Ouch...new minimum order of $500.00 for Harlan Teklad?

[lilspaz68]

On another forum a woman posted this...

When placing a bulk order with Harlan today, I was informed that they are changing the minimum order from $100 to $500 so that they can focus on the research labs and not on retail sales. When I asked the lady what people in the rat pet community should do, she recommended one of the distributors on their list (there aren't many).

Since I heard this news today, I've been contemplating whether I should try to instigate a letter-writing campaign to get them to keep the order minimum low... no more than $250. $250 is a pretty decent sized pallet of food, and at that point it's definitely not a "retail" order. It's a doable amount for small distributors... for instance, people like me, who do bulk orders every few months, or rat rescues like Kim's Ark.

Comments? Ideas?

I searched the forum and saw nothing mentioned about this... so I'm guessing that not many people know. The lady (Julie was her name, I've dealt with her for orders several times) said that it's either in effect as of 11/1/07 or 1/1/08... she wasn't sure, and said the final memo hadn't been distributed with the date yet.

 

[jorats]

I saw that. I'm screwed. Even if I could get a $500 minimum, I'd need a cube van to pick it up.

 

[Melissa]

Dammit, that really sucks! We should start a petition.

 

[lilspaz68]

I saw that. I'm screwed. Even if I could get a $500 minimum, I'd need a cube van to pick it up.

It looks like you'll be doing runs to Ren's for Mazuri if this happens

 

[SQ]

That is awful!!

At this point I have been going in on orders with people in Ontario and having bags of the blocks sent to me and then other rat owners and I split the bags up.

Guess we could still do that if people like jorats all picked up their food from the warehouse at the same time in one order ...

but that would be such a pain for everyone involved ... the way it is now is difficult enough.

Holly

 

[SQ]

I think we need to write letters ...

 

[Lise]

I just got in on the last order of Harlan from Ontario, they shipped it to me. I am just switching my rats over to the Harlan this week... I'm not going to be happy if I have to switch them back right away.

 

[MumsyRat]

I've been working on getting a website put together so I can sell Harlan over the internet the same way Kim's Ark does in the states. Right now my orders are at least $200 anyway so I think if we can all get together we should be able to do $500. It might be a matter of getting everyone involved to meet at the warehouse at the same time. I'm not too keen on switching back to Mazuri at this point. Maybe it's my imagination but I think my rats are healthier on the Harlan. I'm sure if we work together we'll manage.

 

[jorats]

My only problem would be the meet up. Being 5 hours away, it gets tricky, especially since it's always on week days.

 

[Moon]

Arg, boo for you Harlan buyers. I have decided to bypass the whole thing and order from Ren's... the whole thing with HT always seemed like too much work for me.

 

[Godmother]

That's such a pain. Wouldn't be so bad if some stores would place orders. With food and bedding the $500 would be gone quickly for a store.

 

[jorats]

I bet they would find another way around it... they don't want to cater to the retail section. They want to concentrate on the labs.

 

[Melissa]

I bet they would find another way around it... they don't want to cater to the retail section. They want to concentrate on the labs.

I can't understand why. Maybe they are anti pet rat and pro research rat. Gr.

 

[Lise]

I can't understand why. Maybe they are anti pet rat and pro research rat. Gr.

LOL Its more like millions of dollars of revenue from labs vs. a few thousand dollars in the retail sector & added nuisance unfortunately.