Sadly, this is one of the few places in our area that does professional meat processing. However, they are certainly not friendly or helpful. I used to be a regular customer of theirs--note the past tense--making regular purchases of steaks, pork chops, and have used them in the past for deer processing. This year, I drove down on a Tuesday evening with a deer in the ice chest. It was already skinned, quartered, and prepped for processing. When I went in, I was very abruptly told by the owner that he was not taking any more deer today. I can understand this as he must only have so much space in his cooler. I asked him when he thought he'd take more deer. To my surprise, he told me he'd likely take more deer in the morning. So I asked him if it wasn't at all possible to just leave the meat with him. After all, it was already cut up and I'd driven 40 minutes to drop it off. He quite rudely told me "I've already told you I'm not taking any more deer. If I take yours, I have to take deer from everyone else who wanders in." I was still taking the attitude and frigid customer service in stride at this point, so I asked him if it was possible to leave my name so that I could be assured that my deer would be accepted when I brought it back the next morning. To this, he responded: "No, I'm not taking numbers, names, or saving places in line. You can call first thing in the morning and I'll tell you if I'm taking deer or not." So I left. Drove 40 minutes back home. Put more ice on my deer meat and let it wait until the next morning. So Wednesday morning, I called their number first thing (0740). And no one answered. So I waited a few minutes and called back. Again, no answer. Then I tried a second number (870-308-0456). The owner answered this number. I said hello and told him I had been advised to call first thing this morning to find out if he was going to be able to accept some deer meat and that I was in my truck at that very moment ready to drive back to Monticello to drop it off. The owner told me: "We aren't open yet, that's why I haven't answered the phone any of the other times you called. We open at 0800." This was at 0750. So I politely told him, "I understand, I won't be there before you open, I just need to know yes or no whether or not you can accept any deer so I can start driving down." To my surprise, this small-business owner very rudely replied: "Yeah and you can call back when I'm open and I'll tell you 'yes' or 'no.'" I could not believe what I was hearing. I asked him: "So you're telling me that you are at your place of business right now at 0750 but you don't know if you can take my deer meat, but if I call back in 10 minutes, you'll know then." He said "Yes." By this point, I was sick of the attitude. So I just hung up and found someone else both cheaper and more polite to process my deer meet. It must be nice to have such a successful business that you need not worry about being polite to your customers. I am advising my network of friends, hunters, and family to avoid this place. Apparently, they are now too busy to deal with people in a professional and friendly manner. read more
