Live Aquaria rep called me

[MixedFruitBasket]

Got a call this morning from a Live Aquaria rep. He apologized for me getting the run around and after looking at the photos agreed that what I thought I was buying wasn't what I received. It may be the same coral, but obviously the coloration was way off, for whatever reason. So yeah, he didn't think it was going to miraculously turn yellow either.
He offered to refund my money. I told him store credit was good enough. So he's getting things fixed. Just giving everyone an update.

Thanks

 

[mfinn]

Good job getting them to admit they made a mistake.
These days it's pretty hard to do.

 

[Righteous]

This is an issue I have with lots of online vendors. They usually don't indicate what temperature light they are shooting under at the very least, and at the worst, they white balance the photos to enhance whatever color they think will sell.

As an experiment I white balanced two of the photos you posted in your previous thread, one from the divers den site, and the other from your tank. (you'll note the coralline turns purple or red depending on the balancing) So you may have gotten the same coral... but the problem is the deceptive or at least misleading advertising.

Vendors... please list the K value of the light the coral is being photographed under, and whether white balance correction was applied! I've always been a fan of the way Tidal Gardens actually posts photos of both actinic and 10K light, for example, and wish it was an industry standard. I think we need to pressure the vendors more on this, so good job sticking to your guns!

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Good job getting them to admit they made a mistake.
These days it's pretty hard to do.

Well, like I said. I've NEVER had a problem with them in the past. They've always been very good and honest. I don't know if there's been an employee change lately and maybe corporate is being "corporate" or what. LA is owned by Petco, and I know Petco has recently undergone some policy changes. Such as they will no longer meet the prices of a competitor unless it's their own website (yeah that makes sense huh). Sadly, corporate decisions are made based on how much they can make for investors not how they can do good business with the public.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

This is an issue I have with lots of online vendors. They usually don't indicate what temperature light they are shooting under at the very least, and at the worst, they white balance the photos to enhance whatever color they think will sell.

I agree and I brought this up to the person I spoke to and suggested to save everyone a headache to start doing a minimum of two photos, preferably four under 10K 15K blue, then whatever it is they shoot under (stating the parameters.)
He said he'd look into it and pass on the suggestion. But I also know it's not his choice to make.

And I did something last night, similar to what you did here, and got almost a yellow and pink sinulara, I just didn't have the light glow to work with. So yeah, it can be as simple as innocently trying to make a photo look better or malicious intent. Way too many online vendors do the latter now-days.

I'm hoping LA gets things worked out and this doesn't happen to anyone else.

 

[Piranha76]

LIVEAQUARIA SUCKS. STAY AWAY. I use to love them and have had many orders. Since Petco took over it has been down hill. The fish are always on the smaller size of the scale, the corals come DOA. I have gotten more DOA on fish then ever before and they only give tore credit, so to meet the free shipping you have to spend even more or pay $30.00 for shipping. They refused to honor a gift card promotion. The website crashed twice when I was filling out my information. The third time i forgot the promo code. I called and they refuse to honor it. STAY AWAY. Horrible customer service, They gave me a sea anemone with an ulcer on the boot. I called and said it will die. They told me to wait until it dies to request a refund. I guess they were hoping it would last the 15 days before dying. STAY AWAY