I need your opinion on a YELLOW HAMMER CORAL I just purchased.. Green?

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Brian Goldstein

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Thank you all for the responses.

Extreme Corals left me a voicemail this morning, however, the damage is already done. They had the chance to be upfront with me when I reached out initially and voiced my concerns. It's not like this is their first rodeo; they knew very well what they were doing. I will never give an unethical business a second chance.

-BG
 
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Brian Goldstein

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and I forgot to mention.... Its "free shipping" over $150... but you have to pay $10 for a box, LOL. The coral came shipped in a bag that was just thrown into the box... No heat/cold pack, no insulation, no Styrofoam ; nothing... just the bag thrown into the box. The worst display of coral shipping I've ever seen.
 

tautog83

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wow fyi a hammer like that should be 10-15 bucks a head . if you do some digging you'll see that particular vendor is garbage and the prices are just crazy. you really need to take your time and compare prices among the reputable vendors . honestly just by the name of the listed product you should have ran away . its like when a vendor says super green ora birds of paradise , but in the end its still a piece of ora birds of paradise . the more words you put in front of it doesnt make it a different coral. I mean all the vendors will tell you if you dont put a crazy name on their corals they dont sell, you just have to know what its really worth and what it is worth to you . There are hundrerds of people who bought a walt disney frag just because it was the high end coral everyone wanted, not because they were like wow this coral is amazing .
 

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Interesting....

(note the descriptions)

2018-09-13 15_25_51-Buy LPS Corals _ LPS Frags For Sale _ LPS Coral Frags _ LPS Frags.png
 

ReefWithCare

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and I forgot to mention.... Its "free shipping" over $150... but you have to pay $10 for a box, LOL. The coral came shipped in a bag that was just thrown into the box... No heat/cold pack, no insulation, no Styrofoam ; nothing... just the bag thrown into the box. The worst display of coral shipping I've ever seen.

Crazy - horrible man. Sorry for your experience. What state are you in?
 

Nick Shades

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Thank you all for the responses.

Extreme Corals left me a voicemail this morning, however, the damage is already done. They had the chance to be upfront with me when I reached out initially and voiced my concerns. It's not like this is their first rodeo; they knew very well what they were doing. I will never give an unethical business a second chance.

-BG
What was the voicemail which they left?
 

Halal Hotdog

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Did they offer you a full refund. This vendor is definitely doing on my list of ones to avoid. Sadly they probably make their money buying these corals for a couple bucks a head, photoshopping the crap out of them, and hoping that people that buy just blame their own lights.
 
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Brian Goldstein

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Did they offer you a full refund. This vendor is definitely doing on my list of ones to avoid. Sadly they probably make their money buying these corals for a couple bucks a head, photoshopping the crap out of them, and hoping that people that buy just blame their own lights.

They reached out to me this morning, but I did not answer. I gave them one chance to fess up when I reached out initially, telling them I will send the coral back and would like a full refund. He replied that the coral looked "exactly" like it did in the photo and implied it was somehow my lighting that was the issue, so I took that as a solid no. There's no need to communicate with them anymore; I have filed a dispute and thats that.. I will never buy coral from there again.

-BG
 

Halal Hotdog

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They reached out to me this morning, but I did not answer. I gave them one chance to fess up when I reached out initially, telling them I will send the coral back and would like a full refund. He replied that the coral looked "exactly" like it did in the photo and implied it was somehow my lighting that was the issue, so I took that as a solid no. There's no need to communicate with them anymore; I have filed a dispute and thats that.. I will never buy coral from there again.

-BG

I definitely understand your anger. I don't think it is a bad idea to speak to them. The previous correspondence may have been by an off employee and they may want to try to rectify the situation. That still does not justify what they did, but hearing them out cannot hurt. Also I applaud you for bringing the situation public. I buy quite a bit online and am very careful not to work with vendors like this. Posting your experience helps the rest of us avoid them. I hope someone from their group is reading these posts.

When you look at the stats for this thread, over 1700 people have viewed it. Based on the posts some of them include individuals that have purchased from this vendor.
 
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iced98lx

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They reached out to me this morning, but I did not answer. I gave them one chance to fess up when I reached out initially, telling them I will send the coral back and would like a full refund. He replied that the coral looked "exactly" like it did in the photo and implied it was somehow my lighting that was the issue, so I took that as a solid no. There's no need to communicate with them anymore; I have filed a dispute and thats that.. I will never buy coral from there again.

-BG

Correct choice, businesses cannot be rewarded for only doing the right thing when there is social pressure via forum posts like this or other means. "They eventually gave you a refund!" doesn't change the fact that they appear to have intentionally sold you a green hammer as something it was not and hoped that brushing you off would be enough. The proper email back to you the first time would be roughly:

"Hey we checked the listing and it was WYSIWYG and the head count is different so it is possible you got the wrong piece. We shot that photo under XXXXXk lighting, if you're in that range and don't think it is an accurate representation we'd be happy have you ship it back to us for a refund minus the cost of you shipping it back, or a store credit which includes the shipping cost. I'm sorry you're unhappy with the piece, lighting (especially with the use of all these strong blue actinic LED bars) can vary widely tank to tank and it's not our intention to deceive. Let us know how you'd like to proceed!"
 
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Brian Goldstein

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Correct choice, businesses cannot be rewarded for only doing the right thing when there is social pressure via forum posts like this or other means. "They eventually gave you a refund!" doesn't change the fact that they appear to have intentionally sold you a green hammer as something it was not and hoped that brushing you off would be enough. The proper email back to you the first time would be roughly:

"Hey we checked the listing and it was WYSIWYG and the head count is different so it is possible you got the wrong piece. We shot that photo under XXXXXk lighting, if you're in that range and don't think it is an accurate representation we'd be happy have you ship it back to us for a refund minus the cost of you shipping it back, or a store credit which includes the shipping cost. I'm sorry you're unhappy with the piece, lighting (especially with the use of all these strong blue actinic LED bars) can vary widely tank to tank and it's not our intention to deceive. Let us know how you'd like to proceed!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.
 

Oldreefer44

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First: Anything that takes that long of a name to sell is immediately suspicious to me.
Second: The first thing I look for is the background color. IMO whenever you see a very dark blue background you are likely to find that the color represented can only be duplicated with largely blue lighting. Notice that the response includes the wording "under our lighting". Since lighting manipulation is pervasive in our hobby I prefer (and largely buy from) vendors that tell you what lighting is used in their representations. And don't get me started on names. Last night their was an EBAY auction with the same Acro listed 3 times with 3 different names. Unfortunately I am down to about a half dozen reliable vendors with the rest visited primarily visited for entertainment purposes.
 
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Brian Goldstein

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I definitely understand your anger. I don't think it is a bad idea to speak to them. The previous correspondence may have been by an off employee and they may want to try to rectify the situation. That still does not justify what they did, but hearing them out cannot hurt. Also I applaud you for bringing the situation public. I buy quite a bit online and am very careful not to work with vendors like this. Posting your experience helps the rest of us avoid them. I hope someone from their group is reading these posts.

When you look at the stats for this thread, over 1700 people have viewed it. Based on the posts some of them include individuals that have purchased from this vendor.

It was actually the owner that responded to my initial email. He also reached out to me a few days later (after he saw the thread, I'm sure) asking me to give him a call back. At that point, it was too late. Ironically, he's in a reefing FB group I am in and is still claiming the coral looks just like it did in the picture.

I am happy that I could bring this issue to the reefing community. I am also not one to bash people or their business. That was not the intention of this thread at all. I didn't expect it to take off like it did to be honest.
 
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Brian Goldstein

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Did they offer you a full refund. This vendor is definitely doing on my list of ones to avoid. Sadly they probably make their money buying these corals for a couple bucks a head, photoshopping the crap out of them, and hoping that people that buy just blame their own lights.

They did not... maybe that's why they called me a few days later though (after I posted in the FB group and in R2R) . Would they have offered a refund if I never posted?
 

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