Nanoreefnate.. charity...

[JohnOTS]

Speaking of charities, these are the only 2 charities I personally make annual donations to:

Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust

Humane Society of NY

 

I use charitynavigator.org as a guide to finding the best & most efficient causes that I would support. BestBuddies happens to be highly rated according to CN. Kudos to Nate for supporting it...if this is all legit in the first place.

 

Charities are great and its cool that a kid would want to support one, just not at the cost of others....

[imchee]

Charities are great and its cool that a kid would want to support one, just not at the cost of others....

 

touche

[Reef Goddess]

Hmm, the concept is pretty clear cut to me. There are plenty of organizations that give you something in return for a donation, this is not uncommon. If you donate a lot to PBS they will usually send whatever stuff they are advertising. Sure you may want the stuff, but you're also donating to a good cause. Just because its a donation doesn't mean you shouldn't get your stuff if it was promised to you in good faith.

 

Lots of non-profits have auctions and people "donate" money in those auctions. If you win an item and that company decides not to send it to you, they couldn't just say "well you made a donation so we don't really owe you anything." A donation is still a transaction if the other person said they would send you something in return.

 

Its a shame, appears he had good intentions, but had no idea what he was getting into when he started the thread. He should have just kept it local instead of trying to ship things. It would have helped if he just admitted that he screwed up and did the responsible thing and contacted the charity to refund people that needed refunds. We all make mistakes, but it goes a lot better when you own up to your mistakes instead of hiding from people.

 

Hopefully it will all work out in the end.

[arwndsh]

For all of you whinning and moaning about donating a few dollars to a worthy cause and then not getting a tiny little frag. You do realize that since it went straight to a charity and you probably have a receipt that it is a tax deduction. It won't be if you get the coral even though the charity didn't provide a benefit to donate you were to receive one. So stop saying you want to make the charity give you your money back, take the tax write off, and chalk it up to a lesson learned not to deal with teenagers over the internet.

 

And John what is this cost to others you speak of? Did you not willing give to this charity? Did NRC set up a fake site and steal the money? No you willing donated money to a charity hoping in return to get a small frag of some coral. The money went to a good cause you get a tax write off and no coral boohoo.

[luckydud13]

lol .. Seems like the kid tried and made a real effort in whatever he was supporting. Give him a little credit for that. 99% of kids won't get off the couch to help around the house let alone a cause for someone else.. (I remember reading his post but don't remember the details)

Very stereotypical. I am 16. I love reefs and donating my time to help people. And yet, I would have the decency to:

A) Admit my mistake

B)Ask for help

C) And straight up say "Hey guys, I cant do it".

 

To me, it seems like he wanted to get alot of money for charity. Fine. To do so he tricked, or "learned" how expensive it was to ship, and backed out, but kept the money. The proper thing to do would have been to offer everyones money back, and you know what? I bet not a single person would have wanted it back.

 

Lalani-I dont believe closing the threads was the best thing to do, because now it is no longer easy for him to contact us all at once. So if he is really short on time, there is no way to get it done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense

 

(I smell a band! lol)

 

Later!

 

Edited:

 

Arw: i have no receipt. I get no tax write off. I am a teenager. I have been brought up by a buisness man who has taught me that customer service, and communication are the most important things when dealing with people. If you are going to group me with other "lackadaisy, slacking, unresponsible teenagers, then do I have a link for you!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypical

 

Have a good day. Sir.

[Lalani]

Lalani-I dont believe closing the threads was the best thing to do, because now it is no longer easy for him to contact us all at once. So if he is really short on time, there is no way to get it done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense

 

(I smell a band! lol)

 

Later!

I'm pretty sure he can post in this thread.

And FYI, I didn't close the first thread, just the subsequent ones.

[JohnOTS]

For all of you whinning and moaning about donating a few dollars to a worthy cause and then not getting a tiny little frag. You do realize that since it went straight to a charity and you probably have a receipt that it is a tax deduction. It won't be if you get the coral even though the charity didn't provide a benefit to donate you were to receive one. So stop saying you want to make the charity give you your money back, take the tax write off, and chalk it up to a lesson learned not to deal with teenagers over the internet.

 

And John what is this cost to others you speak of? Did you not willing give to this charity? Did NRC set up a fake site and steal the money? No you willing donated money to a charity hoping in return to get a small frag of some coral. The money went to a good cause you get a tax write off and no coral boohoo.

 

I am so glad you are an expert on this situation..... You should read before you post....

[fishez4alivin]

I feel bad that I gave corals to be auctioned off. I pressed Nate to pick up the corals so that he could send them off. In the couple of days that I gave Nate the coral, I had a feeling that he was so overwhelmed, that I decided to try to at least take care of my end of the bargain, with the more sensitive acros that I donated. Unfortunately, at the end of last week, something toxic entered my tank, and I lost the majority of those acros. Between the crash of my tank, and the fact that I am in the tail end of my charter boat's repower, I was very busy to say the least. I tried to contact Nate, but he was already at his event. I was finally able to contact him sunday night. At that time, I was told, that the hard corals I donated had all died, leaving just the zoas and palys, and the toadstool. I told Nate he had to refund the auction winners their money, and I immediately refunded the shipping cost that was paypaled to me. Any other time, I could have easily replaced those dead coral, however, my tank's current state obviously makes that impossible.

 

I also wanted to know what was going on with the other corals he was going to ship off. He had all the boxes, and said he would box everything up, to ship the next day. I told him that he couldn't box everything that night, and ship off the next afternoon, that he had to do that the next afternoon, to limit the time out of the tank. Nate obviously bit off way more than he could handle. He said he has over 30 packages to send off.

 

I am not trying to cover for Nate, I am just telling you what I heard from him. I do not condone this practice of ignoring you people when he should answer questions especially when asked. I will tell you that Nate is a nice kid, he may have gotten overwhelmed, but I am certain, he wasn't out to initially rip anyone off.

 

The one thing I do know is that I am just a person who donated to the kid, and had nothing to do with the charity, or providing anything more than what I had originally provided. The thing I can do is make sure the two members that won the auction get refunded the money by Nate, and if he can't do that, I will take care of you guys. I'm sure he didn't nuke the palys but if he did, I can provide either Alien Eye Palys from ATL, or PPE. As for the acros, I will have to see what kind of shape my corals are in, while they are being held at a friend's shop. I won't think of fragging them until they are showing signs of recovery.

 

Give me two weeks, so I can get my boat through the post installation inspection with the USCG, and make sure my corals can take the fragging. If they can't, in that time, I will make sure you get something that more than makes up for the corals I gave for auction. This offer is of course if Nate doens't pay you guys back for the auction you won.

[Genj]

I feel sorry for all parties involved in this, and the only thing I can think of is:

 

"No good deed goes unpunished."

 

Good luck to all.

[basser1]

I feel bad that I gave corals to be auctioned off. I pressed Nate to pick up the corals so that he could send them off. In the couple of days that I gave Nate the coral, I had a feeling that he was so overwhelmed, that I decided to try to at least take care of my end of the bargain, with the more sensitive acros that I donated. Unfortunately, at the end of last week, something toxic entered my tank, and I lost the majority of those acros. Between the crash of my tank, and the fact that I am in the tail end of my charter boat's repower, I was very busy to say the least. I tried to contact Nate, but he was already at his event. I was finally able to contact him sunday night. At that time, I was told, that the hard corals I donated had all died, leaving just the zoas and palys, and the toadstool. I told Nate he had to refund the auction winners their money, and I immediately refunded the shipping cost that was paypaled to me. Any other time, I could have easily replaced those dead coral, however, my tank's current state obviously makes that impossible.

 

I also wanted to know what was going on with the other corals he was going to ship off. He had all the boxes, and said he would box everything up, to ship the next day. I told him that he couldn't box everything that night, and ship off the next afternoon, that he had to do that the next afternoon, to limit the time out of the tank. Nate obviously bit off way more than he could handle. He said he has over 30 packages to send off.

 

I am not trying to cover for Nate, I am just telling you what I heard from him. I do not condone this practice of ignoring you people when he should answer questions especially when asked. I will tell you that Nate is a nice kid, he may have gotten overwhelmed, but I am certain, he wasn't out to initially rip anyone off.

 

The one thing I do know is that I am just a person who donated to the kid, and had nothing to do with the charity, or providing anything more than what I had originally provided. The thing I can do is make sure the two members that won the auction get refunded the money by Nate, and if he can't do that, I will take care of you guys. I'm sure he didn't nuke the palys but if he did, I can provide either Alien Eye Palys from ATL, or PPE. As for the acros, I will have to see what kind of shape my corals are in, while they are being held at a friend's shop. I won't think of fragging them until they are showing signs of recovery.

 

Give me two weeks, so I can get my boat through the post installation inspection with the USCG, and make sure my corals can take the fragging. If they can't, in that time, I will make sure you get something that more than makes up for the corals I gave for auction. This offer is of course if Nate doens't pay you guys back for the auction you won.

 

 

This is a stand up guy!!

[1fishmonger]

Congrats - It's unfortunate that not everyone is like you in that sense. Responsibility is admirable regardless of age. Exaggerated? Yes. Stereotyped and generalized? Yes. Specify you as a target for this group? Nope. I also guarantee that you're in the minority. Note that there are plenty of 'lackadaisy, slacking, unresponsible' adults, too! Well, irresponsible adults

 

Take it easy man. You're on the right track How old is the kid btw? I was under the impression of 13ish or younger so you have a leg up on him if you're 16.

 

I'm not sure how the 'raffle/auction' whatever it was worked but if people are crazy upset about this I'm willing to toss in some frags for the winners. It's not a huge deal and to taint someone's effort and the hobby with this is a little =X IMO... Yeah, he could have done things differently. Live and let learn. While in similar and also different cases, we've all been there at one point or another.

 

 

 

 

 

Very stereotypical. I am 16. I love reefs and donating my time to help people. And yet, I would have the decency to:

A) Admit my mistake

B)Ask for help

C) And straight up say "Hey guys, I cant do it".

 

To me, it seems like he wanted to get alot of money for charity. Fine. To do so he tricked, or "learned" how expensive it was to ship, and backed out, but kept the money. The proper thing to do would have been to offer everyones money back, and you know what? I bet not a single person would have wanted it back.

 

Lalani-I dont believe closing the threads was the best thing to do, because now it is no longer easy for him to contact us all at once. So if he is really short on time, there is no way to get it done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense

 

(I smell a band! lol)

 

Later!

 

Edited:

 

Arw: i have no receipt. I get no tax write off. I am a teenager. I have been brought up by a buisness man who has taught me that customer service, and communication are the most important things when dealing with people. If you are going to group me with other "lackadaisy, slacking, unresponsible teenagers, then do I have a link for you!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypical

 

Have a good day. Sir.

[kdino]

at this point im wondering if the supposed shipped corals that were shipped out on monday would even still be alive. 2-3 days is fine for zoas and palys but for sps and a chalice....might be pushing it. i for one donated 30 but said a frag of each is fine. i figured since he was covering the cost of shipping i would donate a little extra in his honor. im not by any means pissed or ticked off at the kid. a little disappointed in potentially (there is still time) not receiving my corals. but hey, ya live, ya learn and our money went to a good cause.

[arwndsh]

I am so glad you are an expert on this situation..... You should read before you post....

 

I did read before I posted and I think there are some people who seem to be going way overboard in this situation. You did a good deed. Yes you would like your reward, but sometimes you just need to let it go and let karma work its magic.

[Mustang Boy]

me and norahs_dad are the winners of the auctioned off corals and i also donated for the chalice i also said i would help cover shipping since i won corals and was getting something from the donation. he never replied to any of the PMs i sent to him even the ones where i said i would cover the shipping costs and from my PM's with other members in this thread he has been reading the PM's but didnt have time to make a short reply? that is not an excuse in my book since it takes 30sec to write a reply to a PM. i stood back and waited to see if he would appear and say anything to anybody but this is BS he never made any effort to inform the people who donated to his cause of what was going on. now you ask would i have donated to this charity if there wasnt any corals going out that would be a No, would i have bought these corals if i saw them for sale that would also be a No but i took the good from each question and that is why i donated.

 

i will now on only be donating to The BTLS Foundation which is the only charity i donate to because they have a 97% return of their contributions. nobody in the foundation takes home a paycheck they all do it for free. the only reason they dont have 100% return is because last year for one of their events they had to get some permits and rent things like port-a-potties and tables everything else was donated to the event.

 

craig as for you, you are a very stand up guy and i respect that and you very much so for offering to send me and norahs_dad some other frags even though your tank had a huge disaster and you lost many of your own corals.

[supernip]

so did this kid send the money to the charity. thats all i want to know

[Mustang Boy]

we didnt send money to him we sent the money directly to the charity so we can be sure that the money did get to the charity atleast

[nor_cal_nano]

Oh. That is good news at least. I thought you guys sent him the money and he went on /ignore.

[supernip]

I'd let it go then. Just dont deal with kids anymore, its pretty easy to tell which members are underage or general dumbasses

[Mustang Boy]

I'd let it go then. Just dont deal with kids anymore, its pretty easy to tell which members are underage or general dumbasses

 

you sound really eager to just toss money around whereas some of us dont have a whole ton of spare cash and dont like to be taken advantage of.

[supernip]

nah. i just wouldnt be bitter that some 13yo didnt send me some corals cause i sent 10 bucks on a charity. then again, I wouldnt try to get into some sort of binding contract with an underage kid or expect them to honor any sort of formal agreement

[HecticDialectics]

you sound really eager to just toss money around whereas some of us dont have a whole ton of spare cash and dont like to be taken advantage of.

 

lesson learned eh? never give what you can't afford to lose.

[Mustang Boy]

i spent more than the $10

 

and i an afford to loose it i just hate getting taken advantage of it looks like you guys welcome it and in that case i have a jug full of air i will sell you guys for $1000

[supernip]

no one said we welcome it or throw cash around or whatever you might be bitterly implying. Does it suck to get scammed? yeah. Do you really expect anything else from a kid?

[nanoreefnate]

Hello everybody. sorry for not reporting on whats been happening.

anyways i finally found the time to ship the corals. all the Easter part of the US got shipped out today

more western states are going to be shipped out tomorrow. sorry guys it's just been really though to get the corals to the local post office with my dad being transferred to a new city about an hour away and with school and all.

 

Pix of the wall of post office boxes. a few minutes before they went in the van

 

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for being so patient with this matter.

[nor_cal_nano]

:cheer: