This cow was saved in the nick of time from suffocation by a ➖➖➖milk parlour.
The farmers who bought the parlour aren’t so lucky. We will have to pay every day for the rest of our lives for choosing ➖➖➖.
Every day when working and paying for what is at best a mediocre installation and at worst unusable material that’s standing rusting in a field.
We made our first payment in april 2020, had paid more than 120 000€ by July and paid the final amount in april 2021.
We had to insist on getting the milk parlour going in july 2021 but it is now December and it still isn’t finished.
➖➖➖ dumped the stuff and walked away.
The most expensive parts, like the software, the drafting gate etc, are not working.
Worse than that, they are actually preventing us from working normally.
On top of that, ➖➖➖ sold us things that cannot work on our farm: ➖➖➖ was fully aware of the circumstances, the needs and possibilities here and still knowingly sold us material that can never be used.
The scraper with backing gate was partially installed in august, then just abandoned by ➖➖➖ when it turned out it was never going to work: it can’t handle the concrete (we specifically asked before buying if the concrete was a problem, ➖➖➖ said it wasn't), it can’t handle that amount of slurry (it will spill over), it’s installed in such a way that the slurry isn’t even brought into the slurry pit and it can only be used when there are no cows in the stable (so a few months a year).
On top of that ➖➖➖ still uses an old fashioned rail system that hurts the cows' feet and that now prevents us from cleaning quickly and easily. We are actually going to have to pay someone to come and remove it (not having the time ourselves thanks to the new milk parlour)
We are not going into all the terrible excuses we’ve heard from ➖➖➖ and why they are wrong and hypocritical. We don’t understand the unnecessary untruths or the unprofessional omissions.
The legally required installation check that was never ordered, even when we complained about the vacuum. The “it’s not noisy” ear piercing machine parts.
But above all : we asked for a poo gutter. ➖➖➖ said: “not necessary, the cows are not going to poo”…
Twice a day, every day, everything is covered in filth.
Twice a day, every day, we have to work in filth.
Twice a day, every day, we have to clean for an hour to have some semblance of hygiene.
And of course we cannot use the expensive cluster cleanse option because all that does is dip the most important part of the cluster in the filth that covers the floor.
➖➖➖ plastic hooks so sturdy
Despite paying almost 50 percent of the total price in July 2020, ➖➖➖ did not deliver the milk parlour until spring 2021. It wasn’t even in production till 2021.
Whatever the reason (and it can be a good one) for not starting up production until a certain point in a project, you do not take people’s money without delivering: if you only start production at a certain point, you only ask for the advance at that point.
➖➖➖ refuses to reimburse material paid for but not delivered.
➖➖➖ refuses to take back and reimburse material that was sold to us knowing it would never work.
Despite repeated requests from our accountant and ourselves, ➖➖➖ refuses to issue an invoice for the last payment made.
➖➖➖ has charged us twice for part of the installation: the total cost included installation, also of the electricity. ➖➖➖ asked the electrician wiring the building to do this and he has charged us, refusing to send the invoice to ➖➖➖ because of how ➖➖➖ has behaved in the past.
At least once a week we find bits and pieces that have fallen off:
Then there are the bits that keep breaking again and again and again:
Some stuff we have given up on, it’s just never going to stay whole or connected or attached.
After working in this parlour, we’ve come to the conclusion that the ➖➖➖ design brief is “make life as difficult as possible for the farmer”: one button for opening the back door in a 15 meter milk parlour…
A button that you have to keep pushing because hey farmers have nothing else to do,they don’t need to see their children grow up.
20 times, twice a day, every day push not 1 button,no, not 2 buttons next to each other, no, 5 buttons as far away from each other as possible on the control box. ➖➖➖ efficiency
And god forbid we should be able to see the udder:
Ignore customers, especially when they send pictures of the milk parlour falling apart, just don’t react
Pretend your phone doesn’t work (only with his phone number, not hers)
Take 3 months to repair items sold to the customer as essential to the management of a modern farm.
Get this email: don’t react
It’s only a year after getting involved with ➖➖➖ and after ➖➖➖ has taken all our money, that we find out the truth:
➖➖➖ has no concession here.
➖➖➖ has purposely chosen a system where they can take people’s money without taking responsibility.
When things go wrong (and they have done horribly so here) ➖➖➖ washes its hands, the agent gets the blame and the farmer loses all his money or, like us, is left with a milk parlour, badly designed, badly installed, falling apart.
There is no installation team.
There is no maintenance team.
There is no one with the necessary knowledge and experience to design the layout of the milk parlour and its surroundings , let alone guide the farmer.
No one who’s going to tell the farmer that he’ll need at least half a dozen people the first 2 weeks in this kind of milk parlour and at least 3 the next month and as there’s only 2 of them maybe they should reconsider taking this type of milk parlour, especially as ➖➖➖ keeps changing the start date so the farmers cannot hire anyone to help.
No one to say that it will take the cows months to get used to it (without violence) and you’ll always have "accidents":
We’re sure to have forgotten things but stop here because it makes us sick. Like it makes us sick every time we walk into that milk parlour, every time we see the bomb site of material.
But what upsets us most, is when we think about how we trusted ➖➖➖, really believed that ➖➖➖ was a professional and honest company.
And for that we are going to pay the rest of our lives: every day because of the working conditions, every day because of the time we lose with this installation that we cannot spend on more important things like family, every day with paying back money wasted on this project that impacts our actual capacity to invest and improve animal well being but also our income to come which in turn negatively impacts our pension (which is based on past income).
Yeah definitely ➖➖➖ lifer
