Fin-Addict experience

[Lynaea]

Some background:

I ordered several items from this company 7/5/14 (a Saturday), their site states there is a 1-3 day processing period but by Thursday the 10th I had had no contact beyond the automatic 'you placed an order' email. I contacted them and they said they could ship Monday to arrive Tuesday. When I still had no tracking info late Monday I emailed them again, they said they had 'equipment issues' and would ship Tuesday.

 

The following is copied from my tank thread:

 

My Fin-Addict order arrived Wednesday, I am not super pleased with them. First they didn't contact me so I kept having to ask when my stuff would be shipped. Early Tuesday they said some of the Rics and one gorg had 'issues', so I picked a few other items as possible substitutes. Then when they sent my tracking info they said two gorgs and the sponge I really wanted also had 'issues'. Of the ten items I ordered half were apparently out of stock, however they were all still available to purchase on their website and have been straight through to today. When I began having issues with them communicating I did some research and found many bad reviews so I was afraid of what I would receive.

 

They sent me 7 items in an 8.5 inch square box with packing peanuts and a cold pack on top, each bag had maybe 1/2 cup of water in it. The rock flowers water was brown, the 2 purple gorgs had been bagged together and the water was purple and smelled like stagnant, old seawater. The top of the green gorg was folded over on itself and tied into the top of the bag because it is about 8 inches tall and they had to put it in a 4-5 inch bag with less than a cup of water. All of this is exactly as the reviews I found had stated.

 

I ended up dumping most of the bag water rather than acclimating them in that toxic waste, surprisingly everything but the large purple gorg has survived so far. This morning I noticed it was rapidly losing flesh and pulled it out of the tank. All the flesh sloughed off, I pruned it and put the base back in just in case its save-able but I doubt it. They sent me the green gorg, some green zoa's and 5 shaving brush plants instead of five items that I ordered, supposedly the zoa's are worth $40+ but idk. I also got a green rock flower, the 2 purple gorgs (the one that survived is only about 4 inches tall), a rainbow Ric and 3 star astrea snails

 

I'm kind of wondering from this and the reviews I found if they don't purposely downgrade or leave out items to make up for the constant sales and freebies they offer, if I had paid the full $150 I would be very upset, as it is I think I maybe got stuff worth what I paid. I'm somewhat tempted to order just the purple tube sponge I want and see if they magically have it in stock now but I'm afraid of how it would fare in 1/2 cup of water for 24+ hours. Ugh!!!

 

Update:

 

It is now 5 days post delivery and everything else appears fairly happy, the gorgs are starting to extend their polyps and everything else is open and alive. In retrospect I think I still got a decent deal but am upset that I didn't get a lot of what I ordered and that the livestock was packaged so carelessly. All in all this was a mediocre experience and while I really, really want that sponge I ordered I have serious doubts it would survive the way they ship. Don't think I'll be ordering form them again any time soon.

 

For the record, I got 15% off for a sale, another 15% off as new customer and I think free shipping too (or maybe just discounted). I paid a little over $100.