Saltwateraquarium.com

[Reefltx]

I am guessing most vendors don't stock tanks, after all the consumer would ultimately pay for the two freight charges, one to the shop and one to the consumer not to mention the warehouse needed to hold the many shape, sizes and flavors. Sorry about your nightmare...been their myself.

I agree, most are drop shipped.

 

[Scurvy]

I am guessing most vendors don't stock tanks, after all the consumer would ultimately pay for the two freight charges, one to the shop and one to the consumer not to mention the warehouse needed to hold the many shape, sizes and flavors. Sorry about your nightmare...been their myself.

Red Sea was also directly impacted from the Hurricanes that ravaged Texas which set them back quite a bit in the fall.... I remember seeing a few threads posted about it.

 

[DSC reef]

Saltwateraquarium.com is our go to for supplies, salt, reagent, etc. Always fast to respond to questions and amazing customer service for the years we've been ordering from them. Highly recommended!!!

 

[SaltwaterAq Verified Sponsor]

I had a terrible experience with them and will never give them another cent. I ordered a fish tank in early December, it arrived promptly, broken. They did not ship a new one as promised, they had me go through warranty support with the company they bought my fish tank form's company they brought the fish tank from. They took no responsibility, did not refund or reship as promised, and it took more than a month to get my tank in and well over 30 emails. They are not authorized retailers of many of the items they sell. Despite the address of the company being less than 60 miles from my house, they drop shipped my aquarium from over 2,000 miles away.

I cannot say enough bad things about this company and would not recommend buying from them. See my post tank thread for more details on their... level of service.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mikes-45-gallon-zoa-garden-max-e-170.345012/page-2

I am really sorry about this transaction. This was really a perfect storm of messes. We stock about 100k in Red Sea Tanks at a time. We don't drop ship from Red Sea like the other guys, we actually buy truckloads of tanks and store then where the warehouse space is cheap (not PA). We like to have these on hand or on order when you buy them. That being said in this particular case. The tank got destroyed by the freight carrier. I'm sorry they damaged it. It really only happens in about 2% of cases. We would have gladly just sent you another like red sea does for dropshippers, but alas we were out of stock on your particular tank. So in that case we had to go through Red Sea to get them to send you a warranty replacement. They are fantastic about shipping replacements. They really do a great job. In this case however, they themselves were out of stock and had to build one for you. The replacement took too long because Red Sea had to build it and was way behind at that time, flooding, hurricane, etc. I'm sorry it took so long. It really was a mess. I wish the was more we could do in this case. We hate to lose a good customer over shipping damages by carriers. But alas that is the world we live in. Sorry for this.

 

[tablesalt]

I am really sorry about this transaction. This was really a perfect storm of messes. We stock about 100k in Red Sea Tanks at a time. We don't drop ship from Red Sea like the other guys, we actually buy truckloads of tanks and store then where the warehouse space is cheap (not PA). We like to have these on hand or on order when you buy them. That being said in this particular case. The tank got destroyed by the freight carrier. I'm sorry they damaged it. It really only happens in about 2% of cases. We would have gladly just sent you another like red sea does for dropshippers, but alas we were out of stock on your particular tank. So in that case we had to go through Red Sea to get them to send you a warranty replacement. They are fantastic about shipping replacements. They really do a great job. In this case however, they themselves were out of stock and had to build one for you. The replacement took too long because Red Sea had to build it and was way behind at that time, flooding, hurricane, etc. I'm sorry it took so long. It really was a mess. I wish the was more we could do in this case. We hate to lose a good customer over shipping damages by carriers. But alas that is the world we live in. Sorry for this.

Your chance to fix this was 4 months ago when I sent you guys 30 emails and you bounced me around between multiple companies and didn't even provide them all the information they needed. Sorry doesn't make it better and I will never recommend your company or your services to anybody. Anytime a thread comes up where your name is mentioned I will give an honest accounting of my dealings with your company.

Other people may have had a good experience working with you but I did not. They are welcome to post their positive stories (as they have) and I will continue to post my honest feedback... up to and including that I only got my aquarium after more than a month, after going all the way up the chain through Red Sea (who did help) and after threatening you with a chargeback.

I do not recommend saltwateraquarium.com.

 

[robert teseo]

yep, I even have a pump on the way right now from them. always fast shipping, never any issues

 

[Dburr1014]

I found my sicce syncra 9.0 here at Christmas. It was about $25 cheaper and free Shipping. Thanks wife for the gift! [emoji5]

 

[Nhjmc]

Do any others use this site? I’ve found an awesome deal on stuff I want/need, but it seriously seems too good to be true!! Is it a legit site?
Thanks!

I order just about ALL of my supplies, food etc. from Saltwater Aquarium.com. Used to be free shipping (no min. purchase amount either) but first of this year they changed that due to the outrageously high cost of shipping packages these days. Still $5.95 is cheap for shipping!

 

[jfoahs04]

Just wanted to add to the choir here, saltwateraquarium.com is excellent. I use them for most of my online drygoods orders. They process and ship fast, the rewards stack up quickly, and they're communicative if you need help. Go for it.

 

[SaltwaterAq Verified Sponsor]

Thanks. This is our 11th year of operation, we were founded in April 2011.

 

[csturgis1989]

I feel compelled to leave a comment here. I had to reach out to their customer service twice in the last week and both times their customer service was not great. The first was purchasing a sump and requesting a price match. Initially they said their price is the lowest and that’s that but they were really looking at the wrong product from the competitors site and finally realized the error after I had to point it out and they corrected it. The tone of the customer service response was off putting. The second time I had accidentally ordered the wrong Uv sterilizer so I asked if I could either pay the extra 8 bucks to get the one I wanted or just cancel the order and I’ll re order. They ended up canceling the order but when I asked if I get my reward points back that I used on the order they said no. I know I am being a little petty here over 10 dollars in reward points but for someone who has been priding themselves for being a small business lately their customer service dosent show.

 

[ARCkeeper]

I feel compelled to leave a comment here. I had to reach out to their customer service twice in the last week and both times their customer service was not great. The first was purchasing a sump and requesting a price match. Initially they said their price is the lowest and that’s that but they were really looking at the wrong product from the competitors site and finally realized the error after I had to point it out and they corrected it. The tone of the customer service response was off putting. The second time I had accidentally ordered the wrong Uv sterilizer so I asked if I could either pay the extra 8 bucks to get the one I wanted or just cancel the order and I’ll re order. They ended up canceling the order but when I asked if I get my reward points back that I used on the order they said no. I know I am being a little petty here over 10 dollars in reward points but for someone who has been priding themselves for being a small business lately their customer service dosent show.

I just had a very similar experience with them. I have been using them for years and until recently have been very happy. Last August my salt shipment got screwed up, most likely by FedEx and customer service took great care of me. This time was completely different. I emailed them to say my salt had been poorly reboxed and the salt bag appeared to have been opened and resealed with the company's reusable zip tie. Their customer service rep, Greg, sent me an email.

Hi Craig,

We do not rebox salt - it should have been in the blue box. If they damage a box in transit, the carrier will rebox. Fritz uses a thick white/clear ziptie - no way to reuse that if it is still on the bag.

Have a great day and thank you for using SaltwaterAquarium.com!

Greg obviously doesn't understand the definition of reusable. or the basics of customer service. Even though the problem was caused by the shipper, the response should have been some variation of "I'm sorry for your negative experience. What can I do to make it better?" Greg basically dismissed my concerns about the condition of the delivery and told me that what I had described to him wasn't possible. How do you call someone a liar without really calling them a liar? Note that there is no mention of any solution to the problem.

When I logged into my account to delete it I actually got to chat with Greg and rather than apologize for any misunderstanding, he felt the best approach would be to argue with me over whether or not he had told me I was wrong! Whether he meant to call me a liar or not he could have de-escalated the situation with a "I'm sorry you took it that way. What I meant to say was..." Instead he turned me from a satisfied customer of many years to a disgruntled ex customer.

If you look at online reviews for the company they tend to have scores in the range of 1.5 - 2 stars out of 5, and the complaints are almost entirely about customer service. You would think someone would notice and maybe, I don't know... get their customer service reps some training?

 

[c_healy]

I prefer saltwater aquarium over brs. No taxes for me with SWA and I usually get things faster from them.

 

[collins.jason.k]

Definitely a reputable site. I've ordered from them multiple times, and everything has always been top notch, including their customer service.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I love saltwateraquarium.com I found them on ebay years ago and they've been slowly stealing my heart, but I give them my business! So much more enjoyable to do business with over those Big Reef Stores Or any of the Bertram Reaming Sites! IMO

 

[ARCkeeper]

I love saltwateraquarium.com I found them on ebay years ago and they've been slowly stealing my heart, but I give them my business! So much more enjoyable to do business with over those Big Reef Stores Or any of the Bertram Reaming Sites! IMO

I used to feel the same way. I even posted similar replies in threads like this, extoling the virtues of Satwateraquarium.com - seriously. I learned that it only takes one knucklehead to ruin the experience. It felt like going into your neighborhood mom and pop store only to have them tell you "We're tired of your money. Why don't you take it down the road to Walmart?"

 

[TARHEEL78]

I'm just curious what brands they carry that BRS doesn't.

 

[ARCkeeper]

I'm just curious what brands they carry that BRS doesn't.

I used to get Fritz Reefpro salt from them. It's a reasonably priced, reliable salt as long as you watch the Mg levels, but not very widely carried. I got other supplies from them as well but a 200 gallon box of salt was pretty much a monthly order for the last few years. I,m thinking I'll switch to Aquaforest salt from BRS now.

 

[paragrouper]

I’ve used them three times recently: twice for dry goods and once to purchase a couple of decently priced rock flower anemones. I have no complaints And will likely use them again—if the price is right.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I used to feel the same way. I even posted similar replies in threads like this, extoling the virtues of Satwateraquarium.com - seriously. I learned that it only takes one knucklehead to ruin the experience. It felt like going into your neighborhood mom and pop store only to have them tell you "We're tired of your money. Why don't you take it down the road to Walmart?"

Sorry you feel that way unfortunately that's the way things happen sometimes, I don't have anything close to that experience so I can't say the same. I also feel like all these places look through customer purchase history and make a judgment call based a little off that as well, so sometimes it's a bad business call to lose money for someone they aren't making any money from or enough money from over an extended amount of time, thats just business, plus alot of people have a sense of entitlement in their complaints that just rub customer service people wrong so they may not be recieved the same way when someone is polite, not that this is fair to said person but it's completely understandable, this is an American company and people are free to go take their business to Walmart if they so choose. Luckily there's tons of saltwater aquarium type stores locally and online to suit everyone's needs!

#my opinions