Deletion of posts?
 

Burc, I'm concerned over the number of posts entered into this forum asking about missed shipments, failed deliveries, etc, and they are all deleted without addressing the poster's questions.
The purpose of this forum is to interact with your customers, not delete anything that reflects poorly on your business.
We, the staff, are receiving far too many complaints over this and I would like to ask you to please resond to these posts, even if it's to indicate you are going to PM someone.

To the posters in this forum, please be aware that it is not Canreef staff deleting any posts, this forum is currently managed by Burc himself.

Good to know.

I believe all the vendor forums are managed by the vendor themselves aren't they? I personally don't think that should be allowed. In the recent past there have been a lot of questionable "modifications" and deletions by vendors.

If Calgary/ other cities are putting together large shipments/ orders then Burc will only cheat himself out of business. A very quick way to irritate people is to stop contact especially when there money is on the line. Hope the vendor comes through and fixes any problems (Besides a death in the family if this many peoples money are on the line there is no excuse to just stop communication let alone ignore/ delete peoples attempts at it).

Had an issue with a less than stellar order about a month and a half ago. There was no response to my emails with regards to what he was going to do to make things right. He claimed that his internet was out and therefore wasn't getting emails. Placed another order to get some more frags plus what he owed from the last order and everything came in much better shape and generally happy with the order. I think the end result is he is too busy, but I do believe he follows through it just takes him longer than most are used to in this day and age of instant communication.

There is no excuse for the deleted posts though. Burc needs to deal with the issues head on and if he can't keep up with the orders, hire some help!

It also seems his shipping lately is taking far too long. Also, I am noticing his frags appear to be made the day they are created for shipping, therefore they are given no time in his system to heal before they are shipped out.

At least 10 customers in my area of his have all noticed any order made from him, we all lose at least half the frags within a 24 hr period. In addition to this, they have been many times when they are not the correct frags we order, not the colour shown on his website, and/or just not sent in the order with no notification they won't be sent so we cannot choose something else. Then we have to fight with him for a refund.

On the east coast we do orders well into the thousand dollar mark and always have issues with items not arriving, or being sustituted..or being frag and bagged. Burc originally started selling items on frags.ca and then became frag a lot, I think that with the items that he shows available, and the prices he offers, that the consumers jump like crazy to get the coral and ultimately he gets overwhelmed...my understanding is that this is a home based business and that there is an addition to the family happening soon, so perhaps extra help would work, or even providing a time line on his site about shipping and or email replies. We are so limited in Canada on where we can buy beautiful corals etc that I would hate all the negative issues to cause Burc to throw in the towel

But the problem with the negative issues is that they are his negative issues not ours. We all do our part by sending the money timely. And in return expect that our items etc are shipped properly and timely when we are told they will be shipped. If he can't handle it than A: get some help or B: Keep at it the way you are and deal with the backlash or shut it down. I am not going to feel bad in giving a bad review etc. This is a business he is running so likewise treat it like one.

Call me confused, but given his ratings and all the orders that have gone bad, why does everyone keep ordering from this dude??

I'm about to order from him a third time because he owes me $50 worth of frags that never came the last time. The second order I placed with him was for the same reason. I'm not even counting all the frags that died shortly after arrival. Bottom line, I gave him money, he hasn't fullfilled all of my orders yet, but he has indicated that he will correrct that. Anyway, I will see how this third go round goes before I make a final judgment on his business practices...

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.

I find it interesting that the vendor has not responded to ANY of these posts on this forum to at least tried to save his name or justify his actions.... Often times people just want to know what is happening... Communication is the one of the most important things in business.

And yet the orders continue..... Thats just good marketing! Get your name out there even if its crap, people cant get past a good deal. If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, walks like a duck it isnt a danm horse. When are people gonna learn. Im sure Burcs a nice guy, but lets stop sugar coating, his product is junk, plain and simple. So for those of you still buying, after all that is being said now, you have no right to come and whine later. Just my opinion. Theres plenty of other reputable dealers. Theres a reason frags are $10.00, and its not because someone wants you to get more joy out of looking at your tank! Why does everybody think they are going to be the exception and get some great stuff?

it's mighty tempting to go down to the lfs on sps arrival day, pick up a bunch of mari colonies and have my own $10 frag sale too. I'd make a killing...

Over 1500 views, and still no reply from Burc in this thread. Weird, I think. No?

Well said. I guess people tend to think that they are immuned to getting a low end product even when they pay "garage sale" prices. I guess on the odd occassion you can get lucky but I would rather pay more and be assured of the quality. Maybe this attracts the gamblers since they can play "coral lottery" for just $10 a turn. :lol:
Something else I find quite surprizing is after all the complaints he's had about shipping and leaking bags is that he wouldn't change his methods after all this time. But that said if people keep putting up with it why should he?

It is indeed! I started a thread when I was trying to get some more contact info from fellow canreefers (phone # etc.) to inquire about our order, when people just started venting on the thread.

I guess burc saw it and got it closed, because right after I received a not-so-pleasant pm that pi$$ed me off. The thread was only alive for maybe a few hours.

Just to clear things up... vendors are responsible for the modding of their own forum.
Any threads that went missing were either spam or deleted by the vendor.

LOL then I guess I posted in the right thread then "Deletion of posts?" :lol:.
It was too long ago and short lived so I dont remember exactly where I posted it.... but i guess it was in the vendor forum :p

+1. Absolutely.

Only once
 

I ordered once. all came fine and still good. unfortunately, this thread has made me reconsider any future orders. our order took weeks to come in, and it was the same thing... no communication at all until we started to get upset. almost all the SPS People ordered were DOA. due to the fact he is not saving himself here now, maybe another forum will welcome him as i think his time here is limited. someone went fishing, hooked a sucker fish,

Oh
 

And thanks for nice pieces on my order, but the reputation is what will kill a business... you have to trust your vendor, which appears to be the problem now.

Just thought I would give you all another update. After several more emails to Burc on my part, he has still refused to reply to resolve my issue with him. This is completely unacceptable for a business.