Not mad, very disappointed

[polyppal]

Thankfully TSA thought differently.

No, likely they didn't. They made nice to avoid the bad exposure even though they're not responsible. Someone complained on a forum and it was easier to give them credit than for the individual to take responsibility for the care of their corals after receiving the package.

Complain when you don't get what you want and force the business owner to take a loss for your mistakes. Its the American way

 

[Sean Clark]

No, likely likely didn't. They made nice to avoid the bad exposure even though they're not responsible. Someone complained on a forum and it was easier to give them credit than for the individual to take responsibility for the care of their corals after receiving the package.

Complain when you don't get what you want and force the business owner to take a loss for your mistakes. Its the American way

Sad but true.

 

[ssdawood]

My theory is that the coral overheated. Heat pack is for cool weather travel, not being in a box in a 70 degree room and car. By the time you opened it, the heat pack was likely exhausted, so it may not have been your first thought. I think heat packs nuke coral more often that people realize, especially in undersized styrofoam coolers. For this reason, I will no longer ship coral, in any weather, in a cooler smaller than 1 cubic foot, with a heat pack. As for the store. Given their experience, they should have specifically asked how you would be transporting the frags, so it is partially on them. At least a 50% refund, or simply should not have offered the option.

Same thing happened to my biota order last month.
Whoever packed the box didn't have enough water in bag for corals.
On top he put two heat packs right on tip corals in bag

When I recieved them a day later the bags were at 83 degrees. You can imagine what temperature they were when they left facility.
I know IR temp is not accurate for this kind of work but still.

I only uses temp gun cause the bag was very hot.
Here are the pics.
I informed biota a week later as they were softies and they have guarantee on aquaculture corals.
No response

 

[polyppal]

Sad but true.

 

[Sean Clark]

Can we settle for an emotional one?

 

[Sleepingtiger]

No, likely they didn't. They made nice to avoid the bad exposure even though they're not responsible. Someone complained on a forum and it was easier to give them credit than for the individual to take responsibility for the care of their corals after receiving the package.

Complain when you don't get what you want and force the business owner to take a loss for your mistakes. Its the American way

Right… individual responsibility. You obviously thought that the OP was negligent and caused the death of these corals. I am curious what you think the OP could of done differently to avoid this situation?

 

[polyppal]

Right… individual responsibility. You obviously thought that the OP was negligent and caused the death of these corals. I am curious what you think the OP could of done differently to avoid this situation?

He could've hypothetically done any number of things that lead to the frag deaths. Its a living thing, not a toaster he took home and didn't work.

Let me ask you - he saw the employee package his items when he left the store with it... Aside from it being a case of 'his word vs the employees', what could the store have done differently to avoid this situation?

Ever have a seemingly healthy fish die a few days after you brought it home? Is that automatically the stores fault somehow - bc it died and your not happy? Sometimes its a roll of the dice hoping your livestock survives and thrives, not perpetually the sellers problem, especially when it leaves their hands alive and dies in your hands.

What could he have done differently to avoid the situation? Have his frags shipped home, which would have left him with a DOA guarantee

 

[Sleepingtiger]

Glad this was resolved, but this put TSA in a tough spot. If they said ‘no’, then we’d see a post about a store refusing to sell a coral to someone traveling and judging their customers. As soon as you leave the store with purchase in hand, it’s the customers responsibility to care for it and know the policy. I think TSA went above / beyond here which speaks to their customer a service.

I think this was a win for both parties. The OP got what he wanted.

TSA got some good publicity as several members gave them good reviews and TSA showed their customer service skills by still working with the customer even though they didn't have to. I would definitely consider TSA when I order fish.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

He could've hypothetically done any number of things that lead to the frag deaths. Its a living thing, not a toaster he took home and didn't work.

Let me ask you - he saw the employee package his items when he left the store with it... What could the store have done differently to avoid this situation?

Ever have a seemingly healthy fish die a few days after you brought it home? Is that automatically the stores fault somehow - bc it died and your not happy? Sometimes its a roll of the dice hoping your livestock survives and thrives, not perpetually the sellers problem, especially when it leaves their hands alive and dies in your hands.

What could he have done differently to avoid the situation? Have his frags shipped home, which would have left him with a DOA guarantee

You basically said that the OP was negligent, caused the corals death so he/she needed to take personal responsibility. So I am asking you, what did the OP do to be held responsible for this?

TSA is the retailer. They could of done everything perfect, but crap happens. Its in the best interest for TSA to work with their customers for the long run.

I purchased a cleaner shrimp from an online retailer. During shipment, the dang shrimp molted. During the molt, the shrimp got somehow smashed and died overnight in the aquarium.
Online retailer sold me a regal angel that he promised me that it ate. I received the fish, it never ate. His policy on regals is their are no guarantees because of nature of the fish.
I purchased some fish from another online retailer. Half came in dead because of delay by carrier.

In all three situations, the online retailer could of told me to "take personal responsibility", "fish arrived alive", "not responsible for carrier delays". But they didn't. They took care of me knowing these were extreme cases. In turn, I have very high confidence with all three retailers and have spent considerably more money with them.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

Ever have a seemingly healthy fish die a few days after you brought it home? Is that automatically the stores fault somehow - bc it died and your not happy? Sometimes its a roll of the dice hoping your livestock survives and thrives, not perpetually the sellers problem, especially when it leaves their hands alive and dies in your hands.

I have NEVER had a healthy fish die a few days after I brought it home. I have seen LFS selling fish knowing that the fish didn't eat and wouldn't eat or fish from a tank that had ich. But they sold them all as "healthy" fish.

I was at a LFS when they received this beautiful long nose butterfly. I asked for the fish to be fed. He tried several different foods and the fish didn't eat. He said the fish was new so give it a few days. I came back a week later and the same LNB was there. Again I asked the fish to be fed. They gave it, mysis, brine shrimp and it still didn't eat. At the same time, another person was eyeing the same fish. The salesman knew the fish wouldn't eat and hasn't eaten for a week. Yet, he stayed quiet as the other customer asked about the fish and how to take care of it. I just shook my head when he began to bag that LNB for the other customer.

 

[polyppal]

You basically said that the OP was negligent, caused the corals death so he/she needed to take personal responsibility. So I am asking you, what did the OP do to be held responsible for this?

TSA is the retailer. They could of done everything perfect, but crap happens. Its in the best interest for TSA to work with their customers for the long run.

I purchased a cleaner shrimp from an online retailer. During shipment, the dang shrimp molted. During the molt, the shrimp got somehow smashed and died overnight in the aquarium.
Online retailer sold me a regal angel that he promised me that it ate. I received the fish, it never ate. His policy on regals is their are no guarantees because of nature of the fish.
I purchased some fish from another online retailer. Half came in dead because of delay by carrier.

In all three situations, the online retailer could of told me to "take personal responsibility", "fish arrived alive", "not responsible for carrier delays". But they didn't. They took care of me knowing these were extreme cases. In turn, I have very high confidence with all three retailers and have spent considerably more money with them.

I don't know whether the OP was negligent or not, whether he cared for it at precisely the right temp or stuck it in the minibar... None of us knows that but the OP. But again - the livestock becomes his responsibility once it leaves the store in his hands.

His posting a complaint publicly on this forum was intended to get a reaction from TSA so that they'd change their minds, and it worked - more power to him! And obviously its in the best interest of the vendor to make him happy even if its his fault, though they take a loss, its a good look for them - that's all a given. The point is like I said, he got his desired outcome despite the company not being responsible, thus they take a loss. It is what it is. I don't know what warrants this story as an 'extreme case' as you put it which would suddenly make it their responsibility to replace.

What I commented on is that he is plainly asking this communities opinions on whether his request for a refund is fair/warranted - and I voiced my opinion that it is not. And sometimes when you make a decision (i.e. to transport a package home yourself vs shipping it with a DOA warranty) and it doesn't work out, then perhaps you should accept the responsibility that comes with it - good or bad.

Now im done wasting brain cells on such a pointless discussion, have a good evening

 

[Sleepingtiger]

I don't know whether the OP was negligent or not, whether he cared for it at precisely the right temp or stuck it in the minibar... None of us knows that but the OP. But again - the livestock becomes his responsibility once it leaves the store in his hands.

His posting a complaint publicly on this forum was intended to get a reaction from TSA so that they'd change their minds, and it worked - more power to him! And obviously its in the best interest of the vendor to make him happy even if its his fault, though they take a loss, its a good look for them - that's all a given. The point is like I said, he got his desired outcome despite the company not being responsible, thus they take a loss. It is what it is. I don't know what warrants this story as an 'extreme case' as you put it which would suddenly make it their responsibility to replace.

What I commented on is that he is plainly asking this communities opinions on whether his request for a refund is fair/warranted - and I voiced my opinion that it is not. And sometimes when you make a decision (i.e. to transport a package home yourself vs shipping it with a DOA warranty) and it doesn't work out, then perhaps you should accept the responsibility that comes with it - good or bad.

Now im done wasting brain cells on such a pointless discussion, have a good evening

you don't know if the OP is negligent? didn't you say that the OP made mistakes and that is why business owner is not responsible?

 

[polyppal]

you don't know if the OP is negligent? didn't you say that the OP made mistakes and that is why business owner is not responsible?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

 

[Perry]

Regardless of TSA packing, if ample water, a bit extra, was provided, they actually did their job. It would be as simple as taking package to car, looking in said package, identify a heating pack, and removing. 100% not necessary in climate controlled environment, acros would have been fine @70F no problem. Seems like the miss was treating a hand carried live package vs. shipped, 2 different scenarios. Somewhere, there was a breakdown of communication between OP and TSA.
I am still fuzzy on how exactly this happened, cause the buyer, 100% made some critical errors. The OP could have requested a larger Styrofoam shipping package for fish, put a gallon or 2 of water, then float purchased frags. Put lid on, call it a day. The extra water leaving store at 78F, with bagged purchases, controlled at 70F, give me a break, no way they would have died from cold water. I have had acros delivered in 65F water, no color loss, pe within the hour upon placement in tank. Especially hardy, well grown corals, they are quite resilient, but above 86F things begin to head the wrong direction. I would have ditched the heating pack myself. Glad everyone is happy, great customer service TSA, any replacement or reimbursement was above and beyond!
Cheers

 

[Reefing102]

The important thing to note here, which is something I learned, is that you can bake corals with a heat pack if the temp is moderately warm outside the box. Honestly never thought of that but it makes perfect sense. Thanks for the info!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

 

[IKD]

you don't know if the OP is negligent? didn't you say that the OP made mistakes and that is why business owner is not responsible?

One could look it at this way. The coral was happy and healthy in the store. The only variable that changed was it being removed from that environment to the buyers care. Whether intentional or not, the buyers possession caused the deterioration of the coral.
Now back to watching Judge Judy (is she still on air?)

 

[Perry]

Or...
Why not just have TSA do their specialty, and ship the hand picked corals....hmmm
Then, all of this, wouldn't have happened or been backed by arrive alive guarantee.

BTW,
I live 30 miles from TSA, I have never purchased anything from them, so no irons in the fire here, lol

 

[HighChiefKC]

The one thing I’ve learned from this and I’ve often thought of, if I was in the same situation as OP, I would pick out the corals I want, and then have them ship them. I wouldn’t want the extra stress of traveling with them.