saltwaterfish.com order showed up crushed...

[maurod]

I hope this is not off-topic.
My drygoods order from SWF.com showed up totally crushed.
It contained an alk test, calc test and Phytoplex.

I waited a week for a calc test that is now useless to me.
Does anyone have a customer service # for them?
Here are the pics of the order.
www.maurophotography.com/saltwaterfish

M.

 

[jmkeary]

wow looks like someone played kick ball with it. you can also try and call the shipping company who did they use to ship it?

 

[maurod]

Fedex.... whom I usually trust, it would seem they dropped a fridge on this lil box.

 

[NateHanson]

I know some people have had problems with livestock orders from SaltWaterFish, although I don't know if this problem can be blamed on them. Probably Fed-ex's fault. Still, it'll be a good test of whether SWF stands behind you on this one and replaces the order like they should.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[Aquadiva]

maurod,

There is NO WAY Fedex would have accepted that box looking like that!!. Is the stuff inside unusable or just "smooshed?" Can't tell, but it looks like the test vial is cracked on the CA kit. What did the driver have to say, or was it a drop and run.

FEDEX should pay on that, especially if you shoot them a pic of that box. If you get a negative from the first customer service rep, call again until you get a little more sympathic operator.

 

[maurod]

The driver handed it to my wife, said "sorry" and left.

If I had been at the door, I'd have declined the package.

M.

 

[Jim Tansey]

I have had past experience with Saltwater Fish, unless things have changed you can't contact them by phone they have no published number. I stopped using them, if I can't pick up the phone and talk to them I'll shop some other place.

Jim

 

[maurod]

I only ordered from them because my friends have had no problems with orders. I hate using web-only ordering systems and usually avoid them and use the phone instead. This may be my last order from them if I don't hear back from them today.

To be fair, it's obviously not their fault that the package is damaged, but it is frustrating to deal with a company that does not publish a phone #.

M.

 

[nitrofish]

yikes

 

[maurod]

Just got an email from them to confirm the two kits are damaged. I'll let you know what happens next.

M.

 

[chuck]

keep us posted, was thinking of placing an order, but want to see how their customer service is

 

[SHOmuchFUN]

Same here...

Could you imagine a fish having to go through that abuse?

That box is REDICULOUS! Why would the driver even bother delivering it? Unless you had a box full of rubber, there was no way anything was making it through that abuse.

 

[NateHanson]

keep us posted, was thinking of placing an order, but want to see how their customer service is

If you're thinking of placing a livestock order, you might want to do a search on here for peoples experiences with them. They seem to have some strange refund policies which result in more business for them if one of your fish arrives dead. Seems that a few people here have had problems with them.

 

[JavaJones]

My (very recent) experience with saltwaterfish.com is mixed; I ordered the following:

1 x Tomato Clown - Wild $12.99
1 x Pajama Cardinal - Limit is 1 $1.99
3 x Blue Reef Chromis $23.97
1 x Green Chromis - Limit is 1 $1.99
2 x Porcelain Crab $11.98
1 x Cerith Snail - Group of 10 $9.99
1 x Serpent Star $5.99
1 x Mushroom Polyp - Ricordea $5.99
1 x Lettuce Nudibranch - Limit is 1 $1.99
1 x Deep Sea Yellow $14.99

The pj cardinal did not survive the trip, nor did two of the blue chromis. The lettuce nudibranch survived a few hours but did not even start feeding, by the morning it appeared to dissolve when I picked it up. Fortunately my two original lettuce nudibranchs continue to do well. The green chromis did not survive over night (it arrived emaciated and extremely small, 1/2" maybe?).

Eleven Ceriths arrived instead of 10 and two weeks later all appear alive! The crabs seem to be doing well (even in the presence of three emerald crabs), the serpent star is doing well and is active even during the day. The yellow Gorgonian is a wonderful piece with very many spectacular hair-like polyps.

On balance, while satisfied with the order, I am appalled by the high shipping mortality rate. Their "guarantee" requires that one sends back the fish with six days of their shipping date and essentially receive credit toward your next purchase. If you want to get the "guarantee" honored immediately, i.e. not wait until your next order, then you have to pay for the shipping of the guaranteed stock. It costs nearly $30.

Now, in fairness, everything seemed pretty professionally packed.

 

[NateHanson]

You bought six fish, and four of them died!!?? I'd say calling that a "mixed" experience is being awfully kind!

Yikes.

 

[maurod]

Update - They want me to return the package to them, with no promise of any kind.
Maybe I should share this thread with reefcentral ??

--
Hi,

Thanks for the email. Please return whatever needs to be replaced.
Thanks,
Customer Service Team
Saltwaterfish.com
www.saltwaterfish.com
--]

 

[jmkeary]

just call fedex directly and get them to reimburse you don't bother with the fish place will take you forever. fedex shoudl be fairly quick

 

[maurod]

Fedex wont reimburse without approval from the vendor. They also want to keep the package. Does anyone have spare Salifert CA and Alk test vials and syringes the'd part with for small change?

M.

 

[NateHanson]

I've got old test vials and syringes you can have. I'll have to see if I've got the tips for the syringes. If not, anyone who works in a lab can get them for you. They're just pippetter tips for a P20 or P200.

Nate

 

[maurod]

I've got old test vials and syringes you can have. I'll have to see if I've got the tips for the syringes. If not, anyone who works in a lab can get them for you. They're just pippetter tips for a P20 or P200.

Nate

Thanks Nate!
I checked the contents again when I got home. Only the CA vial broke and one of the pippet tips.
I had enough between the 2 kits to allow me to do both tests. I ended up using the Alk container for both tests.
MY CA is at 550 (a bit high...) and the Alk was at 7.5 so I added some Kent Alkalinity booster (part B?) to balance it out.

If you can spare the CA vial (the one with the spoon+bottle), you'd allow me to feel like my chemistry set is complete

I will test again in a few days to see how things trend.

I know I wont ever order from SFW again. I begged for a phone call and got only one line emails with no real help.

M.