Online vendor experiences

[MandarinFish]

Marine Depot Live once jerked me around really badly on a group buy, so I won't support their biz on the dryside or liveside either. Just my experience.

The Premium Aquatics phosphate reactor is a steal and I will get a couple. VERY cool.

Reason number one thousand sixty five I love this site... powerbuys.

 

[Len]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I've had nothing but positive experiences with MD for the last decade (several dozen orders). I hope your experience doesn't dissuade others from buying from what is IMO one of the better companies (of any market) out there.

 

[MandarinFish]

I had serious issues with a retro kit from Chumpion Lighting... horrible, horrible company. They define the lack of customer service; when I see the commercial about bad customer service with the grocery store bagger smashing a fat milk jug down on the lady's groceries, I think of them.

It took them a month and a half of the total runaround on a thousand dollar setup before I reversed charges - Visa agreeed with me, and I got a total refund.

Marine Depot drygoods was very good at customer service in complete contrast... they got me a retrofit mh/vho setup in a very quick fashion, even faster than they said they would. I was completely impressed.

The Marine Depot Live debacle was utterly outrageous however. It soured me from ever buying livestock online again. They tried to pass off
Sphaeramia orbicularis

as Apogon Leptacanthus

They tried to pass off a single, small, dying virgatus rabbitfish as two healthy, medium doliatus rabbits. They sold us a lemon in a small, dying copperband that was supposed to be large and healthy, and was more expensive than our local store.

Then they punked me on the make-up order too.

MDL deliberately tried to dump the wrong fish on us, and this was like a five hundred dollar order. If they can't tell fish of different genus apart, they shouldn't be in business.

So my review is mixed. I don't expect people to boycott the drygoods because my club members, especially myself, got totally burned on a livestock order and the makeup order too. But I recommend people never buy fish online unless it's an animal they just can't get otherwise. Especially buying from MDL. Sorry if they are a sponsor, and again they were awesome - to be fair - in my custom lighting order.

Tell me you wouldn't be mad about getting four Sphaeramia orbicularis when you were responsible for a group buy of a half dozen people :!: I won the ugly fish contest, hands down, at that other site before I got booted with pics of those fish. I even kept the ugly, miserable baztards for years until they bullied and harassed all my other fish into hiding or death.

 

[Len]

In fairness of our sponsors and our members, I've decided to split the thread to keep posts relevant to the original thread's intent.

 

[MandarinFish]

Okay Len. Good idea.

The two sides of MD couldn't be more opposite in quality of service... I realize they are handled very differently. Sorry to rant on. I'm still pretty bitter and it's been a couple years.

It was obviously an exceptionally bad experience for me. I haven't even shared the half of it and will desist in the interest of not having an anyeurism.
:wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I have had only good experiences from all of my on-line orders. I have ordered from:

Champion
Premium Aquatics
Inland Aquatic
Clams Direct
Marine Depot
Dr F&S
Aquatic EcoSytems
Buckeyefields
Hellolights

Other from Clams from Clamsdirect, snails from premiumaquatics, and a fauna/flora kit from Inland, I have only ordered dry goods on-line. I have never ordered a fish on-line and wouldn't unless it was something I can't find locally. Same with corals.

Louey

 

[fishinsouthga]

premium aquatics is great both live and dry, MDL had some issues and i was just ording a few common fish, but they did try to correct it after my wife got on the phone (shes mean) but for dry goods they have done well.

 

[MandarinFish]

I've probably become more of an LFS guy these days.

I really want my local stores to survive and am willing to pay a little more to make sure they do.

I remember a lot of people chiming in about Chumpion Lighting when I was still mad at them. They evidently used to have great service. Now they just seem to drop ship, but claim they're 98% stocked.

MDL was very solid... it came within a week. CL was over 6 weeks and they kept putting me on perma-hold, transferring me back and forth, blah blah.

My local stores work really well. Most online vendor experiences have been good... I just want my nearby shops to make it, so I give em my cash when I can. I spend over $50 probably every time I enter a store.

 

[MartinE]

I have had pretty good luck with Marine Depot dry goods and Dr. F and S
live and dry both.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

 

[Anonymous]

Can't say enough about hellolights.com. Great service, you can live chat with them or call a real person and my problem was resolved in a matter of seconds. I didn't like a bulb and bought a replacement and they are giving me full refund on the return with no questions or harrassment at all. Orders were shipped fast and packaged well and they threw in some free stuff to boot.

 

[mdrumm]

ordered the $150 Metal Halide. Did not work. Had to pay $30 to ship back and they charged me a 25% restock fee and did not credit shipping either way so it cost me $90 to deal with them.

 

[utahsaltreefer]

I ordered the $150 MH from hellolights with the XM bulb. It works great. I've also ordered from MD live with good results. IPSF got me what I ordered, but everything was ultra-tiny and I think the LFS is a better deal than them. Overall I've had positive experiences with online orders, but since I found a good LFS with very reasonable prices I now buy almost exclusively from them.

 

[NMreefer]

I agree with Len. I can say nothing but good things about MD. I've actually spent $600.00 with them in the past month.