Did I just get screwed?

[jawsk2]

I just want to find out if this is fair practice for this board. I ordered some of roenee's mushrooms. We agreed on $100 for him to mount 13 mushrooms (one of each of the ones he was advertising) onto a rock. He shipped them Tuesday and when they got here today I opened a bag of brown slimy mush. When I emailed him and after lots of back and forth in which he claims to have put a heat pack and then, when I look in and around every styrofoam peanut and tell him in fact, no, there is no heat pack, he retracts that statement and says he ships all the time with no heat pack and always has live mushrooms arrive. He says it is my fault for not specifically requesting overnight and a heat pack. I did not specify a plastic bag either but I expected some consideration for the product being shipped. I have had great luck from most people on the board, esp. Greg Hiller, and I would have had no problem paying a few more dollars for overnight, or the $1.50 for a heat pack. Instead I am out $117, and he says essentially "tough luck". Please give opinions on if I am being unreasonable. Thank you.

[Anemone]

Did I just get screwed?

YES!!!!!!!


Kevin

[wdt2000]

You should discuss shipping before you send anyone money. I think he should have provide the heat pack of course but you should have made sure they were coming overnight. Just my 2 cents.

[MarkS]

What are his policies? Did he state them to you? Does he have a web site with his policies stated? If so, did you in fact violate or ignore any of those policies?

If you answered no to any of them, then more than likely you are not at fault and it is his responibility to ensure the safety of the livestock he ships. In this case, he should reimburse you.

If you answered yes to any of those questions, execpt the first one :p, then you could possibly be at fault in which case he may owe you nothing.

Now, assuming that he is at fault, how did you pay? If you used a credit card, you can always request a chargeback. If you paid by check it, has probably already cleared and there is not much you can do but pray he gives you a refund. If you paid by check card, you are just flat out screwed.

HTH,
Mark

[loui]

YES you got screwed I will definitely never buy any thing from him with that type of crap.

[J Crew]

yeah, sounds like you were screwed. although you probably should have discussed shipping methods, etc... i would have assumed the same thing as you. that he would ship them in a reasonable container with a heat pack. sorry dude.

[jawsk2]

Mark S. No to all of the questions (except the first one:) )
I payed by paypal and have submitted a complaint. But, right after I submitted it, I felt guilty and wondered if this was the norm, ie buyer beware. I guess that I had just been spoiled in the past by all of the great people on this board that, to me, use common sense when shipping; I didn't know that I was supposed to ask every single question every single time regarding the methods used. Thanks for the replies everyone.

[discented]

man where they gold mushrooms? 100 bucks !!!! yikes...just ask people are willing to givbe them away for free...heck i even have like 4 little ones floating around my tank now that are unattatched...

[Mescalito]

Did he ever act concerned? It's too bad that common courtesy needs to be questioned. Good Luck to you, and be thankful all you lost was a few bucks. The person who ripped you offlost all future sales and the respect of his fellow reefers!

[Brad A.]

Who is roenee? I want to know so I don't buy anything from this character. $117 for a mushroom rock....holy crap!

[roenee]

I am roenee Brad A.
And since I believe I still live in America, I will voice my side.
He emailed me wanting one of each of the 13 different mushrooms I have on their own rock for $100 (red, blue, purple ricordea, yellish-green ricordea to name a few of the 13). I said ok and shipping is $17. I sent his mushrooms tuesday for thusday arrival. He emails me thurs. saying they All arrived dead and are mush and that he can send me pictures. I returned his email saying send the pictures. He never sent them.
I thought I might have put a heat pack in the box, but he did not request one and I only do requests since it's been 75 degrees here(in charlotte) and he lives below houston in texas. Then he's like; why did you send 2 day... Next day would be $30 to houston since it's not a envelope and they go by deminsions.. he didn't ask for next day. I hope he did not think I could send 13 mushrooms on their own rocks for $17 including container and heat pak next day for $17.
I have sent at least 5 different people in reef central mushrooms with no problem. I'm not out to screw anybody. I sent what he requested and how do I know that he is not watching them open right now, since he couldn't send the pictures like he at first offered.
So please, voice your opinion when and only when you know all the details

[Mescalito]

Happy to see you reply Roenee. I hope you two can find a way to work this out. Keep us posted:)

[jawsk2]

How do I shrink the pictures, when I try to attach them it says the file is too big!

[jawsk2]

lets try this

[jawsk2]

the piece of slate and the rubble below the flame and xenia were the only hard pieces in the bag; so, I acclimated them and put them in the tank hoping for a sign of life, but no luck.
I have more pictures, but it keeps saying that I have already posted the image, when I have not, is there a way to override this feature?

[neoaqua]

Jawsk2,
You can only attach one image at a time (per message). I hope you two can settle this thing out. I do have a couple of loose mushroom and I am here in Houston. Send me a private email then you can have it for free. HTH
Sean

[john.rochon]

were all in this reefing together! refund him ,as I'm sure he's not going through all this trouble just to get free mushrooms.
mushrooms are relativly cheap and a pain anyways.
be a stand up guy. we only have each other as the LFS love to gouge us.

[SeaMac]

How did this situation turn out guys? Resolved or not? Please tell me a heartwarming story of forgiving and forgetting, or at least of compromise! ;)

Chris

[jawsk2]

I got a final result of (F you) from Roenee. Even Paypal didn't want to touch it, because they have no idea what mushrooms are, so they wouldn't give me a dime. Zero attempt to work out a compromise. Needless to say, when I order stuff now, I ask even the stupidest questions, that before I would consider a waste of time. You never know the IQ of who you are dealing with. However, every transaction that I have had with people on this board besides Wienee has been wonderful. He is definitely the exception not the rule!

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Just out of curiosity, Roenee said he had happy customers from 5 other people here on the board, have they made a statement?? I would like to hear from the people who have had good experiences with him. Im not defending the guy, but those pics didnt show much(maybe it was that bad?)or any remnants of anything close to a "mushroom". You stated it was mounted on a rock?? WHere did the rock go?? I saw a container with no rock and what looked like debris. Either way this situation sucks for both parties(the buyer especially if he did get screwed), I myself have been on both ends of the stick and have learned by my own experiences to make sure they dont happen again.

[jawsk2]

If you read the second post with a picture, the piece of slate and the rubble below were the only solid things in the container. The rest was completely slime.

[roenee]

I don't answer to people that write stuff like "You never know the IQ of who you are dealing with". I offered to re-send mushrooms, but he would have to pay for shipping, instead he tries to get his money back with paypal. In my eyes, when you take it to a third party, what they says goes. They denied his claim.

[Aquatic Reef Systems]

roenee,
No offense but,

I spend way too much time and energy making sure my customers are happy to see pictures like that and have you even consider talking to or about your customer like that...

Do you even realize how much business, not to mention respect you would have gained if you would have just bit the bullet and refunded him for his pile of debris.
In my opinion shipping livestock in any other way but next day is asking for trouble.
That is why people like Jason at PA and the other livestock dealers on this board have had good luck and why you are getting off to a bad start.
You can turn this around now if you really care to.
Refund him his money or at liest send him some new stuff and do the things it takes to get them there alive because THAT is YOUR responsibility.
You are the proffessional here and you are the one making money off of these deals.
I can name alot of customers that after all was said and done I ended up spending alot more money trying to keep them happy than I ever made in the first place.
This is because I know that repeat business is the key to success and to achieve this you must do whatever it takes to make each and every transaction a pleasurable experience for the customer or at liest try your very best!
If you do not hold this philosophy close to your heart and live and breath by it, Take my word for it, The well will run dry!
This is a small tight nit industry and bad news travels twice as fast as good news.
Your 0 for 1,
Step up to the plate brother,
Its the right thing to do!
Bryan Crenshaw

[Brad A.]

I totally agree with the above, shipping livestock thru the mail is risky. Ultimate responsibilty is upon the seller to make sure the customer receives an undamaged product. If the shipping company destroys the product then a claim needs to be filed.

Nevertheless, I have learned alot from reading this thread. I see that it is important to deal only with people/companies that have a good reputation. ReefCentral rocks!

Sorry jawsk2, but this may be an expensive lesson. Thanks for sharing your story so the rest of us "newer" reefers can learn.

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

That sounds more than fair to me too actually, from what Brian stated. You only spent a measly $17 on shipping for 2 day express(something that you should yourself have known that overnight is the only thing acceptable with ANY livestock). So payin another $35 on your part to overnight it would still put you in a profitable situation for common mushrooms. I dont feel that a refund is necessary, but do feel that he should get what he did pay for. And I think it is fair to say that you should flip the shipping bill, you will still have made like what? $65-$70??? That still is a hell of alot more than what you would have sold wholesale. Be cool and reship him what he paid for. And we all win in the process.

BTW Brian, hows my situation coming along? PM me whenever you get a free moment(cigarette break for those who like to smoke ammonia!).

[jawsk2]

I never got the offer to resend the mushrooms for the cost of shipping. I would have JUMPED on that and still would. I got the offer of a resend of mushrooms for $50 + shipping or nothing. I was not about to send another $85 or so to someone who had just done this to me and been rude on the phone on top of that.

[kenashman]

Personally, I think this RC "referral" system is great! I am in the middle of spending thousands on my new 90 gal reef, and my water is testing perfect! Starting to think about buying animals. (I'm holding back, no animals for three months! You should see all the sponges, annenomes, featherworms, and critters galore coming alive on the LR I just cured! What do I need with buying livestock -- its free with the LR!) This thread gives me a excellent heads-up as I look toward buying livestock. Thanks very much for posting it. It just goes to show we need to check out any suppliers here at RC first, before buying. Overall, I'd say this was a good lesson for us all.

What say a few reefers who have a spare 'shroom or two send it to jawsk2? - then he won't be totally SOL. I think what Bryan said is right on the money - here marks the end of a budding career! I think roenee would have trouble selling anything through RC now. (I suppose he could have fixed that, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen, does it?)

[Ritteri&Bubbles]

Nope, and its too bad too, he could have still made $70 on the deal, had a happy customer, good feedback and potential new customers, its all down the drain now. After looking it over he could have overnighted a package for less than $30 too.