Saltcritters pros and cons

[Newstead]

Just relating my experience this week ordering from Saltcritters.

The good:

1) Price - $10 frag sell, 24.99 shipping

2) Received several emails notifying me about shipment

3) Corals were well packed with a heat pack

4) I received a timely response to my picture and email about a problem with one of the zoa frags

5) All corals have opened after 2 days except for the acro.

6) Some nice colored zoas

7) The 1 ricordia is nicely colored and clean if small

 

The bad:

1) One zoa frag arrived with several polyps floating free - when I opened it into a container after temp acclimating per their instructions there was a very fast 1/4 inch long "bug" racing from the frag to the loose polyps. I videotaped it and sent a pic of the loose polyps to them, offering to send the video. They emailed back that the loose polyps were from FedEx throwing the box around and to reglue the individual polyps. No response at all about the bug eating them.

2) All 4 zoa frags had lots of brown junk floating in the bags

3) The 1 acro frag was completely brown, mostly skeleton, with numerous pineapple sponges on the acro as well as GHA on the frag plug.

4) Acan and blasto frags are tiny heads

5) Some zoa polyps still shedding "skin" and a few more polyps have floated free.

 

Perhaps I expected too much for a ten dollar sale, but I would be just be aware that their frags need a good examination and dipping for pests, algae, etc. if you order from them. I have pics of opening, frags, their email, etc. if anyone is interested further.

[WV Reefer]

Thank you for the details. I have had great experiences ordering from them so far. i saw a picture of the frag you posted and none of my stuff looked like that!

 

The carriers beat the sh*t out of everything.... I am surprised anything makes it alive.

[ReefWeeds]

My experiences have been hit or miss with them. Some similar to yours, minus the acro.

[Ibuyen]

my sale items are same, lost two frags of zoas in the first day, seemed to be freshly glued to plug.

[docshipwreck]

I dipped for pests. No bugs but had the brown junk.All zoas were attached. My flame angel ate my Brain but it looked amazing, My ric was about 1/8 and inch in diameter, MAYBE 1/4 inch. either someone ate it or it floated free and is somewhere, it was though a GORGEOUS orange color.

 

I tried to buy enough at sale price to justify the shipping and my opinion is in the middle. I'd buy again and then maybe decide for the future. I did see lots of reviews going both ways on here and FB so I figured it was worth a shot.

[braaap]

I bought 10 ricordea from them the sale before last. All arrived in good shape. About the size of a standard plug and still looking good if not growing. I will say their website is AWFUL. I couldn't do anything during their last sale and was going to buy 10 more.

[uwharrie]

Took advantage of Black Friday sale. Only had one Zoa not make it. They replaced it with my next shipment

[RayWhisperer]

Well, instead of starting a new thread, or posting on one of the other Salt Critters threads... I'm posting on the first thread that popped up. I'm lazy like that.

 

so, I'll be honest. It's been quite some time since I last ordered coral. I'm not sure if this is standard, or something special. I will say, it's something special to me. So much so, I'm gonna mention it before I review any of the order, or process leading up to it. These frags were packed better than any order I've ever gotten from any vendor. All frags were double bagged in tiny sealed baggies. Sealed, not tied, rubberbanded, ziplocked, or any other method. I'll be honest. I thought that was cool. Maybe us old codgers re easily impressed....

 

On to the order. 

Everything came in alive. No loose polyps, nothing that looks like it was glued the day before it was sent. Everything was well packaged. Beyond the aforementioned sealed baggies, styro box, followed by bagged cool pack, followed by damp newspaper, followed by a tied plastic bag, followed by those cool little baggies.

 

I got more than I ordered, and my freebie wasn't some cheapo crappy green paly, or anything like that. I'm not quite sure what I got as a freebie, but I suspect it's a leptostrea, or leptoseris. Whatever it is, it's nice. It's blue, or purple with tiny green eyes. Most zoas were partially opened in said baggies, as was one of the tubestrea frags I ordered.

 

Now, the only negatives I have aren't anything that would prevent me from ordering again in the future. The first was their site. This was the 10th anniversary $10 frag sale. So, I'm sure it was busy, busy busy. Anyways, at checkout, I couldn't proceed because all frags were marked as $0.00. So, I had to re order. Same thing happened. A few emails back and fourth (btw, I didn't mention the lightning fast email responses to try and help me with the problem.) and Mr. Salty sends me a PayPal invoice instead. I tried to pay that. Now PayPal tells me it's an invalid billing, and I should pay through the vendors site. Well, now I've closed everything, and nothing is left of my order on the site. Back and fourth again with Mr. Salty, multiple attempts, still nothing. At this point, I'm willing to forego the sale and buy fewer frags the following day when there is no mad rush. However, Mr. Salty has me try paying him through PayPal without an invoice. That worked, and he emailed me the invoice. The other problem is I'm missing one frag I ordered. Now, I haven't contacted them yet, and I'm quite sure they will gladly make it up to me. I think what happened is, that by the time I was finally able to place the order (Well over an hour, perhaps approaching 2 hours later) all those frags had sold.

 

To sum it up. I'd give Salt Critters an A+. Excellent communication, fast shipping, excellent packaging, nice frags, exceptional value, cheap shipping, the works. I will be ordering from them again. However, not too soon. I only have a 7.5 gallon that already had several sponges, and a few corals. I'm pretty well maxed out now.

[RayWhisperer]

So, allow me to state, for the record, I'm a moron. In the time it took me to post my previous post, the mystery frag had opened. It looks like I didn't get a freebie, and it looks like the frag is none other than the one I thought was missing. I had ordered a flamethrower Goni. Well, I've never seen a Goni with such tiny polyps, but it appears that's what it is. It's not what I'd describe as the red I'd expect with a trade name like flamethrower, but it's still pretty cool. I'll try whiter lighting over the weekend and see if it looks more red then. It's hard for us old folk to see under all these newfangled led lights.

[mitten_reef]

Took advantage of their 47% off this past Sunday. My order of 5 Ric Florida arrived this morning.  They're not the nicest on size, but I knew that going in based on the eggcrate background.  I've been hesitant about the coloration of their online photos.  While the highlight colors aren't quite spot-on with photos (they're obviously very "glowy" in the online photos), they're a lot closer to the photos that I'd imagined. 

 

Overall, I must say I'm pleasantly surprised at how my future Ric Florida garden could look like. Now I just have to make sure I don't lose them under rocks, just lost a nice, but small, yuma this morning, no idea where it went.  

[Coral Fairy]

We ordered 2 rock flower anemones, described as 2" at the base. We received 2 rock anemones; 1 of 0.5 inch, one of about 1.5inch

- the small one died within 2 weeks

- the larger one is pretty, but most definitely not the anemone I ordered. The order clearly included pictures, and the ordered anemone was supposed to be a green-bluish, teal core with orange edge. We received an orange and yellow core with brownish edge. Pretty, but not what I carefully selected. 

 

When I reached out to Ryan, it took numerous emails back and forth for him to send me pictures of the anemone I received, which is not the one I ordered. He claims I cannot forward the original order email to his email box - you can only reply to his email (which you cannot copy or paste to respond to) and I can only upload things on the website. In the end, Ryan claimed that somehow, my email from two weeks ago contained a picture he only took 5 days ago, and that I did receive the anemone I ordered, but by some mystery have an order with a picture of an anemone he was not selling at the time. 

 

I actually had not even emailed to ask for money - I told him I wanted to let him know that there had been a mix-up. This entire exchange however has put me off of doing business with them in the future. I do not like the lack of accountability, difficulty in communicating and just the entire exchange was not one of someone who understands how to deal appropriately with a mix-up. Any sincere apology would have been more appreciated, or a small gesture like a discount toward a future order (even though I do not know I would have used it). Very disappointing first experience with them. 

 

[roblox84]

16 minutes ago, Coral Fairy said:

We ordered 2 rock flower anemones, described as 2" at the base. We received 2 rock anemones; 1 of 0.5 inch, one of about 1.5inch

- the small one died within 2 weeks

- the larger one is pretty, but most definitely not the anemone I ordered. The order clearly included pictures, and the ordered anemone was supposed to be a green-bluish, teal core with orange edge. We received an orange and yellow core with brownish edge. Pretty, but not what I carefully selected. 

 

When I reached out to Ryan, it took numerous emails back and forth for him to send me pictures of the anemone I received, which is not the one I ordered. He claims I cannot forward the original order email to his email box - you can only reply to his email (which you cannot copy or paste to respond to) and I can only upload things on the website. In the end, Ryan claimed that somehow, my email from two weeks ago contained a picture he only took 5 days ago, and that I did receive the anemone I ordered, but by some mystery have an order with a picture of an anemone he was not selling at the time. 

 

I actually had not even emailed to ask for money - I told him I wanted to let him know that there had been a mix-up. This entire exchange however has put me off of doing business with them in the future. I do not like the lack of accountability, difficulty in communicating and just the entire exchange was not one of someone who understands how to deal appropriately with a mix-up. Any sincere apology would have been more appreciated, or a small gesture like a discount toward a future order (even though I do not know I would have used it). Very disappointing first experience with them. 

 

I ordered 3 rock anenomes from them on Monday, received them on Tuesday. They were very small (1in. Max) and 1 arrived with a gaping mouth. It ended up dying the next day. They promptly refunded me the money.

 

The anenomes I ordered were the ones I received but the colors were nothing close to their pictures online. Maybe they lost color from shipping and will eventually color up, I'm not sure. But I will probably try another vendor with bigger anenomes for my next purchase.

[SaltCritters]

11 hours ago, Coral Fairy said:

We ordered 2 rock flower anemones, described as 2" at the base. We received 2 rock anemones; 1 of 0.5 inch, one of about 1.5inch

- the small one died within 2 weeks

- the larger one is pretty, but most definitely not the anemone I ordered. The order clearly included pictures, and the ordered anemone was supposed to be a green-bluish, teal core with orange edge. We received an orange and yellow core with brownish edge. Pretty, but not what I carefully selected. 

 

When I reached out to Ryan, it took numerous emails back and forth for him to send me pictures of the anemone I received, which is not the one I ordered. He claims I cannot forward the original order email to his email box - you can only reply to his email (which you cannot copy or paste to respond to) and I can only upload things on the website. In the end, Ryan claimed that somehow, my email from two weeks ago contained a picture he only took 5 days ago, and that I did receive the anemone I ordered, but by some mystery have an order with a picture of an anemone he was not selling at the time. 

 

I actually had not even emailed to ask for money - I told him I wanted to let him know that there had been a mix-up. This entire exchange however has put me off of doing business with them in the future. I do not like the lack of accountability, difficulty in communicating and just the entire exchange was not one of someone who understands how to deal appropriately with a mix-up. Any sincere apology would have been more appreciated, or a small gesture like a discount toward a future order (even though I do not know I would have used it). Very disappointing first experience with them. 

 

I just thought I would chime in here.

First off if anyone ever has an issue with an order please contact us right away either through the website or at support@saltcritters.com.  As for forwarding emails.  You can forward them to the Support@saltcritters.com email and it will open a new ticket.  But forwarding them to the email the ticket response came from doesn't work.  Something to do with how the ticket system works.  You have to respond to the ticket email for it to come through.  If you receive the wrong item please let us know right away, send pictures, and if it is indeed the wrong item we will refund you.  It doesn't happen often but we are human and it can happen.  Please be aware that I do my best to get the pictures to look as close as I can to what they look like to me in our photo tank.  I even have a dedicated photo tank to ensure all light settings and environment are the same for all the pictures. The following is stated on every livestock item on the site under the "A little about our livestock pictures" section.  "We can't guarantee an exact color match. So many factors, monitor settings, your eyes, and types of lighting affect color, so it is impossible for us to guarantee an exact color match. Our pictures are shot to represent the items as they appear to us in our photo tank." 

 

Also I thought I would mention this as well.  Like stated in the listings (if I missed one please let me know so I can fix it) the bottom of the cups in the WYSIWYG anemone pictures is 2".  Most of the WYSIWYG anemones are on the smaller side.  That's the reason I wysiwyg them.  They rarely come in to us larger than 1"-1.5".  Especially the really nice rare colored ones.

 

Now on to Coral Fairy.

Once she showed me the order confirmation email and I realized what was going on I apologized to her for any confusion.  I'm still baffled as to why this is happening and hopefully the issue gets fixed soon. 

I am 100% sure she got the correct item going by the picture she sent us, the description she first gave us, and the pictures we have that were on the site.

The issue here is one we have never seen before.  The Pictures in the order confirmation email keep updating to current pictures on the site.  First time we have seen this issue and if anyone has noticed this issue please let us know so we can figure out what is going on.  Currently Shopify is investigating this issue with her email pictures.  The one picture even changed as we were messaging back and forth (attached the screenshots) 

 

The first message she sent us on the 29th had a different description of what she thought the anemone should look like than what she is saying now.  She said this the first email (screenshot attached as well) "but it is after two weeks 100% sure that he has no blue edge at all (is is a brownish color), and his core is orange and yellow, not red as described and shown in the picture. He's still pretty, but I am now convinced that we did not receive the anemone we ordered. The second one (bright green edge) actually disintegrated into a pile of mush,"

 

I attached the picture she sent us and the picture's we have for the two anemones she purchased.  

 

You will notice that now she is saying the anemone should have been "green-bluish, teal core with orange edge." to go along with what the email picture is showing now.

The only problem with that is.  We didn't take that picture until the 25th and she ordered the 14th.(Also attached screen shots of the dates)  There are also two anemones in the 42 picture and that item on her order says nothing about a two pack and was only $25.

 

Hopefully this clears things up.  Like I told her I apologize for the confusion but the correct items were sent.  The fact that she is changing her description of what she thought she ordered is what bugs me.

As always we appreciate all our customers and thank you for your business.  

[Coral Fairy]

Waw. Falsification of "evidence" here. His "changed" screenshot is a picture of his own computer screen, not my screenshot. To this date, the pics on the order in my email are unchanged, and that is not the anemone I received. Never did I have to block a vendor on my email because he's so misguided that he cannot just say "Sorry, we made a mistake"! I only wanted to inform him I did not get the right anemone. I asked for nothing - no refund, nothing. 40 email exchanges in which he started accusing me of trying to get a 2-pack out of him etc. This vendor has serious issues and cannot read what you write. Stay away is what I'd say. But I have a life, and many other vendors to choose from to spend my money, so this is my last word on this. I thought I'd give some feedback in case I'd order form him again. That won't happen. You were warned. Deal with him at your own risk. DON'T if you'd like to stay sane! 

[debbeach13]

Coral Fairy I am sorry you have had a bad experience. I must say I am very surprised. I haven't ordered from salt critters in a couple years. I have been trying to support local fish stores more and ordering on line less. I was completely satisfied with my order and have read many post from other that they were also including several in the last few weeks. I hope that your experience was more of a fluke than any thing else. I understand not getting what you ordered can be frustrating and I hope that all the corals you did receive do well.

[SaltCritters]

On 5/2/2020 at 1:54 PM, Coral Fairy said:

Waw. Falsification of "evidence" here. His "changed" screenshot is a picture of his own computer screen, not my screenshot. To this date, the pics on the order in my email are unchanged, and that is not the anemone I received. Never did I have to block a vendor on my email because he's so misguided that he cannot just say "Sorry, we made a mistake"! I only wanted to inform him I did not get the right anemone. I asked for nothing - no refund, nothing. 40 email exchanges in which he started accusing me of trying to get a 2-pack out of him etc. This vendor has serious issues and cannot read what you write. Stay away is what I'd say. But I have a life, and many other vendors to choose from to spend my money, so this is my last word on this. I thought I'd give some feedback in case I'd order form him again. That won't happen. You were warned. Deal with him at your own risk. DON'T if you'd like to stay sane! 

Sorry you feel this way.  We tried to explain to you what was happening.  You also changed your description of what you thought you ordered during the conversation to match what was currently showing in the picture.  Not once did I accuse you of trying to get a two pack.  I was simply pointing out that your order mentioned nothing about a two pack but the picture that was currently showing in your email was of a two pack.  You never responded back after I mentioned your description of the item changed from what you said in the first email...