My worst fear when ordering corals happened!

[danreef55]

Torches and Hammers are terrible shippers. Hammers are the worst.
This is a hammer I got a few days ago. Sent overnight early am in good weather

Hammer, Torch and Frogspawn should be attached at the base with a piece of Styrofoam and rubber bands. The bag should be 75% full of water topped off with oxygen. I have received and shipped 1000s of these in a former wholesale operation

 

[VintageReefer]

Hammer, Torch and Frogspawn should be attached at the base with a piece of Styrofoam and rubber bands. The bag should be 75% full of water topped off with oxygen. I have received and shipped 1000s of these in a former wholesale operation

Well my vendor didn’t get the memo

 

[Conquest_317]

I am literally in the same boat. That flight delayed all our corals :-/. My delivery was just pushed back until Friday. I have the same mix, so I hope everything turns out ok. I will be recording the unboxing.

I was stressing over my 1 day delay, but having it delayed until Monday. I would just assume its all dead.

 

[VintageReefer]

Wow. Ups should be making sat delivery to make up for these delays

 

[NanoNana]

I’m out for delivery. I happy it’s not gonna be Monday but less than thrilled about 48 hours.

As stated, I live in the sticks so 48 hour ship times are always a possibility when I get shipments from ASD. What they have recommended to me in case of a late delivery in the past (and this is just an fyi not MY recommendation) is to acclimate and get them in a tank asap. They recommend not dipping because of extra stress on the coral. Visually inspect and manually remove anything you see, blow off with a turkey baster and get them in the tank.
Again, just passing on what I’ve been instructed to do.

 

[Reef Puncher]

some torches, hammers, zoas, acans, favites, favia, scolys…

oh no. ive feared that happening for so long. yet to have that happen. just pray the place you bought it from has a live delivery guarantee. some places have that. some dont. also, i never try to order too many corals at once. for this reason.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

This has been happening a lot more often these days. I think that shippers need to account for this and start upping their game when it comes to packaging and DOA.

For example, a seller here used a really nice plastic container with 3D printed frag holder. My frags came in perfect condition. I don’t know what that cost him, but it can’t be much considering he got a few hundred bucks. This needs to become the norm for $$$ shipments.

Just dropping frags into a plastic bag is lazy AF and is going to result in dead corals if there’s a delay (which is happening more often than not lately).

Also this DOA thing needs to change. Corals coming in rough condition might not be DOA, but they are going to be dead in a few days time. That isn’t fair.

-Matt

 

[David Gaskins]

its aqua sd, i think theyll take care of me if something goes wrong, it just sucks to see a delay and knowing what could happen

Had a similar experience years ago with same vendor and shipping from West Coast. All livestock arrived DOA (FED EX) Smaller order (SPS) and I still hold a credit but no desire to repeat/pay for secondary ship fee.

Lost a much larger order from SE Florida vendor after they mistakenly shipped out on a Friday and order didn't get delivered until following Monday (FED EX). Never rectified that order with vendor (supposedly system got damaged in fire and went OOB), and as a result never ordered from again.

Best of luck!

 

[VintageReefer]

The 2 hour policy some places have is unacceptable and coral can arrive stressed from delays and shipping and be “alive” but in an irreversible declining state. Sometimes you can’t even tell if the coral is healthy until it’s removed from the bag, and taking out of the bag voids guarantees for some places.

They all need to step up the policies for the prices we pay for these sensitive creatures

 

[mrjoe]

Had a similar experience years ago with same vendor and shipping from West Coast. All livestock arrived DOA (FED EX) Smaller order (SPS) and I still hold a credit but no desire to repeat/pay for secondary ship fee.

Lost a much larger order from SE Florida vendor after they mistakenly shipped out on a Friday and order didn't get delivered until following Monday (FED EX). Never rectified that order with vendor (supposedly system got damaged in fire and went OOB), and as a result never ordered from again.

Best of luck!

so while I get that things happen with shipments, my one and only concern is WHAT they do after the fact... This to me is most important and we as hobbyists need to call our vendors that don't or won't stand behind their sales... I personally would not have an issue mentioning who...

 

[LARedstickreefer]

so while I get that things happen with shipments, my one and only concern is WHAT they do after the fact... This to me is most important and we as hobbyists need to call our vendors that don't or won't stand behind their sales... I personally would not have an issue mentioning who...

I will call them out if they don’t make things right. I almost did it to a seller here when I had really unhealthy frags fail to open after a week and then melt. They begrudgingly gave a refund and I let it go.

-Matt

 

[NanoNana]

Had a similar experience years ago with same vendor and shipping from West Coast. All livestock arrived DOA (FED EX) Smaller order (SPS) and I still hold a credit but no desire to repeat/pay for secondary ship fee.

Lost a much larger order from SE Florida vendor after they mistakenly shipped out on a Friday and order didn't get delivered until following Monday (FED EX). Never rectified that order with vendor (supposedly system got damaged in fire and went OOB), and as a result never ordered from again.

Best of luck!

That’s when you call visa and say reverse that charge. Lol. ASD has been very good with me in the past.
It looks like a lot of people were affected by this flight delay. I expect it will take some time to address everyone. I would not want to be whomever manages their email today.

 

[knightnsd]

This happened to me last year on a rare bower through UPS from California to Prescott. I split the blame between UPS and the shipper that had decided to pack an expensive coral in cup of water to save some money on shipping and use the smallest box. The extra time in travel and heat cooked the coral and it showed up melted to the bone and after a few days I got my money back. If Will shipped it you are in better hands than mine were last year, seller offered me a weak common colored bleeding apple on a $500 lost RB frag.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

This happened to me last year on a rare bower through UPS from California to Prescott. I split the blame between UPS and the shipper that had decided to pack an expensive coral in cup of water to save some money on shipping and use the smallest box. The extra time in travel and heat cooked the coral and it showed up melted to the bone and after a few days I got my money back. If Will shipped it you are in better hands than mine were last year, seller offered me a weak common colored bleeding apple on a $500 lost RB frag.

This is what drives me crazy.

You give the seller hundreds for a very sensitive item and then they cut corners and hide behind a 2 hour DOA policy that DOESNT cover shipping delays.

Who’s to say that you didn’t send a sick coral?

We’re the customers. It’s time we take a stand against this nonsense. It would be nice if reef2reef took a stand against this in the same way they do for payment methods.

No more 2 hour DOA and shipping delay policy. That coral better come healthy and not melt in a week.

-Matt

 

[Conquest_317]

A good half of my order looks DOA. There was no cold pack, so I bet these corals were cooked.

 

[southd14]

I got pretty lucky. Everything was delivered at 10:30 this morning, and I was able to get them in the water pretty quickly. Everything looks good so far.

Im happy it worked out well because I talked my friend into joining in on the order.

 

[VintageReefer]

For sellers unwilling to help, I propose a Thread of Shame

 

[knightnsd]

Seattle corals did me worse than poor shipping.... they never shipped but claimed they did and sent over fake tracking information to Citicard on my card dispute. Citicard was so inept they accepted a blank shipping label without any tracking information as confirmation of delivery. It took hours of my time to correct what I deem as fraud. It was another bower of course, warpaint that I thought was different from my other warpaints. You know it's an addiction when you tell your wife... "they are not the same... that one is red with green and the other is green with red." Happy Reefing

 

[NanoNana]

I generally have great luck with Aqua SD. I had quite a few pieces dead.
Duncan’s are indestructible and the one they sent has four heads and is gorgeous. In a strange twist of fate I had a mushroom so dead I immediately regretted opening the bag inside and yet the goni survived and opened immediately.

Lost my giant chalice though. I may cry.

 

[braaap]

This has been happening a lot more often these days. I think that shippers need to account for this and start upping their game when it comes to packaging and DOA.

For example, a seller here used a really nice plastic container with 3D printed frag holder. My frags came in perfect condition. I don’t know what that cost him, but it can’t be much considering he got a few hundred bucks. This needs to become the norm for $$$ shipments.

Just dropping frags into a plastic bag is lazy AF and is going to result in dead corals if there’s a delay (which is happening more often than not lately).

Also this DOA thing needs to change. Corals coming in rough condition might not be DOA, but they are going to be dead in a few days time. That isn’t fair.

-Matt

That container and 3d print cost him about $5. I sell the 3d prints. The containers are $3-$4 each. They fluctuate a lot in price.

Seattle corals did me worse than poor shipping.... they never shipped but claimed they did and sent over fake tracking information to Citicard on my card dispute. Citicard was so inept they accepted a blank shipping label without any tracking information as confirmation of delivery. It took hours of my time to correct what I deem as fraud. It was another bower of course, warpaint that I thought was different from my other warpaints. You know it's an addiction when you tell your wife... "they are not the same... that one is red with green and the other is green with red." Happy Reefing

If you knew who owned Seattle Corals you never would have considered buying. SHADY is an understatement.