My experience with Saltwateraquarium.com

[VintageReefer]

That worked! Thank you!

 

[deome]

To my fellow reefers,


I wanted to express my experience with this company so others who order know what to expect before you make your purchase.

I have several completed orders and always had a pleasant experience. I liked buying from them because it seems Aperture (BRS and other companies) is taking over and I wanted to help the "little guy". Unfortunately, my last order was handled in a very poor way.

When you buy a product, there is a button that says "price match" you can activate. I used this button to buy some roller fleece that was being advertised on another distributor’s website for less. This was the 2/29 sale many companies were advertising. I put my request through, gave the comparison website from the competing company and waited. I made this request on 2/28 and on 2/29. I was not sure when the competing company’s sale would conclude, so I ordered on the 29th. In the shipping notes, I again stated that I was asking for a price match. Several days later, my shipment showed up and the price had not changed. I pointed this out via email to customer service and a guy named Greg, who defines himself as the customer service manager told me you had to request the price match and then receive a code to input into the order form to receive the new price. Well, I did not know that. I have scoured the website looking for this policy and I cannot find it anywhere. I thought for sure that we could "just work this out", it is only $20. Besides, I purchase a lot of supplies and I have a great order history.

I expressed my concerns to "Greg" and he would not answer me. I had to resend the email and ask him to answer my question in the subject line. Only then did he answer me. Basically, he told me to go fly a kite. He would not answer any further questions and just regurgitated the "policy" again. I asked him when my acceptance or denial for my request was sent (because it was not) and he never answered. Very poor service. He will not work with me and quite honestly, I do not care. The lesson is: caveat emptor (buyer beware).

There are a lot of companies to buy from in this game. No one has a major price advantage due to MAP policies and few companies have a unique (exclusive) product to offer that would compel you to order from them besides Bulk Reef Supply. This company has Orbit, but I do not know any reefer that uses that brand. You would think that employees from these companies would realize that and show appreciation for your business. I guess not with this company. I hope the owner Kenneth Brown knows what is happening behind the scenes so he can fix these problems before they become wider spread. He is the one that is going to lose future business, not Greg. He is the one that is going to care.

Wish I'd seen this a month ago. Long story short, I ordered a product on Oct 10th, got a tracking number that indicated product was never received by shipping company, and on the same day the product was listed as "out of stock" on the website. Contacted customer service and they claim that the shipper (USPS) never scans the product on receipt, and told me I had to wait until today (Oct 24th) to request a refund. I just requested a refund, but I expect it will be weeks before I have my money back in my bank account. Really seems like they just took my money, realized they were out of stock, and lied to me about shipping the product in the first place hoping they could get it in stock before I noticed. Terrible customer service. Never buying from saltwateraquarium.com again.