Fish order Dr reef quarantined fish

[Dr. Reef]

I am not here to make excuses. Business did grow over my head and I had to hire a call center.
I have been paying for 4 people for over a year now. 1 that answer phone calls and 2 answer emails and 1 IT guys that keeps website updated.
So I am not sure where the disconnect is when some of you are saying there is lack of communication.
As things get posted or feedback reaches us, we modify and adapt.
Water quantity and bag sizes is on top of my list now.

There was no model business that I could look at and size Dr reefs Quarantined Fish. So I had to learn as days go by. I am still learning even today so I am not mad at anyone posting anything here as I don't look as it as a negative thing. I learn from it.
We will continue to provide healthy disease free livestock and learn and modify our ways to adjust to the requirements of the clients.

 

[Reeftanktraveler]

May I suggest adding to the top of your list to stop sending out dates that fish will be delivered when fish are not being delivered. People stay home from work and wait (all day) for the fish to arrive. Your team knew you did not send out the fish, and you should have sent out an email, so the customer would know as well. It's very frustrating when you wait months and then are told it will be delivered on a specific day and nothing arrives. Just one customer's opinion.

 

[Dr. Reef]

May I suggest adding to the top of your list to stop sending out dates that fish will be delivered when fish are not being delivered. People stay home from work and wait (all day) for the fish to arrive. Your team knew you did not send out the fish, and you should have sent out an email, so the customer would know as well. It's very frustrating when you wait months and then are told it will be delivered on a specific day and nothing arrives. Just one customer's opinion.

We send out invoices about a week ahead of time and once paid we place the order on schedule to deliver on certain day of the week requested. system send those emails out automatically with the day and date we placed the order on schedule for. so we cannot stop sending that info, people need to know when we plan to ship so they can make arrangements,.

week later when we goto pack the fish, maybe its dead or nor healty not eating etc so we stop the delivery. I wish there was a way for me to predict future of a fish 7-10 days ahead of time and we wont be having this issue.

Sometimes we get done packing and wait on ups and they say oh we cant ship today due to temp out of range or plane has mechanical issue etc. we dont get that info till 6pm central.

There are too many things that can go wrong, unfortunately that leaves not much time for us to tell customer your order is not shipping today, as soon as we know (in the evening) we send out emails.

If you dont tell people like you suggest then deliveries will go out wihtout anyone knowing and maybe people are not available to receive which is a bigger problem.

 

[Dr. Reef]

May I suggest adding to the top of your list to stop sending out dates that fish will be delivered when fish are not being delivered. People stay home from work and wait (all day) for the fish to arrive. Your team knew you did not send out the fish, and you should have sent out an email, so the customer would know as well. It's very frustrating when you wait months and then are told it will be delivered on a specific day and nothing arrives. Just one customer's opinion.

Could you please also suggest a solution so we can work on it.
Invoices and secdule went out a week ahead of time and thus emails went out with a suggested date/day of shipping about 7-10 days ahead.
Now the day of shipping the fish is dead or not healthy or weather is not goodfor shipping, ups has a plane down, or for whatever reason you cant ship it. what would you do now?

If we send out deliveries whenever they are ready without prior notice to customers, we have tried that before and we got a thousand complaints about that.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Well, I'll pile on. I just received my second Dr Reef order and am less than impressed.

First order was placed at the beginning of December. I was a little confused because I paid the invoice and got the email stating it was shipping the week before Christmas. BUT it didn't actually ship. So my order status was "Thursday" for almost 3 weeks. I did call was told beginning of Jan. I understand not shipping during the holidays, but I receive no communication that my fish were not going to ship after I got the email that said they were. Order was a bunch of green chromis, a yellow watchman goby, diamond goby, purple dotty back, and an exquisite firefish. The diamond goby was alive, but barely, and died within a couple hours. The firefish died 3 days later. Dr reef honored his guarantee and added new fish to the second order I had pending. So communication was a little annoying and I ended up with some loss also, but he stood by the guarantee, so overall, not terrible experience.

Placed a second order before the first ended up shipping. Received it just a couple hours ago. After more than 2 months of waiting. The packaging was poor...no enough stuffing in the box to prevent the bags from sliding around in the box. The order was missing a fish, no explanation why, I was not issued a refund, AND, two wrasse (Oranate Leopard and McCoskers) were both DOA, cloudy and very smelly water. Since its overnight shipping, they must of died almost immediately upon packaging...look at the tail rot in the pic below on the ornate leopard.

I've already sent off pics to Dr Reef and at this point have requested a refund of the missing fish at the 2 dead fish. I am not interested in waiting for fish to ship at some unknown time without any real communication....only to end up with dead fish anyway...


EDIT: Already received an email back. They apologized about the missing fish, they believe it was packed....so maybe someone out there got a free china wrasse..said they would issue a refund. Did not address the DOA specifically, but I am hoping they will issue the refund for those at the same time...



Water was super cloudy...and smelled just awful, this fish died very quickly in the bag...

 

[Daenion]

Dr. Reef has been nothing but wonderful for me for the past 7+ months. I have not lost a fish from them and have had no DOA. They have been responsive enough and worked with me on multiple occasions. Even talked to the actual man on the phone a few times. Hindsight I guess some of the packaging could have been better but I also took his advice and picked up from the hub.

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Well, I'll pile on. I just received my second Dr Reef order and am less than impressed.

First order was placed at the beginning of December. I was a little confused because I paid the invoice and got the email stating it was shipping the week before Christmas. BUT it didn't actually ship. So my order status was "Thursday" for almost 3 weeks. I did call was told beginning of Jan. I understand not shipping during the holidays, but I receive no communication that my fish were not going to ship after I got the email that said they were. Order was a bunch of green chromis, a yellow watchman goby, diamond goby, purple dotty back, and an exquisite firefish. The diamond goby was alive, but barely, and died within a couple hours. The firefish died 3 days later. Dr reef honored his guarantee and added new fish to the second order I had pending. So communication was a little annoying and I ended up with some loss also, but he stood by the guarantee, so overall, not terrible experience.

Placed a second order before the first ended up shipping. Received it just a couple hours ago. After more than 2 months of waiting. The packaging was poor...no enough stuffing in the box to prevent the bags from sliding around in the box. The order was missing a fish, no explanation why, I was not issued a refund, AND, two wrasse (Oranate Leopard and McCoskers) were both DOA, cloudy and very smelly water. Since its overnight shipping, they must of died almost immediately upon packaging...look at the tail rot in the pic below on the ornate leopard.

I've already sent off pics to Dr Reef and at this point have requested a refund of the missing fish at the 2 dead fish. I am not interested in waiting for fish to ship at some unknown time without any real communication....only to end up with dead fish anyway...


EDIT: Already received an email back. They apologized about the missing fish, they believe it was packed....so maybe someone out there got a free china wrasse..said they would issue a refund. Did not address the DOA specifically, but I am hoping they will issue the refund for those at the same time...



Water was super cloudy...and smelled just awful, this fish died very quickly in the bag...

Ok I must chime in here. First and foremost, you are ordering during the peak of winter when there are brutal cold fronts across the entire country. How can you not expect a higher rate of DOA?
Second, you stated that a couple of hours ago you received your second order. You subsequently stated in the same paragraph that you have yet to receive a refund. Come on dude. You literally just received the shipment. How can he possibly refund you already when its been a couple of hours.
Look, I hate that you had this experience. In the end, fish death sucks. But I think your actions are not tailored to your expectations. Dr. Reef is not a miracle worker. You need to either adjust your expectations or stop ordering during winter months. I say this from personal experience. I stopped ordering ordering fish for delivery between November and March as this caused too much unnecessary mortality.

 

[slowwrx137]

I've only received one order from Dr. Reef so far but I was very happy with my first order, no DOA and everything I received is thriving in my tank. I have a second order shipping next week.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Ok I must chime in here. First and foremost, you are ordering during the peak of winter when there are brutal cold fronts across the entire country. How can you not expect a higher rate of DOA?
Second, you stated that a couple of hours ago you received your second order. You subsequently stated in the same paragraph that you have yet to receive a refund. Come on dude. You literally just received the shipment. How can he possibly refund you already when its been a couple of hours.
Look, I hate that you had this experience. In the end, fish death sucks. But I think your actions are not tailored to your expectations. Dr. Reef is not a miracle worker. You need to either adjust your expectations or stop ordering during winter months. I say this from personal experience. I stopped ordering ordering fish for delivery between November and March as this caused too much unnecessary mortality.

You called me Dude...hahahaha

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Ok I must chime in here. First and foremost, you are ordering during the peak of winter when there are brutal cold fronts across the entire country. How can you not expect a higher rate of DOA?
Second, you stated that a couple of hours ago you received your second order. You subsequently stated in the same paragraph that you have yet to receive a refund. Come on dude. You literally just received the shipment. How can he possibly refund you already when its been a couple of hours.
Look, I hate that you had this experience. In the end, fish death sucks. But I think your actions are not tailored to your expectations. Dr. Reef is not a miracle worker. You need to either adjust your expectations or stop ordering during winter months. I say this from personal experience. I stopped ordering ordering fish for delivery between November and March as this caused too much unnecessary mortality.

Neither of my shipment came during the extreme blasts of cold air this year, but sure, shipping in winter is harder. If you look closely at the pics, certainly one of those fish died immediately, the shipping journey didnt matter. I know it happens...I've had 2 orders and each one had 2 dead fish...I guess I am just unlucky...

Dude, there was a fish missing from my order, I checked my email to see if I had any message from them, then I checked my credit card to see if they had credited me for that particular fish, like maybe they knew it wasnt going to ship. I wasn't expecting a refund, I was expecting a fish...I was just trying to determine if there was any way for me to know it wasnt coming, the answer was a clear NO. If you read the edit I made, Dr reef already responded saying they believe they packaged the fish, so maybe someone made a mistake a put it in someone elses box...? No idea, but it would explain why there wasnt a communication in this case.

Lower my expectations, not likely. Those wrasse were dead before they got on the plane....forget about weather...it didn't play a factor. If you call, they can give you a planned ship date, why can't your order info reflect that expected date? When an order doesnt ship, why cant they notify you?

 

[Aspect]

Was looking for a fish to be QT'd through them. I tried sending a message through their website submission 4 times, never received a response. Then I was able to find their direct email which I emailed 3 times before receiving a 3 word response: "We will try". Never heard anything back after that and just stopped trying.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Its unfortunate guys. no one wins out of doas. infact i lose money.
I paid fo that fish. i cared for it for 30-45 days. i invested time and money and resources in it to ship and then having to refund it. so what do i gain from it? nothing.
Winter shipping is harsh we try our best to do whats neccessory but some fish are fragile and they die in shipping specailly when there are delays. ALl 70+ order we shipped this week were delayed by an additional day due to thirderstorms in midwest. so I expect losses. specially in winter.

I cant control what fish dies or not. i have nothing to gain out of fish loss except unhappy customer and money out of my pocket. We packed in double bages and black bags. all bags were 8" bags, we placed then in a 2" thick styrofoam container, they were bagged with 2/3 water and 1/3 o2 and a layer of paper on top and 2 heat packs.

Manufacturer only recommends 1 heat pack. we placed 2. box was a 24x16x16 size box which is the biggest we carry and can accomodate about 12-14 bags. so i am not sure what else could have been dont. if someone have suggestions please tell us so we can look into it. By the way this is exactly the same way wholsesalers ship in same bags and same material and boxes.
so i am open for suggestions.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Was looking for a fish to be QT'd through them. I tried sending a message through their website submission 4 times, never received a response. Then I was able to find their direct email which I emailed 3 times before receiving a 3 word response: "We will try". Never heard anything back after that and just stopped trying.

there are fish we cant get sometimes. what were you looking for?

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Neither of my shipment came during the extreme blasts of cold air this year, but sure, shipping in winter is harder. If you look closely at the pics, certainly one of those fish died immediately, the shipping journey didnt matter. I know it happens...I've had 2 orders and each one had 2 dead fish...I guess I am just unlucky...

Dude, there was a fish missing from my order, I checked my email to see if I had any message from them, then I checked my credit card to see if they had credited me for that particular fish, like maybe they knew it wasnt going to ship. I wasn't expecting a refund, I was expecting a fish...I was just trying to determine if there was any way for me to know it wasnt coming, the answer was a clear NO. If you read the edit I made, Dr reef already responded saying they believe they packaged the fish, so maybe someone made a mistake a put it in someone elses box...? No idea, but it would explain why there wasnt a communication in this case.

Lower my expectations, not likely. Those wrasse were dead before they got on the plane....forget about weather...it didn't play a factor. If you call, they can give you a planned ship date, why can't your order info reflect that expected date? When an order doesnt ship, why cant they notify you?

I am by no means attempting to engage in a back and forth here. Not my intention. Simply put, I thought some of your first post was unfair. I think your reply to my response is disingenuous as well.

"If you look closely at the pics, certainly one of those fish died immediately, the shipping journey didnt matter."
-----This is so disingenuous. The only thing that is certain is that you have no idea if that fish was immiedateily dead upon packing. The more probable and reasonable explanation would be what you are asserting didn't happen: the fish died during transit.

"Lower my expectations, not likely. Those wrasse were dad before they got on the plane. . . forget about weather ... it didn't play a factor."
-----Another disingenuous statement. Besides disingenuous, it is highly improbable, highly unlikely, highly argumentative, and most importantly, highly unverifiable. You have no basis to make this argument. I doubt that a single reader would give any credit to this baseless statement. And for the record, please read closely to my claim about lowering expectations. My statement is this. IF ordering during brutal winter conditions THEN expect higher mortality rates (AKA lower your expectations [regarding survivability]).

Maybe it is the attorney in me but I cannot even imagine trying to make these claims in court. The judge would tear me to pieces for having no foundation for my warrantless claims. I know we are not in court but the same level of evidence based assumptions should be held as a standard here. You simply have not merit to your statements.

I understand you are upset. For that, I am sympathetic. From my personal experience with Dr. Reef, he will make it right with you. My first order with Dr. Reef has its mistakes too. I ordered two black storm clownfish. I received 1 black storm and 2 picasso. In the end, I got my second black storm shipped out and I kept two free picassos. In another, I paid for but was missing a desjardini tang. When I inquired about it, I was informed that the desjardini was not eating prepared foods and for that reason, he used his professional judgment and decided to continue observing the fish. I call this a pretty responsible decision.

I won't respond to another comment. I don't want my intentions or contribution to be misconstrued. I simply tried sharing an objective observation. Good luck with your setup. Wish you the best. And Mike will absolutely take care of you.

 

[Dr. Reef]

THIS IS POST #75

ANYONE and EVERYONE that reported a BAD experience here in the first 74 posts feel free to contact me at [email protected] along with your POST # and I will send you FREE FISH of your choice max retail value of $200 + free shipping.

Again I dont do this for money, I do this for fun and passion.

 

[cpschult]

I would like to make a complaint..

jk. I’ve been waiting for my latest tank to cycle so I could order some fish from ya!

 

[rtparty]

Just got my order this morning. I was beyond worried since we aren’t snapping this cold streak in Utah.

Package arrived about 10:35 and immediately came inside. Pulled all the bags out and temp floated for about 30 minutes. Bags felt cool but I didn’t measure anything. I see no reason to waste more time.

I ordered a spotted mandarin, a helfrichi firefish, and 3 Tierra anthias. One anthias was DOA. I expected this since they aren’t great shippers IME. I don’t see a single thing that Mike did or didn’t do that caused this. It just happens. Everything else was swimming around just fine and is in the tank swimming around now.

One anthias looks a little rough but my established harem may have set some rules early on. Now all 6 are swimming around together after a few hours.

I emailed and was immediately emailed back about a refund. You simply can’t beat that service. Mike is my absolute go to for fish. Yes, some are going to die during transit. It sucks for the fish and for us trying to keep them.

Some of you really need to go see the wholesalers in LA. You’d understand just how good Mike is IMO.

 

[ReefGeezer]

THIS IS POST #75

ANYONE and EVERYONE that reported a BAD experience here in the first 74 posts feel free to contact me at [email protected] along with your POST # and I will send you FREE FISH of your choice max retail value of $200 + free shipping.

Again I dont do this for money, I do this for fun and passion.

Oh wow. I forgot to post my complaint.... Tulsa is a little too far from Wichita to drive down and back in just one day for fish pick-ups. I have to stay overnight at the Hard Rock. Then I don't have money to pay for the fish! LOL.

'Till the next order, best wishes.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

I am by no means attempting to engage in a back and forth here. Not my intention. Simply put, I thought some of your first post was unfair. I think your reply to my response is disingenuous as well.

"If you look closely at the pics, certainly one of those fish died immediately, the shipping journey didnt matter."
-----This is so disingenuous. The only thing that is certain is that you have no idea if that fish was immiedateily dead upon packing. The more probable and reasonable explanation would be what you are asserting didn't happen: the fish died during transit.

"Lower my expectations, not likely. Those wrasse were dad before they got on the plane. . . forget about weather ... it didn't play a factor."
-----Another disingenuous statement. Besides disingenuous, it is highly improbable, highly unlikely, highly argumentative, and most importantly, highly unverifiable. You have no basis to make this argument. I doubt that a single reader would give any credit to this baseless statement. And for the record, please read closely to my claim about lowering expectations. My statement is this. IF ordering during brutal winter conditions THEN expect higher mortality rates (AKA lower your expectations [regarding survivability]).

Maybe it is the attorney in me but I cannot even imagine trying to make these claims in court. The judge would tear me to pieces for having no foundation for my warrantless claims. I know we are not in court but the same level of evidence based assumptions should be held as a standard here. You simply have not merit to your statements.

I understand you are upset. For that, I am sympathetic. From my personal experience with Dr. Reef, he will make it right with you. My first order with Dr. Reef has its mistakes too. I ordered two black storm clownfish. I received 1 black storm and 2 picasso. In the end, I got my second black storm shipped out and I kept two free picassos. In another, I paid for but was missing a desjardini tang. When I inquired about it, I was informed that the desjardini was not eating prepared foods and for that reason, he used his professional judgment and decided to continue observing the fish. I call this a pretty responsible decision.

I won't respond to another comment. I don't want my intentions or contribution to be misconstrued. I simply tried sharing an objective observation. Good luck with your setup. Wish you the best. And Mike will absolutely take care of you.

Lawyers....have a good day.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Some of you really need to go see the wholesalers in LA. You’d understand just how good Mike is IMO.

I agree. I visited my wholesalers when I owned an LFS. Quite the ugly operation. The repackaging facilities for transshipping at LAX were worse, if they still exist. It's been a minute so I really don't remember the exact number, but my DOA rate to my Midwest location was probably over 10%. Shipping takes a toll on fish. Even when the trip goes off as planned, some just don't make it regardless of their health.

I do have a good story. I was helping a lady establish the first retail marine fish department in Rapid City and most all of South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming for that matter. We received a shipment that got delayed for days in a blizzard. All the fish were cold, almost frozen, and appeared dead on arrival. However, one little Panther Grouper came back from the dead when the water warmed up. We never sold him. I was afraid he'd succumb to some sort of damage from the event. I think the owner finally gave him away.