Dr Reefs Quarantined Fish

[jokerswild2k]

This was the third time I've ordered from Dr Reefs Quarantined Fish. First two times, great! This time... not so much. I placed the order in the second week of March. Fish were delivered on May 1st. Ok, stuff happens. It seemed like an extended time to wait, but I'm not TOO bent out of shape about it. I ordered a Feather Duster, a Wheeler's Goby/Pistol Shrimp combo and a Black Ice Clownfish. The feather duster and the goby/shrimp were great! Zero issues. The clownfish came out of the bag swimming a little "off". Shipping can be rough, so I gave him the night. Next day, he's worse. Trying to swim but he's laid on his side and seriously struggling. I'm not an expert, but I'm saying swim bladder issues. He immediately went into a hospital tank and I'm trying to save him, we'll see how it goes. Tank he went into has been running for 16 months, and has rock solid parameters (1.025 sg, 8.2pH, 79 deg., 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 4.5ppm nitrate, 0.12ppm phosphate, 9dkh) I'm less than thrilled about waiting over a month and a half for a sick fish from a company that claims in their very name, to quarantine their livestock. I'll be going elsewhere, from this point forward. Seems like their customer service has seriously deteriorated over the last couple of years.

 

[mfinn]

Did you contact Dr Reef before venting here?
Did you give them a chance?
Fish with issues right out of the bag screams shipping issues.

@Dr. Reef

 

[jokerswild2k]

Did you contact Dr Reef before venting here?
Did you give them a chance?
Fish with issues right out of the bag screams shipping issues.

@Dr. Reef

During the month and a half I was waiting, I got exactly one email. Contacting this company is a crap-shoot at best, in my experience. I actually don’t want anything from this company. I’ll just take this as a lesson learned. Just wanting others to know my experience.

 

[fishface NJ]

IMO Ordering the 2nd week of March and receiving on May 1 wasn't long. They have to acquire the fish(es), quarantine and ship. I would have contacted @Dr. Reef before posting.

 

[mfinn]

During the month and a half I was waiting, I got exactly one email. Contacting this company is a crap-shoot at best, in my experience. I actually don’t want anything from this company. I’ll just take this as a lesson learned. Just wanting others to know my experience.

6 weeks for a quarantined fish is nothing.
As far as him only sending 1 email during that time, what did you need?
He has a warranty and it's pretty easy to take advantage of it if the fish dies.

 

[Kidreefer37]

IMO Ordering the 2nd week of March and receiving on May 1 wasn't long. They have to acquire the fish(es), quarantine and ship. I would have contacted @Dr. Reef before posting.

Yea I’m not seeing the issues here. They don’t keep these fish on hand in store. They acquire them, treat them so you don’t have to, then send them out, all in less than two months is pretty quick. Plus the warranty is bulletproof. And I’ve never bought from the guy, just me two cents.

 

[Dr. Reef]

First off clowns dont have any diseases. reason: they are always captive bred and in a warehouse where nothing wild exsists so in 7 years of commercially doing this we have NEVER had ich/velvet or any other major diseases or issue on captive bred fish.

Secondly, how do you figure swimming off = diseased fish?
This only tells me you have already set you mind up that this clownfish has a disease and that further proves that you didnt contact us for anything and just came here to vent about somthing that can happen with any fish during shipping without really giving us a chance to even look into the issue.

Thirdly you say you orderd 3 times and 2 times were good and 3rd time is not so good. In 3rd order you report all items are doing fine except for 1 clownfish.

Realistically 3 orders meaning atleast 15 items been delivered to you and in those 1 seems to be struggling from likely ammonia burn or poisoning (very common in shipped fish) and you want to make it sound like its the end of the world on top of that you never contacted us for the issue. Not sure what you wanna prove here.

Waiting for 45 days for your fish is exactly the service you paid for. Do you dont want us to do what you paid for?
Because we can easily ship your order next day and say here you go.
You paid for a service to clean and clear and cure the fish for 30 days. then it takes another few days to get them out of QT and into retail side and observe them for eating behaviour then put them on schedule to ship.
All this takes time for which you paid for. So complaining about why it takes 45 days is exactly what you signed up for.

If you would have just emailed us with the issue, our response would have been. Keep an eye on it and if it doesnt make it or looks better in say 3-5 days, let us know and we will replace it or credit it back to you.

Note: We have THE BEST customer service and guarantee in this industry (according to reviews and feedbacks) Dont just assume, ask and avail.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I am not sure why would we be emailing you for anything after you placed the order till it was ready to ship.
This wasnt your 1st order, you have been here 3 times so you should be fimiliar with our process.

 

[jokerswild2k]

Apologies for sharing my experience here. Allow me to clarify a couple of points. When I said "swimming a little off", I guess I should have been more specific and described it better. The fish was laid over completely on it's side and was unable to swim upright, even with zero flow. In my limited (non-commercial) experience, that is indicative of swim bladder issues. So while I've only been in saltwater for 3-4 years, my 20 years in freshwater fishkeeping, has led me to understand that swim bladder problems are almost always bacterial, which is why I never said the fish was diseased.
To further address the highlighted points, I had previously ordered from your company on two other occasions. I had never experienced a delay of that length on those other orders. So again, I apologize for not being aware of the inner workings of your company.
As far as contacting your company. I received an email the day prior to their first scheduled ship date stating vaguely that they "didn't make it." And that they would ship the following week or the week after, if possible. So I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that your company would get around to me whenever it felt like it. When I didn't get any notification that they were shipping the first week, I wasn't surprised that nothing showed up. I waited until the following week and finally contacted your company and got the response that they were shipping that week. I apologize for disturbing your customer service department with that email.
So as to your statement that you have "the BEST customer service in the industry" followed shortly by "why would we be emailing you for anything after you placed the order." I guess I just didn't rate that level of customer service.
At the end of the day, I got what I paid for. Hopefully I can get the clownfish healthy again. And I learned my lesson. So thank you for the education.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Apologies for sharing my experience here. Allow me to clarify a couple of points. When I said "swimming a little off", I guess I should have been more specific and described it better. The fish was laid over completely on it's side and was unable to swim upright, even with zero flow. In my limited (non-commercial) experience, that is indicative of swim bladder issues. So while I've only been in saltwater for 3-4 years, my 20 years in freshwater fishkeeping, has led me to understand that swim bladder problems are almost always bacterial, which is why I never said the fish was diseased.
To further address the highlighted points, I had previously ordered from your company on two other occasions. I had never experienced a delay of that length on those other orders. So again, I apologize for not being aware of the inner workings of your company.
As far as contacting your company. I received an email the day prior to their first scheduled ship date stating vaguely that they "didn't make it." And that they would ship the following week or the week after, if possible. So I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that your company would get around to me whenever it felt like it. When I didn't get any notification that they were shipping the first week, I wasn't surprised that nothing showed up. I waited until the following week and finally contacted your company and got the response that they were shipping that week. I apologize for disturbing your customer service department with that email.
So as to your statement that you have "the BEST customer service in the industry" followed shortly by "why would we be emailing you for anything after you placed the order." I guess I just didn't rate that level of customer service.
At the end of the day, I got what I paid for. Hopefully I can get the clownfish healthy again. And I learned my lesson. So thank you for the education.

Sorry if we come out sounding harsh, that wasnt the intent. Its educational both ways, we also learn from issues and mistakes and helps us to get better.

We value our customers and their input and their support, Without customers we wont be here.
We care for the livestock you received and we care for your satisfaction as well. So please reach out to us if things do not look good on that clownfish, Give it a few days. we are going to extend the guarantee on it for 14 days from today. So by 20th of May if it does not look good or it dies or anything bad happens even if its unrelated (jumps out etc) we will replace it for you.