I agree, there are always two side. You always have good luck until it turns around.
When I relocated from Ohio to Texas they purchases 1120.00 in coral from me. The purchase was a store credit. So, before leaving I got 4 buckets of salt, a calcium reactor and a denitrifyer. In the end I had a 500.00 credit remaining.
Since we had done a lot of business in the past I was not worried about it. I figured I would have them ship me a skimmer or something....
Well, I spoke with Jeff often through email and over the phone. He called me a couple of times talking about photography and just talking about other things...
After a while I emailed him about the credit and he said that he would get back with me on the amount. I already knew the amount, I wrote it down therefore I was not concerned about the amount really.
So, I emailed again and got no response. This went on for about 6 weeks, me emailing and calling with no response.
Then 2 months after they got the coral from me Jeff emails me saying that the Montis had a pest on them and that 4 of the montis were lost. At that time I just said to take 100.00 off of the credit and be done with it since they were small montis and that was most likely more than what I charged for them anyhow.
They were in the QT tank therefore Jeff said that it was not a big deal... Remind you this was TWO months after them receiving the coral. I really dont think that the coral stayed in the QT tank for 2 months and not only that, I had the coral for a really long time and never had pest.
So, I email Jeff several more times just letting him know that I would like to clear up the credit, this goes on for another 2 months or so and I never got an email nor did Jeff return my calls.
So, last weekend I call Joe at the shop and spoke with him, instantly he was rude! He said that Jeff threw away all of the SPS that I traded them and that I should be responsible for them losing money. Jeff said that he threw them out because he thought that they might be infected with a pest. I ask Joe why I should be responsible for coral several months later and why Jeff would throw out heathy coral that he THOUGHT might have a pest and whats wrong with dipping the coral being that they have dip in the shop if Jeff thought there was an issue. Well, of course Joe could not answer that question... And Joe stated that its his money therefore its his decision.
I look at it differently, if you throw out coral that you have not paid for and dont intend on paying for then its my money that was thrown out!!
In the end Joe offered to send me a crap used skimmer to make up for it and to clear out the credit. I did not accept the offer being that I was owed a 400.00 - 500.00 credit, not a used skimmer that was probably worth little to nothing.
Also, just a couple of weeks before all of this happened Jeff was at my house and got several pieces of SPS and never had any issues...
Jeff also told me that before putting the "infected" montis into there QT tank he ran fresh water and bleach through out the entire system and skimmer therefore the pest had to come from me.
The last time I checked it is not a good idea to involve bleach with live coral. Keep in mind that the there QT tank is acrylic and has a sand bed. Then when filling the QT back up fresh saltwater is used.
I am think the death of the coral came from a tank that was filled with bleach and freshwater. When the tank is filled back up I am sure that some of the bleach/fresh water was still in the sand. Not only that, the tank has no live rock whatsoever. This is like adding SPS to a tank that has never been cycled and expecing it to live.
I feel that Jeff may have screwed up and is hiding his mistakes by blaming me for the losses. I feel this way because Jeff done the same thing to another local person that traded in SPS, he threw them all out saying that they were infected with a pest.
Not only that, I have seen several other SPS die in there QT tank but on the other hand the SPS look great in there raceways.
I think that Jeff is killing a lot of coral and stating that the coral are unhealthy when in reality the problem is how he is adding bleach, fresh water and then putting SPS in an uncycled tank.
Thats both sides of the story...
