Rarereef.com Scam artist

[starboard]

Ok so here is mine and another women who sells corals online experience with Rarereef.com . A few weeks ago they received an order of Asian Zoanthid colonies and were posting pics and getting everyone hyped up on these enormous colonies of Emeralds on Fire/ LA Lakers/FruitLoops etc. Then they offered to the public a one time opportunity to pre order these asian colonies at 10/$430 25/$875 up&up&up so on and so on. Well I said ok I'll talk to the guy and see what the deal is. So I talked with Russel Goddard and he was totally selling it and I was buying it. Well it's all good right? Not quite so I pay for the stuff and wait about a week and a half no communication on their part of any sort. Out of the blue I get a FB message from a lady who runs a website as well asking me if I had received my order yet and I tell her no and that I hadn't heard from them about any order coming in yet. She said that they told her their pump went out and they lost most of their livestock and that she'll be getting refunded. At this point I told her I was now worried so I contacted Russel on FB and he told me that F&W (Fish & Wildlife) took most of their order so they would send me half of the order and refund me the other half. With raised eyebrows I said ok. Well I didn't hear anything from them for a couple days and then all of a sudden last Saturday after they received the shipment they had this huge fire sale online FB/website. Nothing special no asian zoas. Meanwhile this lady and I are talking back and forth wondering what the heck is going on with our order. The same night they have the fire sale which is on a Saturday after they got their shipment on Thursday and we were suppose to receive our orders Friday I get a notice at 8:45 p.m. Saturday night that the full amount has been refunded to my account. I talk with the women and told her that I received my money back and she then receives hers back this last Tuesday. All of a sudden they have Asian zoanthid colony frags and all these nice rare corals for sale on their website just premium stuff right after they refund our money after the common coral fire sale on Saturday. We both believe these guys took our money up front and bought their order and then paid us back as if it were a loan and now they are making money off of fraging these colonies. When confronted about it these guys said these corals were from their personal stock which from what I was told they only have one troft that holds their corals as soon as they get them in. There are no frag tanks nothing to house their personal stock. Does it make a difference? I think not!
Horrible customer service and relations. I wouldn't recommend these guys to my worst enemy. Stay away from these guys they are Jokers! Scam artist none the less and if you plan on going to CoralCon I would think again because these guys host it and take presale on their booths. I hope I don't have to say i told you so.

[BigHappyBuddha]

That's really sad to hear. I too got caught up in the hype in early 2013.....some nice stuff showed up as expected, but there were a few switcharoos and some nasty hitch hikers came. Glad you both got your money back, but that whole hustle is just ugly.

[R33f3rMadn3ss]

I dont remember which forums I was browsing, but saw a couple users similar reviews of these people. I also can confirm seeing these posted sales of the asian zoa, as well as ricordea and a few others. Im sorry to hear of your poor experiance with this company, and very glad to hear your recieved your money back. I had considered placing a small order through them and seeing how it went, but this post just assured I will make no such attempt.

Thank you for the heads up!

[Desy148]

Good post! Thanks for the useful information.