Canadian Reef Octopus Distributor
 

I don't know if this is the correct forum, but I am very frustrated with the Canadian Distributor of Reef Octopus. I do not know who the distributor is, but I am watching my 400g SPS tank slowly die because they cannot provide a timely delivery of a large protein skimmer. I ordered a Reef Octopus SRO 6000ext Recirculating External Protein Skimmer through my local LFS on December 14, 2016. I ordered it because my old Reeflo Orca 250 pro skimmer finally bit the dust and I could not get the replacement part I needed. I ordered a different skimmer pump, added it, through plumbing modifications to my skimmer and it was not strong enough, so a new skimmer was in order.

I made the order through and was told it would be at there before the new year. It did not arrive and I followed up with my LFS on January 5. The LFS has tried to contact the distributor twice, to no avail. I again contacted the LFS and they finally got in contact with the distributor on Thursday, Jan 12. The distributor claimed it was in stock.

I do not know what the heck is going on, but it seems to me that the distributor for Reef Octopus does not care for customers and I would suggest that people consider an alternative skimmer. I am in a small minority who operates a large reef system. This whole experience has shown me that the Canadian Distributor does not give a sh*t about their customers.

I can only imagine how frustrating this could be. Good luck, hopefully a solution is expedited!

Thank you WarDog. I have remained quiet to give them an opportunity to deliver. There are many ups and downs with SPS tanks, but this one is frustrating because it is out of my control. I Have lost about a 1/3 of my corals and am now doing 40g water changes every day trying to export the nutrients.

I know the risks of running a SPS tank, but am somewhat disapointed that I cannot get large tank equipment on a short term basis, only because I live in Canada. BRS has one in stock, but between exchange and shipping, it would have cost me significantly more than the Canadian price. It really sucks.

I ordered a reef octopus biochurn 120r and waited like 5 months for it

Ouch. That would be bad news. I hope the distributor is being honest. If I don't get it by Wed I will have to look at something else. The problem is getting it to Ottawa in a fast manner.

I know this does not help you but the US distributor is nothing short of amazing, I left them a message on the 23rd of December with a technical question, figuring I would get a response in the New Year and got a phone call on the 24th where they walked me through resolving the issue.

Maybe give them a call, just a wild idea?

Charles

I have been looking at US sites because I cannot wait much longer. The current exchange rate really bumps the price up and makes it uncompetitive on a price basis with the Canadian prices. I am ****ed at the Canadian distributor because I may be forced to go to the US to get an appropriate skimmer. Unfortunately it will significantly increase my cost because of exchange rates. So much for customer service. 😝

try msg'in coralvue?

i know they are the US distributor, but they have J&l, and other stores in Canada listed under their "where to buy section"

Coralvue will answer questions right away but I don't know if they can control what another distributor does. The problem with having to order through the distributor is that they may not just ship single items to their vendors, they will usually wait until there is enough to send a larger order through. If you are going through a pail of salt every 4 days doing 40g daily water changes and losing a fortune in corals would it not be cheaper to just get the skimmer through the US? Even with our dollar, the items I've looked at from the US are still about par with what I pay here in Canada, just no savings.

If I had known there would be such a delay, I would have gone to an US seller. I accepted the distributor's estimated deliver through my local LFS. I trust my LFS and have since discovered that these delays are common with the Canadian distributor. This comes not just from my LFS, but also from others who have contacted me. The LFS contacted the distributor three times after the order was placed. I finally received word today that it is being shipped from Montreal and will be here Tuesday. The distributor was more than willing to charge the LFS an additonal $90 dollars to get it here for today. They did not accept responsibility for the delay and neither I nor the LFS feel that the extra delivery charge was reasonable. This speaks to the integrity of the distributor and in the future I will try to avoid ordering products that they carry.

I do note that the US prices are somewhat comparable to Canadian prices, but once you add the shipping and import charges (broker charges) plus the taxes, you are looking at a 20% higher price. Once you are above $1000 this adds up.

I do have a large system and expecting fast replacement of equipment may not be directly available from Canadian sources. However, distributors should have something in place for timely accomodation. I don't expect them to carry all products, but they should be set to get them in short order if needed by a consumer. Maybe my expectations are too high.

Bummer situation.

I believe it is likely the distributor did not have the skimmer in stock when you ordered it, and it has simply taken them this long to get it from the US. I absolutely believe if they are going to offer products in a certain market they should always have three months supply in stock, and one at minimum for slower moving items. Unfortunately dealing with large companies and large distributors every day I realize this is usually not the case. I don't imagine there are too many SRO6000's in the country. I hope your skimmer comes soon.

I buy a lot of machine parts in my line of work and even though there are distributors with large warehouses right here in town they still don't have half the stuff I need on a regular basis in stock. I can usually pay the airfreight and get things in the next day but even with paying millions a year in parts we still get the same situation that you are in more often than I would think should be acceptable. Sadly it seems to be common place these days.

It's great that your LFS is really putting an effort in for you, hopefully the skimmer shows up on Tuesday. When I order out of the states I only buy if they will ship by USPS, no brokerage fees and even with shipping the prices are usually the same or even still a few bucks cheaper (for the things I buy anyway, your mileage may vary). Still I prefer to buy Canadian when I can and the price difference is minimal.

Get a refund and call J&L and have them ship you one ASAP. You will get it within 2 days. They have lots of stock. LFS likely has only one supplier and this is where they stay to optimize prophit. Reefsupplies.ca also has plenty of stock and can likely get one to you in 24 hrs. This is why I no longer purchase any equipment through lfs but instead order online. I call them and they will price match usually if not beat it. We should not be killing our expensive corals over such issues.

skimmer
 

Would a BK 250 help until you get yours? pm sent

It sucks when something like this happens, however there is something can be done while waiting and watch the corals die slowly, how about buy a used skimmer or borrow one(or two), even it is undersized it is better than nothing.

I will post once. You will need to PM me if you want more info.

To say the distributor does not care for his clients is absurd, we would be out of business if we did not care. What I don’t get is why anyone would go to multiple boards with this same post without getting both sides of the story. I think there is more to this, from here it looks like a deliberate push to try and hurt our business.

The magic question is, were you misled by your LFS? Did you maybe misunderstand him or is there something else brewing here?

We understand that your tanks mean a lot to you. We are hobbyists as well. We relate to these kinds of situations since we run tanks ourselves. To publicly try and hurt a vendor to this point goes beyond the love for our tanks. Its down right disgraceful especially since most of the info is false are / or misunderstood.

Here is the timeline of what happened. We have saved all the emails should we need to prove our case.

Thursday, Dec 15 – Your LFS emailed the owner asking for a 6000EXT

Friday, Dec 16 – Our buyer (me) emailed Coralvue (Master Distributor), they confirmed stock

WEEKEND

Monday, Dec 19 - I relayed the information to my colleague.

Tuesday, Dec 20 – My colleague emailed your LFS notifying him that we could get it in a few days. That was a mistake on his part since a few days would be impossible.

I am the buyer and I know that under NORMAL circumstances it takes a week to get a Coral Vue skid, IF that order is not delayed due to backorders. Orders are only placed when there is enough to get a full skid.

Now, I know some will say the issue is with our stock level. We do NOT stock any SRO EXT’s let alone 6000 EXT. No one here does, not even some of the largest USA distributors do. These are company’s that are earning $5,000,000 + even they use CV to drop ship these. One of the only NA retailers to stock these is BRS.

Back to the timeline:

Dec 20 to 21 we have had a couple more emails back and forth. Your LFS agreed to the order after we agreed to give him a little bit of a deal since we had to special order and we knew it would take longer than expected. ESPECAILY since the holidays were approaching.

IMPORNT: December 21st @ 3:29 pm is when your LFS confirmed the sale via email. In other words, the order was officially placed on the 21st.

During the following two weeks, there were TWO HOLIDAY closers. Some carriers were closed for a full week while others were closed a few days. Needless to say, one must understand that these two weeks are the worst for any type of logistic unless you’re flying to Florida to work on your tan lines.

We were away for a week and I’m sure coralvue was off a few days per week as well. I don’t think they work through the holidays.

January 5th – Your LFS emailed us asking if it arrived.

January 5th – We replied “Ill find out today, taking a drive to the warehouse now.”

January 5th - the skid order shipped from Coral Vue.

January 9 - The order arrived to our warehouse

The skid was undone and sorted by January 11.

Jan 12 – The items on the skid were placed in inventory.

Jan 13 – Your dealer asked to add some items to the order

Jan 13 – We added and told him we are ready to ship.

Jan 13 – He said he’s closed Monday so we could not ship Friday.

This is were it gets better

January 13 we offered him Saturday arrival for $25 NOT $90 (via email). OUR COST WAS $90. Overnight weekend shipping is not cheap!

So we reduced the cost of the skimmer and we were willing to take a $65 hit on shipping as well. We tried, we really did! He never replied so we called him, he refused the $25 and stayed with the free shipping option instead.

The skimmer will arrive Tuesday.

So to summarise, we do not ignore our clients. We do our best to fulfill all orders in a timely manner. The biggest problem here was that we do not stock that particular skimmer and we were in the middle of the holidays.

... transparency is key. Oh the joy of online shopping and Christmas holidays.

I really hate the whole "holidays" excuse. I mean, really there are two days technically that are stat holidays + New Years. These excuses funnel for the entire month of January as well...

I feel your frustration man, hopefully they deliver soon (literally!)

It's good to hear both sides of the story.

The OP "rockworm" replied on another forum...here's his response:

Agree with the OP - Supply chain failed. Glad he is getting his skimmer tomorrow.

Its not just 2 days. There are in lieu days to factor in, and every company can chose when to apply their in lieu day. figuring out lead times for orders is a PITA.

buying anything during Christmas is a B***h, especially if the item is a special order one.

The OP seems to be correct then, the distributer told the LFS in writing they could get them the skimmer in a few days. The rest is excuses.

Myka, thank you for posting this. I may have over reacted, and for that I apologize to all. I propse that this thread be locked because I just want to move forward. No names have been mentioned and I don't want to go there. This was just one of those unfortunate circumstances that happened and might be a good business case study. We have lost enough LFS's locally and suppliers in the last few years. I will continue to support my LFS's and Canadian suppliers where ever I can. We cannot afford to lose them. We have a wonderful hobby (addiction ) and I don't want to negatively affect those who help us.