# Not dead but may wish for it tomorrow....



## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

This year's hay purchase had been on problem after another. I go to the feed store, buy 10 bales to check the quality. Reasonable if not good, so go in to arrange delivery. 
The day before the delivery I get a call that the new shipment is heavier and I can either take less bales or pay more. I decide to pay more but, since the bales are heavier, I know it is not the same hay that I paid for. 
So into town I got to get one bale to check. It's over mature but acceptable. So I get a bale to try feeding and check for delivery time - early afternoon.
Of course as i'm doing chores, the truck shows up with half the load a 9:30 am. Their big truck lost it's transmission and they needed to delivery half today and the other half tomorrow morning. 
Tomorrow morning whiles away with no truck. When it shows up at noon, there is only one guy. Yesterday, the two of them only stacked the hay two or three high and the amount of hay I bought needs to be stacked 4 high to fit. Which I made clear.
This one guy tells me he can't stack 4 high and there is no way it's going to fit anyway. There is an exchange about it and I finally said I will stack it. And keep out of my way. A few words of the 4 letter variety drifted in the air about me.
I am not, as we horse people would put it, sound. But I was so angry, I hauled myself up on the stack and start shoving those 120 lb bales into the now difficult to reach 4th layer. It would have been much easier to stack if it had gone in 4 high from the back at the start when it could be stepped up.
Eventually, he started to help me. I don't know whether the sight of a overweight old woman shoving bales around was the motivation or whether I was taking too much time- I made it clear this was as fast as I would go- but together the hay got into the shed with room left over. 
One thing that really got me is when he said that he likes to deliver by himself as then he can go straight home.
But I'm paying for it now. Things are beginning to twinge and stiffen. I've taken aspirin on the assumption I will certain be wanting it soon.
Is this my future, where the younger generation will not do the hard work and I can't even hire it done? It's not like hay is cheap here and the delivery charge small.
But that is next year's problem. Tomorrow's chores will come soon enough. And I expect they will be done slow and creaky.


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## wannabfarmer (Jun 30, 2015)

I've always been curious when people getting paid to do a JOB decided it wasn't their JOB. I'm sorry to hear about your delivery. Especially when you were semi forced to not get what you wanted they should have been more than accommodating to your needs as a customer. I'm only 30 but I see the trends of society today and am fearful of my kids following the same lazy path that I'm sure their peers will follow. Lazy coupled with an I know everything attitude is par with a good portion of society today sadly.


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

Home you feel better. I have found that when we aren't feeling well with aches and paibs, it helps to take a benadryl or other that makes you drowsy. Seems to help us relax more and get settled at bed time.

We have had loads of trouble as well hiring people. It seems that keeping to a schedule and finishing the work they're being paid to do is almost unheard of. Drives me batty sometimes.

Don't know if it's practical. But, if I was in California, I"d probably try and arrange for the hay to get delivered and offloaded by the people near where you're storing it. I'd let them figure out unloading it on the ground and nit oay til it was done decently. Then, pop over to a home depot and hire a few day laborers to come after it was onsite to stack it up right where you want it. Don't know if that idea would work for you or not. 

We try and depend on others as little as possible because of it, and work to keep good, solid relationships with those we do good business with too.

Glad it's settled for you with the hay. Hope you find a better solution next year.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

I'm blessed in that I can get good hay for a good price and bales that aren't that heavy. Since I do all the loading and stacking of my hay, it's probably a good thing.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Did you notify the feed store of the problem and exchange? That would have been my first call as the guy was pulling out of the lane. If the price was supposed to include unloading I would consider calling the bbb or state attorney general. First they pull a bait and switch (agreement was at one price which they then raised for a lower quality product). Then they send a guy who cusses you and won't help unload. 

A cool shower or soak in a cool tub with a ben gay or icy hot rub after would help reduce swelling and inflammation. An anti-inflamatory pain killer at prescription dose will help too. 

I feel for you. Customer service has gone out the window. And it's so hard to get people to do what they are supposed to now.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

You said it was one problem after another. Not a quality product and bad customer service. I hope you have some alternatives for the next time you buy hay.

I just had a bad customer experience with a program where we buy LP and gasoline. After a discussion I asked them if they could total the amt. we spent on gasoline in 2014. I did not say why. Today I started buying our gasoline at another supplier. Yes, it is not as convenient but I think the price per gallon was lower and I was able to get a higher octane. I figure we spend anywhere between $1500 and $2200 per year on gasoline. 

We'll stay with their LP program as long it is in our best interests but I will do comparisons with what other companies offer, annually. I think today, the only way to let the people that you do business with know that things are not satisfactory, is to take away that business. :hrm:


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

I agree, light rain. I've found there's very little room to fix or improve problems nowadays. Seems we've had far more success with moving on and looking for alternatives when there is a problem.


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## Vahomesteaders (Jun 4, 2014)

Stories like this make me thankful I make my own hay. You might be better off finding a local farmer to buy your hay from who will deliver.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Unfortunately local hay, baled in damp, foggy weather, does not keep over winter. If you can find any that is good in the first place. And even very expensive hay ( right now about $375 a ton for grass with a bit of alfalfa) has its problems. 
There was the year of baled curly dock, about 20% of each bale. Took me years of pulling weeds to get rid of most of that. There was the year of baled dirt clods so big I could barely lift them. Yellow star thistle meant breaking appart each flake and removing it. Thistle had its year. Then came the years of gravel. I had to break open a bale shake the rocks out. It sounded like a hail storm as it fell out. I made whole garden paths out of this. The gravel has slowly reduced over the last three years and this last doesn't seem to be much. 
This is the result of living in a place where travel is far and the biggest trucks can't get in at all. The only thing that keeps feed prices in any kind of check at all is the local dairy industry. 
Hay is a constant problem.


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## wannabfarmer (Jun 30, 2015)

This is the exact reason that I'm looking for a larger property and getting a small tractor and doing it myself. My wife thinks we can have a mini farm on 5 acres and be fine. Could we be fine on 5 acres? Absolutely but it would cause more problems. My plan is to be somewhere between 20 and 30 acres so we can produce our own hay and have enough room to do whatever we want. We aren't going to have a ton of livestock but I want elbow room. We are coming out of philly where we can touch our house c and our neighbors house at the same time. 
Thanks for sharing this as it might convince her of a bigger property.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

Wannabe, where are you looking to locate?


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## wannabfarmer (Jun 30, 2015)

We are currently in ohio but are deciding between here or the Carolinas. We have family in the Carolinas so I'm thinking that is where we will end up, but you never know where life will take you.


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## Oldshep (Mar 28, 2015)

Its just part of having a small farm.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

we are fortunate that we have had a older women and husband get hay for us. For the past few years we paid $1.50 for good nice size quality hay. We pick up and stack ourselves and this year the price went up..!!! Now $2 a bale. I understand some of you are paying a lot more. Since we can only store about 100 bales at a time in our little barn she keeps it in her large barn and we get it when we need it through the winter months. So..guess I can't complain.


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