Marine Depot Live:Buyer Beware!!!

[trigger111]

I would first like to state that this thread was not created in an attempt to gain a credit on my lost items. The sole purpose of this thread is to inform MD live customers, and prospective customers of the so called customer service Marine depot live claims to provide.

What happened.
I ordered three hardy items from marine depot as a test to see if buying more delicate items from them in the future would be wise. They were stripped mushrooms, blue mushrooms and zoas. I received the box and opened it to find that the bag containing the stripped mushrooms had broken open during transit and much of the water had leaked from the bag into the foam container. Upon inspecting the stripped mushrooms which still looked intact I called Marine depot live on what I should do. The employee I spoke with essentially told me that they were dead and to send a picture of them to them. I immediately did that. Six hours later after no response I did so again. Finally, 10 hours after receiving the order I get a response from MD live saying that they cannot give me a credit on the stripped mushrooms because they appeared alive in the picture I sent them. So after doing as I was instructed by a Marine depot employee I was then told by another employee that we can't credit you for this because they are not dead. Might I add that during the 10 hours of no contact, that I did not acclimate the mushrooms I left them in their bag on my counter as the first person at Marine depot Live instructed me to do. So now because I followed the directions of a Marine depot employee I have disregarded any warranty. Obviously, the product was not intended to be received in a broken bag and I believe that alone is enough to justify my not paying for the damaged goods. However, that is not how marine depot sees it. There are two parties at fault: one being marine depot for packing a product in a way it can be damaged and two being UPS for damaging the product. The only person not at fault (me) must pay for the damaged goods. All I can say is what the hell is wrong with these people? Might I also add the water that leaked from the bag and accumulated in the bottom of the container was 58 degrees when I received it. Because of this the blue mushrooms I ordered now look as if they are knocking on death’s door. So in other words I have paid over 180 dollars for the most drab colony of zoas I have ever seen.

Please learn from what I have experienced with Marine depot live. It is my hope that by creating this thread it will cost Marine depot live the cost of my order and then some in lost business. This is a very one sided story, for I have only received one reply from marine depot of the 4 emails I have sent them. Out of fairness I will update this thread if I receive any replies back.

I will continually bump this thread to keep it on Marine depots first page of threads.

Jed
:mad2: :mad2:

 

[mrkrispy]

well playing Devil's Advocate....shouldn't you be able to tell if the shrooms are alive or not? And since MD hadn't actually seen them yet how could you trust that they knew if the shrooms were dead or not? It doesn't seem too difficult to put them in a tupperware container of tank water and see how they fare over the next several hours to a day.
You definitely can't expect most vendors to get back to you right away, not even the same day, when dealing with email.

Ordering online comes with the risk that bags break, temps fluctuate, and most certainly that most corals will lose their color temporarily.

That sucks you had to deal with it, but you have to be rational when dealing with shipping live goods.

 

[trigger111]

Put yourself in my shoes. I did not know whether or not the mushrooms were alive so I called MD live immediately and asked what should be done. They said do not acclimate for they are most likely dead and to send them a picture which I also did. Ten hours later I receive a email saying too bad the mushrooms did not appear to be totally dead so there is nothing that could be done. This is just simply a story of a company not standing behind what one of their employees instructed me to do. As for putting the shrooms in separate "container" other than the main tank or qt tank I do not have the equipment on had to set up a mini if you will "qt" tank for I live in rural Iowa and if you can imagine pet stores which carry even basic equipment (heaters and air pumps) are not common. Yes I understand that things break in shipping, but say I ordered a T5 florescent tube and it came broken I would get my money back then, but apparently not when the item in question is a live item. That doesn't make any sense to me. As to the above post portraying me as irrational, I was upset to say the least when I posted the first time and I have cooled down since then, but I still stand behind what I wrote above, now I would just word it differently.

Jed

 

[SurferX14_2]

That sucks.. looks like I wont be ordering from MD .. Ive seen warnings before and not listened and had to deal with bad customer service and warrantyfrom other companys. It would be dumb to order from a company again with so negative of a customer service rating.

 

[1sleeper]

Browse through Dr.F&S sponsor section if you want to see customer service. They answer EVERY post.

 

[hawaiianwargod]

SurferX14_2
[welcome]

 

[lakerfan]

Hello Jed,



Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear about your recent experience. I assure you that we work hard to ensure the health of our animals and the satisfaction of our customers. Though corals occasionally arrive in bad shape, we always encourage our customers to acclimate the animals in any event. As per our Arrive Alive Guarantee, “New arrivals must be acclimated according to our Acclimation Procedures, or other safe and reliable acclimation method. If an animal arrives and looks dead, acclimate it anyway. Many animals will make a quick and dramatic recovery when properly acclimated.” http://www.marinedepotlive.com/guarantee.html



Marine Depot Live requests pictures to verify that the animals are dead, or to remedy illness or any other problems that may arise. Upon contact, we were informed that the mushrooms that you received were damaged and dead, and as such we requested images so that we may issue a store credit to your account. The image that we received, however, was of striped mushrooms, alive and healthy, submersed in water in the bag. As such, we were unable to issue the store credit.


Ben R.
Director of Operations
www.marinedepot.com / www.marinedepotlive.com

 

[MAGDRL Mom]

Ben,

It would appear that the staff at Marine Depot Live (MDL) misdirected Jed in the proper procedure when dealing with damaged/ailing shipments. Perhaps MDL should evaluate their customer service SOP and resolve the communication problems with customers. As such, the $180 Jed spent on items he was not happy with, has cost your company significantly more than fixing the problem with loss of potential customers.

Personally, I don't spend my money anywhere that doesn't appreciate by business. In this age of automation, customer service has become non-existent. With an online company, it is more critical that customers are treated with appreciation, respect, and dignity. It is unfortunate that as Director of Operations you chose to make excuses and validate customer no-service instead of doing what ever it took, within reason, to make the customer happy.

If this type of problem is so frequent that it would be cost prohibitive to respond in a positive way to customers, perhaps looking at your overall operations is warranted.

Regards,

Sherry

 

[jefathome]

I am sorry to hear this.
I have had a few orders with them. The first was a clean-up crew that arrived in pretty good condition. The only problem was that I asked for Tonga Nassarius and got regular. They gave me a credit no questions asked.

Next order was for 3 carpenter wrasse. All three died.
Not only did I get an imeadiate credit for the fish, but I also was refunded (or told I would be) for th eshipping b/c they firgot to put in some heat packs.

A++ Customer Service in my book.

 

[jefathome]

Dang... double post.

 

[trigger111]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9348939#post9348939 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lakerfan
Hello Jed,



Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear about your recent experience. I assure you that we work hard to ensure the health of our animals and the satisfaction of our customers. Though corals occasionally arrive in bad shape, we always encourage our customers to acclimate the animals in any event. As per our Arrive Alive Guarantee, “New arrivals must be acclimated according to our Acclimation Procedures, or other safe and reliable acclimation method. If an animal arrives and looks dead, acclimate it anyway. Many animals will make a quick and dramatic recovery when properly acclimated.” http://www.marinedepotlive.com/guarantee.html



Marine Depot Live requests pictures to verify that the animals are dead, or to remedy illness or any other problems that may arise. Upon contact, we were informed that the mushrooms that you received were damaged and dead, and as such we requested images so that we may issue a store credit to your account. The image that we received, however, was of striped mushrooms, alive and healthy, submersed in water in the bag. As such, we were unable to issue the store credit.


Ben R.
Director of Operations
www.marinedepot.com / www.marinedepotlive.com

This reply is an insult to me more than anything else. The first line of your statement says "we are sorry to hear about your recent experience" THIS THREAD WAS STARTED ONE AND A HALF MONTHS AGO! There is nothing recent about it. A simple $40 credit to compensate me for a shipping damage would have insured my future business with MDL. Instead you went the other way and have lost a customer for life.

As for your acclimation policy which you posted here, bares no weight with me. I received the mushrooms which were in a broken bag in 58 degree water and was unsure of their chances of survival. So I had a novel ideal, I called to ask what would be the best course of action. I then did as I was instructed. Then 10 hours later I receive an e-mail contradicting what the person on the phone instructed me to do and essentially saying tough luck. This should void any policy you have stated on your site.

Your reply is a joke as are your business practices.

Jed

 

[SitBackAndWatch]

damn that is wack

 

[krzyphsygy]

I am sorry, But I would never order an animal that lives in the OCEAN which consists of 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,.00 gallons of seawater and have it shipped by mail.

I respect that you are in this hobby, and maybe you live in a very small town thousands of miles from any real LFS. That might cause me to order some live animal I have never seen......i do not know. I would never do it.

Marine Depot has always been excellent to me with dry good orders. Never one mistake ever!!

Sorry

 

[JohnnyM2]

Not too long ago, I posted a negative thread about MD and had a bunch of reefers jump on me about what a wonderful company they are. Still I keep seeing negative posts about them. I have quit dealing with them because I can do as well or better with Premium Aquatics or Drs. F&S.

Last summer I made the mistake of ordering livestock three times from Drs. F&S to be shipped to Texas. Each time, about half the order died. I have learned not to have livestock shipped in the hot part of the summer but Drs. F&S gave me a full credit on each order for the fish I told them had died (no pictures, no proof). For that reason , I continue to buy from them.

What stuns me about Marine Depot is that they keep wanting to defend their poor customer service instead of just improving it. Why would any great company want to keep seeing all these neagative threads? Since I stopped dealing with MD one month ago, I have placed over three thousand dollars with PA and Drs. F&S. MD loat me over a $14.00 dispute. How dumb is that? They won, I lost. But in the end I am better off and they lost my business.
A lesson I learned long ago is that no matter how right you are, your customers can make you wrong. Trigger111 should simply have been given credit, not because he is right (how would I know) but because he is what a company should value most: a customer.

 

[Radiography14]

What happens when you order some coral and it dies. Do you reach for a camera that you dont have or cant upload on your comp that you dont have. Attention ATTENTION everyone. if you dont have a computer or a camera you are going to get rooked with the purchase of corals. Unless you get both before the arrive alive gaurentee. hahahha

 

[trigger111]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9398112#post9398112 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Radiography14
What happens when you order some coral and it dies. Do you reach for a camera that you dont have or cant upload on your comp that you dont have. Attention ATTENTION everyone. if you dont have a computer or a camera you are going to get rooked with the purchase of corals. Unless you get both before the arrive alive gaurentee. hahahha

What? Of course I have a computer, and so would just about anyone who ordered anything online. And if you were to read above you would find that I did in fact send in pictures, but that has nothing to do with my problem with MDL. I'm not trying to be argumentative I just am not really sure what you are trying to say.

 

[Tennsquire]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9370059#post9370059 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by krzyphsygy
I am sorry, But I would never order an animal that lives in the OCEAN which consists of 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,.00 gallons of seawater and have it shipped by mail.

I respect that you are in this hobby, and maybe you live in a very small town thousands of miles from any real LFS. That might cause me to order some live animal I have never seen......i do not know. I would never do it.

Marine Depot has always been excellent to me with dry good orders. Never one mistake ever!!

Sorry

How do you think the fish get to your LFS?!? They ain't swimming there. The point is that shipping is involved at some point. I do agree, however, that it can be hit or miss. I've only had one bad shipping experience, where a FedEx truck broke down in the snow and my frags arrived two days later and were literally frozen solid. Haven't had bad experience with Marine Depot, but it would seem that their employee steered this customer the wrong way.

 

[krzyphsygy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9407541#post9407541 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tennsquire
How do you think the fish get to your LFS?!? They ain't swimming there. The point is that shipping is involved at some point. I do agree, however, that it can be hit or miss. I've only had one bad shipping experience, where a FedEx truck broke down in the snow and my frags arrived two days later and were literally frozen solid. Haven't had bad experience with Marine Depot, but it would seem that their employee steered this customer the wrong way.

Dude, I hate to tell ya but my LFS sells frags homegrown from SPS tanks and all the ones that are shipped from all over the world always look like sh** and I do not buy them!

I am not saying the guy did not get a bad deal, what I am saying......and this is just for me! I WILL NEVER BUY A PC OF CORAL OVER THE INTERNET TO BE SHIPPED TO MY HOUSE.

I AM TOOOO PICKY AND HAVE TO INSPECT A HEALTHY ANIMAL.

 

[garyw68]

I agree with krzyphsygy....this is why I never order livestock on-line.

 

[Radiography14]

dr foster and smiths has customer service. try them . they dont ask any questions.. i personally dont have a digital camera. So MD can send me one to take pics of my corals if they die during shipping. But like i said i will never order live stuff from MD.