Thanks for clarifying, Mike. I did not see the relevance of including the information about the other hobbyist. The hobbyist encouraged me to go with you and combine shipping. After I placed the order from your website (8/11) I sent you this:
"Hey Mike, I just placed an order on your website for CAO, Peach Rainbow, and JD Yellow Jackets. This will be combined with the polyps from XXXX. Shipping anytime next week will be fine. Thanks, Travis"
I was psyched to have SC ship my hobbyist purchase and fully expected a seamless transaction. After I had not been contacted for 6 days about my purchase, I became concerned that my invoice had not been processed so I contacted you again (8/17) and said this:
"Are you shipping me the zoanthid frags that I paid for last week? Please be a responsible business person and give me some kind of communication. This is my first order from you and I would like to become a loyal return customer, but this transaction is starting to give me doubts."
Then you apologized and told me that you thought the other hobbyist was taking care of the details. You also mentioned that the polyps would be ready for Thursday or Monday shipping.
And I responded this:
"Thanks for writing back. Thursday shipping will be fine and you can waive the delivery signature- I will be home all day Friday. Thanks, Travis"
And you told me on 8/17 that you just wanted to double check the health of the polyps before sending them out, and that you would let me know. On 8/19 you send me a message that the polyps shipped and to expect them Friday morning by 1030.
I'm curious at what point I pushed you to ship un-healed polyps? I admit that I was abrasive after I hadn't heard from you for 6 days, but that's a long time to make someone wait and not so much as send an invoice or an acknowledgement that the payment was recieved. Water under the bridge. However, I can assuredly say that the polyps were not seperated by mini-bags, only one single bag wadded up inside the shipping bag. The plugs were in contact with each other upon arrival. Against better judgement, I did not take pictures because I know that you are a big vendor and you must confident in your shipping practices. But now I see that you apparently do not treat a $115 order the same as a $1000 one. BTW, I am also going to lose the hobbyist purchased zoas that retail almost $300.
I'm very sorry that this has been aired out in front of the R2R audience. This week I had two coral orders arrive at my doorstep poorly packed with substantial losses and I guess I've just had enough. I also had an order from a hobbyist arrive that was packed amazingly and the polyps were open right out of the box. There is something wrong with this picture.