i could be wrong though as ive never been there in person , maye it is just him:redface:

Coral Master has some nice stuff, pricey, but wayyyyy better quality.

There are a few others around the GTA as well, but they are not CanReef Sponsors.

Burc has mentioned he has 4 employees that pack the orders for him and deal with other stuff.

I'm happy with all my fragalot frags.

I've just been advised that Coral Master is no longer with us....

I have been to his place numerous times and all I have ever seen is Burc. He has a small operation with not many tanks.

Maybe he gets some friends and family to help bag large orders (or highers the kid down the road), but there is no way he has full time employees.

Whoops, I take back my post. ;)

Burc says lots of things...

For real???? Greg always has nice stuff, is awesome to deal with, and more than generous with his frags! I hope Coral Master is still a sponsor here!!

ah ok that could make sense, i know when i called last i got the feeling like it could have been a son or something lol


coral master is def a great guy to deal with hes on top of my list for sure but does only sps if he went into zoos and other lps more often i think he could be th best in the country, over all theres not a lot of online business to choose from.

even the stores here in calgary do not offer $10/frags , if they do its common stuff or bland so its priced low to sell.


like i said im not the biggest fan of burke in the world but ive gotten better service now then i did years ago. ill admit business is not burcs strongpoint ...but then again most lfs owners are hobbysts and not salesman:)

According to the boss, he's just cancelled.

greg will always be around, sponsors will always come and go , fact is coral master is growing and doing very well ,over the years he has made a great clientele and name for himself, these clients now keep greg very busy:).

I hear ya there. There is not a lot of places that have Zoas and other LPS. I think this void in the market will be filled very soon. I have noticed a number of small farmers in the GTA that have been picking up the slack for these types of Coral.

Dave

Well then...I hope he sticks around as a reefer....but that's for another thread...

ive been trying my best to do the same for the folks here in calgary but the small amount of frags i make doesnt cut it and i get cleaned out reguarily, i talk to the lfs here in the city about making smaller frags....none are interested , im hoping that will change soon:(

Too bad for them and there customers. I honestly think that mentality will start to change in the next few years.

ON the plus side you are able to make back some money and purchase more beautiful corals :)

it will for sure, summer is also the downside.... alot of these business do freswater and koi so summer they kinda forget about saltys:P



your right ,absolutely it does, i do get the priviledge of ordering with the lfs too , so even if they dont order the things i need or want i order them myself through them, even then from the wholesalers/divers i still dont get what i ordered lol

from my understanding they are usually happy to let anyone order as the more they order reguarily the better choices they will get come next order.....seems all the larger stores have first choice for corals that come into the country as they can afford to bring in on average 100+ corals:(


when it comes to zoos most lfs tell me its too hit or miss on what they order so unless they get too see pics( not everyone sends them pics) they are afraid of getting stuck with bland common colors. zoos aare hard to identify by name and the names and flaavors change too often.

i imagine its close to the same for sps as well right??

Yup, for the most part. Even with SPS it's very tough to know exactly what you are going to get from the supplier. I do however think it is a little easier with SPS since you can order the exact species and colour (although, the colours are not always what they seem, by the time you get them)...shipping stresses, lighting issues, time spent at the packing facilities...etc.

Name brand SPS corals are not going to be purchased overseas from the supplier..... for the most part. BUT, it can happen and it does happen once in a while (from my experience). Most stores I have talked with also request lots of photos from the suppliers, but as you said they don't always get them. Another issue I have noticed (similar to what you touched on with Zoos) is that stores normally have to bring in X amount of coral in order to get X amount of AAA grade coral. This ratio can be lowered if the stores increase there quantity or the frequency in which they order.

at least in my experience....

Dave

:deadhorse:

from the stores point of view in a big city if they dont have something i like im walking out and on to the next store, so in order to keep my business they either half to pony up in advance and take the risk of ordering and hoping i like it or that it sells or allow me to order for myself ,pick out what i like and they get to increase their order size and there fore their "ultra" selection...this is especially true for aussie stuff where the word "ultra" has gone mad:(

getting the store to let you have the ultra selection is a different story lol especially when you get to see the prices.....lots of markup on high end selection....people get greedy when they see this......makes for a stupid market:(


zoos then have no real ids , their of the same class and no really species ids so on the order sheet it likely says:

xl-polyps red/green
med-polyps blue




that could basically mean anything , now adays pics are more common so the nicer stuff gets ordered a bit more then it did years ago but still goes out to the larger retailers.

at least off the ultra selection the colors are better guessed , so safe to say any red/black combos of ultra are going to be decent:)


there is actually a decent demand for saltwater say here in calgary i can guarantee it, the problem is the lfs arent interested in a change of business.

For the sake of completness I'll give people this update about my order.

I ordered 21 different frags. Of those frags 4 where missing, I suspect at least 2 items were substituted, one for sure. Another item was suppose to have 10 - 12 polyps it had 4. One of the Acro's I bought was pretty damaged, but not from shipping.

I emailed once as soon as I opened the package, called 4 times during differnt times in the week days and left 2 messages.

I will try to get a hold of Burc again this week, other wise I'm calling Visa. Like I did get a few nice pieces, and some items I have never seen here in Calgary... but still dealing with Burc/Fragalot is painful.

1. I don't quite know if I'm allowed to give a review like this, but I "attempted" to deal with fragalot, Burc failed to respond to my e-mails in a timely manner (took him a week or 2 to reply to an e-mail) So I filed a dispute with paypal, got my money back and cancelled the order. I never did receive any of his products because (imo) if he can't be bothered with customer service, I'm sure his products also reflect on that.

2. I spent my money elsewhere (a fellow reefer here on canreef, not sure if he wants me giving out his store name so I won't unless I receive permission from him) I payed for 8 frags, received 10, The bonus frags were higher quality than the ones I payed for, everything arrived alive, amazing, beautiful, healthy... the list goes on.. Box was packaged beautifully, payed way less for shipping than I would have elsewhere, his customer service was absolutely above and beyond anything I have experienced, and finally, the prices are very comparable to that of fragalot's less expensive prices. NO REGRETS, DON'T SETTLE! That is all.

^^^^ I had the exact same experience, I had to file a pp dispute for a refund.

I'm putting in another order in the next few days as he has a new order coming in today.....I get some awesome Euphyllia colonies I can't find in Western Canada. I only buy Brains, mini maxi's and euphyllia colonies from Burc which is probably the reason my success rate in good. I have a DOA from last shipment, sent him a pic when I opened the box and zero problems and is being replaced in this order.

And F.Y.I. his colony and brain prices are very hard to resist....

In the day i've had problems with Burc as well...but that's long passed. I get email replies within the hour. He offfers me frags of the nicer stuff that's not even on his website. I have nothing but good to say about him now. Frags are always double sized...he's a good guy.

There, I fixed that for you :mrgreen:

No i'm straight up telling the truth.On my last order he asked if i had any issues with the previous order.I lost a few frags but didn't phone or email,just sucked it up...it was only 30 bucks.He made up for it with big double sized frags of some sweet stuff not listed on his website.

Well then I guess I must be one of the lucky ones that doesn't get return phone calls or emails.

I cannot recommend Frag Alot due to poor customer service, and orders not being fufilled. I can 100% recommend Greg from Coral master. I was just at his place this weekend and he has some gorgeous corals and great healthy frags, a bit more pricey but much better quality.

No, his lack of communication is the rule, not the exception... I guess if you're a new customer, you don't deserve the curtesy of a timely shipment, a simple email update or response to an inquiry. Bad business practice IMHO.

I was being facetious, I think all reading this thread are fully aware of his rep.

Meh, My bad experience with Burc is still a sore spot...:wink:

Burc took my shipping $$$ on a group buy after he said he would credit me! Sent me wrong frags, stopped communication, etc. worst experience ever material!
I would recommend fragbox as march over there is beyond awesome and probably some of the best customer service/products out there today. There I said it!

Personally I have made quite a few orders with Burc, over 3k worth... and I have had a couple of issues with orders not being correct, or doa's... but everytime he has sent me out a replacement order with extra's in it. I have had one particular order that was extremely frustrating that took a few months as he was out of town, but it was re shipped as soon as he got back with extra's again.... if you look at my tank thread most of my acans came from him and I got sps like Fal wolverine and many other sps/zoa/paly/lps... in my experience basically all doa's have been sps for the most part. Yes there have been frustrating times and I think if you are not a patient person then it is not the place to shop. Since the communication issue's via email he gave me his cell # to text for faster responses and he has been pretty damn prompt in his replies since. I have gotten some pretty damn good deals off of him personally and a Lot of nice corals you can not get here in BC...

PLease i am talking for myself but i have received 4 orderers from fragalot in the last 3 months and all i can say is great service and if there were any issues like not being shipped on the set day Burc asked me if it was ok to do so as he had things come up and for the frags i received off of him stellar,and I also received an order from frag box again great service and frags but please this was my experience

I have to say...been part of several orders lately....nothing but positive to say. Large frags and all have been stellar! Just my experience.

I've done lots of orders. Don't really have issues. Always nice stuff. Always get extras. Orders are always large 100+ frags. Sometimes missing one or two or 2-3 doas. Burc makes up for it in next order or offers to send replacements for free. Most people that have issues leave the frags in bags too long. I pick up the orders at 8am and some people don't pick up till late that Night or next day. I have my stuff in water pretty quick. Also too many guys complain about one frag doesn't look 100% like the picture. It's a picture of one frag of 100 there not all the same some have morphs some have different one on the same frag. As for people paying shipping on a group buy that's there own fault for not following directions of the group buy. I order off the website like everyone else and I never paid shipping. And as for the other vendors on here I've orderd from everyone and I've lost hole orders from others places.

Guys and gals, please no posting pics advertising non sponsor products. Thx.

oppss! :redface: sorry!

Well I just went in on a group buy. First order he sent, there were not many good things to be said. I emailed him and wasnt very nice about it. His customer service sucks. In the end he sent some alright frags but warning the RPE isnt as advertised. The one onsite has a green mouth, not the frag I got(or the resent one after I complained). For that reason alone, I will not be dealing with Burc again. At least if I deal locally I get what I want. If you can, stay away from Fragalot.