Advice on What to do?

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Still I'm getting screwed out of the shipping for the 2nd order then.
 
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I understand very well shipping is costly, I am the one who paid for it! lol
 

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Still I'm getting screwed out of the shipping for the 2nd order then.
Ok last post here as it seems you just want someone to agree with you rather than looking for a neutral perspective.

You're not getting screwed. You paid for 2 shipments. In the end you'll receive 2 shipments but you want 3 shipments because you are unwilling to wait a few days. If the vendor were to send you three shipments and eat the $75 shipping cost, think of how that would hit their bottom line. Now, think if they were to do that for all their orders or even just a percentage of their orders. They would be out of business quickly, and then where would you buy this rare fish that no one else has?

Show some patience. They don't owe you anything, you are getting exactly what you paid for.
 
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Ok last post here as it seems you just want someone to agree with you rather than looking for a neutral perspective.

You're not getting screwed. You paid for 2 shipments. In the end you'll receive 2 shipments but you want 3 shipments because you are unwilling to wait a few days. If the vendor were to send you three shipments and eat the $75 shipping cost, think of how that would hit their bottom line. Now, think if they were to do that for all their orders or even just a percentage of their orders. They would be out of business quickly, and then where would you buy this rare fish that no one else has?

Show some patience. They don't owe you anything, you are getting exactly what you paid for.
Like I said you're looking at this from the vendor's POV not the consumer. It is their fault that their website's stock listings were not updated, and I unknowingly bought an out of stock item which is now forcing me to wait 3 weeks or potentially more. What affects their bottom line more: Losing all of a customer's future purchases, or a one time fee of $75 for an oversight on their part?
 

LandLockedJones

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Sorry if this is the wrong subforum for this. So, I bought an order of 4 fish from a business online, all 4 were listed in stock online. I received 2 of the 4 fish in 2 days, I was then contacted by the business stating that they would ship the remaining 2 out the following week as they were out of stock (listed in stock on their website). I was fine with this as they were going to pay for the shipping. I then placed another order a few days after receiving half of my first order, it has been 2 weeks since the first order on which I'm still waiting for 2 fish and now a week since my most previous order, which also has not been shipped still. I contacted the business multiple times asking when they would ship out my most recent order as I have paid for the shipping of this order, so I expected it to be shipped out next business day. They have finally answered me stating that they needed to make sure the fish were "ship ready" and that I would receive the 2 fish they owe me and my new order all together next week. If this holds true it would be 3 weeks after I made the first order until I received all of my fish and 2 weeks after my second order until I received that one. I kinda feel like I'm getting screwed because I paid for shipping on both orders and it's not my fault that their website wasn't updated with what's currently in stock. Any suggestions on what I can do in this situation? Are these acceptable business practices that I should just get use to? By the way the shipping of these orders were both over $75.
I can certainly understand where you are coming from. I am new to the hobby and was a bit taken aback when I placed my first order online and the item was not shipped immediately (7 days out in-fact). However, I just decided that practicing patience was the way to go. I get you did not want to add them all at the same time, certainly not ideal. Though it does not appear to take long for pecking orders to be established and territory to be claimed in this hobby.

That being said, you also should try and see it from the perspective of the retailer. It does sound as though they are going to make it right and get you all of the fish you paid for. They were even willing to cover the cost of shipping, until you placed a new order which meant shipping was already paid for. So from the retailer mind, wait 3 more days, and I no longer have to eat that shipping cost, or if the excess weight were to provide a difference, they would likely cover it.

It is not in the best interest of a retailer of live goods, to send out unhealthy specimen. That, will provide far more negative connotations about their business than the occasional shipping error that was eventually corrected. Dead on arrival, or in transit, is far worse than late to the party.

Should they have sent the 2 fish they missed the first time as originally promised? Yes, that is what they said they would do. So you are rightfully concerned and have a legitimate issue that makes you question this retailer.

Should they have contacted you before making this decision? Difficult to say, I usually lean toward yes, but in the end. You are receiving the goods you payed for, and if you receive healthy fish you will likely not be so irritated by this process when you are looking at them a year from now. Therefore, they do not appear to be attempting to "screw you" in my humble opinion. Rather, they are attempting to avoid paying UPS a third delivery fee out of their pockets unnecessarily. Which may not be the best practice, but, certainly understandable.

So again, I get the frustration of the ordeal. You payed for a product, it was promised to be shipped within a certain timeframe, and was not. But, if you receive 6 healthy specimen all around, I am not certain I would write off the retailer. I might ask for a discount on my next purchase if I was that frustrated, but understand that is always at their discretion.

Well, I suppose there is nothing left to do but end this rant and sail away.
~LandLockedJones~
 

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I mean, sort of, but if you appreciate the vendor you could also be cool and understand how combining the orders makes sense, despite the delay. Probably should have just waited for the first order to clear to avoid any issues such as this. Were you hoping to tack this new order onto the late half of the first order at all?
 

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Like I said you're looking at this from the vendor's POV not the consumer. It is their fault that their website's stock listings were not updated, and I unknowingly bought an out of stock item which is now forcing me to wait 3 weeks or potentially more. What affects their bottom line more: Losing all of a customer's future purchases, or a one time fee of $75 for an oversight on their part?
Let me put it this way. You may be wanting to ditch this retailer. I want you to post their name so I can look through their stock. Because I do not feel as though a few weeks of waiting for something I intend to keep for years, is a big deal.

*Edit: Sorry, that seemed rather short after I read it again. Your concerns are warranted, everybody is just saying that patience is gold in these scenarios. And complaining, isn't going to change the matter at this point, even if the complaint is justifiable. Personally, this situation would bother me, but I would just be counting the days until the new faces took the plunge and using that time to determine whether there are better retailers to work with for future purchases.

I hope you get your fish in and they are all happy and healthy though.
 
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I mean, sort of, but if you appreciate the vendor you could also be cool and understand how combining the orders makes sense, despite the delay. Probably should have just waited for the first order to clear to avoid any issues such as this. Were you hoping to tack this new order onto the late half of the first order at all?
Would have been a lot of cooler if the vendor just let me know: Hey you placed another order, we already owe you 2 fish that were already paid to be shipped, so we will ship you both orders for free. You're just going to have to wait until we get all fish in stock to send them out. Instead of me having to call persistently to find out why after a week I haven't heard anything about my order. If I were the business that's what I would have done.
 

LandLockedJones

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I agree whole heartedly they should have informed you. Which I feel like is the key issue when considering to choose another retailer. Communication is paramount, however, you are not sure what their systems look like on the back end or whether they have the staffing to be able to reach out to customers like that.

Most companies these days will not reach out to notify you of a problem or change, but will gladly inform you of one when you contact them. I have worked in many customer service positions and its the difference between "cold calls" (Retailer reaches out to you) and "Warm Calls" (We only talk to people who interrupt our work cleaning fish tanks and packaging fish). Seems like they are more the warm blooded type.

Its not my preferred method of business as a consumer, I much prefer working with companies that offer some transparency and will correct a mistake without being asked. But, definitely makes sense for the retailer to wait until a complaint is in the box before trying to do something about it.
 

LandLockedJones

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Still I'm getting screwed out of the shipping for the 2nd order then.
Sorry, one last thing. That I do not understand. You chose to place the second order, knowing the first 2 fish were missing, right? If you had not placed a second order, you would have been charged one shipping fee, and the retailer would have covered their mistake. They did not handle it how you or I would have, though they are handling it. They are not taking any additional funds that you did not owe them though.

To me it now seems that you just want to second order shipped for free since they stated they would send those 2 unavailable fish. And you are upset they charged you shipping on a completely separate order number? Now you have lost me, that was up to your discretion, not theirs.
 
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Sorry, one last thing. That I do not understand. You chose to place the second order, knowing the first 2 fish were missing, right? If you had not placed a second order, you would have been charged one shipping fee, and the retailer would have covered their mistake. They did not handle it how you or I would have, though they are handling it. They are not taking any additional funds that you did not owe them though.

To me it now seems that you just want to second order shipped for free since they stated they would send those 2 unavailable fish. And you are upset they charged you shipping on a completely separate order number? Now you have lost me, that was up to your discretion, not theirs.
It doesn't matter to me if I pay for the shipping of the 2nd order, as long as it goes out timely. What they are doing is holding the fish in their system, for only the reason of saving themselves the shipping costs and waiting until they can ship everything out together.
 
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Going on 2 weeks, potentially more they will be holding a fish that they said was healthy and ready to ship.
 

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Shopping online is not all that it is cracked up to be. Sometimes you have choices, sometimes you do not. I went to my LFS yesterday. There is no way they can compete with the prices for stuff online even including shipping. We are digging our own hole by not shopping locally. Brick and mortar retailers cannot come close to offering the inventory of online mega providers. So we shop online and unwittingly propagate the problem. So, here we are. I figure we will stay here, better get used to it I reckon.
 

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It doesn't matter to me if I pay for the shipping of the 2nd order, as long as it goes out timely. What they are doing is holding the fish in their system, for only the reason of saving themselves the shipping costs and waiting until they can ship everything out together.
I have never once been refunded shipping because an order arrived late. At most, I have received discounts for future purchases or perhaps a discount applied once the goods were received successfully. But that is me, you would need to contact the retailer to discuss those sorts of requests.

Will they do it, I think not, but it never hurts to ask I guess. Though I would wait until you receive the fish to begin making any inquiries like that. In case something else happens, you can nail that on to the church door as well.

In the end, it does suck your experience was poor, and I hope that I never encounter a similar issues. However, I hope your fish make it to you safely.
 

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I thought I mentioned it in my shpeel, but yeah, they originally stated that they were waiting until the fish are "ship ready" then later on in the conversation when I asked them why there weren't ship ready. He stated that they are healthy and ship ready but that he owes me other fish that should be in next week and will all be shipped together.
I see, they changed their story. Now you feel like you blew it by placing the second order since they decided to ship to you only twice instead of three times. That makes sense.

I ordered from a coral supplier on a live sale on here a few months back. I waited for the corals and one day I got a Hanna ULR Phorphorus test kit from them. I asked for an explaination and they never replied. I already have that Hanna Checker so I gave it to my LFS, emailed a couple more times but they have not answered?

They still owe me 3 or 4 more Checkers if they ran out of frags, but I know how these things end and

train discover GIF
trainwreck GIF
train trainwreck GIF
Forget them if they can't take a joke and keep their stories straight.

I try not to deal with unreliable people. Sorry you came across a similar outfit. Trust me, they always crash hard on their own inertia.
Kris
 
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