BkChem corals

[coralbeauties]

Just wondering how many people fell in to the trap that Ratha of Bkchem set for many of us? Has anyone heard anything from the guy? My partner and I fell into his allure and bought from him. The first deal went through ok with a few shipping losses which were replaced. We decided to get some more and sent money and decided to hold off on shipping till better weather(it was the middle of wintier). A month later we try and arrange shipment and he tells us he is no longer selling and will refund our money. Well 6 months later, no money, no corals and ghost town for any responses from him. He stole over 3 grand from us, just wondering how many others he got.
Jeff

 

[ChiCity]

lol…. i blocked (tristanfish) a lonnnnnng time back.
dude been an egomaniacal jagoff from the jump!

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Ratha aka BKChem aka The Sutton Group llc on PayPal is a thief and should be prosecuted for the thousands and thousands of dollars he stole from this community!

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

Any pro bono detectives or attorneys willing to dig into this?

 

[coralbeauties]

No one else got ripped off by this guy?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I stopped following him on Insta because it was the same posts over and over but never wanted to deal with a guy that doesn’t post prices or have a store front. I would never be comfortable dropping thousands on corals thru DMs only.

 

[ScottB]

Wow. Such a shame. He had some awesome stuff. I bought some pre-Covid and was delighted. Seemed like a nice guy. Since switched over to Shane for similar pieces/prices.
Sorry this happened to you and for all of us. Please update if things change.

 

[coralbeauties]

I know of two others that each have lost more then we did. Im sure there has to be many more but we just dont know of. Puts a bitter taste in our mouth when I see the name bkchem on a coral.
Jeff

 

[BigKid4788]

Cannot confirm but I heard from another vendor on IG he was dealing w some health issues.

I have ordered a couple times. First went well. Second I was sent the wrong stuff but he made it right (took a couple months as not all acros were available)

 

[Hagios]

I have bought frags from Ratha on two occasions and both were good experiences with great customer service. The first time ordering went great with no shipping hiccups. Got a chance to talk reef with him for a little bit and it was great chatting with him. He was very sincere.

With the second order FedEx messed up and didn't get the frags to me until the second day. Amazingly they were alive due to the massive amount of water he shipped them with. Unfortunately, some still died shortly thereafter...and the others succumbing later. Not sure if the shipping delay was to blame. I'm sure the stress didn't help. Plus they were speciosa acro's which we know can be finicky from system to system.

I can't say anything bad about him, and I would order from him again.

I hope what others are indicating is not true in the sense that they have been ripped-off. I sympathize and that is a terrible feeling and I know because I have been swindled by others in the hobby or out...I don't know...it's hard to tell when you are being deceived. As @BigKid4788 has suggested perhaps something has happened to him and we should be praying for him instead of bashing him presumptuously.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I have bought frags from Ratha on two occasions and both were good experiences with great customer service. The first time ordering went great with no shipping hiccups. Got a chance to talk reef with him for a little bit and it was great chatting with him. He was very sincere.

With the second order FedEx messed up and didn't get the frags to me until the second day. Amazingly they were alive due to the massive amount of water he shipped them with. Unfortunately, some still died shortly thereafter...and the others succumbing later. Not sure if the shipping delay was to blame. I'm sure the stress didn't help. Plus they were speciosa acro's which we know can be finicky from system to system.

I can't say anything bad about him, and I would order from him again.

I hope what others are indicating is not true in the sense that they have been ripped-off. I sympathize and that is a terrible feeling and I know because I have been swindled by others in the hobby or out...I don't know...it's hard to tell when you are being deceived. As @BigKid4788 has suggested perhaps something has happened to him and we should be praying for him instead of bashing him presumptuously.

As you mentioned, I had an order go thru just fine. It was the second order that he never delivered on.

Im sure your great experience with him was before he decided to rip everyone else off. Since February it had been “oh we’ll get your pack out shortly”. Then it was well I’ve had surgery and had complications, I’ll just refund you. And then every week thereafter it was “well I can’t refund you until other people pay me back”. And now, he has just ghosted everyone. Won’t respond to the people he owes money to. Whether he was going thru health issues or not, you don’t go and spend all your customers’ money and not refund them if you can’t deliver your product. He’s a thief, plain and simple. At what time he decided to become a thief is irrelevant. He stole thousands from me and more from others....
@danreefman warned us all back in 2021. Should have taken his advice and stayed away from the thief Ratha/BKChem then!

 

[Hagios]

As you mentioned, I had an order go thru just fine. It was the second order that he never delivered on.

Im sure your great experience with him was before he decided to rip everyone else off. Since February it had been “oh we’ll get your pack out shortly”. Then it was well I’ve had surgery and had complications, I’ll just refund you. And then every week thereafter it was “well I can’t refund you until other people pay me back”. And now, he has just ghosted everyone. Won’t respond to the people he owes money to. Whether he was going thru health issues or not, you don’t go and spend all your customers’ money and not refund them if you can’t deliver your product. He’s a thief, plan and simple. At what time he decided to become a thief is irrelevant. He stole thousands from me and more from others....
@danreefman warned us all back in 2021. Should have taken his advice and stayed away from the thief Ratha/BKChem then!

Not sure how to respond, but that I am sorry for your losses. It's pretty messed up when people gain your trust and then turn right around and betray that trust.

I simply wanted to post my personal experience with him, which was good overall. I've learned by now that there are always at least two sides to every story. Obviously trust is earned and easily lost. Ghosting people certainly doesn't put anyone at ease. Again, sorry for everyone's losses. I hope he puts things right.

 

[adsf430]

No one else got ripped off by this guy?

@thirst . Thirsty bought from him and listed the whole experience on his instagram which was a mess. BK then had a meltdown for months openly trolling him constantly on his account using grotesque language and didn't refund him. I think that lost him a lot of customers, I hadn't bought from him directly yet although I have some of his corals and wouldn't after seeing how unstable he was. He stopped posting about 8 weeks after all that.

Bkchem Boutique Coral on Instagram: "Donkey says what? 👋 #BkchemCoral #acclimatedculturecoral #bkchemfish #macro_captures #acropora #reeftanks #canon #macroperfection #zoa #sps #lps #zoacity #pictureoftheday #reefgeek #aquaculture #reefaquarium #ree

76 likes, 2 comments - bkchemboutiquecoral on February 18, 2022: "Donkey says what? 👋 #BkchemCoral #acclimatedculturecoral #bkchemfish #macro_captures #acropora #reeftanks #canon #macroperfection #zoa #sps #lps #zoacity #pictureoftheday #reefgeek #aquaculture #reefaquarium #reefporn...

www.instagram.com

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

@thirst . Thirsty bought from him and listed the whole experience on his instagram which was a mess. BK then had a meltdown for months openly trolling him constantly on his account using grotesque language and didn't refund him. I think that lost him a lot of customers, I hadn't bought from him directly yet although I have some of his corals and wouldn't after seeing how unstable he was. He stopped posting about 8 weeks after all that.

Bkchem Boutique Coral on Instagram: "Donkey says what? 👋 #BkchemCoral #acclimatedculturecoral #bkchemfish #macro_captures #acropora #reeftanks #canon #macroperfection #zoa #sps #lps #zoacity #pictureoftheday #reefgeek #aquaculture #reefaquarium #ree

76 likes, 2 comments - bkchemboutiquecoral on February 18, 2022: "Donkey says what? 👋 #BkchemCoral #acclimatedculturecoral #bkchemfish #macro_captures #acropora #reeftanks #canon #macroperfection #zoa #sps #lps #zoacity #pictureoftheday #reefgeek #aquaculture #reefaquarium #reefporn...

www.instagram.com

I seen that. It was pathetic. I knew I was in trouble from that moment...

 

[KevinC]

lol fun to find out just now, that im blocked from their instagram cause im Asian and viewed their instagram stories when that clown stuff happened. I didn't even comment!

lol no wonder RRC is mad at you (bkchem) You are probably viewing this and frankly, you suck

 

[njreefkeeper]

Ah the chop shop king. I heard through the grape vine from a reliable source that he crashed his tank. But I’ve also heard from the same source he supplies some high end vendors (ahem) as well.

Buyers beware.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

This thread has been moved to our feedback forum. R2R isn’t the place to gang up on any person. Per feedback rules anyone is allowed to post their own feedback thread and post a link here if they want. Per our TOS, the only comments allowed moving forward will be between the OP and seller.

 

[IKD]

This thread has been moved to our feedback forum. R2R isn’t the place to gang up on any person. Per feedback rules anyone is allowed to post their own feedback thread and post a link here if they want. Per our TOS, the only comments allowed moving forward will be between the OP and seller.

Hi, I am not trying to argue, so please don’t take it that way. How can we alert our community of scammers? From my experience, this is the result of someone airing a grievance and others contributing the discussion that garners a consensus that a seller has nefarious intentions. The forum rules (inadvertently?) prevent this collaboration which seems like a disservice to our community‘s well-being. It‘s a fine line between dog-piling and beneficial alerts, but I greatly appreciate warnings from fellow reefers about individuals that scam buyer’s and I would hate to lose that information.

 

[kschweer]

Hi, I am not trying to argue, so please don’t take it that way. How can we alert our community of scammers? From my experience, this is the result of someone airing a grievance and others contributing the discussion that garners a consensus that a seller has nefarious intentions. The forum rules (inadvertently?) prevent this collaboration which seems like a disservice to our community‘s well-being. It‘s a fine line between dog-piling and beneficial alerts, but I greatly appreciate warnings from fellow reefers about individuals that scam buyer’s and I would hate to lose that information.

We allow for all users to start their own individual feedback threads in the feedback forum. This keeps threads from cluttering and getting confusing in hopes of having some dialogue between involved parties. We understand there may be multiple issues with one vendor. This is why we allow users to post a like to their feedback threads in other feedback threads to spread the word that they are having an issue as well.

Simply put anyone who has had a transaction with this seller may make a thread detailing the purchase and any issues with it and then post a link to it here or in other feedback threads about the seller.

 

[IKD]

We allow for all users to start their own individual feedback threads in the feedback forum. This keeps threads from cluttering and getting confusing in hopes of having some dialogue between involved parties. We understand there may be multiple issues with one vendor. This is why we allow users to post a like to their feedback threads in other feedback threads to spread the word that they are having an issue as well.

Simply put anyone who has had a transaction with this seller may make a thread detailing the purchase and any issues with it and then post a link to it here or in other feedback threads about the seller.

Are the feedback threads grouped by vendor/seller? This would allow people to see both good and bad reviews of one party in one ‘thread’ versus doing searches and getting mixed results.