Ilona's reef shop scammed for 60K, now broke.

Harold999 · May 12, 2022

Ilona's reef was a little coral shop here in the Netherlands, and got scammed for 60K. A customer ordered hundreds of corals online and told Ilona that their insurance company would pay the bill (an accident happened to their tanks and they were insured for that).

Ilona called her own insurance company and asked if this was normal, that insurance companies pay the bill in cases like this. Yes it was completely normal according the insurance company.

All was shipped out and ofcourse you'll guess it right, the bill was never paid. Illona's reef is broke now, she had to stop her business.

Just to inform.

blaxsun · May 12, 2022

While that's too bad, there's no way I would've shipped $60k worth of corals based on someone's say so (normal or not).

Lavey29 · May 12, 2022

Harold999 said:
Ilona's reef was a little coral shop here in the Netherlands, and got scammed for 60K. A customer ordered hundreds of corals online and told Ilona that their insurance company would pay the bill (an accident happened to their tanks and they were insured for that).

Ilona called her own insurance company and asked if this was normal, that insurance companies pay the bill in cases like this. Yes it was completely normal according the insurance company.

All was shipped out and ofcourse you'll guess it right, the bill was never paid. Illona's reef is broke now, she had to stop her business.

Just to inform.

Why doesn't her insurance cover the loss by theft?

G Santana · May 12, 2022

Why wouldn't they wait for payment before sending corals. Not sound business practice!

blaxsun · May 12, 2022

Lavey29 said:
Why doesn't her insurance cover the loss by theft?

Probably didn't have insurance for that.

jmichaelh7 · May 12, 2022

She gon learn

LeftyReefer · May 12, 2022

That was very bad business decision.
having said that, I'm assuming she is going to sue this customer or start some kind of formal complaint?

undermind · May 12, 2022

This is kind of a strange report. Generally you accept payment in exchange for goods.

People over 40 may have heard the term COD. There's a reason Cash On Delivery is not a thing anymore.

Lavey29 · May 12, 2022

blaxsun said:
Probably didn't have insurance for that.

For theft? Pretty standard for a merchant business but guess not in her case.

TheDragonsReef · May 12, 2022

Thats a shame but any coral deals over a few thousand, and ill fly to the customers house and hand deliver them just to make sure i get paid. Shipping companies suck enough let alone dealing with scammers. Im sure she has the customers address, id bring the cops and pick up the coral.

Sean Clark · May 12, 2022

Smells fishy to me.

polyppal · May 12, 2022

When the son of the deposed king of Nigeria e-mails you directly asking for corals, you send them!

Notsolostfish · May 12, 2022

Its kinda hard to believe a buisness owner with years of experience would fall for something like this? 60k stuff shipped just based on a call? I feel theres something more to the story

LeftyReefer · May 12, 2022

undermind said:
This is kind of a strange report. Generally you accept payment in exchange for goods.

People over 40 may have heard the term COD. There's a reason Cash On Delivery is not a thing anymore.

Says who? We still make things for customers on COD all the time. That's the point.... If customer shows up to collect the goods, without payment, they don't get the goods.

seems COD is exactly what should have happened here. Instead is sounds like the coral shop owner decided to extend $60K in credit to this customer. Customer defaulted, now who is to blame? I'd say the shop owner was at fault for shipping the goods without securing payment before hand. They opted to ship out the goods on faith that the customer would pay.... not smart business move.

Sean Clark · May 12, 2022

I want to see what this person got for their 60k in coral scam. That tank is going to look pretty good a year from now.

LeftyReefer · May 12, 2022

I don't know that I've ever been in a shop that had $60K worth of corals.... let alone one that would ship $60K worth of corals to a customer without securing payment first.

strange indeed.

HudsonReefer2.0 · May 12, 2022

Smells like low tide in a Dutch canal

Hypan · May 12, 2022

LeftyReefer said:
Says who? We still make things for customers on COD all the time. That's the point.... If customer shows up to collect the goods, without payment, they don't get the goods.

seems COD is exactly what should have happened here. Instead is sounds like the coral shop owner decided to extend $60K in credit to this customer. Customer defaulted, now who is to blame? I'd say the shop owner was at fault for shipping the goods without securing payment before hand. They opted to ship out the goods on faith that the customer would pay.... not smart business move.

I believe they were referring to old school COD (cash on delivery), like UPS and FedEx used to do where they would accept Payment on behalf of the shipper when the items were delivered. Not cash on pickup.

But I agree. In this situation it’s like extending a line of credit and expecting the recipient to hold up their end after they receive goods. Not a wise move but there has to be more going on here.