The Coral Dudes Customer Experience

[oceanparadise1]

Shameless plug... give us a shot..... use code BF20% for 20% off the website :)

 

[Mr.Rocc]

I have participated in multiple live sales with TCD and since everyone else is doing it I guess I will join in. I have given Phil and his company a review already but I don't think my opinion of his business has changed. When I first ordered, everything was beautiful and larger than expected. It opened as soon as it was in the tank and has incredible colors. This last group of corals I bought, not from the last sale but the one before, was a little different. The corals that I got, were not what I ordered. In the package of 10ish corals i received, only 3 out of the 10 were ones I bought. Out of those 3, only 1 survived the shipping. Now, I contacted Phil and spoke to his manager and they told me the mix up and how they were going to fix it but they didn't have the corals I bought so they had to change it. They resent corals out for me in replacement. I wasn't super happy with the replacements but mistakes were made and they made up for it.
With all this being said, this is a great company to order from. Its almost like buying a product, most people spend the extra money for the good warranty. Well TCD has amazing prices and has a great warranty on their products. I have sent multiple people his way who have been more than thrilled with their products! Phil is a standup guy and was awesome to talk to at RAP.

 

[Patti Red Rabbit]

I have purchased quite a bit from Phil and The Coral Dudes. I have to be in the running for one of the top 5-10 spenders for them. I love the variety of corals and prices. He works hard to provide excellent customer service and great products. They are a small company and experiencing growing pains. I have always found him more than willing to go above and beyond to make sure things are right. I love The Coral Dudes and look forward to being a customer as long as I’m in this hobby. Of all the reef groups I’m involved in TCD VIP Lounge is my favorite group. I love the live sales and the fun atmosphere of the group. I think Phil and The Coral Dudes are awesome!!

 

[oceanparadise1]

Since theres a to of people watching this thread...... Stay tuned tonight as im going to be posting a TON of 25 dollar frags today and tmrw!

 

[geovento7]

My experience with the Coral Dudes has always been phenomenal, I've done several live sales with them and others and they are hands down the funnest sales and have the best giveaways. This past last sale he give away a pair of Black Storm Clownfish and tons of other prizes, last live sale he did the same and gave away a master scoly. I mean seriously no one else does that. His variety is like no other and gives his clients several options and prices are good. When I had DOA no questions asked replaced and has always included free corals on all purchases. Phil does things different and that seems to make people upset but his clients love what he does and honestly that's all that matters

 

[xxoczukxx]

ive been purchasing with TCD for about a year and honestly they are where 99% of my corals are from. Phil and everyone at TCD always pull through and look out for us when anything happens!

 

[jamie callard Verified Sponsor]

They do tons of live sales, do not expect good customer service during sales as they seem to focus more on advertising than anything else.
They seem to be mainly focused on Facebook, they advertise more on facebook than the website.
Make sure you coordinate what days you want items shipped- otherwise it'll just sit there. There's no indication that you need to pick a day on the website.

I am waiting on my order from them. I need to get in touch with them Monday to get it shipped out. I'll let you know how the items are when they arrive.

Pm sent to get you on the calender

 

[Wildcats1023]

Multiple orders with TCD no issues here. Will not hesitate to order from again.

 

[justingraham]

I met them at a frag swap and to sit back and talk with them was fun I told them to trick my girlfriend into buying a coral well they did and they gave me some of he nicest acans I have ever seen and crazy prices

I will buy from again as I still haven’t found acans that looked that good at those kind of prices anywhere I will have a TCD acan garden

 

[Tchenry2010]

The last livesale they had was a first for me. And I have to say it was awesome!! The amount of coral that Phil was posting is great. For such a small team I think they handled it very well. If you read the descriptions and posts and messaged the correct member of the team then they replied the same day. Nikki answered all my questions and Jamie helped me schedule shipping for a day that I have off. I will definitely be back for more. Will update on the contents of my order when it gets here. But so far it's been great

 

[oceanparadise1]

I met them at a frag swap and to sit back and talk with them was fun I told them to trick my girlfriend into buying a coral well they did and they gave me some of he nicest acans I have ever seen and crazy prices

I will buy from again as I still haven’t found acans that looked that good at those kind of prices anywhere I will have a TCD acan garden

HAHAHAH yes!!! omg that was awesome too lol

 

[PMHighers]

TCD Is located in NY and does a huge amount of live sales and online selling of marine corals and fish. This thread is for customers to tell their experiences with TCD as it seems people here are not very familiar with them. Pictures of corals appreciated! I need to build my holiday wishlist...

They were very disorganized, have poor communication skills, no follow through, and were by far my worst coral purchase... At first they kept failing to ship my order for weeks. Every time, there was some excuse but in my opinion, if a scheduled shipment doesnt go out, the merchant should communicate this with the customer. Not let it go unspoken and allow the customer to use up not one, but two personal days for failed shipments. In any case, dispite all of this i still was willing to give them a chance. When they did ship it, they refused to provide a tracking number despite requesting more than 5 times for them to do so... nor DoD they follow up with fedex, as I never received updates from them either. The package finally arrived 4 days later and all the coral had died. I know there was nothing TCD could do about it being late and the coral dying, but on top of that the bags were poorly wrapped and 2 coral were missing... The owner Phil claimed he would refund me the near 1K i spent but a week later it still hasnt posted and Iv opened a claim. Honestly it was the worst experience purchasing coral and trying to get straight answered from them that I will never purchase from them again.

 

[James Howell (joesph)]

YESTERDAY I CONTACTED THE CORAL DUDES WHO IS NOW OWNED BY A NEW PERSON I MADE A COMMENT ABOUT MY ORDER THAT WAS NOT COMPLETE.. WE WENT INTO PRIVATE MESSAGING AND I WAS TOLD IT WILL BE SENT OUT.. WELL, I DIDNT THINK THIS WOULD HAPPEN OF COURSE.. AS I WAS BACKING OUT OF MY DRIVE WAY I SEEN A BOX ON MY PORCH THAT SAID "LIVE ANIMALS" SO I MOVED IT INSIDE AND OPEN IT.. I WAS SENT 7 FRAGS.. THIS IS 3 MORE THAN I WAS MISSING... GUYS THE NEW OWNERS ARE TRYING TO DO RIGHT.. JUST WANTED TO PASS IT ON..

 

[DSC reef]

YESTERDAY I CONTACTED THE CORAL DUDES WHO IS NOW OWNED BY A NEW PERSON I MADE A COMMENT ABOUT MY ORDER THAT WAS NOT COMPLETE.. WE WENT INTO PRIVATE MESSAGING AND I WAS TOLD IT WILL BE SENT OUT.. WELL, I DIDNT THINK THIS WOULD HAPPEN OF COURSE.. AS I WAS BACKING OUT OF MY DRIVE WAY I SEEN A BOX ON MY PORCH THAT SAID "LIVE ANIMALS" SO I MOVED IT INSIDE AND OPEN IT.. I WAS SENT 7 FRAGS.. THIS IS 3 MORE THAN I WAS MISSING... GUYS THE NEW OWNERS ARE TRYING TO DO RIGHT.. JUST WANTED TO PASS IT ON..

Curious, who owns them now? I see you just joined, welcome to R2R.

 

[Ryan Marriott]

The Fella that is currently running the shop is Ryan. I can't remember his last name. I also ordered from the infamous live sale in November. I have been in contact with Ryan and have received everything and some all of which are doing amazing. I have also stopped by the shop a few times in the last week and he is completely turning the place around and working on receiving his own LLC and ditching the name coral dudes (for obvious reasons). I give him props for trying to make all this up. Nice to see someone trying to redo what Phil did.

 

[Tahoe61]

Curious, who owns them now? I see you just joined, welcome to R2R.

My years on forums and as a moderator have taught me to be cautious when I see a member join for the sole purpose of either promoting or flaming a commercial entity. The vast majority of the time there is an alternative motive, just saying.

 

[DSC reef]

My years on forums and as a moderator have taught me to be cautious when I see a member join for the sole purpose of either promoting or flaming a commercial entity. The vast majority of the time there is an alternative motive, just saying.

I agree

 

[Mr.Rocc]

My years on forums and as a moderator have taught me to be cautious when I see a member join for the sole purpose of either promoting or flaming a commercial entity. The vast majority of the time there is an alternative motive, just saying.

Agreed!

 

[Mari]

I formed this thread originally and have been less than impressed with what has been going on at the coral dudes/ whatever their name is now has been doing. Idk what the new owner will bring but i dont feel like trying to figure it out. I like giving people the benefit of the doubt but sometimes when something smells fishy it smells fishy. Doesn’t mean it is fishy. Doesn’t mean it isn’t. Just means you steer clear.

 

[Ryan Marriott]

Just to put it out there I have no affiliation with them I am just stating my experience with said company. I just hope everyone who has been burned by them gets made right. For such an amazing hobby it sucks stuff like this happens. I have only started reefing for about a year and have been apart of the forum for less. From what Ive seen this is a very helpful and informative forum with some really great people! Happy Reefing!