Why do we put up with terrible service

[MnFish1]

I was being a bit of a wah wah baby for sure. I'll figure out something on the new track piece. It's the lack of communication. This is deeper than just this tank. I received a small box of corals last week from a supplier on this sight. No notification of shipment and I requested they ship two days later. Got home and my kids left it sitting for about 3 hours not knowing what it was.

Was just saying - if you like that tank - call them - give them a 'frank' discussion of what you want to re-order. If you like the tank you have nothing to lose. And maybe the feedback will be helpful. Just saying

 

[adam finley]

Well I guess I’ll still play devils advocate. I have not ordered anything from them personally. However, if you are selling something you should at least wait to charge someone when you actually have the product and are preparing to ship. Or at least explain “ which they might” that items may not be in stock and it might take longer to ship. Imagine if you went through Mc D’s and ordered then paid for you food and they said your food wasn’t in stock but come back next week when their delivery comes and you might get it then . I’m just saying don’t take my money unless you have my product lol.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

so ordering an aquarium is now the same as going to mcdonalds? While i agree that some service sucks, we are also a society that wants things NOW! And if its not then people scream bloody murder.

So the OP didnt know who won a contest and his tank isnt being placed in a box and sent USPS? Get a grip, how do you think that aquariums are shipped? they ship via freight and not one aquarium per truck.

If you cant wait 2 weeks for an aquarium then cancel your order. People are simply human, i mean jesus, it is an aquarium not a liver.

My 2 cents; maybe I am just a little more west coast.

 

[MnFish1]

Well I guess I’ll still play devils advocate. I have not ordered anything from them personally. However, if you are selling something you should at least wait to charge someone when you actually have the product and are preparing to ship. Or at least explain “ which they might” that items may not be in stock and it might take longer to ship. Imagine if you went through Mc D’s and ordered then paid for you food and they said your food wasn’t in stock but come back next week when their delivery comes and you might get it then . I’m just saying don’t take my money unless you have my product lol.

Its not the standard. I mean perhaps a simple cheap item on amazon - If you order something - you pay for it when you order. You can always cancel it afterwards if it doesn't ship on time - but its pretty common for high ticket items.

 

[jmp21677]

so ordering an aquarium is now the same as going to mcdonalds? While i agree that some service sucks, we are also a society that wants things NOW! And if its not then people scream bloody murder.

So the OP didnt know who won a contest and his tank isnt being placed in a box and sent USPS? Get a grip, how do you think that aquariums are shipped? they ship via freight and not one aquarium per truck.

If you cant wait 2 weeks for an aquarium then cancel your order. People are simply human, i mean jesus, it is an aquarium not a liver.

My 2 cents; maybe I am just a little more west coast.

Pretty sure you missed the point. If I order something I expect it to ship quickly, or to be contacted why do I need to chase you down when you already have my money? Correct on society these days. We want everything now. If these businesses want to stick around... they should adjust to their customer not the opposite.

 

[adam finley]

so ordering an aquarium is now the same as going to mcdonalds? While i agree that some service sucks, we are also a society that wants things NOW! And if its not then people scream bloody murder.

So the OP didnt know who won a contest and his tank isnt being placed in a box and sent USPS? Get a grip, how do you think that aquariums are shipped? they ship via freight and not one aquarium per truck.

If you cant wait 2 weeks for an aquarium then cancel your order. People are simply human, i mean jesus, it is an aquarium not a liver.

My 2 cents; maybe I am just a little more west coast.

Im guessing you didn’t fully read or understand the op’s message. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They took his money for a product they didn’t even have in stock. So basically he would have to wait however long it took them to get it back in stock and additional time for them to ship it. A good practice would be to let people know it’s currently not in stock and let them decide if they want to still pay and wait till it’s in. And since your so patient and human send me 1500 bucks for a tank and I’ll ship it out to you when I get it in stock lol.

 

[MnFish1]

Im guessing you didn’t fully read or understand the op’s message. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They took his money for a product they didn’t even have in stock. So basically he would have to wait however long it took them to get it back in stock and additional time for them to ship it. A good practice would be to let people know it’s currently not in stock and let them decide if they want to still pay and wait till it’s in. And since your so patient and human send me 1500 bucks for a tank and I’ll ship it out to you when I get it in stock lol.

The thing I disagree with (a bit) is calling out this company for 'terrible service'. When part of the problem was impatience on the part of the OP. Whether right or wrong - its common practice to pay upfront for big ticket items. And with all deference to the original poster - it wasn't clear what happened - and we're only hearing one side of the story. It is 'terrible service' IMHO if the company wasn't sympathetic or just blew him off. If they were apologetic and explained the situation - to me that's not 'terrible service'. Now that the OP has clarified that happened I hope they were apologetic - and think they should have offered him free merchandise or some other discount - but he cancelled the order.For example - if you go to Home Depot and buy a set of kitchen appliances, you pay for them right then - even though they aren't shipped and may not be for weeks. etc etc. And though Waterboxes website says their tank goes on the truck in 2-3 days - it can take 2-4 weeks for a truck to actually deliver the item. For example when ordering from Redsea - they say it will be shipped on x date - the shipping company will call you to schedule delivery. It is like this with most of not all of large ticketed crated freight - and would have happened with any company.

One thing waterbox could/should have done is put 'out of stock' on the webpage (which I note that they have done with other items and notify you once its available to order. This could have been a simple error on their part.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Im guessing you didn’t fully read or understand the op’s message. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They took his money for a product they didn’t even have in stock. So basically he would have to wait however long it took them to get it back in stock and additional time for them to ship it. A good practice would be to let people know it’s currently not in stock and let them decide if they want to still pay and wait till it’s in. And since your so patient and human send me 1500 bucks for a tank and I’ll ship it out to you when I get it in stock lol.

my custom tank was $4600 shipped, i put 3k down on it and it took 2 months to get it... so there is that.

So an item was out of stock and the OP is soooo outraged that he has to start a thread about "horrible" service.

Sounds to me like he should order some pampers.

 

[jmp21677]

Sounds to me like you got worked on your tank. Pretty judgemental. Why even comment? Your custom tank wanted a deposit and took time? Wow that's new. If you read through the post I might have mentioned waiting on a custom tank.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

You think an aquarium gets shipped on the day after you purchase it and I am the moron.

ok, that makes sense.

 

[JoshH]

You think an aquarium gets shipped on the day after you purchase it and I am the moron.

ok, that makes sense.

I believe the OPs real issue is it wasn't posted anywhere that he was essentially ordering and paying FULL price for a tank that wasn't even in stock. (Not partial purchase price like your custom tank.) And I don't see anywhere where he directly compared it to custom tanks?

Sounds to me like you got worked on your tank. Pretty judgemental. Why even comment? Your custom tank wanted a deposit and took time? Wow that's new. If you read through the post I might have mentioned waiting on a custom tank.

While I agree his attitude and post was beyond unnecessary and certainly not within the general positive conduct of this forum. Stooping to the same level isn't any better, there is a wonderful ignore button in place to block people who post and behave in a manner not in line with proper social conduct.

#mods

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I can't hold my tongue anymore. We all spend ridiculous amounts of money on this hobby and 9 out 10 suppliers have horrible service. There are the good and very good (BRS and Battle corals) and then there is the majority! I recently purchased coral and the supplier mentioned they were giving away a pack during this "sale" and listed the guidelines. I'm assuming things may not have gone the best and no one can seem to figure out who actually won. The list of possible contestants was very small. Now, it could have gone out I suppose? I also ordered a full tank set up last week from waterbox. Site didn't mention anything about delayed shipping so I ordered a 1500 set up. That's a fairly large sum! It's glass and crummy wood. My card was charged so the tank must be on its way. No company charges more than a day or two prior to shipping unless it's live goods etc. I know it's xmas and there is a good chance sales are up.... but it's not my job as a consumer to double check that their website is accurate.... so I'm sure it's on a truck heading to rainy WA, right? Wrong! Sounds like they are waiting on their next delivery in about two weeks. This is terrible service and I just can't understand why it's acceptable. We will destroy certain vendors for minor issues and let others do whatever they want. Someone fill me in!

Some may call it bashing, I call it communication when we air our concerns. If we done speak up. Who does. I'm here. Listening

 

[CMO]

Definitely some issues in the industry. I've received several packages now with completely wrong items, an RODI unit without any of the wires crimped, prepacked resin canisters half full on several occasions (but not due to damage - they were sealed this way), live shipments sent on the wrong day, frags with more aptasia than the actual zoanthids ordered, dealt with a Company go to China for a month plus while not returning calls or emails, companies that just don't return email all together (big names too), the list goes on. Some strange stuff for sure going on that I've never experienced in any other industry thus far. Lay off the weed while at work people!

Luckily there are some truly wonderful vendors out there that always provide quality products and service - BRS, Battle Corals and Cultivated Reef to name a few of my favorites.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

i have made a couple orders with aquaSD in the past year and have been very impressed. Great prices, great looking frags, and really friendly customer service.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Now (I may get eggs thrown at me or worse a desk or two) but we are no longer in a friendly society. I mean just reading threads in here how many people have complained about vendors over who knows what? (I can’t keep track of them all). Our society has gone to the phase of everything is online because like myself I work crazy crazy amount of hours. When do I have time to go, oh yeah only after they are closed. So online vendors realize this and can pretty much do what they want because of how our society is.

Two examples my parents bought me a custom 425 gallon tank, and it’s been delayed twice. Each time they have called me and told me which is amazing and I’m so busy with work I don’t have time for it now anyway. But at the same time my parents paid out the nose for it so they probably don’t want us to cancel. This isn’t the reason I hardly ever order online, but because of how rude people can or will be to one. It’s not just our hobby, it’s (I mean dominos pizza for me just two days ago). So again, maybe we should look at the bigger pic and see if sadly our beloved hobby as fallen into the culture norm or (I don’t care, I’m allowed to be ride phase, or we don’t have to keep our promises).

My second example of I believe society is to blame rather than businesses is, I lol me (the girl who is extremely shy, and scared of her own shadow), was dumb enough to argue with a school principal (over if she had the power to change the law on cross walks because it was her school). Clearly she can’t and this was proved to her. Now I’m my argument yes I was polite, professional, and said nothing demeaning. But lol I was still banned from the school (two days later it was reversed by the superintendent) but still. The principal never even introduced herself as such, and she berated me the entire time. When did prinpals start acting this way, where have I been?

Granted yes (I was wrong to publicly question her), but I was still nice about it. I feel bad for the op, that shouldn’t happen and most of us, always say I would cancel etc. In honesty most of us do not, so by then this becomes the norm for people to act.

I think the only way sadly is to bluntly inform people this is not okay. But that’s a risk because like myself I was nice even and was banned for voicing my thoughts ( kinda why I’m shy). But like the principal, any business can just ban someone if they feel remotely offended. (Yes not all people are polite but makes my overall point even stronger) that we as society have become this.

The only way it can change is if we all of us change in society as a whole. Until then we are going to (maybe not all etc) but more than most will have a horrible experience. Another example is like my niece wanted a song off of a Disney soundtrack just one, but had to buy the whole bloody album. Our society had become rude and only about money. It’s a sad time, one honestly why I’m only on line here is because at least people here still have the good culture in them.

 

[jmp21677]

The customer service piece for me would have been to shoot me an email or have the website show out of stock. I could be wrong, but I consider Red Sea,Waterbox to be more of a in stock type of tank. I've ordered custom tanks in the past knowing it would be several weeks prior to receiving and that was if the guy building stands was on time. I was originally going to purchase through BRS but it was missing from their site, that should have been a clue. I don't always catch on the fastest. I saw that it didn't show as OOS directly through waterbox and you got a free NYOS skimmer. Normally I would shoot an email to confirm stock status but the skimmer piece was ending. Bad timing, I'm being impatient.... but no one was out anything in the end. I did buy a similar tank from a local store.. delivery time.....10-14 days

 

[DSC reef]

@jmp21677 ignore the rude responses, sometimes people are just unhappy for their own reasons so hurling insults make them feel better although they have no place here. You have every right to your opinion and how you feel is not unnecessary IMO. You've even voiced your faults in this situation and how you'd handle the situation differently. Thank you for posting your concerns and again, ignore the unnecessary comments.

 

[jmp21677]

@jmp21677 ignore the rude responses, sometimes people are just unhappy for their own reasons so hurling insults make them feel better although they have no place here. You have every right to your opinion and how you feel is not unnecessary IMO. You've even voiced your faults in this situation and how you'd handle the situation differently. Thank you for posting your concerns and again, ignore the unnecessary comments.

100% right! I should have a little better control of myself! Appreciate the comment!

 

[Jay Norris]

I think this generation is expecting far too much from overdoses of IMMEDIATE gratification

So you didnt win the prize. Waaah.

So your shipment got delayed and you couldn't wait. imagine that. you have no idea how many things have to line up down the transportation line for it to go perfect. especially a big piece like a fragile tank

everyone wants a boned-in ribeye steak cooked perfectly and order it off the $1 menu and get it in under 5mins

patience and humility is a lost trait IMO



.

No, I want the Porterhouse.

 

[CMO]

i have made a couple orders with aquaSD in the past year and have been very impressed. Great prices, great looking frags, and really friendly customer service.

Any pest problems with your orders from them? I like their stuff and communication but stopped ordering from them after getting a hammer coral loaded with flatwoms.