thesea.org - Take 2

[jdsabin1]

Well, Seabass and I placed another order with Blane's operation this afternoon. Nearly 20 pieces in all. He still hasn't fixed the site from a 'real time' update issue (in other words even though a coral may say it's available, that means absolutely nothing. It continues to be a manual process where you send Blane an e-mail and he e-mails you back with what he has left that you asked for). Time consuming to say the least.

 

Still, he has some gorgeous zoos, rics and mushrooms that we really wanted so we went ahead and placed the order. This includes some outrageous blue zoos (that I am sure are all gone by now but I placed an order for those just in case I got lucky).

 

We're hoping we see some discount for an order that large.

 

Also, Blane seems to send frags using just 'standard overnight' versus 'priority overnight' which is also a little frustrating since getting here before 10:30am is a plus when you want to go in to work still.

 

Finally, the pictures on his site are frustrating. Some of the close up of rics for example are gorgeous but it would be nice to see the ric from a further distance and to see the whole thing rather than a macro close-up.

 

I know it sounds like I'm *****ing but we're trying it again based on the beauty of the corals he shows on his site. I will report back here in this thread on what kind of service/product we actually get.

 

-Jeff

[Crakeur]

over at manhattanreefs.com they were putting together a group buy and someone emailed blane about the polyps per plug and he said he was putting 5 or more now. that's a start

[jdsabin1]

That sounds good Crak .. thx for the info.

 

UPDATE:

 

Seabass and I e-mailed Blane and asked for a total of 19 corals. Of the 19, Blane did not have 6. Not too bad as I knew the bright blue zoos was not a possibility anyway (just wishful thinking). Still, Blane needs to fix his site so we weren't left waiting to see which ones he had.

 

Another positive, Blane e-mailed back within the hour to let us know what he had available. Since we're ordering 13 corals, he gave us a price break. I don't feel at liberty to say what that was since I don't want to create a precedent here but suffice to say we thought it was more than fair.

 

Next step is to see how fast Blane can turn this order around. Today is Tuesday so we are hoping to have these corals this week still. In the past, Blane hasn't been the fastest shipper around so time will tell. We have also asked him to designate on the bags, which is Seabass's and which is mine. Packaging has never been a problem so we don't foresee that as an issue.

 

I will post more as I have more to tell.

[jdsabin1]

UPDATE: After lunch on Wednesday afternoon. PayPal transaction was completed nearly 24 hours ago. No word from Blane as far as a confirmation or when shipping might happen. We continue to wait.

[Crakeur]

Blane takes paypal immediately and ships on two days a week I think. He's a father and this is a hobby was his response to me when I mentioned it.

 

that part doesn't bother me as much. However, as an addict, I can say that having to wait for shipment makes me think about the order and that can lead to second thoughts and cancellation, which is why turnaround time should be as quick as possible.

[jdsabin1]

In Blane's defense, on his web site in the shipping section he specifically states:

 

"I ship Monday through Thursday. Orders after Monday go out the following week. I ship in relative to when you place your order."

 

So info is there. To provide feedback, I would recommend Blane at least acknowledges he's received PayPal payment and when he estimates the corals will be shipped. That way at least even if his process takes longer than other vendors to ship out, you are up to speed on the details.

 

As of late this afternoon, we've received no update.

[Crakeur]

paypal notifies you when you have sent money. When I ordered from Blane I got my notification that it was accepted within an hour. Didn't get my corals for about a week tho. He ships when it is convenient (enough orders going out). That's fine with me, gives those pinpoints a chance to get a bit larger.

[T?@7]

WHere is he located?

[seabass]

Blane has some awesome corals and he seems to legitimately care how they were collected. Since this is his hobby, orders might take longer than some other vendors, but he never promises more and he tries to explain this on his site.

 

Not that it’s perfect, but once I realized how the order process works and what to expect, I started to appreciate the unique selections that Blane is offering. This is my forth or fifth order from him and I’m sure that it won’t be my last. He consistently has a great selection of beautiful and unique corals. I've been quite happy with my past orders and I’m really looking forward to receiving this new order tomorrow.

 

Blane has always called me the day before my orders arrive. Today he explained that the Florida Ricordia he shipped me was a very unique piece, and that it was his last one, so he won’t be able to propagate it. That was a very cool thing for him to do; I’ll be sure to take good care of it and will send him back a cutting after it gets established.