Hello all! I wanted to share my previous and ongoing experience with you all regarding Reef Lounge USA.
I have purchased from many different suppliers in the hobby, both big and small companies. Personally I find it exciting to purchase from smaller businesses that I haven’t purchased from before, even people whom have something similar to garage setups. It’s a spread the love type thing.
I had came across a few people on Instagram posting some really nice new coral and had Reef Lounge tagged so I figured I’d give them a look! After looking a while and going through their site I decided to place an order due to what seemed great prices and nice looking coral.
On January 27 I placed my order, prior to placing my order I read over their shipping info etc. and knew that they would only ship Monday-Wednesday. At first Reef Lounge reached out to let me know that they no longer had a coral in a pack that I had ordered and we communicated on replacement. Great! I thought.
I had a few other questions so I decided to give them a call instead of emailing, as the response time was slow as it was. I was instructed by the gentleman who answered the phone that if I had an email conversation then to continue using email. Then he hung up. First bad sign for me. But hey, maybe he was busy right?
Since there would be no shipping until the beginning of the week I added a few corals in additional orders and reached out to let Reef Lounge know that orders were mine to be added to my initial shipment. Sounds good they said! So in total I had 13 coral to be shipped out.
And then without prior notification, the first order was shipped. No questions or weather, (which we actually had a major storm affecting a major portion of the US, to which wasn’t know about prior to placing order. Other companies I do business with reached out to arrange better shipping for the health of the coral.
I reached out to RL to let them know that I received notification of the first order being shipped but not the other 2. They responded that there were no worries, the other two orders were included.
The order was shipped on Monday for a Tuesday arrival. However directly after shipping there was a delay processed for to mechanical failure that stated the order would be a day late. I reached out to make RL aware of this with no response.
I notified them that I was aware that a delay was out of their control but I had concern that the coral would be left in freezing temperatures for an additional day. (Which I reached out to UPS whom apparently has no regards for live shipments and they informed me that it was up to the shipper to be diligent on when to ship live animals) I also made it aware that due to my work schedule I am only available on mondays and Tuesdays to receive orders my work schedule conflicts with any other day. (I typically work 12+ hour shifts, therefore pickup at a facility during their hours of operation are out of question as well) And that if the coral arrived on wednesday there would not be anyone home to receive it.
the order did in fact get delayed a day and in fact nobody was home and the coral was left in sub freezing temps the first 24 hours of delay and majority of Wednesday day.
I reached out to RL and made it aware that more than likely the coral would not be alive upon arrival. They instructed me to review their shipping policy. I responded that I had reviewed it and that it stated in the case of delay, the order would be issued back in store credit. Better than nothing right?
So they did issue store credit for the coral that was purchased.
Directly after issuing store credit, I received a notification that my 3rd order (which remember I was told was included in my original order) had been shipped. Strange right?
I asked why I received the notification and the person responding to email stated that there was an issue and that they were “cleaning out their system when issues the store credit” and that my third order may or may not have been included.
Since they only covered the cost of coral, it meant upon reordering, I would be down another $40 shipping cost. Unfortunate, but it’s the price you pay for not having local stores to buy from in rural wv right?
The coral did arrive on Wednesday, and nobody was home. I tried my best to make accommodations to no avail. With a Monday shipping and guaranteed next day arrival, how would anyone assume their would be a conflicting schedule?
Upon opening the box, unfortunately my fears were correct. Murky, slimy fleshed filled cold bags of dead coral. Some a couple favias had a tiny bit of loose flesh on them but most were already gone completely.
I drained the bags to see if there was anything salvageable. Upon draining bags I realized that there were more issues than just the shipping.
Firstly, these were probably the smallest frags of coral I have ever seen, much less purchased and received. Favias that were listed as .75 were not much bigger than a pencil eraser. Other corals such as a pink Goni were the same way. On top of being extremely small, this was a chop and shop situation. These corals had visibly just need freshly cut, glued and sent out in winter weather. In my opinions corals should be kept to heal and grow before sent out to a purchaser. Additionally, corals that were ordered were not even in the shipment! Even though I was assured that everything was in the order. Yes I received store credit, but even had their not been a shipping issue, I would not have received my correct order in the first place.
Out of the 13 corals, I was only able to salvage a couple polyps of zoas.
After thinking about the issue and not being rash I decided to wait a couple days to respond. On the 3rd I decided to use the store credit and be done with the situation. After seeing the size of the frags that were sent to me I decided to order a something of a single polyp that couldn’t be cut up. So, I ordered a smaller Trachy that I had eyeballed originally. I ended up paying $45 more out of pocket on top of the store credit.
I sent RL a message on the 5th stating that most all of the coral did in fact come in dead, and that I had placed an order for the Trachy in their place and that I hoped to have better luck with shipping. No response at all to the email.
After not hearing any response whatsoever I decided to send another message stating that I was checking on the status of my recent order. They responded that it was being shipped out Tuesday to arrive Wednesday.
Once again with no prior confirmation. Not even a simple “hey does this day work for you?”
that in itself would have meant a lot. I responded that we would have to come up with other arrangements, as I had previously made it clear that I am only available on mondays and Tuesdays for deliveries. I asked why if I had placed an order on the previous Wednesday, would it not ship out on Monday and once again, no response.
So after trying to correct the situation, I am at square one with communication of shipping.
I get the vibe of a very shady business structure. I have received more communication from ordering nonsense from Amazon. I fully expected much more from a company shipping live coral and other livestock.
I have purchased from many different suppliers in the hobby, both big and small companies. Personally I find it exciting to purchase from smaller businesses that I haven’t purchased from before, even people whom have something similar to garage setups. It’s a spread the love type thing.
I had came across a few people on Instagram posting some really nice new coral and had Reef Lounge tagged so I figured I’d give them a look! After looking a while and going through their site I decided to place an order due to what seemed great prices and nice looking coral.
On January 27 I placed my order, prior to placing my order I read over their shipping info etc. and knew that they would only ship Monday-Wednesday. At first Reef Lounge reached out to let me know that they no longer had a coral in a pack that I had ordered and we communicated on replacement. Great! I thought.
I had a few other questions so I decided to give them a call instead of emailing, as the response time was slow as it was. I was instructed by the gentleman who answered the phone that if I had an email conversation then to continue using email. Then he hung up. First bad sign for me. But hey, maybe he was busy right?
Since there would be no shipping until the beginning of the week I added a few corals in additional orders and reached out to let Reef Lounge know that orders were mine to be added to my initial shipment. Sounds good they said! So in total I had 13 coral to be shipped out.
And then without prior notification, the first order was shipped. No questions or weather, (which we actually had a major storm affecting a major portion of the US, to which wasn’t know about prior to placing order. Other companies I do business with reached out to arrange better shipping for the health of the coral.
I reached out to RL to let them know that I received notification of the first order being shipped but not the other 2. They responded that there were no worries, the other two orders were included.
The order was shipped on Monday for a Tuesday arrival. However directly after shipping there was a delay processed for to mechanical failure that stated the order would be a day late. I reached out to make RL aware of this with no response.
I notified them that I was aware that a delay was out of their control but I had concern that the coral would be left in freezing temperatures for an additional day. (Which I reached out to UPS whom apparently has no regards for live shipments and they informed me that it was up to the shipper to be diligent on when to ship live animals) I also made it aware that due to my work schedule I am only available on mondays and Tuesdays to receive orders my work schedule conflicts with any other day. (I typically work 12+ hour shifts, therefore pickup at a facility during their hours of operation are out of question as well) And that if the coral arrived on wednesday there would not be anyone home to receive it.
the order did in fact get delayed a day and in fact nobody was home and the coral was left in sub freezing temps the first 24 hours of delay and majority of Wednesday day.
I reached out to RL and made it aware that more than likely the coral would not be alive upon arrival. They instructed me to review their shipping policy. I responded that I had reviewed it and that it stated in the case of delay, the order would be issued back in store credit. Better than nothing right?
So they did issue store credit for the coral that was purchased.
Directly after issuing store credit, I received a notification that my 3rd order (which remember I was told was included in my original order) had been shipped. Strange right?
I asked why I received the notification and the person responding to email stated that there was an issue and that they were “cleaning out their system when issues the store credit” and that my third order may or may not have been included.
Since they only covered the cost of coral, it meant upon reordering, I would be down another $40 shipping cost. Unfortunate, but it’s the price you pay for not having local stores to buy from in rural wv right?
The coral did arrive on Wednesday, and nobody was home. I tried my best to make accommodations to no avail. With a Monday shipping and guaranteed next day arrival, how would anyone assume their would be a conflicting schedule?
Upon opening the box, unfortunately my fears were correct. Murky, slimy fleshed filled cold bags of dead coral. Some a couple favias had a tiny bit of loose flesh on them but most were already gone completely.
I drained the bags to see if there was anything salvageable. Upon draining bags I realized that there were more issues than just the shipping.
Firstly, these were probably the smallest frags of coral I have ever seen, much less purchased and received. Favias that were listed as .75 were not much bigger than a pencil eraser. Other corals such as a pink Goni were the same way. On top of being extremely small, this was a chop and shop situation. These corals had visibly just need freshly cut, glued and sent out in winter weather. In my opinions corals should be kept to heal and grow before sent out to a purchaser. Additionally, corals that were ordered were not even in the shipment! Even though I was assured that everything was in the order. Yes I received store credit, but even had their not been a shipping issue, I would not have received my correct order in the first place.
Out of the 13 corals, I was only able to salvage a couple polyps of zoas.
After thinking about the issue and not being rash I decided to wait a couple days to respond. On the 3rd I decided to use the store credit and be done with the situation. After seeing the size of the frags that were sent to me I decided to order a something of a single polyp that couldn’t be cut up. So, I ordered a smaller Trachy that I had eyeballed originally. I ended up paying $45 more out of pocket on top of the store credit.
I sent RL a message on the 5th stating that most all of the coral did in fact come in dead, and that I had placed an order for the Trachy in their place and that I hoped to have better luck with shipping. No response at all to the email.
After not hearing any response whatsoever I decided to send another message stating that I was checking on the status of my recent order. They responded that it was being shipped out Tuesday to arrive Wednesday.
Once again with no prior confirmation. Not even a simple “hey does this day work for you?”
that in itself would have meant a lot. I responded that we would have to come up with other arrangements, as I had previously made it clear that I am only available on mondays and Tuesdays for deliveries. I asked why if I had placed an order on the previous Wednesday, would it not ship out on Monday and once again, no response.
So after trying to correct the situation, I am at square one with communication of shipping.
I get the vibe of a very shady business structure. I have received more communication from ordering nonsense from Amazon. I fully expected much more from a company shipping live coral and other livestock.
