# Wasting $$ on import betta, why ??



## bettarainbow916 (Aug 10, 2017)

Hi, i live in CA, Sacramento. I was wondering why so many of you bought import betta from Thailand, ship to California and when the transhipper Julie get them from the airport to her place, some of you can't even pay for local or out of State shipping fee ?? Whenever i go to her store to get my fishes, there is always close to 50 or more import betta that get stuck in there. When i asked why there is so many, then she said people pay the seller but can not pay for local shipping fee. If you can't pay then why you buy ?? 
Julie hold those fishes for a week in their original bag, if the buyer still will not pay for local fee then she will put them into some jars of different size depend on the size of the betta. Thing is the betta get so skinny after few weeks then die, unless someone buy few of them and care for them. I don't think Julie or the staff that work for her feed the betta but they look miserable. My point is if you can't pay for local shipping then don't buy the betta you bought from aquabid.
2 weeks ago, i bought a king super black crown tail from her for $15.00, she told me that the guy who bought that fish paid $80, and was supposing to be ship to Atlanta, he never claim for it, it is crazy.
I don't understand why people will do thing like this.


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

I would be careful of accusations like this. Not everyone on the website special orders. Most buy their betta's from their local pet store. Don't accuse if you can't prove who they are. Only the store owner knows whose these people are.


Most websites that I have visited ask for the shipping fees upfront. It really should be up to the store who is importing them in to make sure they can pay the shipping fees first before placing the order.


You know what's more horrifying is the fact they're keeping the betta's in their original bags for a week. The store needs a stricter policy. Asking for the shipping fees before placing the order is the way I would go. Maybe it would discourage people from doing things like this.


----------



## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

bettarainbow916 said:


> Hi, i live in CA, Sacramento. I was wondering why so many of you bought import betta from Thailand, ship to California and when the transhipper Julie get them from the airport to her place, some of you can't even pay for local or out of State shipping fee ??


Are you pointing fingers at the members of this forum as people who don't pay for the fish they purchase? Them's fighting words! 

If you created this thread to point out an issue in general and not specifically to the members here, please say so.


----------



## AngelDemonWolf (Aug 16, 2017)

My betta is actually from Thailand, got it in a auction in aquabid. The betta was very cheap when I bought it. It was my first time buying a betta from Thailand and so I wasn't informed that you had to pay more for the betta to arrive at your house when it got to the US. I ended up paying 35 dollars for an overnight shipping since I wad worried about the little guy. So I think the problem is that people don't know that they have to pay more money when it gets to the US. (The transhipper that was keeping the betta had a range of 22-35 dollars for local shipping.)

Sorry for the bad grammar, its hard to write on my phone.


----------



## bettarainbow916 (Aug 10, 2017)

I am not accusing anyone, this is just to let them know and also what other think. Julie received close to 500 betta every 2 weeks and she has to sort everything out and send the ones who pay for the shipping fee. For the others that don't pay for the shipping fee in the US, those fishes will just die in her store one by one.


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

This is the problem with your post, it comes across as raising the issue while pointing the finger at the same time. It's giving off a mixed review.

It's awful that happens, I never ordered fish before. I always get mine from the local pet store. 500 every two weeks seems a bit over exaggerated.


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Every Thai breeder's auction, as far as I can see, contains a list of transhippers and their email addresses and phone number. If a person doesn't know about the cost to get the fish to the US that is not anyone's fault but the buyer's. It is the option of the transhipper whether or not to accept business. If they are already overcrowded enough to let fish die from starvation such transhippers should not receive sympathy but a personal call from local authorities to pursue cruelty to animals charges.

All of that aside, it seems patently careless and unfair to claim a transhipper is allowing Betta to starve. I'm sure Julie wouldn't stay in business very long if people came to her store and saw so many dying fish. In fairness, I have messaged Julie and asked her to respond.


----------



## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I know our transhipper here in Australia has had issues with people purchasing fish from Aquabid or overseas sellers not realising that it costs something like $20 and upwards per FISH just to import them into the country. You then have to add another $25 or more for domestic shipping costs if you weren't close enough to pick-up. 

I remember her once being left with a whole lot of guppies after someone had imported them, not understanding the costs involved. 

In the end you had to contact her before purchasing any fish, send a spreadsheet with what you had purchased, and then pay the import fees BEFORE she would accept the shipment. I think this was because if the buyer skipped out, she had to pay for the week or more of quarantine at an approved facility. I imagine if the fish being imported was of low quality, she may have then had issues recouping her costs. 

I'm not sure how they send fish to the transhippers in the US, but I imagine if the fish has had its shipping fees paid to get it from somwhere like Thailand to the US, Julie wouldn't have a crystal ball to know that the customer is then going to refuse to pay domestic shipping costs.

I do think communication is a big problem for a lot of transhippers. It seems a slow response time to emails and phone calls are a common theme. So perhaps this doesn't help as customers aren't able to get an idea of the true costs involved


----------



## sixtynine (Mar 5, 2017)

Like the others have said, it mostly comes down to people not fully understanding how the shipping and pricing works.

Just to second LittleBettaFish, communication is a problem, in my experience, when trying to work out shipping within the country. I had contacted my nearest transhipper numerous times in order to workout details and shipping costs for a fish and never got a response (this was before any purchases were made). I then just gave up trying to purchase an import betta.


----------



## AngelDemonWolf (Aug 16, 2017)

sixtynine said:


> Like the others have said, it mostly comes down to people not fully understanding how the shipping and pricing works.
> 
> Just to second LittleBettaFish, communication is a problem, in my experience, when trying to work out shipping within the country. I had contacted my nearest transhipper numerous times in order to workout details and shipping costs for a fish and never got a response (this was before any purchases were made). I then just gave up trying to purchase an import betta.


Had the same problem, I tried to contact a transhipper when I wanted to buy a female betta. The person never responded back, so I gave up on buying the betta.


----------



## Maximal Sky (Aug 8, 2017)

As for *why* to buy Thai imports...I know for me personally it's hard to find good Bettas where I live. I have two local breeders, one who raises very small spawns and another who raises Bettas I'm not interested in. I follow a lot of Thai/Indonesian folks on instagram because I love Koi and Rosetails, and they tend to sell beautiful ones with large spawns to choose from (sooo many black Melano butterflies ). While I haven't bought a Thai import yet (because I blew all my fish budget this month on a new tank setup) I've found that the folks who sell are really nice, and always mention that there are extra trans-shipping fees. One went so far as to give me a recommendation for which trans shipper to use based on my location instead of just giving me a list. 

So yeah. Beautiful Bettas from Thailand, much prettier and varied than the ones at my local petco. I shudder to think what happens to people who don't understand extra costs, but I know many trans shippers are very reliable. *steps off podium*


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

For anyone who's interested, here's Julie Tran's response to the original post. She asked me to post for her as she's not a Forum member. FWIW, she and her staff *do not* allow Betta to starve.

I'm not sure exactly what he is referring to but we do randomly get imports from buyers that were misinformed about the transshipping process/cost from sellers and decide to abandon their fish. 

We get fish on Sunday night and we will bill customers for shipping from Sunday till Thursday. With the strict DOA policy from most sellers they will not offer replacements to buyers unless its original packaging. By Friday, if no one pays then the fish is then jarred and fed. 

Many that use our service know that for many years we never open original packaging as it avoids claims of Betta swapping and gives people peace of mind. Many know the process and get their fish out ASAP. The new sellers seem to have been the ones that are not giving proper info and new buyers are assuming shipping is free with the Betta cost. 

The fish is not ours so by the time it becomes clear the fish is abandoned and it is okayed by the sellers we feed them. Some take awhile to bounce back and unfortunately some never bounce back. We try our best to get them back to health.

Julie


----------



## Falcon (Jan 9, 2008)

I'm curious as to where the OP got his/her information from. It seemed a little far fetched.


----------



## bettarainbow916 (Aug 10, 2017)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> For anyone who's interested, here's Julie Tran's response to the original post. She asked me to post for her as she's not a Forum member. FWIW, she and her staff *do not* allow Betta to starve.
> 
> I'm not sure exactly what he is referring to but we do randomly get imports from buyers that were misinformed about the transshipping process/cost from sellers and decide to abandon their fish.
> 
> ...


You know, i should have take few photo that day when i was there with 67 betta from half moon, half moon plakat, crown tail and fighter that were on the shelf. Half of the betta were with dirty water, most of them were very skinny and some of them was dead. Julie can say whatever she want, she is more in her desk working than in the fish room. I am a betta addict, i am counting 589 betta in my house, all over the place, more than all of you here together. When i see so many gorgeous betta miss treat like that, the only thing i can say is right here in the forum. I can not say that to Julie, do you think she care ????? She also sell another kind of fish in her store and she focus on that kind a lot, more than the betta. I know what i saw. I have more betta than her import betta from Thailand and all my betta are fed everyday and twice a day and they don't look like the half dead fishes from her store. I am not saying she is bad, i am just saying that people should not buy betta from Thailand if they can not afford to pay for local shipping fee in the US. 
Since this, she has less betta on the shelf, lol. Probably she is scare of something.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Heh, I don't think you're the only one here with a high Betta count friend. Many of us also spawn and raise our Bettas.


What you're seeing is not dirty water, it's tannin stained water. The majority of sellers ship their fish in with tannins to keep the fish less stressed out. Just because you may have seen her doing something else at the time does not mean that she can't do it at another time. I personally have different days to care for each of my fish and reptiles. I don't hold all my reptiles all at once; that's just crazy! lol. The same can be said for Julie and her helpers; it may not have been care day is all. Besides, she could also be using an ammonia locker like Prime to keep the fish safe, you don't know these things unless you worked for her so I don't think it's fair to accuse her of all of this. Also, do note that not all fish arrive healthy either. Some sellers are shady and don't sell proper or healthy fish in the first place. I've seen that happen before. So I don't think all this blame should be placed solely on Julie; it isn't fair.


However, I agree; people shouldn't buy things they can't afford but this happens all the time. People buy houses they can't afford, homes, have children, adopt a pet, all things they cannot afford and sometimes these things end up being dumped somewhere. At least Julie keeps the fish and sells them from there, better than through them out in the ditch!


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

According to Julie she gets very few Betta for which people don't pay. And note: Until she knows a fish is abandoned she is committed to keeping it in the original bag or the seller's DOA guarantee is void.


----------



## Tardigrade (Apr 17, 2017)

Your last statement comes off rather judgy. I hear being a transshipper is no walk in the park.

I don't know Julie, but not everyone can be a master in all things on a daily basis. Her job has some accountability and regulations to keep everything in check.


----------



## Betta999 (Sep 16, 2017)

*Why not buy from US seller online*

There are plenty of Betta selling US websites one is www.bettabetta.com which has almost 80 fishes male and female on sale. until September 18th they also ship free, I buy my fishes from them.


----------



## bettarainbow916 (Aug 10, 2017)

Betta999 said:


> There are plenty of Betta selling US websites one is www.bettabetta.com which has almost 80 fishes male and female on sale. until September 18th they also ship free, I buy my fishes from them.



I just take a look, their fishes are ok. I am just concerned about that copper black pair that cost $175 for the pair, and for a poor quality and it said rare color. Copper black is not a rare color, very easy to breed and get that color. I think the price is way too much out of hand.


----------

