Earl Karl
Well-Known Member
While I don't have their reef LEDs, I have their planted LEDs over my ten gallon which I was breeding sulawesi shrimp and Painted Fire Red Cherry Shrimp. It was a little business that paid off both planted and reef hobby and got me new stuff for the tank. I had over 200 sulawesi shrimps in that tank. They are relatively hard to breed (even to keep) and pricey (ten bucks each shrimp). One day, all of them died, losing $2000 worth of shrimps, some of the other nice stuff due to ammonia spike, and years of breeding. There were no emotions, I just slumped back on my chair looking at everything I lost. Bad things happens to me all the time, but this hit me a bit hard though.
So what happened? I walked into my college dorm after I slept over at my friend's apartment, I was there to study for an exam, I was gone for 2 days. When I walked in, my tank was just cloudy. At first I thought my auto feeder dumped its food. Nope, still full. I touched the water. It was very cold (sulawesi shrimp thrives in 82-84 degrees F). The water was 68 as I keep my dorm pretty chilly from the Florida heat. I checked for the LED indicator from my Cobalt NeoTherm heater, it was off.
The heater failure killed my tank. Well, at least I thought. I noticed my Fluval HOB filter was very weak. So I unplugged everything. The heater, the filter, then the light... the transformer was SEARING hot. I have tough hands but this thing burned me. I unplugged it with a towel since it was so hot like a boiling cast iron pot. However, that light was the only thing that was running full power, while the other equipment was either weak or shut off. I plugged the heater and filter, but not the light. Both were on and 100% functional. I plug in the light, the heater turned off and the filter was weak again. I don't know much about electrical stuff, but I know that the light was the reason for the loss, so I contacted Current USA through email.
The customer service was horrendous. I flipped out, all those years of commitment. Gone. They read my anger, so they allowed me to return my light so they can send a new one. Obviously, that wasn't enough since my light was still within warranty and that literally thousands of dollars worth of livestock perished because of the light. They offered to send me some replacement shrimps, like around ten. That was good enough for me, I didn't want to deal with them anymore. But they would only send the replacement shrimps if they really knew it was because of the light that was the cause of the deaths. Really? Ok I guess that's fine. They ask me what power strip I was using, I was using the regular 6 outlet power surge protector strip from Home Depot, which was enough for my little ten gallon. They would contact me back once they have tested it out. They never contacted me. I reached out for an update, they responded that their technician was taking a break and that they will respond soon. They didn't respond for a month. I reached out again, they ignored me. It has been half a year since then. That showed how guilty they were about the incident. And I couldn't do anything about it.
I took some time to calm myself before I make a statement on this. I didn't want to lash out or say something regretful, and even now I might have, but I had to say something. To ignore a customer is one thing, to flat out lie to a customer is another. And they did both. I know the issue with my light was a rare defect, but that isn't what I want to talk about. I just want to warn people about their customer service. Their product is decent, but I would not recommend it if you don't want to deal with such cancerous customer service.
I wish I was rich though, otherwise things would have been a lot better.
Please buy a product with excellent customer service, they may be more expensive, but it is a lot more worth it. In fact I would have saved a lot more money, time, and grief if I invested in a reputable product rather than a decent product overshadowed by their disgraceful customer service.
Thank you for reading my story, hopefully this helps.
So what happened? I walked into my college dorm after I slept over at my friend's apartment, I was there to study for an exam, I was gone for 2 days. When I walked in, my tank was just cloudy. At first I thought my auto feeder dumped its food. Nope, still full. I touched the water. It was very cold (sulawesi shrimp thrives in 82-84 degrees F). The water was 68 as I keep my dorm pretty chilly from the Florida heat. I checked for the LED indicator from my Cobalt NeoTherm heater, it was off.
The heater failure killed my tank. Well, at least I thought. I noticed my Fluval HOB filter was very weak. So I unplugged everything. The heater, the filter, then the light... the transformer was SEARING hot. I have tough hands but this thing burned me. I unplugged it with a towel since it was so hot like a boiling cast iron pot. However, that light was the only thing that was running full power, while the other equipment was either weak or shut off. I plugged the heater and filter, but not the light. Both were on and 100% functional. I plug in the light, the heater turned off and the filter was weak again. I don't know much about electrical stuff, but I know that the light was the reason for the loss, so I contacted Current USA through email.
The customer service was horrendous. I flipped out, all those years of commitment. Gone. They read my anger, so they allowed me to return my light so they can send a new one. Obviously, that wasn't enough since my light was still within warranty and that literally thousands of dollars worth of livestock perished because of the light. They offered to send me some replacement shrimps, like around ten. That was good enough for me, I didn't want to deal with them anymore. But they would only send the replacement shrimps if they really knew it was because of the light that was the cause of the deaths. Really? Ok I guess that's fine. They ask me what power strip I was using, I was using the regular 6 outlet power surge protector strip from Home Depot, which was enough for my little ten gallon. They would contact me back once they have tested it out. They never contacted me. I reached out for an update, they responded that their technician was taking a break and that they will respond soon. They didn't respond for a month. I reached out again, they ignored me. It has been half a year since then. That showed how guilty they were about the incident. And I couldn't do anything about it.
I took some time to calm myself before I make a statement on this. I didn't want to lash out or say something regretful, and even now I might have, but I had to say something. To ignore a customer is one thing, to flat out lie to a customer is another. And they did both. I know the issue with my light was a rare defect, but that isn't what I want to talk about. I just want to warn people about their customer service. Their product is decent, but I would not recommend it if you don't want to deal with such cancerous customer service.
I wish I was rich though, otherwise things would have been a lot better.
Please buy a product with excellent customer service, they may be more expensive, but it is a lot more worth it. In fact I would have saved a lot more money, time, and grief if I invested in a reputable product rather than a decent product overshadowed by their disgraceful customer service.
Thank you for reading my story, hopefully this helps.
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