09/28/2026
I've been getting a wave of negative reviews about some wood rot I sent out, and I want to share my side.
The reviews say I didn't make things right with the customer. But the people leaving them weren't part of the transaction and have no way of knowing whether he's being honest. It's been really disheartening to watch people pile on a small business without hearing the whole story. The hive mind is real.
Here's what actually happened: he NEVER PAID, so the transaction was never completed. There's nothing to make right. I shipped before payment because I was charging based on the post office weight, and because I trust people. As far as I can tell, he's trying to get free product and hurt someone he sees as competition, even though I'm not competing with him.
I don't normally ship at all. I sell locally, so this was a one-off. I got into this to give insects the best lives possible, not to scam anyone, and this wasn't even an insect sale; it was wood rot. My husband is a log buyer with degrees in both forestry and wood products (he could give you a molecular-level education on wood rot), which is how I have access to it to offer the community. I can assure everyone the wood I sent was genuine rotted wood. Here's a photo of the log it came from.
Yes, some pieces were hard. It was collected in May and sat out in the sun all summer. Rotted wood acts a lot like a sponge: once it dries out and bakes, it hardens and can become brittle.
If you watch his video, you can see the wood dents when the hammer hits it. Solid, unrotted wood wouldn't do that. Could it be more rotten and would that be better? Yes, but it was part of a bigger picture. There was over 70 lbs of rot shipped. It was a large order. That piece is also just a small part (one stick) of the total order. It might be the one sitting on ground there in image and just got put in box accidentally. And there were three total shipments. If you weren't happy with the first one, why keep getting more?
To say I didn't make right just isn't true. There was nothing to make right because there was NO PAYMENT made. His post was just made to hurt me, which is was successful at doing that. What hurt me more was other folks making reviews without even knowing me. You have all proven why reviews can't be trusted. They are so easily skewed.