Wow!!! When Jeff shipped me my birds in January, they arrived all sitting on an affixed perch, with millet spray, plenty of seed and a water cup all in the container. There was a natural sponge in the water cup that contained the water, which was attached to the bottom of the carrier. All 9 of the birds sang the whole car ride home and have been healthy/happy ever since. He emailed me @ 10pm letting me know that my birds arrived and were waiting for me @ my post office. He asked me to message him as soon as the birds were home to let him know how everything went. He is such a nice guy. Don't think i'll order from the farm again, now that Jeff is gone. He was definitely the bird lover in the business. The site has changed enormously since then. Filled with lots of products and other retail items. The site use to have finches and a choice of 2 starter cage sets. That's it!!! Looks like someone is out to do more than sell great birds...such a shame when it becomes about money and not about the animals ...
Actually, for all my troubles, I would purchase from them again - but not anytime soon. I would wait a while to be sure everything is running smoothly once again. Although I got my birds, I'm not sure if they are back to 100% operations yet.
I am very pleased with the birds I received and I do think Shirley was put in a bad position. I do think some things could have been done differently (putting the sales on hold until things were better resolved mainly) but I did get my birds only 1 week later than expected in the end. Bugaboo mentions dealings with Jeff earlier in this thread where she states he's not got much experience with birds, but is a business man. I don't know if that came directly from his mouth or what. With the exception of the food offered, I thought everything else in the packing was done fine - they had plenty of water, box was comfortable, soft shavings added to keep the poop at bay & provide comfort, and they had a perch installed. The birds did chirp away once we got in my car.
All in all, I really think I just had the bad luck of ordering during the one week where all went haywire temporarily. I'm sure if someone was to place an order a month from now, it would go smoothly, as were orders that were placed prior to mine.
If you'd like to see my new birds, here's a thread with pics I posted just tonight:
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24264