Gulfliverock.com review

4kidsandapug

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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 -
"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.
 

CMMorgan

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I am sorry for your troubles. I hope that it work out. I spoke to him on the phone several months ago and I got the same impression as you. There was just something about the conversation that just did not say "Yes, this is a great, responsible person that I should give my money to!". I am holding out for TBS to get back online.
I truly hope that you get what you paid for. following
 

Jeffcb

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Sorry for your bad experience. I would try reaching out to him again and if no satisfaction hit up PayPal.
I recently talked to them and got the same impression. I went with KP. My experience with Phillip at KP was fantastic and highly recommend them. Shipped in water over night on an airline was very expensive but well worth it. No smell, everything was alive and cycled with large water changes in 5 days. Good luck.
 

shred5

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Honestly shipping it ground you are going to have a lot of die off damaged box or not. really should be overnight.
Allot of these guys are one man operations and are not Amazon. They can be out collecting or tending to the rock.
Sometimes it can take a while for them to get back.
No excuse not checking emails or message though.

I have bought their rock many many times and it has always been great and as good as TBS.
TBS air freight is the best but you have to pick it up.

This is a picture of their rock:
Even has corals on it.
Leather coral on the lower left was not part of it.
1618328680613.png
 

Tamberav

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That sucks!

I prefer KPA rock. Customer service has always been top notch and the shapes are way better and very porous. Gulf live rock is bolder like.

I did overnight with KPA but not in water, just their basic wet paper towel shipping. All the important stuff survived like sponges and worms and coralline and bacteria and all the bad crabs were DOA. :)
 
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4kidsandapug

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Honestly shipping it ground you are going to have a lot of die off damaged box or not. really should be overnight.
Allot of these guys are one man operations and are not Amazon. They can be out collecting or tending to the rock.
Sometimes it can take a while for them to get back.
No excuse not checking emails or message though.

I have bought their rock many many times and it has always been great and as good as TBS.
TBS air freight is the best but you have to pick it up.

This is a picture of their rock:
Even has corals on it.
Leather coral on the lower left was not part of it.
1618328680613.png

I absolutely agree with you... to some degree. As a small business owner myself, I tend to give harder reviews to other folks based on their customer service. If you want to be successful either at maintaining a business OR growing it, you need to focus on the customer, especially if you have a retail service. I was neither rude nor ignorant when I spoke to this guy, I simply wanted an answer and the one I got was like 'pulling teeth' and it still didn't answer my question, lol.

If you offer Fedex or UPS shipping, they should have contingencies in place. He had to have received a notification as the seller/shipper about the package being damaged had he checked his emails. Just overall, very poor communication.

As far as the rock I actually received - I'm absolutely pleased with it. I just wanted to make a fair review for folks based on my experience and also, I expect to receive the goods I paid for.
 

VJM 21

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Honestly shipping it ground you are going to have a lot of die off damaged box or not. really should be overnight.
Allot of these guys are one man operations and are not Amazon. They can be out collecting or tending to the rock.
Sometimes it can take a while for them to get back.
No excuse not checking emails or message though.

I have bought their rock many many times and it has always been great and as good as TBS.
TBS air freight is the best but you have to pick it up.

This is a picture of their rock:
Even has corals on it.
Leather coral on the lower left was not part of it.
This has nothing to do with the size of the business, or the quality of the rock, or the fact that they’re “not Amazon.”

It’s all about communication and basic customer service.
 

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