Online retailers?

Not liking I've been finding at my lfs for corals, any good online retailers to purchase from, never have, how do I know what I pick is what I get, how are they shipped to my house, do they sit outside the door in a box, how do I know the coral will be ok when shipped? Thanks

 

2 names Vivid Aquariums, and sexy corals, all you will ever need

 

I would say you're safe shopping with any of the mainstream fish & coral sellers out there. I have shopped with liveaquaria, vivid, reef-a-holic, and a couple of the site sponsors with nothing but good results, and really recommend them.

ebay can be an option, just make sure you pay attention to the feedback, look at other items the seller has and most importantly the SHIPPING COSTS. A few ebayers out there are utterly out of control on shipping. I also stick exclusively with 'what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) when dealing with ebay. part of the reason I recommend WYSIWYG is just that cause you are seeing the actual coral. Plus it adds in the benfit of hopefullly ensuring you arent getting a stressed out, fresh cut coral, that is bagged & shipped. Cutting stress & shipping stress can really raise the risk of getting browned out, injured or dead corals.

a search here or with google of the place your intending to shop with will give you a feel for what they have going on.

I will say personally I do not deal with saltwaterfish.com (bad personal expereinces), and aquacon (over 160 BBB bad reports).

Another thing to think about with online shoppers is alot of places are now dealing in very low price frags. Alot of $5 & $10 corals are normally a frag of a frag of a frag. Meaning you are going to get a very small splinter of a piece of coral. I do say shop at your own risk there.

As far as shipping most reputable places are all about the same. Every thing will come double or triple bagged, with heater or cool pads (depending on the time of year), packed in a sealed styrofoam box, inside a cardboard shipping box.

I shop fairly extensively online since my closest LFS in an hour one way (who rarely has anything of interest), and a LFS of any quality is around 2 hours the other direction.

 

liveaquaria is great but a little pricy, but there shipping is amazing!
saltcritter.com has those cheap frags, but they say they're cheap, and have a nice selection! i'd recommend them! i just got like 12 things from them and am happy! check out the thread below this!

I would definitely try to be home for them in this weather though! Maybe ship it to where you work if you can!

 

I can speak for the shipping aspect of things. I'm very disappointed with FedEx and UPS. These two companies suck when shipping stuff now. Both companies have left multiple boxes outside my door while I was home without ever knocking on the door or ringing the door bell. They then report back to the system that they left the package with someone. This really makes me mad because one time I had $400 worth of fish shipped to me and it said specifically that a signature was required and that the package had to be left with a person, not on the doorstep. The fish would've died if my wife wasn't home (we knew they were coming).

Honestly I don't really think there is anything that can be done. I still need to call and complain, but I really don't know what good it would be. My wife is a stay at home mom right anyways, so she can be home whenever I know something is coming.

On a side note, everything has always been alive and I haven't had anything stolen as of yet knock on wood. I live in a good neighborhood.

Edit: I forgot to mention that everything has been packed with great care from the suppliers. So no issues there.

 

Yip, agreed.

And agreed here too. USPS, FedEx, and UPS experience varies by locale. I recently moved. Before I would only deal with USPS bc of stories similar to above. Wouldn't deal with FedEx at all bc every time they said I wasn't home and had to come to the distribution office for pickup... I work from home; I'm always home.

Now, I won't touch USPS for livestock - where I'm at now they won't go past the neighborhood community mail boxes - like an apartment; I hate those things. UPS is hit or miss. Sometimes they just leave stuff at the gate to my property. Which is 800 feet through the woods away. FedEx has been great so far here.

So having those kinds of issues can limit who you buy from as they tend to be exclusive one shipper or other (though most will use the other for a fee IME)

My personal favorites are vividaquariums and 3reef sponsor reefpets (eBay seller!)

 

That is a very good point. Now that I think about it, UPS has been great at previous places that I have lived. Maybe I just need to complain about the drivers out here lol.

 

FedEx sucks here! Twice i've received a notification that my order was delivered and signed for! they even put a name on it! And each time i panicked because the name wasn't any of my neighbors! So i'd rush home to see them laying on the porch with the arrows pointing any way but up! At least friggin point the arrows up if you're gonna lie about a signature! But i knew they were coming that day and made plans to leave work when i got the text/email! And all was well.....except for my temper!lol

But that being said, next nice warm weather stretch, ordering online again as i've lost faith in my LFS's!

 

I sent UPS an email to their customer service and got a call back the next day asking if I had the tracking numbers to the orders I was complaining about so they can track down the driver. I think I might be making progress lol. I mean this driver is always on his phone and cursing when he comes up to my door. I've never had a problem with UPS, USPS or FedEx until I moved here.