Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Whats is the deal with cage builders. Do they wait to have the money in hand before they build them. I ordered 2 cages on the 6 th of May. I was told 5 days they would be here. Today is the 21 st and still no cages. I was told wrong color material and machine broke down. My advice to all cage makers. If you plan to run a sell on your cages. Build alot of them to have on hand and then advertise your sell. Also have back up parts for your machines. Sorry If i am told something then i expext it to happen. Sorry just my little venting for the day.
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Thanks and Take Care
Thomas Jones

ur kidding right?

Look at it from a BUSINESS standpoint. They have lets say 5K in pre-built cages, thats alot of out of pocket money, time and energy for something that MAY or may not sell.

The key to any small business is cashflow.

Im not backing up their business practices, but to outlay that much money in advance is just not a good idea.

Daniel c, ur kidding right?

A cage builder making a couple hundred K a year on cages with no cages in stock, now thats a joke.

Seriously, 5 K in inventory is nothing, there are some real good cage builders out there. but with very bad business sence. and they all seem to give us a 2 week delivery window before they get our money and that quickly turns into 2 months after they recieve your money. Ed

Cage builders are like cabinet builders...they only start when the money is there or at least a deposit (depends on the size of the cage builder). Now, it could be a busy time for cage builders, hence why they ran out of material, or their supplier may be slow to ship etc. This can happen with any construction/building business. Its annoying yes, but not much you can do. You can complain to the business, they may throw in something extra (light fixture, gormets, etc whatever) to ensure you are a happy customer despite the delay. Some won't, it really depends on them. They may even offer a discount on your next cage purchase...definitely something you can ask for.

Another thing, having a large selection of pre made caged lying around means storage space is used up, space that could be used for materials etc. Again depends on the company's size and how much space they have to use up for 'display' cages. It also depends on what size/type/color cage you ordered. If it it isn't the most commonly requested design/color etc, having pre made cages of that kind, is really pointless, as it may never sell or be years of sitting there..and designs may change or colors no longer be available, or other modifications which may not make it compatible with later models.

Only thing you can do is express your frustration and disappointment to the cage manufacture. Only they can address your concerns and help alleviate them. If they value customer experience, they may give you something to reward your patience etc. But don't expect it will happen every time there is a problem.
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PHLdyPayne

Maybe I am getting to impatient in my old age. I know all about trying to do business with very little cash flow. That is my most companies fail. When they go to get money to start the business they get just enough to get going.It is not all about having stock. Once they found out the machine was down then I should of got an e-mail saying my cages would be delayed for a few more days. I should not have had to call them asking if my cages where shipping. Then I get well your not the only one waiting for cages. WTH does that have to do with my situation. Like that is supposed to make me feel better. I only have time to worry about my cages and animals not everyone else. Speaking of customer service atleast this company replied to my e-mails. I still have not recieved an e-mail from one of the major plastic cage makers it was sent on May 4.Oh well guess I gotta learn to be more patient. Good luck to everyone this season.
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Thanks and Take Care
Thomas Jones

agreed........but both sides have a point. Can't have a whole warehouse of cages and racks taking up space but at the same I think a lot of people just "don't get it" when it comes to customer service. It's one thing to be busy and miss a phone call or have your inbox flooded with emails. But to accept someones hard earned money for an order and then build the cages,racks,whatever, on your own time with no communication to the customer is just not good service. At the very least an estimated delivery time should be given and if that is delayed then a phone call and/or email should follow with a valid reason. Do some basic searches, there have been a lot of complaints about delivery time with some of the bigger caging companies.
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Jon F

Buy a Vision rack. I ordered mine on a Friday and got it the next Wednesday. It tood me thirty minutes to set it up, and I had a perfectly good rack system. As far as cost goes, I see the metal rack systems for over 3k each, and I bought an 11 high rack for about 800 shipped. The way I see it, I would get 33 cages for $2400, and that is about 1k less than those metal heavy cages. I can also buy them one rack at a time, so as not to have thirty holes and ten snakes. I was convinced by Greg Graziani (who helped design the vision racks) to try one. I couldn't have done any better if I had tried. Plus, the guys at Vision are top notch on customer service. These racks are already made and ready to ship. OK enough of my free advertising, but you can't stop saying good things about a style of cage when you are so happy with it. I can't wait until I have about twenty full ones in my snake building.