Anyone ordered from Fish Of Hex before?

[trevorhiller]

Couldn't really figure out where to post this question and this seems like the catch all forum.

Has anyone ordered frags from Fish of Hex before? I follow him on YouTube and when I realized he sells frags and lives in PA as well, I decided to place an order for some beginner pieces since he seems to have good prices/shipping fees. That was 10 days ago and I haven't gotten a shipping notice or an email with an update on when the items will ship. We've been having some cold weather in PA, so I'm wondering if that's the reason for the delay.

I did send an email last week, but I haven't heard back just yet. Just want to make sure this seller is good to go since I paid $200 and haven't heard anything back.

This is my first time ordering corals online, so I'm not sure what's considered reasonable shipping time frames or weather requirements.

 

[Sean Clark]

Couldn't really figure out where to post this question and this seems like the catch all forum.

Has anyone ordered frags from Fish of Hex before? I follow him on YouTube and when I realized he sells frags and lives in PA as well, I decided to place an order for some beginner pieces since he seems to have good prices/shipping fees. That was 10 days ago and I haven't gotten a shipping notice or an email with an update on when the items will ship. We've been having some cold weather in PA, so I'm wondering if that's the reason for the delay.

I did send an email last week, but I haven't heard back just yet. Just want to make sure this seller is good to go since I paid $200 and haven't heard anything back.

This is my first time ordering corals online, so I'm not sure what's considered reasonable shipping time frames or weather requirements.

I ordered a while back and it was a generally great experience. All my frags were good sized and healthy. I still have all of them all/no casualties even in my sup-par care (see what I did there). I would give the benefit of the doubt to him. He is often mentioning how backed up he is on the YouTubes. I think he is genuinely trying to do his best. His prices are pretty darn good. Selection not so much. Where else are you going to find frag packs that cheap per piece online?

 

[trevorhiller]

I ordered a while back and it was a generally great experience. All my frags were good sized and healthy. I still have all of them all/no casualties even in my sup-par care (see what I did there). I would give the benefit of the doubt to him. He is often mentioning how backed up he is on the YouTubes. I think he is genuinely trying to do his best. His prices are pretty darn good. Selection not so much. Where else are you going to find frag packs that cheap per piece online?

That’s kind of my thinking—heck he just did a free giveaway for veterans.

I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t out of the ordinary. I don’t mind waiting some more for quality, affordable pieces. But if theres a problem and he didn’t get my order or something, I also don’t want to waste time waiting around when maybe he hasn’t seen it. I’ll hold off till the 2 week mark and if I haven’t heard back I’ll shoot him another email.
Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[Sean Clark]

That’s kind of my thinking—heck he just did a free giveaway for veterans.

I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t out of the ordinary. I don’t mind waiting some more for quality, affordable pieces. But if theres a problem and he didn’t get my order or something, I also don’t want to waste time waiting around when maybe he hasn’t seen it. I’ll hold off till the 2 week mark and if I haven’t heard back I’ll shoot him another email.
Thanks for the reassurance.

I am not trying to be a cheerleader,
I am not saying that it is not out of the ordinary. 10 days is alot. He does only send out healed frags and does say that that could be up to two weeks. I don't know what timeline you were promised when you ordered or if it is always kind of fluid.
It wouldn't hurt to shoot him an email. I trust him to come through. The guy wouldn't put himself out there on the YouTubes like he does if he was not legit. That has literally become how he pays his mortgage. Videos coral and 3d printed stuff it all ties together.
Plus he is a veteran and that is enough for me.

 

[trevorhiller]

I am not trying to be a cheerleader,
I am not saying that it is not out of the ordinary. 10 days is alot. He does only send out healed frags and does say that that could be up to two weeks. I don't know what timeline you were promised when you ordered or if it is always kind of fluid.
It wouldn't hurt to shoot him an email. I trust him to come through. The guy wouldn't put himself out there on the YouTubes like he does if he was not legit. That has literally become how he pays his mortgage. Videos coral and 3d printed stuff it all ties together.
Plus he is a veteran and that is enough for me.

It didn’t really state a shipping timeline when I ordered. I know he does some cut to order frags that take a week, but I didn’t order from the section.

I did order a frag pack though, so perhaps he had to cut one. If that’s the case, it uses up 7 of the 10 days and it’s only been 3 days wait.

Ill stick the original plan I think, 2 weeks seems more than reasonable on my end. A week for healing and a week for packaging& processing. If I haven’t at least heard something from him by then, then I’ll look at reaching out another way.

 

[Sean Clark]

It didn’t really state a shipping timeline when I ordered. I know he does some cut to order frags that take a week, but I didn’t order from the section.

I did order a frag pack though, so perhaps he had to cut one. If that’s the case, it uses up 7 of the 10 days and it’s only been 3 days wait.

Ill stick the original plan I think, 2 weeks seems more than reasonable on my end. A week for healing and a week for packaging& processing. If I haven’t at least heard something from him by then, then I’ll look at reaching out another way.

 

[Sean Clark]

It didn’t really state a shipping timeline when I ordered. I know he does some cut to order frags that take a week, but I didn’t order from the section.

I did order a frag pack though, so perhaps he had to cut one. If that’s the case, it uses up 7 of the 10 days and it’s only been 3 days wait.

Ill stick the original plan I think, 2 weeks seems more than reasonable on my end. A week for healing and a week for packaging& processing. If I haven’t at least heard something from him by then, then I’ll look at reaching out another way.

Please share how with us either way.

 

[trevorhiller]

Please share how with us either way.

Still waiting unfortunately, I messaged him via the chat box on his website this past Friday just in case for some reason he didn't receive my email I sent on the 12th. I got an auto reply stating he was off the weekend. I still haven't heard anything back.

Kind of disappointed in the lack of communication, but he did post a video on YouTube explaining he's been having cold weather (which I can vouch for as I am located in the same state as him) and hes been busy with other projects so items are currently delayed.

Sounds like he's reached the peak of what he can do by himself and may need to hire some help or he's going to end up with some unhappy customers.

Unfortunately I am lights out for a Dino outbreak currently, so I am just counting the delay as a blessing in disguise and trying to remain patient. I still would like an email explaining the delay though just because >2 weeks with no communication and no shipment notification is kind of unprofessional IMO. I'll update again if I hear something or when the frags arrive.

 

[Sean Clark]

Well that definitely would have me upset too. Hopefully you get some positive answers soon. Your lights out situation aside, you should have your corals by now. Thanks for the update. Let us know how this goes because people should be informed about situations like yours.

 

[trevorhiller]

So yesterday marks 3 weeks. I placed the order January 8th. I sent an email on January 12th inquiring on when he would be mailing the frags-never heard back. The following week I sent a message via the website chat feature-never heard back.

Unfortunately, I think im going to have to call PayPal tomorrow and report the problem. I haven’t heard anything back from emails and haven’t gotten a shipping notice. I just send him a third message.

Does this seem reasonable? Should I wait longer? I don’t want to want to cancel because I really wanted the frags I ordered, but I don’t understand how long he expects me to wait. He’s been uploading videos on his YouTube channel, but hasn’t replied to my email or shipped my frags.

 

[trevorhiller]

Update: he messaged me back! He said the weather has been too cold and he sent a notice out. (I’m 100% certain I never received anything, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt again here). I don’t know what temperatures he needs to ship, it has been cold here in PA, but I’m going to research coral shipping tonight at work and figure that out. He offered to ship them regardless of temperatures if I want him to, so if they don’t ship soon, I may just risk it and have him do that. Maybe his standards are a little higher than other places, but it seems plenty of other places are shipping corals at the moment.

I just wanted to keep people updated on my frag order saga, I don’t want to report bad experiences and ruin sometimes reputation over a communication glitch.

 

[Sean Clark]

Update: he messaged me back! He said the weather has been too cold and he sent a notice out. (I’m 100% certain I never received anything, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt again here). I don’t know what temperatures he needs to ship, it has been cold here in PA, but I’m going to research coral shipping tonight at work and figure that out. He offered to ship them regardless of temperatures if I want him to, so if they don’t ship soon, I may just risk it and have him do that. Maybe his standards are a little higher than other places, but it seems plenty of other places are shipping corals at the moment.

I just wanted to keep people updated on my frag order saga, I don’t want to report bad experiences and ruin sometimes reputation over a communication glitch.

Glad to hear that you heard back from FOH. I do not ship coral so I am no expert. It seams to me that he responded in about an hour of your previous post and email. He did offer to send out your order regardless of temp if that is what you wanted him to do. As to the notification that you did not receive, I can not say anything either way.
I am not sure why you lined out "fine waiting until we" at the end of your uploaded screenshot.
I hope the best for you and your corals when you receive them.

 

[trevorhiller]

Here’s the rest for the record. It just wouldn’t all fit.

 

[Sean Clark]

Thanks for providing that. I was referring to the part that had a line through it. Not what was excluded. Again I hope all goes well.

 

[fish farmer]

I know you both are in PA, but just an fyi another big storm coming east this week. Looks like he ships UPS but does that go out of state then back in for Next Day Air, I think UPS goes to Kentucky?

I bet money by then end of the week there will be people wondering where their corals are...

 

[trevorhiller]

So despite my offer for him to wait for warmer temperatures since he was concerned, he shipped the frags out yesterday. They arrived today almost 24 hours later to the minute. Fortunately we had a pretty mild winter day today. Unfortunately the heat pack taped in the box was cold and the temperature of the water in the box was 56. The frags are looking a little rough, but I dipped them in Coral Rx and Bayer and got them in the tank.

He uses plastic frag plugs, which I personally hate the idea of…just more plastic for the landfill and harder to cut off. But I gave them all a good brushing and dip and then left them attached. I want to make sure the frags got into warmer water ASAP. As long as they survived, I’ll post some pictures once they start looking better.