Reefcleaners.org Bad Business Practices

[Sweet Reef Corals]

I don’t normally say much when I have a bad business transaction but I felt that I needed to comment on the very bad business practice Reefcleaners.org showed me.

I was in the market for a large bunch of snails for my frag tank. I had heard good things about Reefcleaners.org so I decided to check them out. On the home page, this is what I see....

Since they were offering free shipping, I was happy to place an order for 90 Astrea snails. The order was placed and I received the confirmation email.

The following day I received an email from “John” stating...

Thank you Jesse! We recommend this many Astraeas go with UPS, would you like to upgrade?

A link was provided that took me to a reefcleaners shipping module checkout that costs $44.50!!

Obviously I was a bit annoyed, but I responded to “John” that paying an extra $44.50 defeats the purpose of free shipping on an order over $65. Am I the first person that has ever wanted to take advantage of their free shipping? I did kindly offer to split the shipping with him and pay an additional $22 for the “upgrade”. This is the response I got....

Ups next day costs us $60 on average unfortunately, we don’t do further discounts.

I ship coral all over the US and I know full well that a business account with UPS would make that shipment $25-$35. Not $60.

I kindly responded “I made the purchase because you offered free shipping. Please ship the 90 snails however you see fit, for them to arrive alive.”

John decided that my business was not worth it to him and he refused to honor the order, along with the free shipping. I was refunded my purchase price and that was the end of the discussion.

Bad business practice in my opinion. If you’re not going to honor your free shipping offer, why have it on your website? Misleading and fraudulent...
They will never get business from me again.

So I checked on a company that I have ordered from before.... KP Aquatics in Florida. I was able to purchase 100 Astrea snails shipped UPS next Day for $15 cheaper than what Reefcleaners.org was trying to charge. I received my snails this morning and so far I’m quite happy.

 

[reefcleaners]

Unfortunately we have to stick with our regular UPS charges even if you order more than the maximum allowed for Priority Mail on a particular species. You can find out more about the species we carry on the full details page. Certain species like Astraea, Trochus, and Turbos have maximum quantities that can be sent via USPS. You will see a notice on details page that looks like this:

We recommend quantities over 50 Astraeas snails be shipped with UPS

The reason for this policy is that if a delay does occur these species are at higher risk than those with no maximums with USPS. I understand you would like a free upgrade because you ordered more than the limit for Priority Mail, but we can't do that because the cost of shipping.

Our box sizes may be larger than those of the corals you are used to shipping. The carriers charge dimensional weight now, so this order that would require a 10x10x10 box starts at the same cost of a 5 pound box even if it weighs 3 pounds. We will always accept a pre printed UPS label to use for a shipment.

 

[reefcleaners]

For those who are curious, a pre printed UPS label that you purchase at whatever rate you receive can be emailed to us, and then we wouldn't charge any shipping costs. To do that you would order with this item:

https://reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/add-to-order

And then leave a note in the comments section about wanting to email a label. We will let you know the dimensions and approximate weight of the box prior to shipping so you can purchase the label yourself, send us the .pdf file of the label, and receive the order without a shipping charge from us.

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

With all due respect, you very simply could have shipped my 90 ordered snails in 2 shipments of 45 snails each instead of trying to up charge $44.50. That would have been the most logical, and customer friendly way, to handle the order.

 

[reefcleaners]

Unfortunately that would only incur a second shipping charge, and we prefer that many Astraeas to ship with UPS Overnight. The purpose of the policy is to require orders of larger quantities of certain species to travel with UPS Overnight instead of Priority Mail. Two shipments of Priority Mail wouldn't change that.