AquaSD shipping issues

[Doctorgori]

@AquaSD
Normally I am hesitant to openly use the vendor feedback as I believe it unfairly skews vendor reputation negatively…

@Daniel@R2R

I agree. The benefit to using the feedback forum is that specific issues can be addressed directly rather than getting lost in a thread where multiple posts regarding feedback are made. It is why our feedback policy is what it is. Our hope is that situations like these get resolved, and this happens more easily when they can be addressed without a lot of outside commentary from people not involved in the transaction.

I also mostly understand that resolving issues on the vendor feedback forum makes perfect sense especially from a administrative perspective as threads can turn into a pitchfork a torches thing and unfairly effect a sponsors bottom line, but…

by forcing the “compartmentalization” of individual problems into a “one on one” vendor feedback format you don’t get an overview of the complete situation: there is no format to accurately compile the data to see there is a real issue. Had I not read this thread ASD 3 day shipping delay
I might have taken all the dead frags I’ve received this past month as a “one of” fluke.
…sure one could read the exclusive back and forth from JUST the vendor to customer, and bear witness as the issue gets resolved, but that is a very different dynamic from a open forum discussion, which is more evolutionary.

…..there is DOA, and then there is “SOA” (stressed on arrival) which is basically bleached corals: not dead yet but will be….

I have been a long time customer of Aqua SD and just in dollars spent gives me some street cred here. I don’t fully trust the system but I’m forced to use it. Bottom line, my emails and phone calls hasn’t yet translated into replacement corals.

Also while every vendor uses a similar DOA policy; few cover losses after 24hrs, many of which are likely due to stresses outside the customers control, for instance: bleached corals from heat stress. Who covers that?

Added: Aqua SD is/was a solid vendor and I’m guessing here but they have recently departed from their past high level of service

 

[TeamAquaSD]

@AquaSD
Normally I am hesitant to openly use the vendor feedback as I believe it unfairly skews vendor reputation negatively…

@Daniel@R2R


I also mostly understand that resolving issues on the vendor feedback forum makes perfect sense especially from a administrative perspective as threads can turn into a pitchfork a torches thing and unfairly effect a sponsors bottom line, but…

by forcing the “compartmentalization” of individual problems into a “one on one” vendor feedback format you don’t get an overview of the complete situation: there is no format to accurately compile the data to see there is a real issue. Had I not read this thread ASD 3 day shipping delay
I might have taken all the dead frags I’ve received this past month as a “one of” fluke.
…sure one could read the exclusive back and forth from JUST the vendor to customer, and bear witness as the issue gets resolved, but that is a very different dynamic from a open forum discussion, which is more evolutionary.

…..there is DOA, and then there is “SOA” (stressed on arrival) which is basically bleached corals: not dead yet but will be….

I have been a long time customer of Aqua SD and just in dollars spent gives me some street cred here. I don’t fully trust the system but I’m forced to use it. Bottom line, my emails and phone calls hasn’t yet translated into replacement corals.

Also while every vendor uses a similar DOA policy; few cover losses after 24hrs, many of which are likely due to stresses outside the customers control, for instance: bleached corals from heat stress. Who covers that?

Added: Aqua SD is/was a solid vendor and I’m guessing here but they have recently departed from their past high level of service

Just wanted to start off by saying thank you for being so courteous about this situation regarding vendor feedback and still saying that we are a solid vendor, we appreciate that very much and I am sorry that the level of service you received resulted in you essentially being forced to come here. Please send me your order number in a private message so I can check your customer information. I will be back in the shop on Sunday and I will give you a call so we can talk and get this issue resolved.
Again thank you for your courtesy and please rest assured that we will get things taken care of.
-Kaleb

 

[Doctorgori]

Appreciate that, not sure you can say or offer more.
So I don’t want to pile on but most of my disappointment is with losses in that 24 - 72hr period that I’m pretty certain are from shipping stress/change. I get that you can’t possibly make guarantees or policy covering losses in perpetuity but nevertheless bleached corals arriving in hot bags aren’t “exactly” dead on arrival, but soon will be (and most certainly dead after expiration of any DOA policy).

I don’t expect 100% survival on a 6 for $100 acro frag pack, but I’m gettting easily 25-33% bleached sticks within 24-48hs. I won’t get into all the things I’ve tried untilI figured out my frags have been stuck in a hot UPS truck for days with heat packs in JUNE in South Carolina.

I realize this could be handled via pm and email but then others with similar issues wouldn’t benefit from my pain here. Constructively UPS isn’t responsible for adding heat packs or leaky bags.

I’ll send you my last 3 orders since April, that’s when I’ve had most of my losses.

For data collection purposes, aside from bleached sticks the losses have been mostly torches and elegans ( to no ones surprise, hence the reason I was hesitant to file claims as these are touchy anyway) …
Also very few duncan’s have survived for whatever reason

 

[TeamAquaSD]

Appreciate that, not sure you can say or offer more.
So I don’t want to pile on but most of my disappointment is with losses in that 24 - 72hr period that I’m pretty certain are from shipping stress/change. I get that you can’t possibly make guarantees or policy covering losses in perpetuity but nevertheless bleached corals arriving in hot bags aren’t “exactly” dead on arrival, but soon will be (and most certainly dead after expiration of any DOA policy).

I don’t expect 100% survival on a 6 for $100 acro frag pack, but I’m gettting easily 25-33% bleached sticks within 24-48hs. I won’t get into all the things I’ve tried untilI figured out my frags have been stuck in a hot UPS truck for days with heat packs in JUNE in South Carolina.

I realize this could be handled via pm and email but then others with similar issues wouldn’t benefit from my pain here. Constructively UPS isn’t responsible for adding heat packs or leaky bags.

I’ll send you my last 3 orders since April, that’s when I’ve had most of my losses.

For data collection purposes, aside from bleached sticks the losses have been mostly torches and elegans ( to no ones surprise, hence the reason I was hesitant to file claims as these are touchy anyway) …
Also very few duncan’s have survived for whatever reason

Hey there. Just wanted to follow up and let you know I have not received your message yet with the order numbers. Just need that so I can check the emails you sent and then give you a call
We can discuss everything, come to an agreement, and if needed there can be a follow-up post so that others can benefit from this discussion as well.

 

[Doctorgori]

Hey there. Just wanted to follow up and let you know I have not received your message yet with the order numbers. Just need that so I can check the emails you sent and then give you a call
We can discuss everything, come to an agreement, and if needed there can be a follow-up post so that others can benefit from this discussion as well.

Appreciate that, TBH I’m still reeling after figuring out all those bleached sticks and brown bags of goo are from heat stress. The fast 24hr bleaching and jellied torches these last 3 orders all makes total sense now.
So a lil torn between letting it go and either way waiting until weather permits anymore…

So Pardon the delay, it’s a lot, and also appreciate the transparency

 

[TeamAquaSD]

Appreciate that, TBH I’m still reeling after figuring out all those bleached sticks and brown bags of goo are from heat stress. The fast 24hr bleaching and jellied torches these last 3 orders all makes total sense now.
So a lil torn between letting it go and either way waiting until weather permits anymore…

So Pardon the delay, it’s a lot, and also appreciate the transparency

No worries at all, take your time. Let me know whenever you are ready to chat

 

[Doctorgori]

I’m going to be open here as I do have an underlying issue here that needs to be openly addressed: the leaking bags and heat packs.

I get that the bagging machine is an acceptable cost compromise but for my money you sold and delivered to me a coral from a hot shriveled bag: a pass on cost that only made the odds of a ending up with a colony a lot harder.

Sure I’ve ordered hundreds of bags by now, but how many of those leaked and how many hot stressed corals have I had to nurse back to health or replace? Conservatively I’ve endured at least 2-3 per box per 50ish bags

The heat packs? I emailed your company earlier about this. I meant no offense when asking if whomever bagged this was from south of the equator. I figured anyone from San Diego or Latin America or anywhere north of the equator already knows it’s summer in June.
I’m trying to understand where along the journey on I/10 thru I/40 from San Diego to Myrtle Beach requires heat packs in June?
That a fair question with an answer requiring a customer audience. So I was peeved when the Mayor shut this Thread down bailing the matter out and robbing your company of a stand up opportunity.

I get it, It’s forgivable as sponsors are not equal or you have a bad business model. Sponsors can represent unequal business revenue and therefore have unequal representation on a website

But the same is also true for customers; while we all deserve equal respect; customers spend at unequal amounts:
……..all customers are not equal.

If the amount of money I’ve spent hasn’t entitled me to a prompt response then I can only conclude the company is fat with customers spending at my rate

 

[TeamAquaSD]

I’m going to be open here as I do have an underlying issue here that needs to be openly addressed: the leaking bags and heat packs.

I get that the bagging machine is an acceptable cost compromise but for my money you sold and delivered to me a coral from a hot shriveled bag: a pass on cost that only made the odds of a ending up with a colony a lot harder.

Sure I’ve ordered hundreds of bags by now, but how many of those leaked and how many hot stressed corals have I had to nurse back to health or replace? Conservatively I’ve endured at least 2-3 per box per 50ish bags

The heat packs? I emailed your company earlier about this. I meant no offense when asking if whomever bagged this was from south of the equator. I figured anyone from San Diego or Latin America or anywhere north of the equator already knows it’s summer in June.
I’m trying to understand where along the journey on I/10 thru I/40 from San Diego to Myrtle Beach requires heat packs in June?
That a fair question with an answer requiring a customer audience. So I was peeved when the Mayor shut this Thread down bailing the matter out and robbing your company of a stand up opportunity.

I get it, It’s forgivable as sponsors are not equal or you have a bad business model. Sponsors can represent unequal business revenue and therefore have unequal representation on a website

But the same is also true for customers; while we all deserve equal respect; customers spend at unequal amounts:
……..all customers are not equal.

If the amount of money I’ve spent hasn’t entitled me to a prompt response then I can only conclude the company is fat with customers spending at my rate

I understand the upset about the clip machine making holes in the bag and of course if it was something that was more than a pinhole where it was apparent the bag was leaking we certainly would not have shipped it in that condition and would have fixed the issue.
You along with another customer had this issue and we promptly took out our replacement machine so that we could send the issue one off for servicing.

We use 24hour heat packs. For orders that have to go through the Louisville, Ky hub we check the overnight weather for that area and take that into consideration while the corals are staged there for up to 3-4 hours while it is rerouted to your state. For certain circumstanced (Florida for example) it may be 50 degrees overnight in Louisville but 100 in Florida. We will pop open a heat pack for those orders fairly early on in the day rather than right before we box the order up so that the heat packs will have died off by the time it is being shipped out from the Kentucky hub. There are many other details that go into consideration which I would love to discuss with a phone call if that would be acceptable with you.

 

[Doctorgori]

It’s not ASD per se, TBH I don’t like this format:

- running a biz you don’t have time to come into a website forum and address every irate customer with a negative post ….but I thought leaky bags represented a issue requiring a timely fix that the buying public should get a piece of mind

- appreciate the heat pack explanation: I did think it through with the heat packs: maybe a disabled worker, maybe new to this country? I was at a loss…

- But this format: moderating a thread when it turns south has bad optics as it represents unintentional or intentional damage control for vendors. In a sense it makes freedom of speech and transparency a variable of money and sales.Its a privately owned “for profit” forum so basically you vendors get to address issues in a silo away from a wider audience.

I get it: I can only imagine how vendor sales negotiations changed after the Vibrant fiasco.

We are good, thanks for the explanation, No way possible to parse out all the post delivery bleached sticks. Easy to say my tanks are pristine but they actually are right now anyway. I’ve nursed some back, others died slowly… look over my orders: lots of a acro frag packs and I only have 10 sticks maybe, all the rest bleached within 24- 48hrs. I spent lots of $$$$

I do want blood or first born for all the mushy torches, elegans and blasto’s : EASILY 5 torches, 2 elegans and I’d have to go back and count all the blastos..

I could care less about money value, I need corals. Colors is irrelevant so long as dissimilar…
I can wait until fall, again no sense in fixing this in 90F temps

 

[TeamAquaSD]

Completely understandable. I will send you an email and you can let me know when temps are better in your area and we can get things squared away then

 

[Doctorgori]

I’d like to close this thread with a happy ending: Aqua SD made good on their losses:
Save 1 stick in a frag pack (no biggie, esp with the freebie)

Note: Appreciate that someone added graph of shipping temps to the UPS hub…

Still doesn’t justify a heat pack in June anywhere in the lower 48