help-sold pig customer unhappy

ihuntgsps · #1 11/10/11, 10:33 AM

need advice.
I raised 2 red wattles this summer and sold one locally. The pig sold for $300 and customer pays processing at the locker. I delivered to the locker.
I estimated live weight to customer about 230 or so. live weight was less than 200 and hanging weight of 138 according to locker. Customer texted me he is unhappy and says going price is $.65/lb.
I told him when he bought it it was more expensive than buying at an auction or commercial farm and he had no issue with it at that time.
I do feel $300 is steep since hog was under 200 (locker thought about 185)
I normally process my own at home and now do not have that option since it has been slaughtered already at the locker.
I do not want refund cash and pay locker fees for something I could have done at home for nothing.
would it be fair to charge $200 to customer in your opinion? I want to do the right thing to make them happy but dont want to get bent over doing it.
opinions greatly appreciated.

barefootflowers · #2 11/10/11, 10:47 AM

That's a tough one. But .65/lb seems very cheap to me. I'm in Oregon & we sell our pork at a hanging weight of 3.50/lb. I know it's different depending on where you live. I don't have a good answer for you this time, but maybe next time you could sell it based on its hanging weight rather than live weight. The customer would put down a non refundable deposit to hold it with the balance due after the butcher hangs it. You could meet him half way rather than refunding the whole amount.

cooper101 · #3 11/10/11, 10:54 AM

I would figure the per pound price base on your original weight estimate and offer to refund the difference between the estimate and the actual weight. I.e., offer the same per pound price, but only for the reduced actual weight. Where you stand now, it works out to $2.17 a pound which really isn't all that bad depending on what you fed it, meat quality, etc., but if the agreed-upon expectation was to have another 30 pounds or so of carcass weight, it's reasonable to be a little peeved that it was light.

I sell the pig by the pound of hanging weight and figure the final price after the carcass arrives at the processor and is weighed. I've never found the tape measure that good at estimating weight and I always have a good 40-50 pound difference between the smallest and largest pig in a batch. Makes it easier to go off the official hanging weight.

BlackWillowFarm · #4 11/10/11, 11:10 AM

Can you get the live weight from the processor and just give the customer back the difference between your estimate and the true weight? Seems like that would be fair. That's what I would be looking for if I were the customer.

BarbadosSheep · #5 11/10/11, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooper101

I would figure the per pound price base on your original weight estimate and offer to refund the difference between the estimate and the actual weight. I.e., offer the same per pound price, but only for the reduced actual weight. Where you stand now, it works out to $2.17 a pound which really isn't all that bad depending on what you fed it, meat quality, etc., but if the agreed-upon expectation was to have another 30 pounds or so of carcass weight, it's reasonable to be a little peeved that it was light.

This is what I'd suggest too. I think you'd only owe the difference between the estimated 230 pounds and the actual weight of 185 pounds. So instead of the hog costing $300, charge them $240 which works out to a live weight of $1.30 a pound. They can't complain about that since they agreed to pay $1.30 a pound to begin with!

ihuntgsps · #6 11/10/11, 11:56 AM

Thank you all for your help.
Told customer I would do whatever it took to make them happy (dont need bad reviews). Dropped price by $75 and he is thrilled and asking about reserving another one for next fall. Told him we will discuss and sell based on hanging weight next time around. Hopefully I will be a much better judge of weight by that time.

rmrc · #7 11/10/11, 12:38 PM

Good job. Years ago, my sales training said that if you have an unhappy customer simply ask "what would make you happy". Nearly every time I've asked that question, the customer asked for less than I was prepared to give.
Even if the customer pulls one over on you, that really isn't bad advertising. If you send a customer away angry,(even if you are right) they'll tell dozens of folks that you screwed him.......that will take a loooooong time to overcome.

ranger4327 · #8 11/10/11, 01:03 PM

all around good advice and something we all can learn from, no matter what business we are in !!!!

spot · #9 11/10/11, 02:04 PM

I find the best way to sell a pig I pay every thing but smoking and bacon that the customer pays extra .I charge $3 hanging weight and deliver to their house within reason if that is different they know ahead of time .I also charge 100 per half as a deposit to hold the pig and that is nonrefundable .I put a lot of effort in raising a quality pig for them and if they want cheap meat go to walmart .

gerold · #10 11/10/11, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ihuntgsps

Thank you all for your help.
Told customer I would do whatever it took to make them happy (dont need bad reviews). Dropped price by $75 and he is thrilled and asking about reserving another one for next fall. Told him we will discuss and sell based on hanging weight next time around. Hopefully I will be a much better judge of weight by that time.

Happy to hear it worked out. A happy customer is good business.
Based on what you agree to begin with the price would have been around
240 bucks with live weight at 185. Sounds like you handled it well. With the discount you gave him for prime pork up should have a repeat sell later.

RW kansas hogs · #11 11/10/11, 08:48 PM

We charge a $1 dollar a pound live weight, They pick out the pig and we load it in a trailer and go weigh it, Then weigh the trailer empty. It makes for xtra work but the customer is right there the whole time so they see what we do. We have learned the hard way to raise our pigs to 250lbs then sell them, No butcher hog leaves the farm untill it reaches 250lbs.

**highlands** · #12 11/11/11, 11:23 AM

$300 is already a low price - don't compete with commodity hogs. You should have set the weight range as part of the agreement or sold by the pound so that this would not have been an issue.

For reference we sell a 180 lb hanging weight (250 lb live) pig for $630 which is $3.50/lb and get that price week in and week out no problem.

Sounds like this is an issue of lack of clarity and expectations. I would suggest you make a generous offer to adjust the price from expected 230 lb live weight to what ever (180/230x300 = $234 new price). If they do not take that then I would suggest you refund and sell to someone else. Next time get everything spelled out clearly up front to avoid this.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

Jcran · #13 11/11/11, 04:41 PM

I sold our extra mulefoot/blue butt hog for $2.00/lb live weight. She was 190 at slaughter. After processing ($80) and cut/wrap of $0.75/lb. they still paid under $4.50/lb. The animals were raised on pasture, grain, and goat milk. The buyer was tickled to get a pig at that cost.

Countrygent51 · #14 11/11/11, 07:38 PM

Buying a reliable livestock scale sounds like a good investment if you plan to be in this business for very long. Guessing at weight is not good business.

ne prairiemama · #15 11/22/11, 09:03 PM

Glad it all worked out!

lonelyfarmgirl · #16 11/23/11, 07:15 AM

You did the right thing, but I think you got screwed on price. For starters, you have heritage meat. Different flavor and highly sought after. Secondly, being in Iowa, I don't think your prices are going to be much different than WI prices. Currently auction price for CAFO pig is about what you charged them. I charge 2.75$ # hanging weight and the customer pays ALL the fees.

Lazy J · #17 11/23/11, 07:52 AM

In my opinion the customer is unhappy not because of price but because the pig's weight did not meet his expectations. You promised a 230# pig, but that pig only weighed 185# (by estimate). Were I in your customer's shoes I'd be unhappy too.

sticky_burr · #18 11/23/11, 08:14 AM

well IMO he agreed to pay over .65 a pound but it came up 80% of your estimate so i'd offer 80% of the agreed upon 300$ namely 240$ no less than 225$ thats 25% discount

ihuntgsps · #19 11/23/11, 11:05 AM

He seems happy with the way it all turned out. Of course he and I both are dissappointed in my weight guessing "ability". Will know to sell based on hanging weight next time and will hopefully judge weight closer.
He still wants me to raise another hog for him next Spring and before i do that we will negotiate a price per pound that feels fair to both and allows me to make enough cash to cover raising one for myself again. Might even raise 3-4 this next time if I get enough local interest. I wasn't sure how much I would like having pigs but I must admit they are wonderful animals and very easy to take care of. Big plus is the fertillizer for my developing compost piles too!
This forum is great and I truly enjoy having all your input. Thanks

shagerman · #20 11/27/11, 06:50 PM

i have said this before and i will again. some of us can not compete. with the rest of you. you can not tell someone the prices are better and the meat is better when they still go to a store and find better prices, i am making a 1.00 a pound walk in weight. and then again. we were paying 8.00 a bushel for corn. well were. i had to throw that at them too. i did dell my hogs,but i do have people around me raising 500 at a time and willing to slit my throat because they can.