HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have been shopping with them a long time. I had an issue in March with losing 2 packs of their monthly food due to contamination. Instead of sending replacement items like I requested they instead refunded the price of 1 of the 2 bags of food. Keep in mine I was making the order at that time because of the new food. Instead of spending a fortune on shipping for just a few things, I ordered a lot of things that I already had some of for the future to make the shipping worth it by cutting down on the need for the next order. Had it not been for the new food I would have waited. When I didn't even have the ability to use it I felt cheated. It wasn't worth arguing with them because it takes days to get replies when they are emailed so I just tried to get over it. It really bugged me and soured me quite a bit on the company. Being that my crabs eat their stuff and always have I decided to make a large order to hold them over while I looked around for a different shop if I decided to do so.

Fast forward to the other day, I placed a $100 order and in the comments voiced my displeasure in how things had been handled. Before speaking with me to try and remedy things then instead cancelled my order thus refunding it to my paypal. They then emailed me to tell me so giving me a link to the message from when dealing with the issue before. Three minutes after the email came I clicked to see exactly what they were saying about how they thought it was satisfactorily handled before. When I clicked it told me my account was closed. The email they sent me said in a passive-aggressive way that I should pretty much go take a flying leap off a building.

I have spent way too much money with their company to be treated this way. My very large colony of crabs has eaten their food almost exclusively for as long as I have been crabbing and the cost really adds up.

I feel it is very unprofessional to cancel the order without discussing any of it with me. I find it even worse to give me a link to something and then close my account so I cannot even see what the link was to. To close my account because I was unhappy with their customer service and voiced that to them was even worse and seemed anger based. They may not need my business but I feel losing out on a east $600 a year to be enough for them to at least discuss with me the issues I have had with them instead of treating me the way they did.

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....Wow, and I thought they were already bad enough with their previous handling of the situation. I ordered one time from them, mostly for a treat spoon. I was thinking about ordering cork tiles and cholla wood from them in the future, but I guess that's not going to happen now. I'll be avoiding them from now on, there are plenty of other places to buy hermit crab food & supplies that have had wonderful customer service (in my experiences so far). I'm sorry you were treated so poorly!

I am still in sort of shock about it. Thanks, their loss. I will just have to spend my money elsewhere.

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I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. That stinks.

I've ordered with them on and off for almost 7 years with no issue. Can I ask what food it was you had that was effected? And it happened twice? Or are you talking about the same initial problem from a while ago?

The same time as before. It was the Irish Stew that was effected.


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Absolutely horrible. I have only ordered once, but will not be again. In all honesty, my crabs didn't care much for what I had ordered anyway.

Really sorry this happened. We have never had any issues with HCP.

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I've often visited the HCP site and have been impressed by their wide selection of foods, shells, etc., but have never placed an order. After reading about your two experiences, I'll continue to shop elsewhere for food I can't make myself and will stick with Naples for shells. HCA's failure to fully refund you for the compromised food and their recent response, rescinding your last order and blackballing you, are wholly out of line, the latter an over-the-top reaction to a legitimate concern voiced when you placed the order. Don't online vendors, especially those catering to a limited specialty group, realize that members of that group quickly spread the word of their experiences, good and bad? Assuming 50% of HCA's almost-5000 strong membership is located in the US and perhaps only 20% will now steer clear of HCA, that's still a huge hit to them. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...yeesh!

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here and say that it's possible there's more to this story. It's not that it's impossible but only that in my 5 years of crabbing (I ordered from them; including crabs when they still sold them, all the time until I started my own store), I never had any issue with them and literally never heard of anyone else having a single bad thing to say about them ever. Maybe they've gotten cranky, I don't know but this is the first time I have ever heard a complaint about them.

Understandable. I wish there was more to the story because it would actually make sense to me what happened. I did post about it when it happen though. I had no complaints about the products until that contamination issue. I was just as surprised as anyone to have this happen. Like I said, I wish there was more to it lol

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Honestly surprised at how low their stock of shells are every time I check. Wish I could get away with the worm castings w/out insane postage because I don't/can't spend $75+ to make shipping worth it.


Mommy of 12 PP babies - Baby, Toby, Sid, Matty, Junior, Kaylee, Aries, Adrian, Turbo, Flower, Boo and Freckles.
RIP Octavius

Oh wow I have also had a problem, I ordered some 3/4 inch shells for the smaller crabs to get them out of the painted ones and they gave me 1 inch shells

Someone I order from on Etsy had that happen with the shells. When she contacted them they responded with "They'll grown into them." Seems more and more is coming to light. I trusted them and fed almost exclusively their foods since the beginning. I wish I hadn't.

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kornchaser wrote:Honestly surprised at how low their stock of shells are every time I check. Wish I could get away with the worm castings w/out insane postage because I don't/can't spend $75+ to make shipping worth it.


Mommy of 12 PP babies - Baby, Toby, Sid, Matty, Junior, Kaylee, Aries, Adrian, Turbo, Flower, Boo and Freckles.
RIP Octavius

I bought a 4.5lb bag of organic worm castings at a greenhouse here for $7. There are much cheaper options.

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KellyCrabbieLove wrote: I bought a 4.5lb bag of organic worm castings at a greenhouse here for $7. There are much cheaper options.

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Just have to find the right flower shop oiugh! That's a bit of leg work & research & calls. Been meaning to get around to it. :/


Mommy of 12 PP babies - Baby, Toby, Sid, Matty, Junior, Kaylee, Aries, Adrian, Turbo, Flower, Boo and Freckles.
RIP Octavius