How long will corals live in a bag?
 

So I ordered 9 frags that are being fedexed to me, they were sent yesterday (Thursday) and supposed to be here today (Friday), now for some reason they got held up in Vancouver.
Fedex is now telling me that they won't be delivered until Monday.

What are the chances that they will still be alive?

toast....sorry...get your claim underway

wow thats not good news

Eek!! 4 nights in a small bag with no heat and no circulation??? Ya, sorry, I would not even want to open those bags by the time I got them :-(. Sorry to hear that. Get that claim in asap!

Claim?

I think you have two options.

1. Notify the vendor NOW! Let them know what has happened. Most vendors have "arrive alive" guarantees. Since these will most likely not be arriving alive they will probably credit you and go after the carrier.

2. You can go after the carrier (fedEx). File a loss claim with them.

I'm surprised the vendor shipped them for a Friday delivery. I have had several sellers refuse to ship to me for Friday delivery's because there are almost always delays in transit so this can very easily happen.

just refuse the shipment when hey attempt to deliver to you on monday which they probably will. the package will be sent back to the sender. i would also tell the sender that you will be refusing the order

I second this all coral's will be dead. refuse, but tell sender your doing so so he doesnt get back charged

so is there no chance that any of them survived? the vendor did tell me that he put heat packs in the box.

If I refuse it, how does that help? not saying that I'm not open to suggestions, put just confused about how that would help? This is the first time I have done an online "live" order.

I think what is being said is.
If you refuse the order fedex must return it to sender at no charge. If you accept you will in all liklyhood have to return the dead corals to the vendor to get credit. This return have a shipping fee attatched to itthat your vendor would then have to pay (or you would depending on how you do this).
correct me someone if I am wrong

I have had corals sent this way as well took 2 days to arrive from Vancouver to Penticton, most were toast. I am pretty sure that most of these companies have a no live shipping policy and so it may be a waste of time going through them. I would be talking to the Vendor, ASAP. I agree do not accept the package have it returned.

I have had one Vendor who was amazing he tracked down my shipment for me so at least I could go get it. So it would not have to sit yet another night and day somewhere.
That was fantastic service, this should be the norm not the exception.

Leah

Most courier companies including air companies will not guarantee or insure any live packages. So the "claim" you will be making will be to the vendor. If the vendor doesn't have a live arrival guarantee you may be shyte out of luck. Talk to the vendor and ask the vendor what s/he wants you to do - accept the order when it arrives or refuse it.

Having said that though, I have seen corals survive for 5 days in boxes/bags provided the box has stayed at an acceptable temperature for that length of time. Corals are much hardier than fish in that respect.

I am sorry, I agreed with everyone so The FEDEX would not working on the weekend or hoilday.

I have been fish shipping to wideworld, Everyone are very happy and Very Satisfied with my service.

I think you and the saleperson should have make angreement before the shipping.

Did the saleperson tell you when is your shipping ?

HTH

In the future, when you talk to them on the phone, tell them it is live product and that you paid for overnight delivery. I had this happen to me once and when they told me that it wouldn't be shipped until Tuesday (was a long weekend) when I explained it to them they contacted the delivery truck and had it delivered later that day (apparently it was just riding around on the truck and as the driver hadn't gotten everything delivered that day, it would just sit on the truck for the weekend).

Anyway, my policy now is to have stuff shipped early on in the week, that way if something goes wrong theres plenty of time to still get it delivered.

Depending on who you got it from, I have had a 3-4 day delivery survive due to an excellent packing job :biggrin:

If you ever get the chance to watch a LFS unload a coral shipment you would be truly amazed, most of this stuff is in transit for 2-4 days and most zoas are shipped with no water in the bags. If there SPS frags I can see a melt but healthy zoas can be in individualy bagged and with heat pack/ correct insulation stay alive for over 3 days.
Levi

Don't know anything about their chances of survival (I don't have any coral), but I'd think it's best to let the vendor know what's happening sooner rather than later. These sort of things always seem get resolved one way or another a lot easier if everyone knows the deal at the earliest opportunity.

Also if the vendor is anywhere near Vancouver, or if the frags have made it to anywhere near you, perhaps someone might be able to 'rescue' the frags while they're still alive...

That's what I try to do too, or I ship with Greyhound which delivers 24/7/365. :D

On a side note, How long will corals survive without light? My tank been 3 days without lights now, possibly another 2-3?? I sold my lights, an bought another set, but waiting arivall. I keep the living room fan light pointed to the tank to give them some light.

Dan,

Thanks for putting the pressure on!! LOL They are shipping Monday!

:lol:

LOL, not meaning to. The thread just got me wondering. I have 1 250W bare ballast I can jerry rig here for temp

Yes they told me what day they were shipping, but it never even dawned on me that I would have to worry about it not making to my house before they shut down for the weekend.

living some were that landing a plane is a 50/50 shot (depending on how low the clouds are) and seeing how Fedex is....I think I will use greyhound from now on as well.

If you use greyhound pay the extra $15.00 and get the next bus out service. If they happen to have alot of freight your package will be on the next bus and won't get bumped.

People have said that Greyhound is very reliable... I have yet to buy corals online (or by phone or whatever), partially because of where I live. Air service here is through Bereskin Airlines, and perhaps Calm Air, so maybe Greyhound is a better option for me (or STC, since we get those buses also (gotta love border towns :mrgreen: )?

Have you got the corals yet? Hope it is okay.

Waiting for a response from the vendor, sent him an email about 5 hours ago
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Ouch !!
is all i have to say !

How long would you wait for a response from a vendor before getting angry?

when did u send the email ??
and based on previous emails (before this shipment), how quick was the vendor's response ?

Before this he has usually gotten back to me withing an hour at most

I would be a little more patient, since getting angry @ them isn't going to accomplish anything right now....
perhaps send them a follow up email tomorrow morning.

Ok....I'll take a deep breath and relax for the time being.
Thanx

looks like you decided to accept the shipment and it doesn't look pretty :-(

I would be angry if i didn't get a response by tomorrow afternoon.

I gave serious thought about not excepting it, but after re-reading there arrive alive guarantee, it stated "you have to be home and except first attempt at delivery" it then followed........you had to have pictures emailed to them with in a allotted amount of hours after delivery.

Sounds like you have done the right thing, so I guess you will just have to wait and see what they say.

Ok...so sounds like the vendor is going to replace the shipment, he hasn't said for sure but wanted to find out if I could get it faster if they did a hold for pic up.

:lol:

Good luck with the new shipment.. I wouldn't trust this vendor.. he will probably want you to pay for shipping again.

You should tell others who this vendor is too.. then it will all make sense.

I'm just waiting to see what happens, I really have no interest in dragging some ones name threw the mud.

As for the vendor, I contacted him as soon I got the tracking number and informed him that it said that the shipment was going to be held over the week end he became very stand offish and short answered with me, In fact I felt as if he were ignoring the problem and it would go away.

When I emailed him the other day (this is 2 weeks since I placed the order) and had to ask for a response, I asked him what the next step was and asked if we should try another shipper, the only response I got was "the replacements will be shipped Monday" nothing more..not how they are being shipped not anything.
Now I do consider my self an easy to please customer all I want is a little communication.
I know it's not entirely his fault, that being said I think he should take some responsibility for shipping here on a Thursday (I've never ordered on line before and had no idea how it all worked).......... and I don't like being ignored.

Well.....looks like nothing is happening, replacements were supposed to be shipped out yesterday.
Sent a couple of emails wanting to know what the plan for shipping and stuff was, and no response.

Like I said before I'm pretty easy to please customer all I need is some communication......but being ignored is just down right rude.