Did I just screw up ordering from Aquacave?

Reef Box · Jan 13, 2021

I have been looking around for a UV Sterilizers for a little while. After deciding which one I would go with, I went on a mission to find a good price. Since I have to also buy a pump and some plumbing for a total of a little over $1000 I figured if I could save $50 or $60 it'd take a little of the sting away. Normally I buy from BRS exclusively but I found one on Aquacave for almost $100 less, free shipping and no tax. After factoring in "loyalty points" etc I'd end up saving about $150 so I bought it. Since I saved so much I splurged on "expedited shipping". This was Saturday, fast forward to yesterday, Tuesday (originally would have been delivered tomorrow, Wednesday) I get a call from Aquacave to "verify my address". The problem is, that I worked a Double shift so I didn't get the message until late last night so I couldn't call back until this morning. I called and talked to the rep who pulled up my account and asked me to tell him my address, so I did. "OK we'll get that processed for ya, Thanks have a nice day". Uhhhhhh didn't I verify my address when I entered it on the site? And again when it matches my Billing address? I have bought 10s of Thousands of dollars if not more in countless online purchases over 20+ years. Some of those site were Shady AF, I have never once had a company call to verify my address. Now even if they do ship right away I may not get the item until next week, AFTER I paid for expedited shipping. Can anyone share their experience with Aquacave.... the deeper I dig the more sketchy it seems.

DJF · Jan 13, 2021

I order from them regularly; never a bad experience including one support issue where the glass sleeve of my uv arrived broken. They are a legit business. They don’t always have the item in stock (like a lot of online retailers) and work as an intermediary for the manufacturers.

nereefpat · Jan 13, 2021

I frequently order dry goods from them. Including bulbs, pumps, bulkheads, and probably some stuff I'm forgetting. They do a good job, in my experience.

Alchameth · Jan 13, 2021

I order from the on occasion too, and continue to. Did have one issue on an order for a sale item and their stock got delayed, but they got it right out when they got it. The did confirm my address too with that order.

AdamB · Jan 17, 2021

I had a good experience with them . Only bought stuff when on sale . Of course that’s the only time I try to buy

Waffen06 · Jan 17, 2021

My only issue wasn't really with them, ordered a new gyre on black Friday. They supposedly shipped it the following Monday even though tracking said usps didn't get it till almost a week later.. I just received the pump first week of January. Kept emailing their support and all Id get is then saying it's in transit

nezw0001 · Jan 17, 2021

I also routinely order for them with no problems.

Reef Box · Jan 20, 2021

Update, I got the Sterilizer today. Zero issues other than its a couple days later than I expected after paying for faster shipping. Overall still saved some cash and got a nice UV. Buy with confidence.

Henryb9 · Jan 20, 2021

They’re legit, I bought my ati t5 from them.

H2ONUT · Apr 1, 2021

Wow .. maybe it’s the UV Sterilizers ... I did the same looked around and found a good price with AquaCave. I even requested they price match BRS but didn’t get a reply. So I decided to go ahead and buy from them since they had the item in stock.
Then the fun began ... the Sterilizer arrived a day early in a home made box around the Pentair box.

When I unpacked it I found:
The Pentair box was re-taped
The parts bags were torn open and re-taped
The crystal and light packing tubes were damaged from being opened
The hose barbs had poorly applied Teflon tape on them
And most concerning was the fact that the large black retaining ring was cross threaded so badly you can see it on the photos and it could not be removed by hand. I had to use a pipe wrench. When I called AquaCave Tyler said we don’t sell used / opened equipment and referred me to to Pentair Support Who are excellent by the way.

In addition the equipment did not have the correct instructions with it for the model I received. I got the correct instructions from Pentair.

I was super careful assembling the unit and it is serviceable. At the end of the experience AquaCave maintains that they did not sell me an open box/ used item when in fact they did.

Initially when I called the rep asked what I would lIke them to do and I said let me see if it is okay and I will let you know. So after assembly I asked agin for the price match to the BRS sale price or the BRS open box price and all I got back was “we wouldn't sell a used product to any customer”, “we dont even have an open box policy”

So how did I get this open box item that had been partially assembled and returned ? Not happy with AquaCave.

Reef Box · Apr 7, 2021

H2ONUT said:
Wow .. maybe it’s the UV Sterilizers ... I did the same looked around and found a good price with AquaCave. I even requested they price match BRS but didn’t get a reply. So I decided to go ahead and buy from them since they had the item in stock.
Then the fun began ... the Sterilizer arrived a day early in a home made box around the Pentair box.

That's terrible! In the end I have to say I had a pretty good experience with them, and actually went back to order a few more items (and took advantage of the loyalty points I got off the UV order)

WVNed · Apr 7, 2021

I stopped buying there after 3 problem orders in a row. I will admit they made every one good at their expense but it made me feel bad. It's like someone in shipping is trying to sabotage the company.

CMMorgan · Apr 7, 2021

I ordered my Trigger Sapphire 34 from them. It was fast shipping and no tax. On a high dollar item, the no tax thing is the bomb. Most of the other vendors did not even have one available to order. They had one, shipped out the next day and it was double packed. Overall, it was a fantastic buying experience.

a hill · Apr 7, 2021

I had a similar issue with time sensitive products coming from live aquaria. They wanted me to verify address. The first call went into my spam filter and it was a huge pain.

If there is an option foe a shipping address different than billing address, I expect it to work without any issues.

I’ve never had an issue before with any company. This was an order less than $1,000.

They’re all paranoid on fraud it seems.

zukihara · Apr 7, 2021

I have ordered several times from them with no issues.

vtecintegra · Apr 8, 2021

I've never had a problem other than an item getting broke during shipping. I was quickly sent a new one.

H2ONUT · Apr 9, 2021

WVNed said:
I stopped buying there after 3 problem orders in a row. I will admit they made every one good at their expense but it made me feel bad. It's like someone in shipping is trying to sabotage the company.

They don’t even acknowledge it as a problem ... it’s like they have no clue. they were great awarding me loyalty points I wont use

Silent · Apr 9, 2021

Never had an issue with them. Always ordered from them because they were far cheaper each time. Only ordered a few different times though.

FishyFishFish · Apr 9, 2021

a hill said:
I had a similar issue with time sensitive products coming from live aquaria. They wanted me to verify address. The first call went into my spam filter and it was a huge pain.

If there is an option foe a shipping address different than billing address, I expect it to work without any issues.

I’ve never had an issue before with any company. This was an order less than $1,000.

They’re all paranoid on fraud it seems.

It is my understanding (and I may be wrong) that having items shipped to the credit card billing address is a requirement of the fraud guarantees that are provided to the retailer by the credit card company.

If the retailer ships to any other address and the package goes missing then they take the hit as, otherwise, it's far too easy to steal someone's credit card and order stuff online to be sent to random addresses.

Some of the bigger companies presumably are content to hold that risk as, overall, they get more orders and make more money even if they lose a few shipments to fraud. I have seen other small companies that will either require you to have been a customer for x months before they will ship to anywhere other than your billing address and some companies will just flat out refuse to ship anywhere else.

The OP says that the items were being sent to their billing address so that doesn't appear to be relevant in this case, but maybe there was some slight discrepancy thrown up by the system, or maybe it was something entirely unrelated that only Aquacave will know.