I’ve been a customer for the better part of 20 years, minus a couple years I had free-range chickens. WHAT is going on with them??? Customer service is in the bag. Orders are late, billing is incorrect, and the flies now take weeks and weeks to hatch.
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I don’t know either, but I am also having issues for the first time this year. And I just had an order of their fly spray canceled.
Let me know if you find out!
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Same !! Been a customer 20 years, likely more. My shipments didn’t start automatically this year. I call to find out why – “we got a new computer system and not all the customer acct info migrated over.” [paraphrase]. Umm, what??? The person I got was nice and apologetic, but I did not feel there was recognition of my customer loyalty. So I wait and stew (lol) and checked to see if you could still get them through Dover and it doesn’t seem so, so some days later I go to the Fly Predator website and start a new account, auto shipping, etc., and also ordered some natural fly spray.
Then recently I realized I never got the fly spray. Couldn’t find an email receipt, the website is not recognizing my email as an account yet again, and all I can find is the charge on my cc statement. So I have that on hand and call customer service yesterday – they will only let you go to voicemail! No option to hold. Left info; haven’t had a call back.
I did get fly predators and they did hatch, but definitely did not get the spray. Weird about my disappearing account info and the lack of customer service. I did see where, along with the supposed new computer system, they were acquired by Equine Network, and I suspect that’s the root of all the issues.
I remain astonished they were perfectly fine with dropping longtime automatic shipment customers for their supposed new systems. Who does that? And then doesn’t return calls?
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If they got acquired by another company all the back office people may have lost their jobs. That’s usually how it works so the acquirer can get “economies of scale”. Sounds like there were glitches in merging the old records into the new system. Mergers don’t always go smoothly. Customer service may be reduced and swamped with calls.
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Indeed, that’s why I noted I suspect that’s the root of the issues. Doesn’t change that it’s a poor way to treat longtime loyal customers.
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Man I was so excited to try the predators this year but this is the second thread about issues with Spalding. Guess I’ll wait it out and hope it gets better? 
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I buy mine through SmartPak and it was cooler here so my first batch took a few days to hatch. I am getting next batch soon and will let you know how they are!
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There are other sources of fly predators, such as Kunafin, and Arbico.
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One of the sources just sells one type of fly predator and their competitor says you need to have several different types to be effective. But I have no idea which one that is - Arbico? Spalding? and I have no idea how accurate that statement is.
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Well, I have loved the product and the service for many years, so although I’m very frustrated right now, I’m giving them time to iron out the kinks – hopefully soon. My fly predators are working fine, just CS snafus.
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The Kunafin website says that they have “different species of fly parasites,” but the one they discuss in depth is Trichogramma.
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Spalding labs was a private company with nine employees. They have been acquired by Equine Network, another privately held company with 129 employees, which lists its area as equine publishing.
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I’m also having issues. They lost my old account so I had to sign up for a new one. Then my first shipment didn’t get shipped until I called twice and emailed once. Took a while to hatch but they did eventually. Then they shipped out my second shipment “on time” which was one week after my first shipment. Called to say they needed to refund that second charge and no return call or credit. I like the product but am very unhappy with CS.
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I’ve also had similar issues this year (see my thread in Around the Farm).
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Knock on wood - so far we have had the same experience as always.
The first shipment always takes a bit to start hatching. This one did not seem any worse than normal.
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My latest shipment from smartpak was hatching within a couple of days!
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that occurred over three years ago. the problems noted have been only of this spring
The Equine Network acquired Spalding Laboratories on February 10, 2021
my Guess is the current issues are a result of modernization of the older systems software since it was a “customized periptery software”
The Company (Spading Labs before the acquisition) has pioneered the direct-to-consumer business model using a proprietary software platform
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