New ways to contact Dr. reef

Dr. Reef · Mar 31, 2022

I wanna clarify the following.

If your order was missing some fish, its because i didnt feel like they were 100% on their health or quality.
I can make money just pushing them but thats not what I do. I held them back and now i will have to nurse them and ship them again out of my pocket but I guess no one sees that and understands that and wanna jump to conclusions.

You are paying me for a healthy fish and if its not healthy I am not shipping it. So if you are looking for a quick place to buy fish you have reached a wrong person.

Dr. Reef · Mar 31, 2022

I don't find myself complaining. If you wanna buy somewhere else go for it.
I am not shipping fish that don't meet my scale.

Dr. Reef · Mar 31, 2022

Thank you and as you see i have a lot that i need.
Also i do this for the passion not for money and my prices and easy to refund policies and cover doa fish after months prove it.

Dr. Reef · Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Reef said:
Thank you and as you see i have a lot that i need.
Also i do this for the passion not for money and my prices and easy to refund policies and cover doa fish after months prove it.

Its mentioned all over the place and no one in this hobby refund shipping and i mean no one. I refunded you 1/3 like you asked without any questions. now thats called customer service.

Joe31415 · Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Reef said:
You are paying me for a healthy fish and if its not healthy I am not shipping it. So if you are looking for a quick place to buy fish you have reached a wrong person.

No one expects quick, they order from you knowing it's going to take a while. It's not like you're spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising. The majority of the people, I assume, that find you are doing it via word of mouth (or message boards) and know what they're getting into. They're aware you're going to hold a fish until it's healthy. They expect to have to wait a month or two. The problem, as has been mentioned dozens upon dozens of times the lack of communication. In another thread on another board, quite a while back, you asked for suggestions about what you could do better and I think just about everyone listed replying to emails as the big frustration.

In fact, I originally found that post because I wasn't hearing anything back when I emailed you multiple times trying to find out when my order would ship.
After you finally emailed me back (about a month after the order was originally placed), you told me it would ship in about 7 to 10 days. That was 8 months ago (so, 9 months after the order was placed). Never heard anything after that. No 'payment link', no further communication, no fish.

Dr. Reef said:
I am not shipping fish that don't meet my scale.

And that's fine...but you really do need to send the person a quick email letting them know that it's going to be a little while longer. And, I'm willing to bet most customers would have no problem with you holding back the entire order so you're not 'shipping them out of your own pocket'.

This victim game you play is the problem, not the customers that are doing everything in their power to give you money...all you have to do is reply to your emails. It's honestly, 100% that simple. Reply to your emails.

ETA, and the more this keeps going on, the more these threads keep popping up and the more people are seeing them.

jaredrah777 · Mar 31, 2022

Hey Mike hope your feeling better ( @Dr. Reef ),

can you check on my order for me? a possible eta would be awesome! Here are the order numbers

#20QF2359
#20QF2404
#20QF2405

Sorry for all the order numbers I've been adding on my first order lol!

Hydrored · Mar 31, 2022

Hydrored said:
Well me start with by and far the worse customer experience I’ve even seen. I never got one update on my order until posting in this thread to another member it was 98 days and no response.

Placed an order on December 7th for the following quarantined fish.

Order: 20QF1748
��

Product Quantity Price
Naso Blonde Tang - Quarantined 1 $189.99
Gem Tang - Quarantined 1 $499.99
Orchid Dottyback - Quarantined 2 $139.98
Midas Blenny - Quarantined 1 $89.99
Subtotal: $919.95

They call me twice yesterday and left no voicemail and sent the fish anyways for arrival today without ever confirming with me. I tried calling them 3 times yesterday and get a voicemail that they are unavailable due to health issues.

Fish just arrived and missing the Naso and blenny, on top of the they send a blemished gem tang. Never once said they were shipping a partial order, for the two times you called me could have left a voicemail.

Water arrived at 1.20 at 70.4 degrees

No where does it state they are selling blemished fish. I’m waiting for a response to get my money back on the Naso, Blenny, and how they want the gem tang back.

Stay away from this train wreck until they decide they actually want to run a business and not a part time job

Hydrored said:
Update- gem didn’t make it through the night and here you can clearly see the blemish as well

I got a partial order along with the gem tang I received being a blemished one. So sending blemished fish is acceptable? Fish never made it 14 hours alive.

You are also charging the full invoice amount knowing you are not sending the full order.

Jeffbear · Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Reef said:
Hey guys I am back in and will resume shipping this coming week. Sorry i had to take a few days off due to personal health issues. Invoices for coming week will be sent out this weekend. and start shipping Monday onwards.

I look forward to receiving healthy Quarantined Clowns from you! I just ordered the other day so I'm expecting a long wait. But as long as they are healthy I'm good with that. I'm glad you are feeling better!

Dr. Reef · Mar 31, 2022

Hydrored said:
I got a partial order along with the gem tang I received being a blemished one. So sending blemished fish is acceptable? Fish never made it 14 hours alive.

You are also charging the full invoice amount knowing you are not sending the full order.

And I am 100% sure he got a replacement and if he didn't he will.

Hydrored · Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Reef said:
And I am 100% sure he got a replacement and if he didn't he will.

That is my fish from Saturday, I look forward to hearing from you.

Order: 20QF1748

RC Reefer 5184 · Mar 31, 2022

I ordered a group of fish from dr reef. Yes it took a while to receive the fish but that’s what I expected for a fully quarantined group of fish. They where healthy and I have had no issues with any of them. He even let me drive and pick them up instead of shipping them since I was only a few hrs away. I would drive down and do it again if he had some available today. So be patient and receive healthy fish for find another source. That’s just my experience and two cents. Thanks

csund · Mar 31, 2022

Hydrored said:
Update- gem didn’t make it through the night and here you can clearly see the blemish as well

Those look like stress marks. I bought a gem 4-5 years ago and had it drop shipped directly to Bobby (humblefish) for quarantining and it had the same markings. Once the fish is comfortable they go away.

I would guess it died from long acclimation. It’s way more stressful to go up than down in salinity. If the shipping water is that low (and purchased QT’d fish) I fill a grey brute tote with tank water, heater and water mover. Dilute to shipping water SG and add fish with no acclimation other than temp. Evaporation will bring SG up then you can add the fish.

I do the same with corals - only temp acclimate.

LOVEROCK · Mar 31, 2022

Hi Mike did you happen to find a golden rhomboid on Monday ?

Hydrored · Mar 31, 2022

csund said:
Those look like stress marks. I bought a gem 4-5 years ago and had it drop shipped directly to Bobby (humblefish) for quarantining and it had the same markings. Once the fish is comfortable they go away.

I would guess it died from long acclimation. It’s way more stressful to go up than down in salinity. If the shipping water is that low (and purchased QT’d fish) I fill a grey brute tote with tank water, heater and water mover. Dilute to shipping water SG and add fish with no acclimation other than temp. Evaporation will bring SG up then you can add the fish.

I do the same with corals - only temp acclimate.

I agree with you on all accounts other than the white line on its side behind the fin, the other white went away. That is an abrasion of some sort that the fish came with.

I dripped him and 2 other fish along with an air stone, I’ve never received a fish with such low salinity. In fact my Misco read 1.0194

I’ll try your method next time

rtparty · Mar 31, 2022

Hydrored said:
I agree with you on all accounts other than the white line on its side behind the fin, the other white went away. That is an abrasion of some sort that the fish came with.

I dripped him and 2 other fish along with an air stone, I’ve never received a fish with such low salinity. In fact my Misco read 1.0194

I’ll try your method next time

I am 100% not a fish expert. They are my least favorite part of the hobby to be honest. Such a nightmare finding healthy specimens.

But I have always found temp acclimating and then dumping them in to be far better than longer drip methods or slowly matching salinity (for most fish.)

YMMV and don't take that as "gospel" in any way. I am watching your situation closely since my order is going to be over $2k with Mike.

Stang67 · Mar 31, 2022

Dr. Reef said:
I wanna clarify the following.

If your order was missing some fish, its because i didnt feel like they were 100% on their health or quality.
I can make money just pushing them but thats not what I do. I held them back and now i will have to nurse them and ship them again out of my pocket but I guess no one sees that and understands that and wanna jump to conclusions.

You are paying me for a healthy fish and if its not healthy I am not shipping it. So if you are looking for a quick place to buy fish you have reached a wrong person.

OK you just earned a new client based on your response. I cannot wait to place an order and start doing business with you. THANK YOU!

Hydrored · Mar 31, 2022

rtparty said:
I am 100% not a fish expert. They are my least favorite part of the hobby to be honest. Such a nightmare finding healthy specimens.

But I have always found temp acclimating and then dumping them in to be far better than longer drip methods or slowly matching salinity (for most fish.)

YMMV and don't take that as "gospel" in any way. I am watching your situation closely since my order is going to be over $2k with Mike.

I have always followed your same method, and I actually don’t like fish lol. Both my frag and display tank run at 1.027 and I didn’t feel comfortable dropping him especially at a PH of 1.4

Truth is it’s not even the loss of fish, it’s the whole not communicating part that has me worked up. A simple email, voicemail, or text message setting expectations would have been fine with me. Hey we are not sending the whole order and your fish is blemished, are you OK with this?

I do not expect to receive a blemished fish no matter what the cost is.

Either way I’m waiting to hear back on the status of the rest of my order and I hope the salinity is adjusted to be a bit higher in his tanks.

Good luck !

rtparty · Mar 31, 2022

Hydrored said:
I have always followed your same method, and I actually don’t like fish lol. Both my frag and display tank run at 1.027 and I didn’t feel comfortable dropping him especially at a PH of 1.4

Truth is it’s not even the loss of fish, it’s the whole not communicating part that has me worked up. A simple email, voicemail, or text message setting expectations would have been fine with me. Hey we are not sending the whole order and your fish is blemished, are you OK with this?

I do not expect to receive a blemished fish no matter what the cost is.

Either way I’m waiting to hear back on the status of the rest of my order and I hope the salinity is adjusted to be a bit higher in his tanks.

Good luck !

I agree 100%. Communication is the key in all of this.