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Russell Apiaries

231K views 504 replies 148 participants last post by  jim lyon 
#1 ·
Anyone have recent contact with Russell Apiaries? Placed an on-line order for queens with them on Jan 20. Payment went through but I have never received an order confirmation from them and all attempt to contact them have failed.
 
#358 ·
After months of sending emails I finally received a response from Russell Apiaries today. They only owe me 137 bucks but I still want it back. I feel bad for all the problems they have had and wish the company the best but I still want my money back and would like to see them pay everybody back. Here's what the email said:

Thank you for contacting us. Your request has been recorded and will be reviewed and processed as soon as possible.

Russell Apiaries
 
#362 ·
I also sent an email requesting my order be transferred to 2013 but asked for confirmation and contact of who would be filling my order. I received both and have been in contact with the state supplier. I feel much better knowing I will be dealing with a producer who will be more accessible.
 
#363 ·
Status Update

I had ordered my queens in February for delivery in June. Numerous e-mails were sent to Russell with only two responses. In addition, I posted a number of requests for refunds on their website – most of which were deleted. I continued to post on their site and they eventually allowed them to stay up. I also established a dispute with American Express asking for a refund back in late August/early September.

I eventually had a set of e-mails from the PA producer, who seems to be a stand-up guy, asking if I wanted to wait till 2013 for my queens. I didn’t want to wait and continued to ask for a refund. Roy from RA then e-mailed to also ask if I wanted to wait till 2013 or get queens now (I am in PA and have no interest in setting up a split in September or October…). I let him know I just wanted the refund to which he then said one had been made. I expected it to hit my AE card within a few days. Ahhh - It didn’t though.

Six weeks after Roy told me that a refund had been issued, I received a notice from American Express that RA had not contested my dispute (by not responding to it) and that I would be credited with the full amount of my order. So, five months after I was supposed to get my queens and two months after I made my initial dispute request to American Express, I finally got my money back.

Apparently, RA has had an amazingly bad string of luck with several worst case issues hitting them over the span of a few months. Those issues are why their service has gotten so crappy. Regardless, they are in business and need to handle their operations like a business.

The lessons I took away from their errors are that: they needed to let people know ASAP there were huge issues impacting their ability to provide queens/nucs; they needed to tell their customers when/how those issues were going to be resolved; they needed to STOP taking new orders till they got squared away with their issues and all the outstanding orders; and they needed to can Victoria who ranks as perhaps one of the poorest examples of a customer service rep I have ran across.

Had RA been honest with the issues facing them by telling me up-front why my order hadn’t been shipped: I would said “Oh – not good. Send me the queens next year when you guys get squared away and prayers out.” Instead, I, along with a very large contingent of other beekeepers, will never order directly from them again. What a waste of a good company that spiraled down due to stupid decisions to ignore their customers verses being honest with what was going on.

Finally, I want to thank Barry for allowing an honest discussion of RAs customer service. A dog pile didn't ensue and the thread had the common goal of figuring out how to get our money back. While working through this issue, I also posted a very honest assessemnt on other forums of the challanges we were all having of getting our bees/refund. One of these forums was notable and will forever be on my "never to be visited again" list due to their site owner (aka Chief Bee/King bee or whatever the absurd term he used) for having the fortitude of a worm. That forum will remain unnamed but should be embarrassed by how they facilitated RA into duping new customers to order from RA by allowing numerous positive reviews yet deleting any honest assessments of RA’s service for this year.
 
#364 ·
David, To be fare to RA your refund was most likely held up due to the dispute you filed with your credit card company. I know this has happened to me in the past. one the CC Co. hold a transaction. Everything is on hold including a refund.
 
#366 ·
Daniel - that actually isn't true. I had one other dispute with a vendor about three months ago. I put the dispute request in with American Express and the next day the vendor realized they had not shipped the item and refunded the money. The dispute was closed two days after it was opened: not six weeks later due to "no response".
 
#367 ·
This is my last post on Russell... Just took a look at their website and they are now only accepting orders from commercial operations. All small orders will go through their subproducers. Personally, I think this is a good thing. Their genetics will still be available and you now deal with local operations (where you likely know the guy you are buying from). I don't have issues ordering queens from the PA guy (Jason) when I figure out what I want for the spring.

I sincerely hope Russell manages through the issues they have had over the last year. Hope everyone that is still owed a refund manages to work out getting your bees/cash as well.
 
#368 ·
Dr. Russell, it has now been one full year since you charged my card.
IMO practice used should be made illegal, since its to late to file a complaint by the time one develops.
I want my money refunded to the same credit card my purchase was made on.
Please follow that up with a personal email, so I am aware that said task has been accomplished.
Thank You,

BM
(you have my email, I replied several weeks ago and got no reply)
russelltransfers@yahoo.com
 
#369 ·
brushmouth, just go to your own cc company and file the dispute. They will take care of you pronto. Look up the date of your transaction and bingo, taken care of.

I also went to my cc company as has a few others. No problem, refund taken care of. RA will say the dispute held them up, but again not so. They just hope you go away and give up.

Good luck, as Nike says, just do it!
 
#370 ·
Unfortunately, I paid using a credit union's Visa Debit card and according to them, I have no recourse due to being so much time between paying for the order and the proposed ship date. In the mean time, still waiting, although at this point, not holding my breath. Good luck in their commercial endeavors after all this publicity. I don't understand why a sub producer would even want to be associated with it.
 
#374 ·
Well, I just needed to update what my cc company was able to do. Unfortunately after 6 weeks of I thought being successful and getting my charges back, they were unable to credit me. The response was that since my charges are over 45 days they are unable to do anything with paypal. In addition RA and paypal said that the products, dead queens and drone layer, were not returned so I couldn't have both, dead queens and a refund. Duh, I didn't think to do that!
So, good luck, hopefully we've warned enough beekeeps to stay away from this outfit!
 
#376 ·
I just attempted to access the RA website. I received an "Access Requested"(?) notice when I entered my username/email and password. I figured I'd try an alternate username/password that I use sometimes and that brought up a new user registration window. So, they acknowledged me as being a registered user but for some reason don't want me to have access unless they allow it. :scratch: Interesting communication there.

On another RA communication note... I attempted to contact the RA-Alabama sub. The only contact point was via a form on their website. I left the message probably a couple of weeks ago and have yet to receive a response from them...I was asking where they were located. Other subs might be different and more responsive. One thing that I have noticed about the sub's is that they mostly all use the same template for their website structure, you can only contact them through a "form mail" application inside their websites, and little information about the owner of the "sub" or precise location (city/town) is given. Throughout all of the RA drama of the last couple of years I've stayed neutral being as I "don't have a dog in this fight" and all that I know about it is heresay. But, the lack of response from the RA-Alabama sub and the "Access Requested" notice on Russell's website definitely isn't conducive to good customer relations. It's hard to figure out why go to all the trouble of these satellite websites if you're going to ignore prospective customers...it just seems strange. Maybe other sub locations are more approachable and responsive...?????????
:kn:

Ed
 
#431 ·
<snip>

On another RA communication note... I attempted to contact the RA-Alabama sub. The only contact point was via a form on their website. I left the message probably a couple of weeks ago and have yet to receive a response from them...I was asking where they were located. <snip>
Ed
I need to post that the above statement that I made is wrong. Greg/Sonny *did* respond in a timely manner. I was at fault for having used a spam-collection email address for the reply to go to. After all of the recent drama regarding Robert Russell and Russell Apiaries I sincerely do not wish to falsely state anything associated with this situation. My apologies to all concerned. Ed
 
#377 ·
Intheswamp,
Just be forwarned that your comfortable losing any $$$ spent on nucs, Queens and time that you send and spend with any of these outfits. If you don't mind losing the money, losing the nuc's you set up for queens that are DOA, or losing the nuc's set up for replacements that never come, go for it. Then this outfit is the one for you. But if you work hard for the $$, want a person to verify your shipping dates and actually deliver a living viable product, help with any shipping problems, go somewhere else....

P.S. I did/do have a dog in the fight with the main RA and hopefully I can keep someone like myself from trying this outfit again. Good luck...I was kind of like you in trying to stay neutral and went ahead and ordered thinking it wouldn't happen to me. Bingo, just like the others, they take the $$ and after the time is up with paypal, you are out of luck ever getting any resolution. So, if you order, order and pick up while you still have time to set up a dispute with paypal for a resolution. My fault, I ordered in good faith a year in advance. Not good with this outfit!! Then they will later come back and if your queens fail or are DOA if you don't save and send back the DOA queens they say you kept the product and you can't have the product and a refund both. Truly a learning experience that others have also learned along the way with this outfit. Be ready to protect yourself...
 
#378 ·
Just be forwarned that your comfortable losing any $$$ spent on nucs, Queens and time that you send and spend with any of these outfits. Be ready to protect yourself...

I love how the children are punished for the sins of their fathers....

As far as I can tell, none of these micro producers are even taking orders yet. With that said, the lady that I help with her bees with must be one of the "few" that got her bees. Had a queen that failed replaced and the ones she has are doing fine.

I'm all about being cautious with what you buy and who your buying from. But, I don't think you should be bashing the sub producers that are doing nothing more than passing on the genetics from RA. As far as I can tell, they are all independently owned and operated.

*shrugs*
 
#380 ·
Russell's PA ( Jason Varner ) honored my queen order from the original Russell's that they never sent me, and wouldn't reply to my requests for info. The queen he sent me is doing fine. I have ordered two nucs from him for next spring and have no reason to believe that there will be any issues. I have traded several emails with Mr. Varner and he has always been responsive. If you check out his website, you will read a touching story about his grandfather's beekeeping experiences. I believe that it is not fair to hold the new sub-producers responsible for the issues of the original Russell's organization and am looking forward to getting my nucs this spring. It does appear that many of the subs are still in the very beginning of getting established, but that does not appear to be the case of Russell's PA.
 
#381 ·
I'm just relaying the little that I've experienced in regards to the RA situation. I'm sure there are some good folks at some (if not all) of these "sub" producers. I wish them the best success...for them and the bees. It does cause pause for thought in regards to taking on a business name that does have some bad publicity associated with it. Russell had/has some good genetics and with the dwindling gene pool that we have it would be a shame to lose those. Time will settle things out with RA and the RA-subs...either there will be a customer base for them or there won't be. I would imagine time will also smooth over the rough waves that have been associated with RA. Whatever the case, I hope the genetics aren't lost.

In retrospect, it would have been better for Russell to have started out selling to the small beeks through subs rather than directly...I don't think we would be seeing the anger (anti-RA) or elevated defensiveness (pro-RA) that we are seeing from those people even vaguely involved.

The "anit" and the "pro" crowd are simply responding in turn to how they have been treated...either "you screwed me, I'm against you" or "you did ok by me, I'm for you". Beekeepers should not be this divided which makes me (getting a little out of neutral area) look at what has caused the division. :(

The bottom line to me is that if someone owes someone something, be it money, bees, apology, forgiveness, whatever..., then that "something" should be paid to the person that it's owed to. If that person refuses to pay that debt then they themselves affix the label of crook or thief or simply lowlife scumbag to themselves...it's their choice.

Ed
 
#382 ·
I'd have to think long and hard about becoming a sub producer for a company that straight up stole so many beekeepers hard earned cash. I've been fighting for a refund for almost a year now and I'm tired of it. I don't give a crap about the quality of any of the subs, they work for the same thief that stole so much money from so many people. I had ordered queens in the past from Russells but those two good experiences are overtaken by this extremely horrible one. In my opinion Dr. Russell should be in prison. I will be headed through Mississippi in early spring and might have to stop by for a visit and see if I can Russell up a refund one way or another.
 
#383 · (Edited)
I've also had excellent service and communication from Jason Varner of Russell Apiaries PA...and have been extremely impressed with not only how productive the Sunkist queens I got from him are, but how aggressively they groom against mites.
When I first saw guard bees aggressively grooming returning workers, I thought they were fighting, but soon realized what was going on.
I love this, as my apiary is treatment free.

I ordered Hybrid 410 queens from Kale Luce at Russell Apiaries NY, and also got great queens, service and communication.
These bees (Moonbeam x bees from Alaska/NW Territories) are also very heavy layers, but shutdown when the flows do, and they fly/forage in much cooler weather than other bees I've had.
I put a screen on a Hybrid 410 hive an hour before dawn this fall in preparation to move a hive, and when I returned an hour later, there was a cluster of returning foragers on the entrance screen trying to get in who had already been out foraging in the dark!

I was very impressed!

I highly recommend both of these gentlemen and their products!

Craig Adams
Elmira, NY

PS I believe they are both running a 10% off Christmas sale
 
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