Retail Advice: Troublesome Competitor

[JT]

Jeff & Mitch:

I had to revisit this thread as I've just recently acquired this same stores largest maintenance customer and now in the process of finishing uncompleted work and fixing half-assed work for this great customer.

This customer loves fish and has a plethora of tanks in her house. One of the botched jobs that this store did for her was the install of a 265G FOWLR. When they installed the bulkheads, instead of installing them properly they threw away the nut and glued them in with gorilla glue.. copious amounts of gorilla glue at that, you can barely tell the bulkhead is there. The tank is a room divider so it has a center overflow made out of clear acrylic. To quiet the overflow, they put a sponge at the bottom of the box on top of the bulkheads and then filled the box to the brim with bio-balls. About two weeks after they installed it, the tank started flooding and she finally had the last straw with this shop and called us. When we went to visit for the first time, I could not believe all the food caked into the bio-balls.

This is only one mess at this customers house. I'm getting them cleaned up though. Heading down to the Royal show tonight, can't wait.. I need the mini-vacation bad.

 

[Anonymous]

Jeff & Mitch:

I had to revisit this thread as I've just recently acquired this same stores largest maintenance customer and now in the process of finishing uncompleted work and fixing half-assed work for this great customer.

This customer loves fish and has a plethora of tanks in her house. One of the botched jobs that this store did for her was the install of a 265G FOWLR. When they installed the bulkheads, instead of installing them properly they threw away the nut and glued them in with gorilla glue.. copious amounts of gorilla glue at that, you can barely tell the bulkhead is there. The tank is a room divider so it has a center overflow made out of clear acrylic. To quiet the overflow, they put a sponge at the bottom of the box on top of the bulkheads and then filled the box to the brim with bio-balls. About two weeks after they installed it, the tank started flooding and she finally had the last straw with this shop and called us. When we went to visit for the first time, I could not believe all the food caked into the bio-balls.

This is only one mess at this customers house. I'm getting them cleaned up though. Heading down to the Royal show tonight, can't wait.. I need the mini-vacation bad.

how long you been workin there ? :lol:

 

[Kalkbreath]

The back to back ten hour drives to and fro Orlando would seem like a vacation only for people like yourself . Having had to drive in from the valley each day to work traveling the 405 has twisted your notion of a relaxing week end. 80
Julie never could explain what exactly was and was not going to be included in their sale. Even the website was clueless.
Please report back and tell us what we missed.
I cant think of why someone would not use the nut on a bulkhead? Maybe they were reverse thread and the installer thought they were broken?
Maybe they thought the nut was simply there to hold the gasket in place during shipping?
I think about half the people installing bulkheads place the gasket on the outside of the tank , so the idea that even the guy selling the bulkhead would install it wrong himself doesnt surprise me .
I bet the holes in the tank were too large , thus he used the glue not only to keep it snug .....but to fill in the gaps between the bulhead and the tanks holes as well. :lol:

 

[JT]

The back to back ten hour drives to and fro Orlando would seem like a vacation only for people like yourself.

Ten hours, you must drive real slow. It took me 7 hours each way. After the show was over on Sunday, we took a couple more days and went to Discovery Cove and Sea World. Had a blast. When you work 16 hours a day in the fish biz, driving to a tradeshow where they put you up in a hotel and wine and dine you for free, it is very much like a vacation and kind of rejuvinating.

Having had to drive in from the valley each day to work....

ewww, the valley? I never have, nor never will, live in the valley. The only way I could tollerate living in So. Cal was to live on the coast. I think, in the three years I lived in So. Cal, I only ventured East of the 405 a total of three times.

Julie never could explain what exactly was and was not going to be included in their sale. Even the website was clueless. Please report back and tell us what we missed.

Julie is our rep, she rocks. Don't know why you had trouble finding out what would be on sale before the show. We had access to the sale book via the website on Thursday before the show on Saturday. The entire sale book was available in .pdf format on their website.

The show was a blast as usual. For the dinner on Saturday night, they had the House of Blues privately reserved for us with great food & open bar plus some awesome live music.

Great discounts from all manufacturers and many were giving cash back on the spot. We walked away with a good amount of cash in our pocket. Raffle prizes were pretty sweet as well.