HCA: Hermit Crab Association

MuseCrazy wrote: Regardless, her prices are still terrible, especially after what she pulled last year. She just knows we are willing to pay it. At least she put "preorder" so this time we know we'll be waiting forever.

I haven't looked at all the prices, just what's been mentioned here. I personally like that her prices are a bit high. Less likely for someone who's not willing to give them proper care to get exotics. Plus, from what I understand, getting blues or Aussies is not easy or cheap and it was thought they wouldn't even be able to. Glad it's preorder too because I don't think it'd be safe to ship them out just yet due to the weather (in most places). Jmo.

ETA: just checked out the prices. I actually think they're really good! What's shipping like?

Shipping is $38. I wouldn't be so concerned about the order if I haven't been jaded from ordering blues two summers ago. I think they were $14.99 when I placed my original order. I placed today's order with a "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude.

Careyenz wrote:Shipping is $38. I wouldn't be so concerned about the order if I haven't been jaded from ordering blues two summers ago. I think they were $14.99 when I placed my original order. I placed today's order with a "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude.

Meaning they weren't really blues or?? I'm just curious, no plans of ordering.

She couldn't get them in after months of waiting. It kind of sucked!

Yay blues and aussies. Now only thing left is for our aussi friends to get some PPs and we can all be happy

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I think she gets a bad rap personally. It's not an exact science getting live creatures imported from different parts of the world. She is dependent on suppliers and there is also all the red tape of permits etc. I'm sure it's costly. I didn't like waiting for my last order, but only because I was excited, not because I was upset with her having to wait on their arrival. The prices don't bother me for the reasons Calla mentioned.


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I am going to live vicariously through you guys. I would love to have some exotics but the tank is full and I am not going to go bigger. If I happen to come across a couple of E's in Cape May this year though like two years ago, I wont be able to help myself. Normally all I see anywhere are PP's.

The reason the price on Aussie crabs is so high is because there is only 1 guy in Australia who is legally allowed to harvest, sell and export the Aussie crabs and he only just got permission to export to the US again.

I pre-ordered 4 Aussies myself and could not be more excited but I will believe it when I see it. If not, I guess I'll have that money waiting on me in a couple of months, he he.

I worry a lot about knowing how many died in transit, how they were shipped etc and also how she houses them there. The only care sheet they have is a general one and it says this about the number of crabs you can keep by gallons: "1 medium size hermit crab per 2 gallons: If you have a 10 gallon aquarium you can hold 5 medium sized crabs." That worries me. A lot.

As for her reputation, it isn't the waiting (and relying on suppliers) that bothered everyone last year, but rather the lack of communication. Months would go by with no one receiving their order or even any news as to why or when and then often would receive a snippy response when they inquired. Also, she told me that she doesn't gauge size by "any size chart", but rather according to what she has in stock so if you order a large crab, you just get one of the bigger ones she has at the time & it may not be anywhere near a true large at all.

If u pay attention to the pricing the price she quotes for a six pack of blues is the same a ordering 4 individual blues. So u end up getting 2 free. I think she never noticed it and just changed the pricing on the one crab price. Shhhh don't tell her. Get your free crabs while u can

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She has been really great to me so far. She offers a service I can't find anywhere else. I plan to stay on her good side. I haven't read the care sheets...I get all of that here. Hopefully others will research further too. I paid with PayPal for all of my orders. Since I know the order won't ship for longer than 20 days I guess that's on me.


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wodesorel wrote:I've learned Paypal inside and out recently, and this bothers me since she does accept Paypal for preorders:
https://www.paypal-businesscenter.com/c ... d-reserves

Thank you Wode; that's very interesting to me because she takes Paypal anyway and even that first email you get says they will ship around 2 weeks after ordering so many people have likely used paypal on crabs they waited longer than 20 days for.

So, because she says that they are pre-order & that they will arrive late April/early May; does that get her off the hook on the timeline (because she disclosed the timeframe)? Or is she scamming paypal by doing this? (maybe hoping she can use all our money to order them?)

mom23 wrote:She has been really great to me so far. She offers a service I can't find anywhere else. I plan to stay on her good side. I haven't read the care sheets...I get all of that here. Hopefully others will research further too. I paid with PayPal for all of my orders. Since I know the order won't ship for longer than 20 days I guess that's on me.


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My concern on the caresheets is not that people will learn from them, but in how they are housing the crabs that are for sale.

Gotcha. That I cannot answer. Excluding the indos mine all came in pretty good shape, but I've no idea how she houses them.


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wodesorel wrote:If she submitted it correctly as a pre-order, Paypal will hold your funds from the seller and will automatically return your money if 20 days have passed if you haven't gotten what you ordered yet. Major credit cards do the same thing with pre-orders, I think it's only a 30 day hold for a customer to take possession of the item before the money is returned, and during that time the seller can not access it.

Ahh okay, good. So I'm wondering how many people are gonna be mad in 3 weeks or so when they realize they got refunded and have to re-order.

wodesorel wrote: No one ever got refunded last summer....

Whoa, whoa, whoa! People ordered blues, etc, never got them AND never got their money back? Are they first priority now or did they just get (excuse the expression) screwed out of their money completely? Did they pay with PayPal?