How do you ship?
 

I've been slowly stocking a 20g for about 2 months now. One thing I have noticed buying corals from people and one vendor is that their shipped flat sucked. Locals friends have voiced the same complaints. People are charging top dollar for corals and shipping them with little to no care. What gives?

What do I mean? How about corals shipped in an overnight envelope? No sort of insulation. Zoo's were in baggies, wet towel method, but outer pack only consisted of the actual shipping envelope. Can anyone say, "Crushed"? Or, "Exposure to extreme temps"?

Another shipment came to me in a soaking wet box. What kind of box? A USPS overnight single rate box. The corals were shipped in snack size baggies, filled with water (at one point) and crammed into the box. For insulation this guy was kind enough to place styrafoam on the bottom edge of the box and at the top. Forget the sides...I guess he figured they were insulated somehow. Oh yeah, the SPS that were sent, all broken into a minimum of 3 pieces. Remember, I said these were "crammed" in. Somehow this guy must have though snack baggies were super tough, thus why he used them and filled each one with water. Surprise, they're not that tough. Each one was completely empty of water upon delivery. USPS delivered the package in a plastic bag because the box was about to fall apart.

I have to give credit for the one shipment I received that was done correctly. Reef Empire, out of San Diego, sent my corals in an actual styrafoam cooler box, in real bags (even double bagged) and were packed snug, but not overpacked or crammed in. The result? 100% survival rate and I'll be a repeat customer.

I remember threads from the past on this very forum where we debated shipping methods for a week before someone would feel safe enough to ship zoo's to another member. I remember thinking, "Gosh a thermos just to ship zoo's in? That's overkill!"

Maybe it's not. I was looking at some high end chalices (just dreaming mind you) and the seller said all his corals would be shipped in a lunchbox size cooler. COOLER!!! I don't think these methods are overkill anymore. Past corals I have shipped I tediously cut styrafoam to perfection to fit a box, sealed the cracks and triple bagged the corals. For what people pay for corals these days that should be a minimum. The next time I buy corals need ing shipment you can be damn sure I get a complete description about how they will be shipped before a deal is reached.

Fcamdog

P.S. I feel a little better now.

I've had 2 shipments in the past couple of months that came in as soak and wet boxes. One had zoas that had no water in the bag it was shipped in, (needless to say they didn't make it). The other was a big gold teardrop maxima that arrived with about an inch of water :eek1:. Teardrop is/has been doing great thank god but it shouldn't have been packaged to where there was any possibility for that to happen. Now I'm dealing with a seller that sent a frag of zoas he told me it would be overnight shipping but was 2-day instead (guess it would have been to much trouble to check and make sure before he sent it) and that frag didn't make it. I told him I was off a certain day of the week and to please send for delivery on that day, needless to say I had to work the day it arrived and wasn't there to receive. When I opened the box the frag was upside down (zoas completely out of water) even though it was attached to styrofoam. The top half of the plug had been cut off so it was just a round piece sitting on top of the foam ( no weight underneath to flip it back over to the other side if the frag got jostled around ??????? I told the seller and the response was ( I've been shipping that way with no problems). Well........... My shipment had a problem. He said he would refund my money if they didn't make it which I'm in the process of sending a pic ( of a zoaless frag rock) and the results have yet to be determined. I'm about to give up on having things shipped to me cause it's causing more trouble/money/time than it's worth.