ebeckels
Active Member
Just so everyone knows... sandcreatures on ---- is selling Live sand. I'll post an email of what i just received from someone who is taking this person to court; ( I don't know who this BDG person is either!) HERE IT IS:
I too bought some of this seller's "live sand", and left good FB unknowingly before I really checked out what this stuff was. I hope BDG emailed you about the fraud of this item... this seller made up an identity (Karen Eckley is not a real person, it's not even a "she", his real name is William Heil) and tried to pawn off Southdown Play Sand, found at Home Depot for under $5 for a big 50lb bag, as live Fiji. If you look under a scope, you can tell, I have a bio background and work in the lab as a med student, and did this to confirm that there is nothing living in it at all. What he did was actually take Southdown and put it in a garbage bag with water so that it would look like Fiji to people who don't know better. I did not either but got to suspect something was up when I saw no dentrivore tracks in it the next morning after it had settled. Both an expert reef hobbyist and my friend who dives often in Fiji confirmed that it was definitely not Fiji, but very cheap st!
uff. BDG also dives in Fiji and told me the same of his.
Try to get your money back if at all possible, both of us were able to, but only after repeated phone calls threatening to call the state prosecutor's office (which we still are doing). This man was exceedingly rude to me over the phone, and tried to make me think I had the wrong number until I flat out confronted him with the facts given to me by UPS. Then he all but admitted it, but said "You'll never be able to prove it (not true), so you'd better be nice to me, I'll give your money back to you if I feel like it, but the ball's in my court now, so shut up." Only after giving him actual info on his local DA's office and a deadline, was the money paypaled back to me.
BDG's story, similar to mine, can be found at:
<a href="http://www.infinitespam.com/sand" target="_blank">www.infinitespam.com/sand</a>
The seller has since changed his auctions so that they only read "sand" taking off references to FFE, Fiji, live, etc, which all weren't true. I hope you are able to get your money back, and I'm sorry to have to contact you with bad news you may or may not be aware of by now.
Cecilia Chen
I too bought some of this seller's "live sand", and left good FB unknowingly before I really checked out what this stuff was. I hope BDG emailed you about the fraud of this item... this seller made up an identity (Karen Eckley is not a real person, it's not even a "she", his real name is William Heil) and tried to pawn off Southdown Play Sand, found at Home Depot for under $5 for a big 50lb bag, as live Fiji. If you look under a scope, you can tell, I have a bio background and work in the lab as a med student, and did this to confirm that there is nothing living in it at all. What he did was actually take Southdown and put it in a garbage bag with water so that it would look like Fiji to people who don't know better. I did not either but got to suspect something was up when I saw no dentrivore tracks in it the next morning after it had settled. Both an expert reef hobbyist and my friend who dives often in Fiji confirmed that it was definitely not Fiji, but very cheap st!
uff. BDG also dives in Fiji and told me the same of his.
Try to get your money back if at all possible, both of us were able to, but only after repeated phone calls threatening to call the state prosecutor's office (which we still are doing). This man was exceedingly rude to me over the phone, and tried to make me think I had the wrong number until I flat out confronted him with the facts given to me by UPS. Then he all but admitted it, but said "You'll never be able to prove it (not true), so you'd better be nice to me, I'll give your money back to you if I feel like it, but the ball's in my court now, so shut up." Only after giving him actual info on his local DA's office and a deadline, was the money paypaled back to me.
BDG's story, similar to mine, can be found at:
<a href="http://www.infinitespam.com/sand" target="_blank">www.infinitespam.com/sand</a>
The seller has since changed his auctions so that they only read "sand" taking off references to FFE, Fiji, live, etc, which all weren't true. I hope you are able to get your money back, and I'm sorry to have to contact you with bad news you may or may not be aware of by now.
Cecilia Chen