LiveHermitCrabs.com

[Nate the great]

It's odd that the shipping delay is due to a holiday in the supplier's country, given that E's come from Ecuador and Peru.

[Nate the great]

And I just checked the phone number listed with the Paypal account. It's the information number for area code 631 (555-1212).

I'm beginning to be worried that there's fraud going on here.

[parrothead]

just received a response, thought you might like to see it.

fwd:
Thank you for letting me know. Unfortunately we go through ups and downs with my son as he was born with a birth defect and required surgery at birth that has life long issues. As well, I just had a baby and had a really rough end to my pregnancy and am recovering from a horrific c-section. I know customers don't want to hear about personal issues but as a small business I feel an explanation is necessary. As far as the delay, our supplier delayed my shipment twice due to holidays in his country. This is beyond my control and trust me, I'm not happy about it but he is the only source. I have tried to be fair and offer customers a free crab due to the delay (customers with larger orders will receive 2 additional crabs). I would greatly appreciate it if you would comment on the terrible thread you sent me to let my customers know the situation and that I do apologize.

.....my reply was as follows:
I can relate. I have two small children of my own, one of which is 9 months. At 30 weeks, I was in a horrible car accident that almost jeopardized my pregnancy. I think the problem isn't that people haven't received their crabs, as you may have read. The largest complaint is lack of communication, which seems to me to be an easy thing to fix. The second and most valuable complaint is that it doesn't seem fair to charge someone's credit card in advance for a purchase that isn't even ready to ship. It would be more appropriate to file payment once the crabs were in your possession and ready to ship out. Floating an amount like $160+ for three months or more is in my opinion, unreasonable. I appreciate your response and will indeed post it to the forum. Although the orders that have been canceled and refunded are lost revenue and not likely to be resolved. Thank you for your time and I look forward to receiving my order.

[Careyenz]

Truly, just being upfront about the situation would have solved most of the issues. I'm willing to wait for mine. I don't even mind that I was already charged for them. I just want them to be healthy when they get here. I have no doubt that her business is completely legitimate. We have no way of knowing who is supplying her supplier. The western hemisphere crabs might be circling the globe for all we know. If we want "special" hermit crabs, and there's only one way to get them, I guess patience is the key. The crabs I received before are thriving and definitely worth the wait! As a mom, I do feel awful about what she's going through. I've had a tough time balancing work and two small kids. It would be especially difficult if one had a disability. I can definitely empathize. I'm just going to sit back and patiently wait for my new babies to show up!!

[wodesorel]

And I just checked the phone number listed with the Paypal account. It's the information number for area code 631 (555-1212).

I'm beginning to be worried that there's fraud going on here.

Yikes, I went to check myself, and the "Paypal Verified" she has on the main page is in fact NOT verified.

Their WHOIS for the site has the name redacted and provides a PO box and no e-mail. Whoever owns it does not want their information out there nor do they want to be contacted. If they didn't have a history of being a legit company I would be concerned as well, but members have been ordering from there for years so we know it's not a scam.




Parrothead - thank you for posting the e-mails. That she has a sick child is something that the community has known about for a while, and she's used it as an excuse every time she charges credit cards and doesn't send out crabs promptly and doesn't answer e-mails about it. It's certainly heartbreaking to hear about, but it's been two or three years (at least) that she's been saying that the lack of communication is due to her sons medical issues.



For anyone wanting to wait for crabs, I would encourage you to review your credit card's dispute policy just to make sure that it doesn't get past the filing time frame while waiting for the crabs to arrive. Paypal gives you 45 days from the date of payment to file a dispute. I'm not saying that there will be problems, but everyone should be aware that if there is any issue with delivery or the crabs arrive dead for any reason and the company doesn't replace them that you could be out all the money that was paid. These are not inexpensive orders, and I just want to make sure that all of our members are being kept safe financially.

[tigermoon89]

I believe someone called the number last year that had been listed (not sure what thread that would be in) but it was indeed legitimate and they were able to speak with the owner of LHC. I don't know what the number was there's always a possibility that the info was changed.

[patchouliii]

Wow, good for you! Although, I would think to some degree she's got to be aware of what's being said. The average person out there isn't ordering exotic hermit crabs. I always kind of figured LHC would be on one of these forums somewhere.

I actually remember her being on the forums offering coupons and discounts a few years back! What on earth happened. I can not speak from her perspective though since I do not have a disabled child. Communication is a must for any business though :roll:

[emberfusion]

Since we're on the topic of LHC, I wanted to share something about my crabs that I received a few months ago.

I spent $120 on 6 crabs - 3 violas and 3 strawberries. I lost one viola almost immediately due to pps (which I figured would happen with at least one of them). Since then, I have lost 3 other crabs. Another viola and 2 strawberries. Mysterious deaths. Each one has gone through a molt since I've had them and each one seemed perfectly healthy until one day they just up and died on me. I do not believe this was anything due to my conditions as I've been able to keep multiple species alive and thriving for over 5 years now. I honestly think I received a bad batch of crabs.

I tried to get in touch with the customer service there and she will not respond to me. I understand personal issues, but it has been weeks that I've been trying to get in touch with her to no avail.

I will not buy from there again and I cannot recommend them to anyone else. This is my own personal experience and I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else who spends a lot of money to get crabs from LHC.

[parrothead]

this sucks! Im just sayin'

[Temeriki]

Got an email yesterday saying my 6 E's will ship next tuesday!

[parrothead]

great! so glad, lemme know how they do

[patchouliii]

Got an email yesterday saying my 6 E's will ship next tuesday!

When did you place YOUR order?

[Temeriki]

Aug 2nd

[patchouliii]

Aug 2nd

Nice!! I placed mine on the 3rd. Hoping to get a notification soon

[tigermoon89]

I placed my order July 13th, I did recently add a couple more crabs to the order. I hope they ship out soon! It's starting to get colder here!