Aquatic Obsessed, buyer beware!!!!

[purplereef]

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Hey guys! I just wanted to get your feedback regarding an online transaction I had with Aquatic Obsessed. I purchased a BPC Flame Thrower chalice frag from Aquatic Obsessed on 4/3/12 for $750.00.
The box arrived early (@ 9:00AM to be exact), which is better than the 10:30AM time that FedEx seems to miss by a mile, and the box was very cold. My friend and I opened the box shortly thereafter and low and behold, NO HEATPACK!!! I live near Cleveland, Ohio and it is usually @the upper 30s at night here in the early spring. When we pulled the tiny bags out of the box, I was immediately worried. As my hand ran across the bag with the BPC Flame Thrower in it, I could feel it was VERY COLD!!! I then looked at he frag and it looked very stressed. Then, we measured the water temperature and it was 64.3 degrees. I then PM'd the seller and told them the water temperature. I received no reply. I thought "Great! I have a half dead BPC Flame Thrower chalice frag from a no heat pack ship job and no answer from the vendor!". When I finally did get a reply from Matt, he wanted to know if it was okay and requested a picture of it. I took a picture and sent it. Their reply was very cavalier with a PM saying "Oh yea, it looks stressed out. I am sure it will be fine.". They then tried to concentrate on some freebies that they threw in the box, which consisted of some zoos and a Miami Hurricane chalice frag that I have a 7"x7" colony of already. Later that day, the vendor contacted me via PM and asked "why did you wait 24 hours to contact me and say it looked horrible? A lot can happen in 24 hours like something in your tank falling on it or your water conditions could be off." He went on to say... "there is no real issue here, it just looks discolored and stressed from shipping. If we can wait 3-4 days and see how it does and if you want to ship it back, I will refund you IN FULL minus shipping supplies, including a heat pack (Where was MY heat pack?!?), PayPal fees, and shipping. Sound fair?" Basically, this would be me paying him to take it back because I would not be receiving my full refund of $750.00. This is me paying for the poor shipping to me and also paying for the return shipping. I would be PAYING @$150.00 to get $600.00 back. (Doesn't sound fair to me!)

The first picture is a picture the vendor sent to me stating that this was from 2 months ago!!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...ereef/frag.jpg

And this is the picture I took of the TINY frag and how stressed it was after he shipped it without a heat pack.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...DSC_0014-1.jpg

I then tried to put myself in the vendor's shoes and say what if I were them, how can I resolve this? I figured why ask for $250.00 back for the mistake of not shipping it with a heat pack. So I did that and asked for $250.00 back to recoup the time needed for the frag to regain the size and color it was before. The reply I got was..."I would rather have the coral back and refund $750.00 than return $250.00." I then filed a dispute with PayPal over this matter. I PM'd the vendor and told him that I would ship it back to them on Monday 4/9/12, in the same box that it was sent to me in, after I was refunded my $750.00. The reply from t and he vendor was "What store in the US gives a refund before they get their product back?" (Answer: Live Aquaria). Matt(M+M) has since won the paypal dispute that I filed against him. He actually told paypal that I lied about him not putting in a heatpack into the shipped package. He also added that I wanted to get a reduced rate on the Flamethrower frag all along.
Here is a picture of my tank. I have been in the hobby for @18 years.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...plereef/01.jpg

In closing, what would you do in my case??

 

[m and m]

You did not contact me for over 24 hours about there being any situation with the frag, your first message to me about a hour after the delivery said that it was fine and graciously thanked me for the freebies. You did not contact me with a picture (The one you posted above) until three days later. Yes, I will admit the frag does look like FedEx tossed around the box. As it says on my site, however, I need pictures within 2 hours of the FedEx arrival time. I decided to overlook that and still to this day I will offer you a 100% refund to you if you ship the frag back. You made an inquiry about it being a tiny frag, but there is a clear egg crate less than a half inch from the coral that you can clearly gage the size of the piece. You say I did not ship with a heat pack, and to this day I will stand that I did.


Also I am not sure why you croppped the picture I sent you for this thread, but here is the Original picture I sent to you.

BPC Flame Thrower by matsinger2, on Flickr

I'm sorry that you feel we gave a you bad deal, but honestly I have tried to rectify this numerous times. I do not see a reason to keep rehashing this same incident. If you are still this unhappy, simply send the frag back and I will happily refund you the money.

 

[dnov99]

I feel it necessary to add my input to this situation that has been going on for over a month. Matt has kept me aware of all the facts from day one of the initial "issues". Without getting into "he said" this and "you said" that, the bottom line is that Matt offered you a 100% full refund and to pay for the shipping of the coral from you back to him and even schedule a Fedex pick-up at your home. I really dont know what more you could expect from him. If you are not happy with the coral, in which you received a WYSIWYG photo of, then simply ship it back and you will be made 100% whole. That offer still stands today, yet you refuse to send it back. Thank you

Darren

 

[revhtree]

Sorry everyone but feedback threads are between the buyer and the seller.

Thank you.

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Ok rev sorry

 

[purplereef]

Really Darren? This is the very first I have heard of Matt refunding me the entire amount in full plus the money to ship it back plus have fed-ex come to my house to pick it up. I would really encourage you to talk to your partner there and ask him what he offered me before you try and slam me for a deal that was never even offed to me. Matt can we please stop the name calling etc and be grown -ups about this please? I have been called a liar and now a paypal payback scammer by you Matt on itrader. If anyone doubts this please have a look at my feedback on my profile. Dan.

 

[dnov99]

Well Dan, as I said earlier it is pretty much useless to argue who said what, as neither of you can prove it. We always use heatpacks in shipping, you brought up the lack of a heatpack a week later which seems rather strange IMO, and Matt swears he included one. That is beside the point as the coral was alive upon arrival.

I know for a fact Matt offered to issue a full refund and pay for return shipping as that is exactly what I told him to do, when he came to me with the problem he was having with you. But, you insisted that you only wanted a $250 refund, "to make things right". We did not agree with this course of action as you knew exactly what piece you were getting, and we felt a coral as difficult to acquire as this one was worth the price you paid, as you agreed to when purchasing it. I sense this is more a case of buyers remorse than anything and that is fine, as we will agree to take the piece back.

Once again we will agree to take back the piece and issue a full refund once we have the piece back in our possession. We will pay for shipping and schedule a pick-up that is convenient for you. We ask that you post a photo taken today of the frag to ensure that it is still healthy and please post it to this thread. I am really sorry that you feel that you were mis-treated, as we certainly did try to make things right. I believe our spotless feedback besides this incident provides enough evidence that we are very reputable.

I await your reply and a current photo of the frag, and look forward to putting this behind us. Thank you.

Darren.

 

[purplereef]

Hi Guys,
Darren was nice enough to pay the shipping back and refund me the ENTIRE amount. The frag has settled in very nicely for me in my tank. I will be keeping it and things are cool between me and Darren(Aquatic Obsessed). Here is a picture of the frag as it is today.

 

[returnofsid]

Glad to hear this was all resolved in a manner that was acceptable to both parties.

Since a resolution has been met, I'll go ahead and close this thread, for now. If either of the involved parties would like it reopened, feel free to PM any of the R2R Staff members.