CUC disaster buy

[Anihiel1]

Not going to name the supplier but well known. Paid for priority shipping. Took the USPS 4 days to get here, so I expected some losses.. Not virtually all of them!! Out of the 55 gallon package- over a hundred snails- I've got maybe 5-10 living. Some of them were clearly empty shells, as I only found about 3 remains in the bag. So PO'd I'm not even going to address it bc I will lose my temper. So I'll just never shop there again.
Go to a different site. Order variety of snails. Pay roughly the same for shipping but it's there the very next morning. EVERYTHING is alive and running around the tank. Not only that but the livestock themselves are bigger and look much healthier.
Anyway, just needed to vent!!

 

[emilio365]

That’s a bummer, I did that once with about the same result. I been sticking to LFS instead.

 

[DungSl1nger]

Had a similar issue (7 day USPS delivery). Surprisingly a good portion made it. The seller treated me well on those that didn’t make it, so I would suggest contacting them.

 

[Billldg]

Not going to name the supplier but well known. Paid for priority shipping. Took the USPS 4 days to get here, so I expected some losses.. Not virtually all of them!! Out of the 55 gallon package- over a hundred snails- I've got maybe 5-10 living. Some of them were clearly empty shells, as I only found about 3 remains in the bag. So PO'd I'm not even going to address it bc I will lose my temper. So I'll just never shop there again.
Go to a different site. Order variety of snails. Pay roughly the same for shipping but it's there the very next morning. EVERYTHING is alive and running around the tank. Not only that but the livestock themselves are bigger and look much healthier.
Anyway, just needed to vent!!

Sorry for your bad experience and losses, but I like to think things have a way of working out. Though you had to buy it twice, it seems that the second go around was a far better experience.

 

[Tamberav]

Why not just contact them and get a refund.

USPS sucks sometimes...I don't think that venders is at fault. Probably just went through a ****** hub from their location to yours. Covid has made some if my packages go to one city only to be shipped back and return again.

 

[New&no clue]

I had the same thing happen. I bought a package for a pretty well known source, shipping was on time but about half were dead. I was pretty disappointed, but I live in Maine, they came in the winter so I just assumed the box had gotten too cold in shipment. In the spring I tried again. Ordered a bunch of stuff... and again half showed up dead. Now I just go to my LFS. They don’t have the wide range of stuff, but at least they make it to my house.

 

[creativeballance]

I ship a lot of stuff out for customers out of Louisville. I usually use USPS. Lately, they have been sucking hard. Total "oh theres "covid" so we aren't even going to pretend to care" attitude.
I sent some parts to Oregon. They took 3 weeks, including a week vacation in Hawaii.

 

[BighohoReef]

Not going to name the supplier but well known. Paid for priority shipping. Took the USPS 4 days to get here, so I expected some losses.. Not virtually all of them!! Out of the 55 gallon package- over a hundred snails- I've got maybe 5-10 living. Some of them were clearly empty shells, as I only found about 3 remains in the bag. So PO'd I'm not even going to address it bc I will lose my temper. So I'll just never shop there again.
Go to a different site. Order variety of snails. Pay roughly the same for shipping but it's there the very next morning. EVERYTHING is alive and running around the tank. Not only that but the livestock themselves are bigger and look much healthier.
Anyway, just needed to vent!!

I'm sorry to hear about your CuC... that's a bummer.
I'm curious did the vendor address the issue? If not your post should be about addressing the issue with the vendor and warning the community about ordering from a potentially shady vendor. I also agree that we are in strange times with covid so delays can happen, but most have a warning about shipping delays and what to do in case that happens.

I order all of my CuC online from @reefcleaners. John is awesome and he addresses every situation if you have an issue. I mention this because most of the big online shops should/will take care of you...

 

[Aquavaj]

I ship a lot of stuff out for customers out of Louisville. I usually use USPS. Lately, they have been sucking hard. Total "oh theres "covid" so we aren't even going to pretend to care" attitude.
I sent some parts to Oregon. They took 3 weeks, including a week vacation in Hawaii.

Placed an order with MD on Sunday and is being shipped with USPS. This is coming from Las Vegas to central CA and is going to take a whole week to get here. A WHOLE WEEK! I've ordered hundreds of times from them and they were all shipped with ups so I don't know why they went with USPS this time.

 

[Anihiel1]

No, not going to name them because (aside from the obviously empty shells) its not entirely their fault. Honestly can't say for certain what would have survived had the postal service gotten them to me on time. Only went with the first bc they were cheaper, but they need to use FedEx for expedited shipping not USPS. Guess my hermits can make use of the empty shells. And yes the second supplier was much better. No comparison.

 

[sharpimage]

Who was the second vendor?

 

[AcroNem]

I do not know why shipper would not use FedEx, I don't even really like it when I see UPS tracking from a seller. With how bad usps is I have no idea why someone would trust shipping that way. I'm sorry you had so many losses.

 

[Andy69]

I order all of my CuC online from @reefcleaners. John is awesome and he addresses every situation if you have an issue. I mention this because most of the big online shops should/will take care of you...

+1 on this^.
Got the shipment from USPS delayed but John promptly took care of the issue. A+ customer service!

 

[Anihiel1]

Who was the second vendor?

Second vendor was KP aquatics.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

+1 as well, @reefcleaners was great for me

 

[Anihiel1]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations- hindsight is perfect

 

[Tamberav]

reef-cleaners and kpa have both been good for me. I have had a couple DOA's before but they both refunded those. **** happens... it is more about how they respond to mishaps. I am in Wisconsin so it is no short trip to my house and sometimes I order in winter

Live-plants is probably another good one and they are using Fedex and UPS 2-day now and no longer USPS due to issues since covid started. It probably is an increase to shipping prices though... but what can ya do.

 

[Miller535]

Even the empty shells are likely not their fault. Hermit crabs will often crawl out of their shells when dying as well as hermits will rip each other out of shells. And being that they were in confined bags for 4 or 5 days, not surprising.

 

[Anihiel1]

I didn't order any hermits from the first supplier. I ordered different types of cuc from the two suppliers so I could easily see which ones died.
Update: of the maybe 10: 6 more died. Tank is cloudy, had to do a fast water change & add more carbon as well as pulling dead snails out to empty the decaying matter. *sigh* Fortunately everything alive seems to be unbothered by it.

 

[fish farmer]

I order all of my CuC online from @reefcleaners. John is awesome and he addresses every situation if you have an issue. I mention this because most of the big online shops should/will take care of you...

He does take care of you, but many CUC packages are send USPS....cheaper shipping....for me means possibly four days in the box which is why I never buy stuff in the heat of summer or cold of winter. He does have overnight for some items, but you have to order a minimum of $50 to qualify for it.