Dead-on-Arrival (DOA) Policy
Coral ships alive or we make it right. Below is the coverage window, what we need from you for a claim, and the cases we can't cover. Checkout isn't open yet, so these are the terms that will apply once it is.
Live arrival guarantee
Every shipment is covered for one week from delivery. If a coral arrives dead, or dies within that window, send us photos of the specimen and your parameters and we'll make it right. A coral that shows up stressed, closed up, or retracted is not a DOA. That's a normal shipping response, and most open back up within a few days. Reach out anyway if you're unsure. We'd rather help you troubleshoot early.
Acclimation requirements
We honor claims when the coral was acclimated the way we document it: temperature-match the bag, drip or stepwise acclimate to your water, dip if you choose to, and place the coral low and shaded before moving it up over the following week. Skipping acclimation, or dropping a coral straight into high flow and full light, causes more avoidable losses than anything else we see, and we don't cover it.
Shipping conditions & exclusions
We hold shipments during temperature extremes on either end rather than gamble on a box. Delivery requires someone available to receive it. Coverage does not apply when delivery is refused or missed, when a package sits unattended in extreme heat or cold, when a forwarding address or reship is involved, or when the shipping address given to us was wrong.
Remedy
Store credit is the default remedy. We issue it for the value of the affected coral, and you can use it on any future order. We'll refund instead when the circumstances call for it: a shipping failure on our end, a large loss, or a first order that went badly. We'd rather settle it in your favor than argue over an edge case. File within the one-week window.