Sellers Policy Discussion

[OnPointCorals]

I am posting this here as I’m an Acro guy and 99% of my orders I make are sps.

Something has been bothering me for awhile and I’m at the point that I need to say something. There is an up ticking trend that has almost got to the point of being standard and acceptable. It’s is not acceptable:

Vendors and hobbyist selling coral and not covering carrier delays.

This is absurd to me. This person has paid the asking price for an item and he / she has not received that item. Your DOA has to apply. Why in the world would it be on the buyer to take the loss. The job of the seller is to get the item to the buyer in good health.

I do personally put the shipping cost on the buyer. (No refund on shipping cost). Maybe even that could be argued as wrong.

I make a point to not buy from any seller that enforces this policy.

Let’s have a discussion.

 

[Gw2kpro]

I am posting this here as I’m an Acro guy and 99% of my orders I make are sps.

Something has been bothering me for awhile and I’m at the point that I need to say something. There is an up ticking trend that has almost got to the point of being standard and acceptable. It’s is not acceptable:

Vendors and hobbyist selling coral and not covering carrier delays.

This is absurd to me. This person has paid the asking price for an item and he / she has not received that item. Your DOA has to apply. Why in the world would it be on the buyer to take the loss. The job of the seller is to get the item to the buyer in good health.

I do personally put the shipping cost on the buyer. (No refund on shipping cost). Maybe even that could be argued as wrong.

I make a point to not buy from any seller that enforces this policy.

Let’s have a discussion.

If I had that happen to me, and the vendor didn't work with me to find a solution, I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on it.

I'd photo the dead coral, document the conversation, and contact my credit card company. I'd let them know the seller sent me a box full of dead corals, when in actuality, I paid for a box of live corals. I'd have them reverse the charge.

 

[NeutronMan]

Fortunately, no one has ever done that to me. If they did, but hadn’t made their policy clear beforehand, I’d stand in the highest mountain and shout it out.

If their policy is clear, I would just buy form someone else.

 

[Quietman]

Maybe I've been lucky, but the DOA's I've had were covered by my vendors above and beyond what I expected. This includes a cold snap during shipping. The corals arrived on time without delay, most were dead due being in freezing temps during an early cold snap. That's honestly not something I would expect anyone to cover...and they volunteered on hearing it.

I do my research on a vendor before doing business with them, then I order small until I trust them. If there was ever a coral I wanted from someone I didn't trust...then the risk is on me. The vendors who don't provide adequate customer service will soon go out of business, often only to be replaced by other vendors who do the same unfortunately.

Individual vendors earn my trust, individual vendors earn my business.

 

[OnPointCorals]

If their policy is clear, I would just buy form someone else.

I do the same, but I have been seeing more sellers include this in their DOA and it is starting to become the norm. I felt it’s time to speak up.

 

[Silver14SS]

Only buy from vendors who cover delays. Vote with your wallet.

 

[x2uranium]

Bro I bought a 300$ frag off a person not goi g to say their name. It was psycho asylum frag came in white and the dude never even responded. Talk about a p.o.s. One of the reasons why I only buy at swaps or friends anymore.

 

[EMeyer]

I am posting this here as I’m an Acro guy and 99% of my orders I make are sps.

Something has been bothering me for awhile and I’m at the point that I need to say something. There is an up ticking trend that has almost got to the point of being standard and acceptable. It’s is not acceptable:

Vendors and hobbyist selling coral and not covering carrier delays.

This is absurd to me. This person has paid the asking price for an item and he / she has not received that item. Your DOA has to apply. Why in the world would it be on the buyer to take the loss. The job of the seller is to get the item to the buyer in good health.

I do personally put the shipping cost on the buyer. (No refund on shipping cost). Maybe even that could be argued as wrong.

I make a point to not buy from any seller that enforces this policy.

Let’s have a discussion.

Its upsetting that I can only like this post once. I'd like to save up a weeks worth of likes and dump them all on this post. Thank you, and very well said.

Covering DOAs in the case of shipping delays is the the policy of all professional suppliers I've bought from, and the only acceptable policy for a seller to take, period. (It is also my policy when selling frags)

It always kind of makes me laugh when I read it. I mean, what other situation would call for a DOA claim *other than* a shipping delay? If the box arrives well packed and on time of course the corals are gonna be OK, 99% of the time. DOAs happen when something goes wrong. A DOA policy that doesnt cover things that go wrong is simply not a DOA policy.

 

[NeutronMan]

This is another reason that I check out sellers, here, before I buy. They need to either be a very active member, well known, or have a lot of positive feedback.

 

[vetteguy53081]

We also need to address the shipper, which to them our orders are just a package and feel their job is to get the delivery completed.+
When we have a small box that says " Live animals or Live Fish", you don't let that sit in a cold warehouse or delivery facility overnight or all weekend WHEN YOUVE PAID FOR OVERNIGHT and they know it.
Vendor gets little recovery (mainly shipping fees) and we get dead smelly livestock.

 

[Saltyreef]

I've sold to people who know the delivery driver is coming by 1030am but still insist to keep their dog outside to wait for him.
I agree about the " no carrier delay guarantee" now and will be removing that part from my DOA guarantee when I sell moving forward. It makes sense.
But it still MUST be accepted at the first delivery attempt!
Cheers and great post!

 

[NeutronMan]

I've sold to people who know the delivery driver is coming by 1030am but still insist to keep their dog outside to wait for him.
I agree about the " no carrier delay guarantee" now and will be removing that part from my DOA guarantee when I sell moving forward. It makes sense.
But it still MUST be accepted at the first delivery attempt!
Cheers and great post!

There definitely has to be some reasonable effort from the buyer, for sure. If the buyer caused the delay, that’s on them.

The next big deal is adding a few days guaranteed survival after going into tank :-)

A few sellers have been offering this as well so long as your tank parameters are similar to theirs.

 

[OnPointCorals]

I've sold to people who know the delivery driver is coming by 1030am but still insist to keep their dog outside to wait for him.
I agree about the " no carrier delay guarantee" now and will be removing that part from my DOA guarantee when I sell moving forward. It makes sense.
But it still MUST be accepted at the first delivery attempt!
Cheers and great post!

This is an amazing response and just this alone made my post worth it.

And of course the first delivery attempt policy is expected and totally acceptable. I include a 2 hour contact window also. These are in no way what I am talking about. The seller needs to be protected from careless buyers.

 

[bubbaque]

I am glad to see this post as this practice of leaving the buyer on the hook needs to be stopped.

The other thread just spiraled into what shipping companies actually covered and refunded instead of focusing on that buyer needs to be taken care of no what what the shipping company does.

I am going to quote my post from the other thread so more can see it.

“This has always bothered me and never made sense to how anyone could pay hundreds of dollars if not thousands for a coral order to have your package delayed and be okay with just losing the money.

I refuse to buy from anyone who doesn’t cover shipping delays. It sucks for both parties to have the ordered delayed but why does the person who handed out money the only one who has to suffer?

It’s almost as a couple people started not covering delays and now it’s accepted as the norm. It should not be accepted and if a package is lost, it’s the cost of doing business.

I sell corals here and there and in no way do I have lots of inventory but even I cover shipping delays because the person handing out cash should receive what they paid for.

Stick to vendors who cover delays such as Battlecorals and wwc. I am sure there are others also. There are companies that are willing to make the consumer happy over making a buck.”

 

[sp1187]

First delivery attempt?
I have stuff delivered to my parents address, as they are retired, and available to accept delivery.
No delivery person has ever knocked on the door, rang the door bell, or asked for a signature.
It's just left on their porch in any and all weather conditions. So I've always monitored any shipment and had to message them to check their porch when it sez "delivered".

 

[Dvanlier05]

Unfortunately shippers will not guarantee that an overnight package will arrive before 1030 during their busy holiday season even if you paid for it. Add in the cold on top of that, your asking for problems.

 

[jda]

For me, it depends, but I am mostly cool. I have only had it happen a few times and I replaced the stuff, but it took a while for me to regrow some things, but everybody got their stuff eventually. I had a guy forget to check his porch for like 3 days and I replaced it - probably should not have on this one.

I will NOT guarantee Sat delivery, and I make this VERY clear up front... if there is a delay on a weekday, then you have a good chance with a 24 hour delay, but there is nearly no chance waiting until Monday.

The only things that I have not guaranteed as stuff that I did not really want to ship and the buyer "begged" me and took all the responsibility... like a $3000 coral that I won't have replacements for within many months.

BTW - all of this is why selling stuff can cost so much. Vendors and even hobbyists have to factor all of this into their costs.

 

[NeutronMan]

For me, it depends, but I am mostly cool. I have only had it happen a few times and I replaced the stuff, but it took a while for me to regrow some things, but everybody got their stuff eventually. I had a guy forget to check his porch for like 3 days and I replaced it - probably should not have on this one.

I will NOT guarantee Sat delivery, and I make this VERY clear up front... if there is a delay on a weekday, then you have a good chance with a 24 hour delay, but there is nearly no chance waiting until Monday.

The only things that I have not guaranteed as stuff that I did not really want to ship and the buyer "begged" me and took all the responsibility... like a $3000 coral that I won't have replacements for within many months.

BTW - all of this is why selling stuff can cost so much. Vendors and even hobbyists have to factor all of this into their costs.

Dern, 3 days?

I agree that if you talk a seller into going against his better judgment, at least part of that liability should be on the buyer.

 

[OnPointCorals]

Unfortunately shippers will not guarantee that an overnight package will arrive before 1030 during their busy holiday season even if you paid for it. Add in the cold on top of that, your asking for problems.

Yes and as a seller you must take this into account and be smart about when shipments go out etc.

Because of these variables, why should the buyer be on the hook?

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I am glad to see this post as this practice of leaving the buyer in the hook needs to be stopped.

The other thread just spiraled into what shipping companies actually covered and refunded instead of focusing on that buyer needs to be taken care of no what what the shipping company does.

I am going to quote my post from the other thread so more can see it.

“This has always bothered me and never made sense to how anyone could pay hundreds of dollars if not thousands for a coral order to have your package delayed and be okay with just losing the money.

I refuse to buy from anyone who doesn’t cover shipping delays. It sucks for both parties to have the ordered delayed but why does the person who handed out money the only one who has to suffer?

It’s almost as a couple people started not covering delays and now it’s accepted as the norm. It should not be accepted and if a package is lost, it’s the cost of doing business.

I sell corals here and there and in no way do I have lots of inventory but even I cover shipping delays because the person handing out cash should receive what they paid for.

Stick to vendors who cover delays such as Battlecorals and wwc. I am sure there are others also. There are companies that are willing to make the consumer happy over making a buck.”