I ordered once through a group order, prompt correspondence etc, just everything died. Burc offered refund or replacements but never took him up on it. When the next group order came around months later, did the 'hey remember me' and he did the replacements no problem, other than they died as well. When the third order went through again he honored the warranty and replaces them again (those all still ok). All my dealings with him where PMs and they were quick and have no complaints.

Now with hearing he's deleting posts and his recent record, would I deal with him again, never.

It's been a long time since I've received a response from him regarding replacements and additional orders. Seems like only Kien was able to reach him. A quick response would definitely be better than no response at all.

Well I would like to tell you about my experience I am having right now with my order with Frag-a-lot. It isn't going well.

When I first ordered the set of frags on July 5th, I order a sun coral and 6 sps frags.
I didn't get my order for a couple of weeks. When I did receive it, I was missing the sun coral I ordered and was not informed by Burc that I would not be receiving it.

When I received the corals, they had been freshly cut, glued and shipped. Their colors were pale when I received them and a couple of them already had tissue loss, but I hoped they would make it.
After drip acclimating them for 5 hours, they were already loosing more tissue. Within 24 hours. They were all pretty much dead. in addition to this, the colours of the corals, did not match what I ordered, save for 2 of them.

I emailed Burc about this, and after a couple emails back and forth, he quit responding. I spent three days sending new emails and still he did not respond.

I got fed up and because I paid through paypal, I created a claim.
He then responded stating he had sent me an email, for which I never received.
I sent him the pics I have of the dead corals and he said he would replace them.

He informed me he would send those out on the next Monday. In the email again I asked him to please include the sun coral.

Monday came.. no order. No email from Burc. I had to send him an email and ask him what happened.
He told me he didn't get the chance to send them. He then told me he would ship them on Thursday for a Friday delivery.

I said ok. I will wait.

Friday came and what a disappointment.
The box was wet when delivered. Fedex noted it on their delivery slip.
FedEx Shipment 796819533994

I should have gone with my gut instinct and not accepted the delivery because of the wet box. But I took it anyways, hoping the corals would be ok.

No such luck.

When I opened the box I nearly hurled at the rank stench.
All of the bags on the inside had leaked, and while the frags he was giving me were the encrusted ends of left over colonies. They were all dead or in the process of dying. Nothing could survive in stench like that.

I couldn't believe it.

Again, there were sps in there which did not match what I ordered and no sun coral yet again.

So I emailed Burc immediately and informed him of the damaged and asked him what frags he sent as I didn't recognize them.



Here is the email:


On 1-Aug-09, at 10:46 AM, BURC UCAK wrote:

Hi Sarah,
*
*I marked the bags with number i did pay more attention to your order to get the right ones for you.*Thats why i marked the bags with number.*They werent frags they were my*grow out peices. Thats why they have encrusted base.
*

Subject: Re: Order issues. Sbaker Belleville. Paypal dispute# 750-985-761
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 10:10:54 -0400
To: bucak@sympatico.ca

Hi Burc,

Quick update.

Three of the frags did not make it over night. The Bonsai, the pale brown one, which didn't look like any of the colour of the corals I ordered and the larger brown one that also didn't look like any of the corals I ordered.

I have taken pictures of these. Once I get the chance to upload them I will send them to you.

Ms. Baker.


---------------
Unfortunately, Burc did not reply to my issue of the damage of the order on shipment. At all.
I have since emailed him back letting him know all these are dead due to the shipping and rancid water.
I am trying to download a driver or iphoto for my mac to be able to send him the pics while my pc is in at the shop being fixed.
I am still waiting for a response.

Burc has still not replied to me regarding my issues.

I sent him another email tonight, and now that I am at my mothers I was able to upload my images to send to him.

Here is the email I sent.

Burc,

Here are the images showing the damage to the box caused by leaking. The DOA frags and especially the colour of the water that was in the bags of the frags as can be seen in the bucket shot. Also, as you can see by the pictures, the bags were not numbered.

I would appreciate a quick fix and response to this.

At this time I am not so sure I am willing to want to get anymore sps frags from you, however I am willing to substitute them for Zoa frags for which I have never had an issue with the ones I received from you in the past. I believe that would be the best and quickest resolution.

Please advise.

Ms. Sarah Baker



-------------------------

Here are the images I sent with the email.

You can clearly see the wet underside of the box.
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

Box unopened with shipping label.
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

Bagged in the box
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

Bagged in bags
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

This one definately leaked
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

These are the frags in their rancid water in the bucket.
Look how dirty that water is!!!
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...07-31-2009.jpg

The frags in my system.. dead, no coming back from this
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...fragsdead1.jpg

http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...fragsdead2.jpg
http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/o...fragsdead3.jpg

What I don't understand is that he is a sponsor who pays to have his name on Canreef and people are looking to this guy for positive results, Maybe its time that the Mod's take a look and have this guy taken off Canreef. Even if his is paying for a spot on this site.

Those look like they would have been very nice,they are a very generous size.

I was happy with my frag a lot purchase.

Had they not arrived DOA due to leaking bags and rank water, they would have been extremely nice frags and encrusted bases to make up for the DOA first order.

However, I am more concerned about health of the coral rather than size.

Mike, based on the vendor ratings polls, the vendors' ratings have 40%+ very satisified.
If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, please vote accordingly, and/or discuss it in the vendor's forum.

Nebthet photos are pretty accurate. The packages usually arrives wet. Some frags will arrive dead and rotting so that's where the stank comes from. There will be a couple of frags that survives the trip. For the ones that survives, they may or may not be the ones that you've ordered. Plus, it will take a couple of days to see if they will survive.

As Nebthet said, getting the orders correct along with providing good and healthy frags are most important. What good would it do if frags are generously large but will not last?

It takes Burc a great amount of time to respond, from 3-4 days initially to over 2 weeks. The turnaround time from when our group order was initially made to when the replacements that have yet to be shipped is getting close to 2 months. Like someone stated, we would hate to put a vendor out of business due to negative ratings but if things don't change, that will definitely be in the foreseeable future.