tired of seeing people taken advantage of – so I felt it was important to say something about it.
With that out of the way, here is gist of what I said to John about worm weight loss during shipping…
YES – there absolutely can (and usually will) be some weight loss during the shipping of composting worms. After all, they are basically just little bags of water. They are shipped in boxes with dry bedding materials – so it’s inevitable that there will be some moisture loss. This may be especially true during warmer months (as you might imagine). Generally speaking, this isn’t something you should obsess over or worry to much about.
That being said…
During the winter, if you receive less than 8 lb worms AND peat moss for a 10 lb worm order, you’re not being treated fairly. If that was only worm-weight I could maybe see how it could be reasonable (especially during warmer months), but even that’s a stretch. Bottom-line, there is NO way your order ever contained 10 lb of worm biomass, if your final weight includes the peat most they were shipped in (and is still below 8 lb).
I know from experience that shipping live worms is not without its challenges. There are certainly cases where customers are difficult to please regardless of how much care and attention you put into the harvesting/packing/shipping process, or how hard you try to make things right. As such, I try to avoid taking a “soap box” stance about these sorts of things as much as possible.
But when the same name comes up over and over, and OVER again – it just gets a little ridiculous! If you are a worm supplier and you receive a LOT of complaints (many of which you seem to ignore), perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate how you do business. Perhaps it’s time to put more focus on product quality and customer care/satisfaction than on marketing and revenue generation. Aside from the value of actually helping others – this just makes good sense from a long-term business perspective!
News travels fast these days – especially bad news. So it’s only a matter of time before these sorts of practices will come back to bite you!
Written by Bentley on January 31st, 2013 with
15 comments.
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#1. January 31st, 2013, at 1:02 PM.
Man oh man – I think I really opened a “can-o-worms” with this one! lol
Sorry folks – if you make reference to who you think I’m talking about, the comment will be removed.
Definitely not trying to wage war with this post (and associated comments). More of a warning – and not just to the company in question.
Thanks for your co-operation!
