How do others get a reply from wicked frags???
 

I did pick up the frags from the auction...they had a very circuitous route to my tank.

I have been trying to get a reply from wicked frags..PM and email..but no reply. Is it common for him not to respond for weeks?

I have been promised photos of frags..they have never come.

I still have a free shipment and will need to choose pieces for that.

One of the corals does not look anything like what was posted in the pre auction photos.

One coral is losing tissue from the tips back (other frags in that tank continue to look happy).

If anyone else is looking to purchase from wicked frags and shipping to Vancouver let me know as I will not be filling the "free" shipping box.

It is a shame to hear this.

dont worry, daves watching!
i have a WF coupon for 36$ that i will sell for $18.00

He may be watching but he certainly doesn't seem to be replying:)

A response from dave would be great. No one is perfect all the time..I think we all acknowledge that.

I do have a real problem with someone who presents themselves as a "vendor" on a forum and who presents themselves as a "business" on their website but who does not respond to a currently dissatisfied customer...most honest vendors try hard to compensate for mistakes and inconveniences to customer.

The auction stated it included shipment of corals to your door..that did not happen. I personally have been told photos would be coming of other corals to choose from for free shipment..that did not happen. I have had questions re the corals that did end up at my home via another person but I have had no replies.

Early on in this process I contacted a canreef "staff" person re protocols in such a situation but I got no reply.

Vendors listed in this forum not only represent themselves but they represent the entire forum including all other listed vendors. To lose confidence in one vendor puts a shadow of distrust on all other listed vendors and private vendors on this forum. I do not understand why moderators do not become involved and investigate when such situations arise.

From PMs I have received it seems I am not the only Canreef member who has had less than a stellar experience with wicked frags. If each individual simply thinks poor silly me I must have been a fool I simply will never deal with that vendor again it doesn't resolve their situation and it doesn't inform others who are unaware of the potential pitfalls they may heading into and it negatively impacts other vendors as if one feels burned by one you are unlikely to have confidence in others either.

Most experienced, genuine, honest vendors try very hard to correct problems and make up for mistakes and inconveniences. This has not been my experience to date with wicked frags. At this point I am losing faith that Dave will pull through and resolve this issue.

It doesn't really matter if Dave reads this and other posts about this adventure...what does matter is that many other reefers read it so they can avoid a similar situation.

It's a shame, Dave has some very nice corals. But, it seams, his priorities and attention seem to have moved away from his business.
I guess he's only interested when he can start arguements with other Vendors.

Maybe he has buddied up with Fragalot and is taking some pointers on buisness ethics and how to handle upset customers :P

Not to help Dave save face or anything, but he has stated many times before that this isn't a "business" for him, these are his own corals that he frags due to growth and has often wondered why he became a sponsor at all...with all of this in consideration, perhaps choosing who we buy from is just as important as the pieces we buy.

:nono: This is so sad, just because they are a vendor does not make them or anyone for that matter honest.

It is sad for the few on here that have wonderful service and truly care about you the customer and the stuff they ship. :biggrin:

Really, I think people are afraid to complain :laluot_20:

Yeah I thought that him saying that was fairly silly. I mean when you have a website listing product prices, a vendor's forum, and you're upset with even one bad bit of feedback...you're taking this seriously. For a person on Canreef to perceive him as anything but a business wouldn't even make sense.

He's got some amazing frags for sale and I hope he someone turns this and things in general around.

I realize you are having trouble with the frags. Your tank could be just too young for sps corals. From your other post from Oct.

Now if anyone can tell me how to rid my new cowfish of ich (which just appeared tonight) I would be grateful to learn about that...this reefing is becoming a bit of a steep learning curve. New tank..live rock from canreefer(it came with some attached corals), inverts and the cowfish and macro algae has been in the cycled tank about 2 weeks. It is the only fish and about 1.5" long. Normal behaviour..looks like it has rolled in salt crystals!Eating mysis soaked in commercial garlic..also eating nori. It arrived with a bashed hind prong that developed some fluff but that quickly resolved..now the white dots! What next???

I don't know about your setup exactly, but your corals can continue to suffer if you don't have enough lights or flow. Unstable PH or water param. Do you test your water param and such? It is a rather challenging when it comes to sps. You might continue to see other corals suffering if you don't fix the problem.
Steven

I also think that some of his frag pieces are lovely corals. After the fact of becoming involved and speaking to others I came to realize he does corals on the side and that his "business" stems from pruning his own private collection.

I, like others, find the diversity of corals amazing and enjoy watching them in a private tank and am grateful that others share their experience and their corals when they are cut back.

I agree that the behaviour of one vendor will/can affect other vendors..that is why I don't understand why moderators do not follow up when there are several dissatisfied consumers.

The cowfish was in a relatively new tank set up for me that had well aged live rock. It did have ich, continued to eat and behave as if it did not have ich. It is now away "boarding" in a large (900 gal) medicated system while the aquarium in my home runs fish free for a few months.
The sps tank (120 gal) is not new, other fargs seem to be doing well and spontaneous colonies crop up on the live rock. It is run on an Aquatronica controller that encorportes a temp probe, a pH probe, an ultra lith dosing sytem, a level sensor with ATO with processed water , protein skimmer (euroreef) 3x 250 halides and 2 actinics all recently replaced. The Ca reactor and chiller run with timers and sensors separately from the aquatronica system. Salifert test kits are used for nitrate, Mg, DKh and Ca. Little silver max's Mg and Ca are added as needed to the new salt water with H2O changes done about every 2 weeks. The nitrates run higher than I would like so recently I stopped using pelleted fish food and feed assorted frozen once daily and have also added cheeto that grows from another tank to help utilize nitrates and the tangs nibble on it as well.
Hope that helps to clarify tank concerns.
At this time other tanks include a small macro algae tank with no corals, a mixed softie, clam and LPS tank, another mixed tank with no sps and 2 small freshwater tanks.

He has a name, a website, and he is sponsoring the website. Whether he likes it or not he is a business.

So to sum it up, frags got shipped to someone else, they held on to them for some time, you picked them up and 2 months later your having issues with tissue loss?

I spoke to dave a while back about doing a order but he told me that the next couple of months are going to be busy. This was back in september. I do agree with him that this is his hobby and he produces enough frags that he could build a web site and offer them to the general public. He doesn't tax people, he only takes paypal or email money transfers and its just something to pay for his hobby.

Comparing him to frag-alot or what ever is totally uncalled for. That guy was out to make money and screwed countless of people, and what really made me laugh (sorry but its true) was that some of you kept going back for more thinking that some day this guy would change. Dave on the other hand has been excellent to me and the guys I order with. Always kept me informed, double checked with all the info. I would do business with him again and still reccomend him to anyone for amazing frags.

No..the time line is incorrect. It is now a long time out from the auction but I have had the corals about a week. I haven't had polyp extension on 3 of the sps frags and only one piece has "refected" a colored hue under the actinics. Midweek I noticed the ends of one frag were going white along with a section at the base. This frag was pale for a section of each branchlet from the beginning but there was no marked line of deliniation from dark to light at first. I could not visualize any pests. So far other frags have no white areas and I have moved the frag with the colorless areas to a place that is a bit lower in the tank to see if it does better in a bit lower light as I have recently changed out the metal halides.I would like to help this frag fluorish ..if you can suggest other things I can do I would be happy to try.

hate to be the prick but welcome to sps. The one your talking about white spots sounds more like bleaching than tissue loss. You will notice tissue falling off of the piece if it has either rtn or stn. As for PE (polyp extension), don't worry about it yet. PE isn't his problem but more issues with your tank. Look over all over your parameters for starters. But the rule of thumb with sps is to be patient. I have some corals that have taken months to color up and show signs of PE. Everyone looses sps, and when you lose a frag don't get to worried about it. But at this point i would just let them be, they have had a stressful ride

From the sounds of it, everything was taken care of by the person who recieved your corals since he had them for a while.

Agree with LorenzO, pending placement and lighting, sps may not colour for several weeks, the majority of the sps I received from John last month are just starting to show true colours.

^^

I agree. decent PE extension always takes time and after the stress these frags have been through; i would expect them to take a while to flourish. I still have frags from a Vendor that i have had for 2 months and they are only just beginning to take off..

Simon

Derrik's tanks are wonderful...happy corals, happy fat fish and aesthetically pleasing. He have me a frag of a beautiful coral:) Thank you,thank you.

... edit

Has Dave @ Wicked Frags gone on Holiday? I notice he hasn't been active on here for 7 days or on Reef Central?

I won't go into any details but need to speak with him?

Simon..

none of you have his number?

You think they would check whitepages.ca if they didnt.

Thanks for canreef staff for contacting me about this thread.

Janne - as I did not have to ship your corals (yet you still received them out there in BC), I will send you $50 as they did not go right to your door. While the original plan was to send you another shipment, I currently do not have the time. Can I send you the money via your email address?

Simon - I returned your money via paypal to the email address it was sent from, I sent it today and it should already be there. That aussie SPS shipment was just aweful, sorry I could not hook you up with some nice stuff. Again, while it would be easier to send you some frags from my personal system as requested, just can not get to that right now unfortunately.

For other who read along or posted, my intent was to be back online and selling some wicked frags in September, then October and then November, however this simply has not taken place. To many other things on the go.

As most of you are aware, I only sponsor this board and generally speaking sell frags from my rather large personal system. While I took the time to develop a website, other priorities have since taken precedence. While a "business" my profits barely if at all cover the cost of site sponsorship and I have not updated the website in almost a year...my business is no different than anyone with a 6' tank and a frag tank...except that I have some really wicked frags available from time to time.

All that being said, I hope to be online more yet within another month....outstanding items should now be addressed given the small number of orders I have sent out!

I will post here when I am again in a position to start shipping again - sorry for not getting to your PM's and emails. Hope your tanks are doing well. Where time permits I will try and contribute to the board, I just wont be shipping frags for a while longer. Dave

Thanks Dave.

Hope to see you trading those wicked frags again soon..

Simon

I have never used email to receive money...does it simply return it to my credit card? How is it done? Another option would be to cut a check and put in the mail...you have my shipping address.

For those who are running small businesses regardless if small or large, on the side or full time, consistent attention to that business and customer relations, and an effort to maintain them, can be as important as the product you sell.

It seems lack of attention and inadequate customer follow up lead to the debakle outlined in this thread.

It is good to know it was circumstantial not with intent:)

How did you send the electronic auction payment - I can use the same method. Haven't written a cheque since the 90's, don't even think I have any.

And correct, no intent, simply confusion and a honest lack of time. Less than one order a month, you think I could get it right! I have coordinated many orders, including many group orders on canreef successfully in the past. No time is the reason I am not currently coordinating. When I return expect the quality reported in my feedback sections.

Good to hear Dave. Happens to the best of us sometimes. Hope you find time again in the near future.

It should still be in your business records...VISA..Paypal. Must admit I did expect the quality reported when I participated but sadly, in my case, did not get what I expected:(

Payment sent.

I agree the quality of service was not what I typically provide during a sale, however the quality of the frags was wicked as always. Hope they are all nicely settled in your system.

Anytime. And ya, me to.

About 3 weeks ago I replaced all my halides and VHO's. I also topped-up my ca reactor. While I have not looked at the tank much lately, I am confident things will continue growing and colouring up while I am busy with other stuff.

Agreed - never thought I would spend this much time away from the systems but life happens, and it does not always include the tank and selling frags. Hope to be finished up all my projects around the holidays and offering a few pieces for sale then - I have 2 shipping containers left before I need to buy more...

Query re condition of frags was send some time ago ...some good others not so good. You should have messages from myself and a moderator in your inbox (PM/email)..as you are online these days you must be aware of them. It would be appreciated if you would reply to them.... via the method they reached you (PM or email).

Looking back it appears all frags arrived in good condition, in fact Derek indicated he was willing to buy them all even though he did not order them.
In addition, my understanding is that all frags were alive when you picked them up deom Derek (almost a week after shipping if I recall correctly). As this is going on almost a month, I can not comment on frag condition or colour.

I have addressed your issue regarding the frags not being sent to your door by refunding you $50 for shipping. This is fair and I did not think twice about it.

As already noted in this thread I will not be available to reply to PMs and/or emails for a little while yet, and of course I will not be selling frags until I post otherwise.

As always, feel free to post publicly in this thread and in my forum. I do not edit threads, and will try and pop in when I have a chance. Thanks.