# R. Weaver Apiaries



## rubato117 (Dec 14, 2006)

I am a bee keeper for 10 years. Received 2 bee orders with about 60% dead and smelling putrid from this company. I phoned the company and Risa laughed at me and said, "haven't you ever had hot bees die before?" The smell was gagging. Needless to say, she did nothing and said to take my business elsewhere when I wrote her about it again. $240.00 later and 2 very weak hives to show. Terrible customer service and doesn't back their products. I will never give them my business again.


----------



## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Wow. I've never done business with them, but that's the first complaint I have heard about them. Is there someone higher up you can deal with on the issue? When did all this take place?


----------



## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

The following was posted on their site:

3# Package
Bulk Bees with Weaver Queens Prices to be determined and mailed only at shipper's risk In the late spring when our bulk bee supply is depleted we will purchase bees by the pound from local suppliers and include a Weaver Queen
SHIPPING FOR QUEENS
* Please specify your order and add $1.25 for marking, $1.25 for clipping, or $2.00 for both.
* Add the following shipping charge to your order of queens:
From 1-18 queens add $4.80;
From 19-39 queens add $16.80;
From 40-99 queens add $22.60;
For 100 & up add $33.55 per 100.
* For faster delivery - UPS service, Next Day and Two Day are available for an additional charge. Please contact our office for rates.
*Shipping charges are subject to change.

Call them and find out what "at shipper's risk means". You might need to file a claim with the shipper, but if you did not put them on notice at delivery this may be to late. Problem is, how many bees before you are entltled to payment?




Danny


----------



## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

You might also contact Tecumseh. He is a member here and posts, and I think I have seen in some of his posts where he does business with them. Find out what the deal is maybe. Here in Texas they have a good reputation as far as I know. I have bought a Beeweaver.com queen (different company but brother to rweaver.com) and she is either one of my best, or maybe the best I have.

I feel your pain. 

Danny:scratch:


----------



## Sundance (Sep 9, 2004)

There are 2 (two) distinct and separate Weaver Bee
operations in Texas.

*B. Weaver* who has a pretty solid reputation

http://www.beeweaver.com/home.php

*R. Weaver* is separate and they do not work
together.

http://www.rweaver.com/


----------



## Jeffrey Todd (Mar 17, 2006)

I, too, have had less than satisfactory dealings with R. Weaver. I used to like them years ago but things seem to have changed.
The person I spoke with on the telephone was a woman (I do not remember her name) but she was very dismissive and thoroughly unhelpful. Possibly this was an isolated incident, and maybe she was just having a bad day.
Nevertheless, I won't get burned twice by the same outfit.


----------



## Camp9 (Feb 7, 2006)

This is a rough time of year to ship packages, that's why they have the disclaimer. 

Camp


----------



## rubato117 (Dec 14, 2006)

dragonfly said:


> Wow. I've never done business with them, but that's the first complaint I have heard about them. Is there someone higher up you can deal with on the issue? When did all this take place?


I actually thought the bees were sick with septicemia. I have never smelled anything so terrible and the shipping was not according to schedule so they could have been sitting a while. (my shipment was in April, in New England so heat was definitely not an issue here).


----------



## dsquared (Mar 6, 2006)

I stopped purchasing bees with USPS delivery years ago, although I do order queens that way. When I did, there were a couple of instances where I picked the packages up from an outdoor loading dock in the full sun. They set them there because some of the employees were afraid and refused to work near them. I always had large losses, and I attributed it to poor treatment. The USPS doesn't ship bees because they want to. Congress mandates it.

Do yourself a favor. Hook up with a local bee club that organizes a delivery for the whole club, where the bees are trucked overnight on the day they are shaken. You get fresh, carefully handled bees that still have plenty of feed in the event your weather is bad and you need to wait a few days to hive them.


----------



## waywestbees (Jan 30, 2010)

I'v used their bees for the last couple years same story, great bees but Risa could use some training in customer relations, she has treated every order of mine as a pain for her, I dont want to bother her anymore so will go elsewhere
:no:


----------



## Monie (Feb 13, 2008)

Having been in retail over 12 years, customer service is of the utmost importance to me. If this is how they deal with the folks who pay their bills, then I am definitely not interested in dealing with them.


----------



## J Justin (Feb 1, 2011)

I too have had bad experiences with R. Weaver Aperies and it mainly centers around dealings with a Risa Davis. She is flippant, dismissive and rude to your request and concerns. Frankly I don’t know how a company can stay in business when they have a person who treats customers the way she does as the main customer contact person. This is quote from R. Weaver’s web site “Risa Davis, our office manager, has been with the company for more than 24 years and will be the first line of defense on the phones, e-mail, sales and customer service.” This shows their attitude toward customers, customers are something they need to be protected from, not the life blood of their company. I would strongly recommend not having dealings with this company, not for their product but who they choose to represent them; you will eventually have a run in with the overly petulant and immature Risa.


----------



## beeweaver (Sep 2, 2008)

I (Laura with Bee Weaver Apiaries) am sorry so many of you have had trouble with RW/Risa. Unfortunately, I am not surprised. I want to be clear that we are two different companies, and Bee Weaver is completely separate. The Bee Weaver breed of bees are different and our philosophy on business/life is different as well.

Many folks get Bee Weaver confused with the R Weaver company, especially those new to beekeeping. It is understandable. Always feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Laura Weaver
BeeWeaver Apiaries
Austin & Navasota, TX


----------



## Riskybizz (Mar 12, 2010)

BWeaver (Not RWeaver)

I for one would like to say that I ordered package bees from BWeaver last year and they could not have been more, helpful, professional and courteous in my dealings with them. I received many emails of confirmation and follow up from Laura, and for the record my order was only for a few packages. It didn't seem to matter with them, as all orders add up, as we all know. By the way, their bees are great and they built up very fast. Count me as a very satisfied customer. Thank you Laura and BWeaver for being such a good company to deal with.


----------



## Jim Stevens (Jan 15, 2007)

I’ve used Beeweaver Queens in the past, the bees were great!
The people, O- the people, its tuff to find anyone nicer than Laura Weaver.
Laura is very professional, friendly and helpful when one calls.
I’ve never met Laura personally, and I don’t know if she would remember even talking to me, but she made it possible for me to spend a day with Mr. Benford Weaver, Thank you Laura.
That was a dream that had come true for me.
I think that day is and will be the most memorable time of my beekeeping career, or hobby is more like it.
I spent a day with Mr. Benford Weaver; we talked about so many things, Bees. We jumped into what he called the office, his Ford pickup and headed out to the yards. 
We looked at hives they were grafting from, for Queen Production.
The building used to graft in, the starter and finishers, breeding nucs, I mean all of it.
We opened a starter colony to view and talked about the queen cell stage and progress, he taught me things to look for when raising QC’s.
I learned a lot that day in Navasota.
Thank you Weaver family.
I do hope Mr. Weaver is well.

Jim


----------



## beeweaver (Sep 2, 2008)

Thank you for your kind words... we will do everything we can to live up to your expectations and we are looking forward to a good 2011 season (WHEN it warms up!). What a winter!

Have a good weekend folks!

Laura


----------



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

When I first saw this post it brought me back a couple of years when we shipped bees via the postal unservice.

Disclaimer: I am both a competitor to, as well as someone who has purchased from both of the Weaver clans in the past 20 years. Been 15 years for R Weaver. Dealt the last couple of years with Laura. Nothing but the best from her. Fortunately for both of us I think we both sell out each year.



To those buying packages. You get what you pay for. How much you pay will depend on how much you want of the following:

Service? 

Convenience? 

Quantity discounts?




When it comes to acquiring bees the same rule apply regarding transportation. 

Want to walk to get them. Cheap.

Drive to get them. Maybe cheap..... maybe expensive. Distance anyone? 

Trucked in? ?

Have them flown in. More expensive. 



Two things generally kill package bees. Time and heat.

I would dare to bet that the purchaser decided to save money on the shipping. They did so either unwittingly or purposefully to be "cheap". 

There is a inverse correlation between the cost of the shipping service used to ship bees and the number of customer complaints about dead packages.

When your bees travel cheap your risk of getting dead bees increases. Pay for overnight air and the risk is minimal. This is especially true if they are shipped the cool time of the year. 

This is the reason why we switched to all UPS overnight air on all packages not picked up. 

Dead packages do no one any good. Lose / lose situation. 

If you offered us a hundred extra bucks for a package if we would ship it by mail the answer would still be NO. We work hard on getting people live packages. RE-DOES are expensive. All mailed package bees go by ground. Ground ='s a truck. Truck means closed and packed. How would you survive closed up in a hot truck for a cross county trip? 

Successful beekeepers learn to think like a bee and give them what they need.


----------

