Canadian Reef Octopus Distributor

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by rockworm

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.

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.

[Northern Reefer]

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.

[Reef-Geek]

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.

[RDF]

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.

[DKoKoMan]

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

[Myka]

Originally Posted by RDF

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

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

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by RDF

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.

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]

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

Originally Posted by rockworm

Thank you for the very detailed timeline. I am the customer and have no control of the supply line and no access to communications between the supplier and the vendor. I also do not expect to have this access. There were mistakes made by both parties that affected me.

I will have the skimmer on Tuesday and I will move forward. I originally made the request to the LFS on December 16. I will receive the item on January 17 (16th if LFS was open). Perhaps I should not have brought this to forums. I was frustrated enough that I had to vent. As far as I was concerned, the supply chain failed, and I had no reason not to believe my LFS.

Finally, I again thank you for providing the chain of events that occurred. I do hope that this circumstance can be used by all, me included, to better improve customer service to all.

[Potatohead]

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

[rockworm]

Originally Posted by Myka

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

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.