Artfully Acrylic Review

[PiscesPower]

Long Review: Bottom line; Quality product and a desire to see that they customers are satisfied with their product.

This review is a long time coming. I will admit that my experience with the purchase of my lid has not been without its bumps.

I originally ordered my RSR 250 w/ custom cuts back on August 25th. I did have some back and forth email conversations, they were responsive to those as we discussed the cuts. I did email again, when I had been told my lid was going to be cut and then a time went by and I never received any shipping notification. They replied that they had found some quality issues and were re-cutting lids after doing some maintenance on equipment. Although communication of the issues on their forum thread would have been nice, I have to appreciate that they did not send out inferior product.

When I finally received the lids on November 1st the quality was great, but the custom cuts were not correct, a small cord cutout was missing. I immediately sent an email to them, but did not get a response. A few weeks later I reached out again to learn that they had already cut a new one and were shipping it out the next day. I was very impressed, I was not expecting a new lid. I did however voice my concern that I had not been kept up to date on the issue.

When I received the replacement there had been a mixup on shipping and I received someone else's lid, a name very similar to mine. Of course I emailed back, this time I received a quick response. I offered, if my lid had gone to that person, to do a shipping switch. My lid was set to go to Australia and had gone to a shipping company so a simple switch wasn't feasible so they shipped a new lid to me.

I received it yesterday and am completely satisfied with the quality and the custom cuts.

I understand that there had been some family crisis in November and that delayed communication and such.

All in all, though it was a bit of a roller coaster, I am satisfied with the great product and the resolution of the issues I had with the product. Things happen and in a small business you have to expect that family crises can impact the business day to day operations.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

I purchased a new Tsunami lid for my Red Sea Reefer Nano.

While the build quality was excellent I must FAULT them on their ordering menu and how their lids are priced out. I received my lid quickly but the back piece was not cut out for the overflow. It seems that is an extra $16.10 and not standard as one would expect.
Now I have an all but useless lid unless I pay them MORE money and they are tone deaf to the issue.
VERY POOR business practices, I do not expect the piece to be free but by HIDING the "option" to make the lid fit correctly is a very deceptive way to make more money.

Artfully Acrylic should make the cut out standard as that is how the aquarium is designed.

Be careful ordering from them, VERY CAREFUL!

 

[aros]

Just ordered the classic for a nuvo 30l. I hope they don’t extend the lid all the way through the back compartment...

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Just ordered the classic for a nuvo 30l. I hope they don’t extend the lid all the way through the back compartment...

Call them quickly and make certain.

 

[rkpetersen]

I have purchased two Reefer 450 lids from them. The lids themselves are amazing. However, sometimes their understanding of your instructions is less than ideal, and they may or may not clarify that before cutting. To avoid this problem, what they really should have is a digital template for each lid that a customer who has paid for the stock lid downloads, marks up for custom work, and returns to them for an additional charge quote. Wordy descriptions of custom cutouts are just too prone to error.

Also, something that people may not realize: Despite the company's name, these lids are made of polycarbonate, not acrylic. Much much better!

 

[Tiger-Paws]

I have purchased two Reefer 450 lids from them. The lids themselves are amazing. However, sometimes their understanding of your instructions is less than ideal, and they may or may not clarify that before cutting. To avoid this problem, what they really should have is a digital template for each lid that a customer who has paid for the stock lid downloads, marks up for custom work, and returns to them for an additional charge quote. Wordy descriptions of custom cutouts are just too prone to error.

Also, something that people may not realize: Despite the company's name, these lids are made of polycarbonate, not acrylic. Much much better!

As I have said, a very nice product, it is their customer service which needs addressing.

I will get over being ANGRY with them and order the correct back piece, but they REALLY do need to clean up their act and remember it is us the customer which purchases their products and if they continue to FAIL their customers then as a company they are doomed.

 

[HolisticBear]

I purchased a new Tsunami lid for my Red Sea Reefer Nano.

While the build quality was excellent I must FAULT them on their ordering menu and how their lids are priced out. I received my lid quickly but the back piece was not cut out for the overflow. It seems that is an extra $16.10 and not standard as one would expect.
Now I have an all but useless lid unless I pay them MORE money and they are tone deaf to the issue.
VERY POOR business practices, I do not expect the piece to be free but by HIDING the "option" to make the lid fit correctly is a very deceptive way to make more money.

Artfully Acrylic should make the cut out standard as that is how the aquarium is designed.

Be careful ordering from them, VERY CAREFUL!

I have the lid for the 170 without the overflow cutout. It's not as clean looking and the cut would be nice, but it barely affects functionality. The tabs still rest on the glass, there is no gap. I agree that it's misleading. If you say it's a Reefer lid, the vast majority of people will assume it's cut for the overflow. I made similar comments + pictures in the Tsunami launch thread.

P.S I suspect the lack of the overflow is worse on the Nano than the 170, and the 250/350 are better than the 170. You have more length for it to bow up slightly then settle on the edge. It's possible on the 18" Nano, it makes just enough difference over the 24" 170 to make a difference.

P.P.S They aren't the best on prompt emails or PMs for sure, there was confusion with my order

 

[Tiger-Paws]

I have the lid for the 170 without the overflow cutout. It's not as clean looking and the cut would be nice, but it barely affects functionality. The tabs still rest on the glass, there is no gap. I agree that it's misleading. If you say it's a Reefer lid, the vast majority of people will assume it's cut for the overflow. I made similar comments + pictures in the Tsunami launch thread.

P.S I suspect the lack of the overflow is worse on the Nano than the 170, and the 250/350 are better than the 170. You have more length for it to bow up slightly then settle on the edge. It's possible on the 18" Nano, it makes just enough difference over the 24" 170 to make a difference.

P.P.S They aren't the best on prompt emails or PMs for sure, there was confusion with my order

I am sorry that you made the same mistake as I did. This only reinforces my contention that either AA is incompetent or that they are being deceptive.

The fact that AA has yet to address this issue suggests that they are being deceptive. Which will eventually doom their company.

 

[rkpetersen]

if they continue to FAIL their customers then as a company they are doomed.

Purely a guess, but the company may have multiple lines of acrylic and plastic fabrication for industry and so on, and perhaps these aquarium lids are not a huge part of their overall business. If so, an alternate scenario would be that they eventually just stop offering these lids at all, and go about their other business with less hassle.

 

[madweazl]

They're a local company and good guys; there is no purposeful deception going on. They posted in another thread that they were having some issues as they grow out the business and are working on a better website as well.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

They're a local company and good guys; they is no purposeful deception going on. There posted in another thread that they were having some issues as they grow out the business and are working on a better website as well.

It would be BETTER of AA said that themselves and indicated that they are making the necessary corrections.

Right now their business practices and customer care/response is TERRIBLE!

 

[madweazl]

You can find the original post here.

For those following this post, and other threads related to Clearview Lids from ArtFully Acrylic, we'd like to clarify a few of the activities and efforts evolving in the background...

We do struggle from time to time with email/inquiry response times and we even make mistakes or miss things here and there. We are a small american owned and operated business that produces products with an unmatched level of quality. As a result, we also face an incredible level of demand; which continues to grow at a very rapid rate.

We have invested significant time and funding this year specifically on the testing and implementation of a more robust customer resource management (CRM) system. We have adopted a new CRM platform from the systems tested, but still have a good deal of integrations to be worked out. Many of the needed integrations also include revisions to our ordering process on the website to further minimize the percentage of orders that come in lacking information needed for the programming of lid customizations.

So far this year our average response time on emails has been less than 48 hours on 90% of email correspondence. We are constantly working to improve our email response times as well as the process used to vet customers, and order data, through our production queue. This effort is aimed at not only providing quicker response times, but quicker production times as well.

Roughly 60-70% of the total time invested in each order is spent on admin/follow-up/programming before the order is ready to be sent out to the CNC for cutting. Our goal is to cut this administrative time in half, but it admittedly will take time to fully implement these processes and work out unforeseen kinks. As a small business with limited available labor/personnel we must ensure we maintain production deadlines and meet customer needs first; with any surplus in available time being dedicated to the aforementioned process developments.

We are excited to have you all along for the ride with us as we continue to grow and better ourselves. Please don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your time, and most importantly, thanks for your support.

 

[spartanman22]

Just ordered the classic for a nuvo 30l. I hope they don’t extend the lid all the way through the back compartment...

I would strongly suggest you follow up on this repeatedly. I had a similar situation (Fluval M90) in which I explicitly requested that the back filtration compartment NOT be covered. They confirmed that it would not be covered via email. Low and behold I receive the lid, and it extended over the back filtration compartment. I sent a follow-up email and private message on this board immediately. Never heard back. Finally followed up recently and requested how I can proceed to cut myself to make it work. They finally responded with advice on to cut the lid that they screwed up. The product is fantastic (if they get the measurements rights). It is thick, sturdy, screen mesh is taught with no wrinkling and it keeps the fish in place. However, the companies communication and customer service skills are the worst I have experienced from any company within the reefing hobby.

 

[aros]

I would strongly suggest you follow up on this repeatedly. I had a similar situation (Fluval M90) in which I explicitly requested that the back filtration compartment NOT be covered. They confirmed that it would not be covered via email. Low and behold I receive the lid, and it extended over the back filtration compartment. I sent a follow-up email and private message on this board immediately. Never heard back. Finally followed up recently and requested how I can proceed to cut myself to make it work. They finally responded with advice on to cut the lid that they screwed up. The product is fantastic (if they get the measurements rights). It is thick, sturdy, screen mesh is taught with no wrinkling and it keeps the fish in place. However, the companies communication and customer service skills are the worst I have experienced from any company within the reefing hobby.

Thanks for the heads up. I just emailed them. They hadn’t gotten back to me since the initial order about 4 days ago

 

[Bdog4u2]

They're good people but they're a small business. I've been to their shop many times they sell fish and corals also. I work for a small company myself and when we get swamped with work we also struggle to keep all our customers informed and not because we're lazy just overwhelmed and it's hard to hire new people for 2 months out of the year just to let them them go afterwards and ruin their chances of finding a full time job during busy season. Having talked to guys there they definitely are not deceptive and have way more happy customers than not but I'm lucky that they're close and I can go there in person and draw what I want. When I move to my new house this summer I'm getting them to make my son a 50 gal cube to replace his biocube.

 

[Genomecop]

Seems like having a template of the most popular tanks would be the way to go. You pick your tank and add/subtract from the lid template. Seems pretty straight forward.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I know these guys, it’s a one or two man operation and can tell you they are swamped all the time.. we ran a similar business at one time and it’s really tough. Just remember in a one man operation your the designer, the fabricator, the book keeper, the sales man, the customer service rep, the web designer, the supply department, the shipping department and the janitor.. it’s not easy