MixedFruitBasket
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
- Messages
- 1,426
- Reaction score
- 1,732
- What state or country do you live in
- North Carolina
I have decided to start doing vendor reviews. We all know how expensive this hobby is, and while it costs money to grow/sell corals or run a store for dry goods/supplies, I don't think it's beyond reason to expect a level of transparency for vendors. There are things a vendor cannot help, acts of god, stupidity of shipping company, neglect from buyer leading to damage or death of item purchased.
Most of my reviews will be specifically about livestock, because that is where it is mostly the burden of the seller to represent an item as best to their ability and show that item to the best of their ability.
The following is based on my opinion and experience .
I may elect to use photos from their site, my photos from my tank, and screenshots from personal email when inquiry about product representation was made depending on my experience.
Quite often, the lower the vendor score, the more evidence I may post to prove why I gave that score.
My scoring system goes as follows
5* Excellent--Exceeded expectations.
4* Good--Seller did to the best of their ability.
3* Okay--Seller made a valiant attempt.
2* Poor--As a buyer very disappointed with seller's sales practices.
1* Cheated--I feel as if there was no effort made for clear and precise representation and or customer service.
Buy from again ranking:
Yes
Maybe--depends on overall experience such as seller's response to issues.
No
Finally, total amount of losses from purchase: US $$$
Added: I want to make this clear I am not doing any of these reviews to force any vendor to right what I feel like was a wrong. And I will NOT change my overall review if an offer to do so is made or done. I might change whether or not I will buy from again to a *maybe*, but that is the only thing that will be altered with each review experience.
*************AQUALOCKER REVIEW*************
I search for very specific corals that are not easy to find or just outright ignored (usually ignored). I have called many, many, MANY vendors, I have sent notes asking some of the big ones to please order, I have talked to others who say they will look into my request but never do.
So I admit. I didn't have much hope of getting a response from Aqualocker about "throw away" corals no one seems to give a rat's hair about.
I messaged Aqualocker and they responded almost immediately. I answered their request for photos. They called their supplier. The supplier said they didn't have coral X but did have coral Z. In my experience, the corals I like most are completely misidentified so sometimes I get lucky and that misidentified coral is exactly what I wanted.
Aqualocker was very thorough, talked to their vendor, got a description and their "stock photo" which showed a coral that wasn't what I wanted at all and the obscure info from the vendor didn't help.
I asked Aqualocker if they'd be willing to take the chance, order it, and let me buy it.
This is where vendors take risks (and no they shouldn't have to) and if they took a chance on every yahoo that made this request they'd be broke. After talking with Aqualocker for a while they were willing to take a gamble on *me* and purchase what I wanted. I paid and the items were sent to me.
The corals were exactly what I'd been looking for.
Now after being blown off by some of the biggest companies with excellent buying power, sources, and reach, having this one smaller vendor willing to try (and I mean work for their pennies), really made my day. And yes, I've tried other small vendors too, but the responses I got came across as them not having any say in what came through their online store. Could never tell me when they'd do another order. What would be in the order, etc.
Truth or not, I have no idea but "surprise inside" sure seems like a crummy way to run a business.
This was my first purchase with AquaLocker and I couldn't be more pleased. Even if the corals hadn't been right, even been DOA, the fact they TRIED when no one else would, amazed me.
Especially after having more than a few vendors tell me "they don't have the time" to do something as simple as look at *their in-house home grown stock* to see if it matches the photo on their site. Because I've also run into the issue that a vendor will a photo of their in-house corals only to learn after I get it, that photo is 10+ years old and they failed to realize the photo isn't the same species as what they're selling now.
I really appreciate the fact Aqualocker went the extra ten miles to try and help me out. Succeeding when no one else would try, was simply the cherry on top.
Customer service: 5*
Transparency of their knowledge: 5* (Aqualocker had no problem admitting they knew little to nothing about the coral I wanted and they were willing to LEARN.)
Representation of specimen: Again, they didn't know what to expect and they didn't lie about it. They didn't have photos to show me and they didn't go searching the net to find fake ones. Truthfulness deserves the 5*
Size: NA (because they had no idea) same, truthfulness 5*
Color: They warned me it was described as brown so it could be hideous. Needs no explanation: 5*
Shipping: 5*
Coral condition: 5* (big healthy specimens too)
Buy from again: Yes
Loss from purchase: $0
Most of my reviews will be specifically about livestock, because that is where it is mostly the burden of the seller to represent an item as best to their ability and show that item to the best of their ability.
The following is based on my opinion and experience .
I may elect to use photos from their site, my photos from my tank, and screenshots from personal email when inquiry about product representation was made depending on my experience.
Quite often, the lower the vendor score, the more evidence I may post to prove why I gave that score.
My scoring system goes as follows
5* Excellent--Exceeded expectations.
4* Good--Seller did to the best of their ability.
3* Okay--Seller made a valiant attempt.
2* Poor--As a buyer very disappointed with seller's sales practices.
1* Cheated--I feel as if there was no effort made for clear and precise representation and or customer service.
Buy from again ranking:
Yes
Maybe--depends on overall experience such as seller's response to issues.
No
Finally, total amount of losses from purchase: US $$$
Added: I want to make this clear I am not doing any of these reviews to force any vendor to right what I feel like was a wrong. And I will NOT change my overall review if an offer to do so is made or done. I might change whether or not I will buy from again to a *maybe*, but that is the only thing that will be altered with each review experience.
*************AQUALOCKER REVIEW*************
I search for very specific corals that are not easy to find or just outright ignored (usually ignored). I have called many, many, MANY vendors, I have sent notes asking some of the big ones to please order, I have talked to others who say they will look into my request but never do.
So I admit. I didn't have much hope of getting a response from Aqualocker about "throw away" corals no one seems to give a rat's hair about.
I messaged Aqualocker and they responded almost immediately. I answered their request for photos. They called their supplier. The supplier said they didn't have coral X but did have coral Z. In my experience, the corals I like most are completely misidentified so sometimes I get lucky and that misidentified coral is exactly what I wanted.
Aqualocker was very thorough, talked to their vendor, got a description and their "stock photo" which showed a coral that wasn't what I wanted at all and the obscure info from the vendor didn't help.
I asked Aqualocker if they'd be willing to take the chance, order it, and let me buy it.
This is where vendors take risks (and no they shouldn't have to) and if they took a chance on every yahoo that made this request they'd be broke. After talking with Aqualocker for a while they were willing to take a gamble on *me* and purchase what I wanted. I paid and the items were sent to me.
The corals were exactly what I'd been looking for.
Now after being blown off by some of the biggest companies with excellent buying power, sources, and reach, having this one smaller vendor willing to try (and I mean work for their pennies), really made my day. And yes, I've tried other small vendors too, but the responses I got came across as them not having any say in what came through their online store. Could never tell me when they'd do another order. What would be in the order, etc.
Truth or not, I have no idea but "surprise inside" sure seems like a crummy way to run a business.
This was my first purchase with AquaLocker and I couldn't be more pleased. Even if the corals hadn't been right, even been DOA, the fact they TRIED when no one else would, amazed me.
Especially after having more than a few vendors tell me "they don't have the time" to do something as simple as look at *their in-house home grown stock* to see if it matches the photo on their site. Because I've also run into the issue that a vendor will a photo of their in-house corals only to learn after I get it, that photo is 10+ years old and they failed to realize the photo isn't the same species as what they're selling now.
I really appreciate the fact Aqualocker went the extra ten miles to try and help me out. Succeeding when no one else would try, was simply the cherry on top.
Customer service: 5*
Transparency of their knowledge: 5* (Aqualocker had no problem admitting they knew little to nothing about the coral I wanted and they were willing to LEARN.)
Representation of specimen: Again, they didn't know what to expect and they didn't lie about it. They didn't have photos to show me and they didn't go searching the net to find fake ones. Truthfulness deserves the 5*
Size: NA (because they had no idea) same, truthfulness 5*
Color: They warned me it was described as brown so it could be hideous. Needs no explanation: 5*
Shipping: 5*
Coral condition: 5* (big healthy specimens too)
Buy from again: Yes
Loss from purchase: $0
