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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.
 
#9 ·
As i remember he was on vacation with his family i also have sent him and pm about getting some virgins from him and he did contact me then i wrote him again and still waiting to hear from him i also called and all i got was a voice mail. If you run a company i would think someone should answer the phone but i guess not. I have one of his queens and really like her and wanted some virgins but i guess i will try some one else i have found some others but i do not know if they will be as good as russells queens. He really does need to contact people that want his queens thats good for bussiness but he does have good queens i give him credit on that .

Thomas Yancey
 
#19 ·
I have one of his queens and really like her and wanted some virgins but i guess i will try some one else i have found some others but i do not know if they will be as good as russells queens.
Why don't you try to make a new queen yourself from the Russell Queen you have? It will be a virgin queen that will auto populate with the drones in your area. Would there be much of a difference?
 
#10 ·
As with any business, consumers "vote" with their pocket book. Instead of complaining about this or that, I simply buy elsewhere. While on a trip this last week, I pulled into a station to fill up with diesel. Sign on pump said "pay inside first." I walk all the way in from the farthest pump and the casher says "how much?" I said "I want to fill it up." She said "you have to give me an amount to purchase." I said "I don't know what it will cost to fill it up." She said "that's the way it works." I said "See you later, I'll go buy my fuel across the street." I did, and I was able to use my credit card at the pump and the price was the same as the other one that gave me grief.

I don't care how good a product is, if I experience poor costumer service, I buy somewhere else.
 
#12 ·
Barry has a point if you can not be there to help some one with your product then i would go else where if i can get the same product and can talk with the person who is selling if you do not talk with your customers then they will go else where. Which any time i order bees or queens i always talk to someone that can answer my questions and give me some feed back on what they have.

Thomas Yancey
 
#13 ·
If you are dissatisfied with the company and would like to buy from somewhere else, by all means, do so!

Russell has more orders than he can fill. Many more are standing in line behind you to try and place an order. It's more like the Soup Natzi than it is like a limousine ride. Service might not be stellar, but the product more than makes up for it.
 
#14 ·
Again, you personally may view the product as the most important element in grading a company, over service. When there are many other companies that produce an equally quality product, then standing in line putting up with poor customer service isn't necessary. My point in all this is, instead of trying to get "your" supplier (whoever it is) to do better in serving "you", move on to one that will.
 
#21 ·
When there are many other companies that produce an equally quality product
It's an irrelevant question. . . . This thread isn't about queen quality.
You appear to be the one that is bringing up quality of the product. It's reasonable to ask what basis you have for evaluating the quality of the product. If you have not seen the product first hand, how can you evaluate it? How can you claim it is "equal" to others in the industry?

To talk about the customer service, when you have not experienced it first hand, or to talk about the quality of the product as it relates to others in the industry, when you have not experienced it first hand, is a little beyond the point of a consumer reports thread, is it not?
 
#18 ·
Im not Barry but i have .. 35 so far . Waiting for delivery in early may on 10 moonbeams, that i payed for last may . You know what ive found out ? They are bees . My comments at the time almost got me banned . I'm on thin ice so i have to choose what i say very carefully , both Barry and Bob . Bob says he stands behind his bees , a couple of us are waiting on that . That aside it set me back a year . How much is a year worth to your operation ? I should be selling nucs this spring , a little cost recovery . Now my spring splits are going into my boxs . Call me old school .. I want to talk to someone . I sure understand the issues with weather , my grandson has a tornado helmet . Really . I like to pick up the phone ,,pay and have that product shipped out . If that product is not in stock ,,tell me . I see alot of comments that the wait is worth it . Not too sure about that , I only know what i see . The best bees i got didnt come from Bob . Keep in mind that i dont have years of beeking , I just know when to add another box . I like the queens with the most boxs . See this is a tough call ,,i got bobs late .. suprise . If you need a q fast ,,,just check the for sale ads on beesource . Ya make a new contact and get a pretty good queen . Brac even shipped me one when irine hit .It did take a couple days extra in shipping . My point is human nature ,,,you see the hype and gotta have that item ..something to fix my golf swing ( tin cup) ..something to get more ducks . I just got a duck decoy mounted on a radio controled boat . Thats soo gonna work . A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush , but one in the hand is dinner .
 
#16 ·
It's an irrelevant question. Like me asking you have you purchased a queen from Weavers or Koehnen or Glenn or Rossman or Kona. This thread isn't about queen quality. I'm addressing the OP about service.

Oh, I forgot . . . Olivarez, VP Queen Bees, Purvis . . .
 
#22 ·
Like me asking you have you purchased a queen from Weavers or Koehnen or Glenn or Rossman or Kona.
Oh, I forgot . . . Olivarez, VP Queen Bees, Purvis . . .
I don't understand your point. This thread isn't about the Weavers, Koehnen, Glenn, Rossman, Kona, Olivarez, VP Queen Bees, Purvis, or any other provider. The subject line is very clear. It's about Russell, his company, his product, and his customer service. If you haven't ordered from him, haven't tried his product, and haven't experienced his customer service, why are you evaluating the same?
 
#27 ·
Barry isn't saying that Russell's bees and service aren't good. Others are. Barry is just pointing out that there are TONS of other choices and that until people try ALL of them, THEY can't say that one brand or another is the BEST quality. If you don't like the service at one place, go to another. If you don't like the quality at that place, go to another. There are tons to try. You might find out that someone out there will provide all the points that you are looking for. Like on Seinfeld, anyone can make the same product as the Soup Nazi, you just need to look around and try different places.

If you are willing to put up with the service because you think it's the one you like, then great. As said before, Russell's has more orders than they can keep up with so they aren't going anywhere any time soon. You just might not either if they can't get to you until the next year.
 
#28 ·
I work at Russell Apiaries part time. What is it that you guys are needing? A confirmation email for your order? Check your spam box, those emails are automated by paypal. We would be able to respond to people a whole lot faster, but unlike ALL of the other guys that were mentioned, Russell doesnt just help people that are paying him. We receive hundreds of emails every day this time of year from people in all parts of the world asking for advice. Like Russell says, This isnt walmart. If you just want a click and ship product and service, go get it elsewhere. We dont do that. The only reason that we have a website putting our queens out there for just anyone to buy is because Russell likes to help folks so much. Its not for the money, trust me. I saw the year end reports and there was a really big drop in profits after all of the extra expense of trying to cater to the "click and ship" public. We were all shocked when he just said, oh well buckle in and press on. His losses were like four times what my husband and myself bring in in a year. It would have been much more easy and profitable for him to just say NO and stick to providing the large commercials but he takes the hit for the little guys like us to have high quality queens from stocks that havent been crossed with russian bees. Dont see Russell on this site anymore do you? Can you blame him?
 
#33 ·
We would be able to respond to people a whole lot faster, but unlike ALL of the other guys that were mentioned, Russell doesnt just help people that are paying him. We receive hundreds of emails every day this time of year from people in all parts of the world asking for advice.
That's his choice to do that. But to use this to excuse those that are experiencing poor customer service and put down ALL the other bee producers is quite arrogant to say the least.
 
#29 ·
Barry constantly makes snide remarks about Russells and other commercial beeks. It will be a definate loss in quality if Dr. Russell has decided he is not welcome here. As the lady said, he ain't walmart and it surprised me when he was still filling the onsies and twosies orders this year. I am just real happy to get the genetics and when I was trying to raise wheat for a living, I couldn't harvest it before it was ripe. They wouldn't take it at the elevator til the misture content was low enough for the grain to store. A supplier can't sell a queen til it is well mated and laying well. It is unfortunate that his office staff is buried. But I don't think he is in the business of defrauding anyone. The majority of his customers are happy or he wouldn't be grafting 150,000 cells a year. That is a WAG! But it has to be close to that.
 
#30 ·
HAHA! I just told him about this thread and he said, Some folks like changing tires so they buy may-pops and some folks like replacing hives so they buy whatever is cheapest from who ever has them. Then he said, I buy tires that I can depend on to keep my family safe and if I have to wait for them because they are on back order, so be it. That just means that the company is taking their time and doing things right and they are staying sold out because the product is excellent. He finished with saying, dont worry there are more people out there that are more concerned with getting safe tires than there are risking their wives and kids. Most of our customers depend on their bees in one way or another and some feed their families on that income just like we all do here. they will always choose to a productive hive over a quick response.

I asked him if I could quote him on that and he just shrugged his shoulders and walked off so there you have it. I think that he makes a good point about who should order from him and who should go get may-pops.

For the record, he buys queens to test from all over every year and never hurries any of the suppliers. I my self tried to get breeder queens from Glen, queens from honeyrun apiaries, and queens from zia and vp to play with and never had any response to several emails and phone calls. Its just the nature of the business. At walmart the items are made by someone else then sold by walmart. Here we make the product and sell it, so we can only do so much at one time. He will be traveling again soon and even we will not be able to reach him. He creates great queens and that is where he needs to be, not on the phone talking about them but in the field producing them.
 
#35 ·
I think that he makes a good point about who should order from him and who should go get may-pops.
Are you making the claim that Russell sells the best bees in the country? All other suppliers are "may-pops"?

He creates great queens and that is where he needs to be, not on the phone talking about them but in the field producing them.
Yes, that would make good business sense. I'm sure those that are complaining of customer service don't insist that Robert call them himself. That should be your job, or another employee's job.
 
#32 ·
I answered the customer service issue first. Check your spam box. The issue that you keep going back to is not with us here, but with an email service filtering out automated emails.

On top of that, both Russell and myself have directly addressed the customer service concerns. The entire post 28 is about that and the majority of post 30.
 
#42 ·
While I am not southern (born in CA, now a proud New Englander) and not a woman, this thread seems to have gone wildly off topic. I am a new beek and just recently ordered two (yup only 2) queens from Russell Ap. with my little bitty order of two queens I also sent an email (probably my third or fourth over the past few months) requesting some info. Each and every time I have emailed customer service at Russell I have received prompt and pleasant responses that have helped me on this new journey of learning bee keeping. I thank the good folks at Russell and look forward to trying their queens. If their customer service for a little guy in the far northeastern corner is any indication of their overall customer service then they will continue to build a successful business and thrive!
 
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