"Worst experience I have ever had with a company. TERRIBLE customer service, and they could not care less. They do not care about repeat business or customer satisfaction. Try to email them and be prepared to go back and forth for days and days, but don't waste your time because THEY DON'T CARE!!!!! Save your money and try one of the other companies that offer this service."
"I don’t have any products from them but I would like to know if it’s a New Zealand Website?
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"7 out of 10 caterpillars arrived dead. It seems like now they are having issues emerging from the chrysalis. I called and explained this to a manager named Savannah. Apparently she thinks it's funny that we are experiencing these issues and they are unable to emerge. A total lack of professionalism. No solution was given even after she had me email pictures. I would not recommend this company especially for follow educators unless you want disappointed students like mine. Apparently Insect Lore hates educators. Avoid at all costs.
I reached out via Instagram and instead of following up, they just deleted my comment."
"insectlore.com We have attempted to raise the praying mantis egg sac with this company several times, and each time, all praying mantis hatchlings do die within 24 hours. We made sure to have plenty of live food (flightless flies) available to them within an hour of hatching, we always let go majority of hatchlings, and try to keep between 5 and 10 for raising. However, even with 72 degree and 45-55% humidity environments, these praying mantis cannot survive outside the egg sack longer than 24-48 hours. As a repeat customer of Insectlore.com, we had asked if we could just get a discount on another try and order of the Praying mantis egg under the circumstances, and they will not honor anything, and just blame it on the variables within the household that you are keeping the praying mantis cage in. So after months of waiting, and finally hatching, and to have all die immediately regarldess of care, I would not recommend this to any family, especially if children are excited to see what comes out of the egg. They wait so long for the eventual hatching, just to be disappointed with having no insects to look at 24 hours later. I recommend picking up the super cheap praying mantis online, but not releasing them, as they can invasive, but to keep as pets would be fine for science related learning and experience with the kids."
"My daughter of 6 yrs old absolutely adores butterflies so we purchased 5 caterpillars. They came in a ridiculously small pot. As they grew one began to eat one of the cocoons to which it didn't survive, 3 became butterflies, 2 didn't hatch atall, of the 3 that did hatch 1 was perfect, 2 was ok ish and managed to eat and fly while the 3rd was a complete mess with its wings all crumpled and its facial features or legs not fused properly. We did all we could for 2 days to help the butterfly, we manged to free its legs and tounge but there was no way it could survive, two days it tried its best to cling onto life while my daughter cried her eyes out. Putting them in such a tiny pot is surely animal cruelty. I will never ever ever buy these again and I strongly recommend everyone else to avoid "
"We bought a kit for my birthday and found out we have to fu**ing buy the butterflies for $8"
"Don't believe them, they blame Royal Mail for the late deliveries but it seems like it is them. The customer service is terrible they have no solutions or suggestions to help solve the problem of missing/late deliveries they just blame Royal Mail I'm sure 1st class means next day not 5 days later.
If you need this as a gift for a certain day then don't expect it to arrive and don't expect insect lore to care about it.
Extremely unhappy customer"
"I AM A VERY DISSATISFIED REPEAT CUSTOMER.
This is probably the 10th year that we've ordered a cup of caterpillars. This year I decided to order 2 cups so that every student could name their own caterpillar. I ordered 2 cups, only one was sent. I emailed customer service and when there was no response in 24 hours I called customer service only to be told I had to submit pictures of what was rec'd and if they were satisfied that only one cup was sent another cup would be sent.
When it was decided that I was only shipped one cup, a week had passed and because it was a Thursday I was told it would be sent out on Monday to avoid the weekend (Note to everyone - the first cup came 3 days after I ordered it so never fall for the RUSHED SHIPPING option). At that point so much time had passed I asked that either another habitat be sent or just send a coupon that could be redeemed next year. That request was ignored and the caterpillars arrived today - 10 days after we rec'd the first cup (and again, 3 days shipping time).
Well, lesson learned, I will no longer be ordering your overpriced butterfly habitats. I can only hope someone else decides to provide this service so you lose all of your customers.
"
"Ordered the live butterfly garden, and yes you guessed it there was nothing live about this product.
It arrived 3 days later and my little girls were so exited to grow butterflies like it states, only to find my caterpillars had escaped during the delivery and the caterpillars even left me a stupid piece of paper saying i could order them on line. Why they did not just stay in the box life would of been easier, so i had to explain to my 5 year old that there is no caterpillars in the box and we had to wait for them to be delivered to us, this is going to be another 6 days thats 9 days in total if delivery is on time plus i had to pay for the privilege of them sending them to me. So all in all your better of making a old net for a house, and get the caterpillar from in you garden, bit of leaf of the plant you found it. Hey presto saves you time, money, AND DISAPPOINTMENT "
"Everything about this experience was terrible. My school will not be ordering from this company again."
"Terrible. NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. You have to send an email to get an automated response. No phone call will get you anywhere. The wrong product is sent and replacement is still wrong. I've ordered for years from them and this is a new issue so don't go on past experience. Read the reviews on YELP. It's terrifying. Do not order from them if you want satisfaction ... use another supplier."
"I ordered this on Wednesday afternoon and as they promised on their website, orders place before 1 pm ET are shipped same day. Well.. it wasn't. They didn't end up shipping it until Thursday evening, late and now I won't receive the package on time. I paid $30.33 for 2-day shipping so I would get it before mother's day on Sunday.. but, UPS told me they didn't pay the extra $2.50 to have it delivered on Saturday so it won't be here until Monday.. The gift is ruined because this company wanted to save them a messily dollar or two. I suppose $2.00 is more important to this company than their customer's satisfaction. This just goes to show you how important we are to them. DO NOT buy from this company! VERY slow shipping and they don't stand by their guarantees. Go elsewhere, you will regret it if you don't..... (if I could rate them zero stars, I would but they are just lucky ResellerRatings makes me give them a star). One word for this company.. Horrible."
"I was very disappointed. The kit was purchased for my grandson's birthday, and the family followed all directions exactly. The caterpillars did not morph into butterflies. "
"great we got 5 larva that turned into 5 buterflies happly released on a sunny day
We will do it again in the spring
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"I was to receive it on the 10th and still have not received.
My 4 year old is so sad.. He wanted it for when his brothers were home :(
disappoointed"