Complaint Review: ReefScavengers.com - Internet Internet

I placed an order with reefscavengers.com on 25 January 2010 via their website for several live animals including shrimp, crabs, starfish, and snails. The total of the order was $93.28 USD and was paid via credit card (check card) to a reefscavengers.com PayPal account. The cost was charged to my account immediately. The following day, I received a confirmation E-mail from reefscavengers.com  summarizing my order and payment. The E-mail stated that, "All orders are subject to a 2-7 business day processing period; you will receive a confirmation email on the day your order is shipped."

I waited for eight days without receiving a shipping confirmation or an explanation for the delay. On Friday, 05 February 2010 I sent reefscavengers.com an E-mail explaining that I was unsatisfied with the delay and lack of communication and asked them to please cancel my order. I received a response from them on Monday, 08 February 2010 explaining that the earthquake in Haiti had caused shipment delays and that they would ship my order within the next three days, by Wednesday, 10 February 2010. They did not acknowledge my request to cancel the order. They also responded outside of the 24-hour time frame in which their website states all E-mails will be answered (although since they did not address anything from the E-mail I sent to them, I do not know if it was an actual response)(See - http://reefscavengers.com/contact). I replied to them that I would wait until Wednesday, 10 February 2010, for a shipping confirmation.

I received shipping confirmation on Tuesday, 09 February 2010, and the animals arrived via U.S. Postal Service on Thursday, 11 February 2010. Because reefscavengers.com  did not mark the package to require a signature, as their website says they do, I took half a day off work to meet the mailman at the mailbox to ensure that the package would not be left in the cold. Despite this, approximately half of the animals were dead on arrival , totaling $37.21 USD of my total order. Another animal was severely distressed upon arrival and died a short while later.

I believe that the reason for this is the packaging used by reefscavengers.com. Their website states, "All livestock orders destined for an area with a temperature of 60 degrees or below will be packaged in a styrofoam insulated shipping container, with a 72 hour heat pack included. We will check the weather in your area on the day we ship your order to determine if an insulated shipping container is required." (See - http://reefscavengers.com/shipping) The high temperatures for my town were below 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the entire shipping process (3 days) and 48 degrees Fahrenheit on the day the animals arrived. In addition, it is the middle of winter and the shipment likely traveled through areas that were much colder. The package that I received contained no styrofoam and no heat pack. It was simply a cardboard box with several plastic bags containing the individual animals enclosed in a larger plastic bag. Additionally, the package did not indicate that it contained live animals or was fragile. The words, "contains water," were written inconspicuously on the label in ball point pen. The temperature of the water was very low when I received the animals and I believe that this directly contributed to their deaths.

I sent an E-mail to reefscavengers.com on Thursday, 11 February 2010 indicating that I had received dead animals. In my E-mail I detailed the procedures that I used, in accordance with their website's "Live Arrival Guarantee" (See - http://reefscavengers.com/livearrival), to ensure that the animals were actually dead and not just stressed. I also requested that, because I believed that their deaths were the direct result of their failure to follow their own shipping procedures and general neglect for the welfare of the animals, that I be given a refund (their website states that dead animals may be reimbursed via store credit or replacements at their discretion). As of this writing I have received no further communication from reefscavengers.com to include notification of the awarding of store credit, replacement animals, or a refund. I have not even received an E-mail stating that they are investigating the matter (again in violation of their 24 hour response time).

I believe that reefscavengers.com  are misrepresenting themselves and their business practices on their website. Those misrepresentations directly contributed to my decision to order from them in the first place. Had I known that, in reality, they do not live up to any of the promises/policies on their website, show very little concern for the welfare of the animals they sell, and have no sense of customer service, I would not have placed an order with them.