It's been years since I've ordered 'Live' rock and here is my two cents on Gulfliverock.com (to date):
I purchased 40lbs of their base coralline and 50lbs of the primo decor rock. It was shipped in 3 boxes all of which were provided tracking numbers. Their website says -
Moving on to customer service regarding the damaged box: We are now 2.5 weeks out from the date of arrival. I have sent 3 emails to the address listed on the website - no replies to date. I called the phone number listed on the website twice a day (morning and evening) since the day after I received the packages, to no answer and a voice mailbox that is 'full'. Today (4/13), I finally reached Dan via telephone. I felt like I was talking to 7 year old. His customer service and phone etiquette was terrible. He seemed like he had no clue his voicemail was full. He seemed hesitant to verbally agree to sending me another box of rock. I explained that I had sent several emails with no reply, his rebuttal: "I get so many emails that I hardly check it". I asked if he could reply to my email so I know he received it: "Yea, if I remember". He said he would send me another box of rock, but did not ask for my name or order number/tracking even after I offered to give him whatever he needed. I was in mid-sentence trying to get some validation that my order would be completed and he hung up on me. I tried to call back and of course, no answer.
Question to the forums: Any thoughts or suggestions on how to further handle this? I was going to give him a few days to rectify the situation and see if he follows up with me. Fortunately, I did use Paypal for checkout, but that is a process in itself. It's a shame because I did read many positive reviews and I am happy with the rock I did receive.
I purchased 40lbs of their base coralline and 50lbs of the primo decor rock. It was shipped in 3 boxes all of which were provided tracking numbers. Their website says -
"USPS Priority 2-3 day shipping or fedex ground is free with all our packaged deals listed on our website. We only send fedex ground on larger shipments within a 3 day shipping range from our location in Tampa, Florida (see pic above). All west coast locations will be shipped usps priority 2-3 day with the free shipping. We have been shipping this way to every state in the country (Excluding Hawaii) for quite some time now with 100% success rate. This ships to your front door..."
So I purchased the packaged deals, as an email confirmation said they were shipped Tuesday evening of the week I ordered with arrival of Friday from 9am-1:45pm. One day prior to the expected order arrival, I received an email notification from FedEx telling me that the boxes had arrived at the facility and on the next truck out for delivery. I received another email telling me that one box had been damaged in transit and unable to be delivered. I immediately reached out to gulfliverock.com via email with screenshots of the notification (Thursday evening). Friday afternoon at 1:30pm, 2 of the 3 boxes arrived - wrapped in wet paper towels inside of thick plastic. Unboxing revealed pretty nice colored rock with sponges, various seaweeds. Rock pieces were varied from tennis ball-sized to grapefruit-sized. There were some very strong unpleasant aromatics due to 3 days of travel. I inspected for hitchhikers and rinsed the rock in RODI water, several bivalves made the trip but otherwise not much life. I will post some pictures when I get a chance later. Otherwise, very happy with the rock that arrived.
Moving on to customer service regarding the damaged box: We are now 2.5 weeks out from the date of arrival. I have sent 3 emails to the address listed on the website - no replies to date. I called the phone number listed on the website twice a day (morning and evening) since the day after I received the packages, to no answer and a voice mailbox that is 'full'. Today (4/13), I finally reached Dan via telephone. I felt like I was talking to 7 year old. His customer service and phone etiquette was terrible. He seemed like he had no clue his voicemail was full. He seemed hesitant to verbally agree to sending me another box of rock. I explained that I had sent several emails with no reply, his rebuttal: "I get so many emails that I hardly check it". I asked if he could reply to my email so I know he received it: "Yea, if I remember". He said he would send me another box of rock, but did not ask for my name or order number/tracking even after I offered to give him whatever he needed. I was in mid-sentence trying to get some validation that my order would be completed and he hung up on me. I tried to call back and of course, no answer.
Question to the forums: Any thoughts or suggestions on how to further handle this? I was going to give him a few days to rectify the situation and see if he follows up with me. Fortunately, I did use Paypal for checkout, but that is a process in itself. It's a shame because I did read many positive reviews and I am happy with the rock I did receive.