Fishy Business aquatics

[motortrendz]

I ordered 2 fish from them this week, delivered today one was beautiful and the other was barely moving and upside down gasping. I took a pic and pulled it out amd into an acclimation. Bucket and used an air stone to help deoxygenated the water (the bags were half filled with air and spongy so they can fit in a smaller box) I eventually got the one fish to sit upright and I put it in an acclimation box in my tank so he wouldnt get harrassed. Hes been laying on his side hard breathing for hours now. Sent them an email with a picture instead of their specified 30 second video of it in The bag and another 30 second video of it on a white background ...(watch their language in their doa policy) to tell them that I dont think the fish will make it. And i was told "well i dont know how long you've been in the hobby but wrasses dont ship well" lol I've been doing this a long time. Any fish wont do well if it cant breathe... they told me it's not DOA and I didn't purchase the extra warranty (but I did buy the stress free shipping... thought it was the same thing) so basically there's nothing they can do but they will see if they can do something if it dies... wish I would have read reviews before I spent almost 200$ bc apparently their reviews are mostly bad. I probably wont ever order from them again. They said they price fish cheaper then LA but if you add all the warranties then they're the same price point. I said no you price things to compete. Not to add this and that. As a first time customer. I'm not happy. Sucks. Bc I was really looking forward to 2 nice fish I've been wanting to add to my reef for a long time.

I'm not trying to bash, I usually dont post much on forums. But I'm always on, just want people to be informed... some people have great experiences. And it seems the complaints are pretty much all the same. They're happy to take your money but not really big on making it right when it goes bad.

 

[AquaLocker]

I ordered 2 fish from them this week, delivered today one was beautiful and the other was barely moving and upside down gasping. I took a pic and pulled it out amd into an acclimation. Bucket and used an air stone to help deoxygenated the water (the bags were half filled with air and spongy so they can fit in a smaller box) I eventually got the one fish to sit upright and I put it in an acclimation box in my tank so he wouldnt get harrassed. Hes been laying on his side hard breathing for hours now. Sent them an email with a picture instead of their specified 30 second video of it in The bag and another 30 second video of it on a white background ...(watch their language in their doa policy) to tell them that I dont think the fish will make it. And i was told "well i dont know how long you've been in the hobby but wrasses dont ship well" lol I've been doing this a long time. Any fish wont do well if it cant breathe... they told me it's not DOA and I didn't purchase the extra warranty (but I did buy the stress free shipping... thought it was the same thing) so basically there's nothing they can do but they will see if they can do something if it dies... wish I would have read reviews before I spent almost 200$ bc apparently their reviews are mostly bad. I probably wont ever order from them again. They said they price fish cheaper then LA but if you add all the warranties then they're the same price point. I said no you price things to compete. Not to add this and that. As a first time customer. I'm not happy. Sucks. Bc I was really looking forward to 2 nice fish I've been wanting to add to my reef for a long time.

I'm not trying to bash, I usually dont post much on forums. But I'm always on, just want people to be informed... some people have great experiences. And it seems the complaints are pretty much all the same. They're happy to take your money but not really big on making it right when it goes bad.

Please understand that when we question a customer's experience level, it is not personal, but rather we are trying to determine how much they know before we offer suggestions/advice. Some people are totally new to the hobby whereas others may have 40 years of knowledge.

Yes, wrasses are often stressed during shipping and will lay on their side in the bag or during acclimation. The wrasse did not arrive dead, it arrived stressed - that is not DOA. And just because it's lying on its side does not mean that it will not revive given time in a new tank.

YES, we do offer fish with DOA-only at a lower cost with the option to purchase an extended livestock guarantee. We are upfront about this, we are not trying to trick anyone, we just have a different business model than many other online vendors. Many people don't want to pay more for a livestock guarantee, which the competitors build into their pricing.

On our call, you said the fish was still alive and I asked you to keep us posted and if it died and I would see what I could do for you.

 

[motortrendz]

What type of wrasse is it?

Exquisite. I also got an 8 line. Which was gorgeous. And I told them that. That fish was in a fully inflated bag and was swimming... looked great. The exquisite was upside down and not moving. When it did it went to the surface gulping for air. Just sucks when you basically get told that it's your fault for not acclimating properly. Lol. That it's not dead unless its DEAD. so next time should I just suffocate to poor fish or do everything to try and save it... well see what they do for me. if it makes it great. I dont want anything. If it does it's not bc I didn't acclimate properly. I would even pay to reship a replacement. But I dont like being told sorry. Not sure what we can do. Thanks for calling.

 

[AquaLocker]

What type of wrasse is it?

It is an exquisite fairy wrasse.

 

[motortrendz]

Please understand that when we question a customer's experience level, it is not personal, but rather we are trying to determine how much they know before we offer suggestions/advice. Some people are totally new to the hobby whereas others may have 40 years of knowledge.

Yes, wrasses are often stressed during shipping and will lay on their side in the bag or during acclimation. The wrasse did not arrive dead, it arrived stressed - that is not DOA. And just because it's lying on its side does not mean that it will not revive given time in a new tank.

YES, we do offer fish with DOA-only at a lower cost with the option to purchase an extended livestock guarantee. We are upfront about this, we are not trying to trick anyone, we just have a different business model than many other online vendors. Many people don't want to pay more for a livestock guarantee, which the competitors build into their pricing.

On our call, you said the fish was still alive and I asked you to keep us posted and if it died, I would see what I could do.

And I absolutely said you did say you will see what you can do. and I'm not new by any means. The first words I got from you guys were well wrasses dont ship well what how experienced are you? You didn't offer any help. Just told me it wasnt dead. Which I agreed with. But I've been doing this long enough to know the difference between stress and dying. Which is why I contacted you right away. It's sad that it seems like it's a similar complaint from alot of customers and you guys just brush your hands of it. I've ordered online for along time I've even worked with small businesses for fish and coral. This is the first time I've ever heard or all these separate add on fees. Which I actually thought I paid for. but apparently I only bought one of them.

 

[motortrendz]

And you keep saying that you offerer cheaper prices by only offering a basic doa, your prices weren't that much different than anyone else. You use stock photos on your page not wysiwyg, so that's always a risk. I'm assuming that its direct ship from a wholesaler and you guys dont even get your hands on the fish or see them when they go out... we all know there's a 3-4x mark up on all livestock from wholesale. We all accept that it's part of business. Your basically just taking an order and having the wholesaler fulfill it and ship it direct. That's y you can offer things cheaper. And that's cool. But stop staying you do things with all the separate add on charges and then the price would be the same as other competitors. Just getting more displeased with every post I read about how you take care of your customers. Kinda wish o did more homework before I ordered from you guys.

 

[motortrendz]

So I just wanted to add to this and say thank you. I apologize for getting annoyed and letting this get out of hand... with that said, they did take care of me and gave me a credit. We spoke through email a few times and they actually reached out to me to see if the fish made it or not.

I will definilty be giving them another shot and I know they said they're working on making some things clearer on their site going forward.

Thank you

 

[SeaJay]

I bought a red margin fairy wrasse from them a couple weeks ago along with 4 other fish. All arrived in seemingly good health, though the two jawfish were pretty skinny. The wrasse seemed fine, though his coloring was a bit bleached looking. Just did The second dose of prazi a couple days ago and today the wrasse was dead on the bottom.

Though it wasn’t a bad experience with fishy business, I do feel I’ve gotten healthier looking fish from Live aquaria. If I were to order another $100+ fish from them, I suppose I’d consider the extra guarantee.

 

[motortrendz]

I bought a red margin fairy wrasse from them a couple weeks ago along with 4 other fish. All arrived in seemingly good health, though the two jawfish were pretty skinny. The wrasse seemed fine, though his coloring was a bit bleached looking. Just did The second dose of prazi a couple days ago and today the wrasse was dead on the bottom.

Though it wasn’t a bad experience with fishy business, I do feel I’ve gotten healthier looking fish from Live aquaria. If I were to order another $100+ fish from them, I suppose I’d consider the extra guarantee.

The problem is they dont handle any fish it seems. They come directly from the wholesaler. So they have no control over the quality size and color of the fish you get. And their lack of caring about customer support is pretty obvious.

 

[motortrendz]

I gave them another shot, btw, I tried to order another fish, it was over the free shipping threshold, after I applied my 40$ credit they wanted to chge me 45$ for shipping. When I emailed them and asked them why, I was told bc I'm applying a discount or coupon. When I said its bot a coupon. It's a credit from a previous purchase and that it should be treated as cash I never got a response from them and they haven't responded to any of my emails since.

Terrible customer service terrible how they go about business. I sent @revhtree a private message about them and how they treat people here on r2r but I never got a response either...