Apex customer service is the terrible

[pdxmonkeyboy]

i wanted to say the same thing but didnt want to type it out. Most people are not IT minded and if there are sooo many variations on wifi setup that problems will arise. I would bet a huge volume of problems are fixed just by pointing people in the correct place.

You want bad customer service?? Buy a ford 150. Mine spit two sparks plug out of the head...weird? no.. design flaw they eventually lost a class action lawsuit against. Then my windshield started leaking for no reason (as did 10s of thousands of others)...because sealing a windshield is some kind of magic of only the latest technology. Wherr does it leak? onto the brain of my truck. Frys it, truck wont run. Call the dealership.. yeah, those are on backorder.. will be about 6 MONTHS!! what the heck..WHY? Yeah, been a lot of those going bad and they just didnt make enough. That is on a 35k truck. Now THAT is poor customer service.

 

[Mark Gray]

I have had great luck with Neptune I had one problem I emailed about they answered in less than 2 hours

 

[Mark Gray]

1 On vacation in Cozumel. Got an email and text alert that my tank temperature was low. House temperature set at 50 Had my house sitter check a heater that had failed

2 on vacation in Cozumel. Got a message that apex was off line gave a call to the house sitter. Checked the house and there was no power

If one is doing Alk into a tank with thousands of $ in corals it would be foolish not to have your tank monitor pH and alert you with pH spike

On and on and on

In my case is not so much about control but more about piece of mind. I am frequently away and having the ability to monitor the tank gives me some respite

Moral of the story

Don’t go on vacation to Cozumel

HaHa I recommend Thailand for vacation next time, my Apex worked great last year the whole 4 weeks I was there

 

[Christopher Presley]

Neptune optical sensor goes bad, Neptune doesn’t respond by the second day so I sent a email to the retailer as well. The retailer sends me a new one right away. Neptune sends me a common sense trouble shooting email the third day with all the steps it would take to get a new one which wasn’t worth the effort for the cost of the part. Not running away but when my original email explained all of the trouble shooting I went through don’t send me an email to do the same troubleshooting steps I already performed, read it.

 

[lbacha]

For the number of people that I'm guessing use Neptune's to run their reefs I actually don't see many posts about issues. I have a apex but I don't consider it bulletproof. I have other non apex redundancy's in place just to be safe.

As for customer service I'm sure with the Black Friday sales and Christmas just wrapping up their customer support is slammed. It's not an excuse but to the person that said it took a day to get back I would consider that pretty good customer service. A small company like neptune cant have a huge call center just answering calls 24/7 but they need to be responsive which 24hrs is.

 

[Grey Guy]

Not a fan either. I guess if you are at the top of the heap, you don’t worry about your customers needs. After all, after all the money they have spent, where else can they go?

 

[Grey Guy]

i doubt you have that much money in your hand.

Just saying, the apex is a great product and for those with a lot of money invested in their setup, it is almost a necessity. I loved to bash apex until i got one. Then i was saying to myself.. why on earth did i wait this long.

To the original OP.. sorry you had trouble, it does happen. Not often, but it does happen.

Apex is awesome when they work. But I would never trust in them alone. I think they need to be made more bullet proof. In a perfect environment, they might run forever, but Neptune needs to realize that being located near a reef tank is a hostile environment. For all the money they charge, you would think they could make their stuff more water proof. Accidents happen. In this case they can really cost you. One small splash can do it. Believe me, I know.

 

[Sleepydoc]

..has an electical engineering degree...

thinks there is something actually called boatloader mode....

danged autocorrect!

I think you misunderstood. I have all macs and they were able to remotely log into my apex and help me with a network issue. I have had nothing but good customer service.

I have Macs as well and have never had an issue. (Part of the reason I went what the heck Apex and not Profilux - GHL requires a PC for updates) I’m not sure if the OP has an Apex Classic that you can’t do over the air firmware updates with. You need to have an internet connection for fusion, but you can connect directly to the device on your local network without internet access.

As for the customer service, I’ve had good luck and I think it depends a bit on your perspective. The ‘trouble shooting FAQ’ steps are annoying, but as anyone who’s worked in IT support can tell you, a lot of people don’t do them and end up wasting a lot of time with something they can quickly fix themselves. They are also things you can do when you are waiting for them to get back to you. I have had a support tech on the phone more than once; how many other companies will do that? We’d all like to instantly be able to talk to someone, but realistically, that’s not feasible, and getting back to you in 24-48 hours is a very reasonable time frame, even if it’s longer than most of us would like.

In regards to the original problem, it sounds like you had a major malfunction. I wonder if there was a glitch or power failure when you were Updating that corrupted the firmware. Either way, that’s one something I would expect to be easily remedied.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Apex is awesome when they work. But I would never trust in them alone. I think they need to be made more bullet proof. In a perfect environment, they might run forever, but Neptune needs to realize that being located near a reef tank is a hostile environment. For all the money they charge, you would think they could make their stuff more water proof. Accidents happen. In this case they can really cost you. One small splash can do it. Believe me, I know.

name one serious controller that is waterproof....

 

[recess62]

name one serious controller that is waterproof....

Exactly the reason the controller and modules are in a separate enclosed cabinet. I don’t know about others but no matter how careful I am I always drip/spill water when performing tanks Maintance. It is nice Having piece of mind knowing that the important electronics are protected. Also having the electronics not exposed to high levels of humidity in the sump should help prolong the products longevity.

 

[Sleepydoc]

I’d have to agree. The main unit is designed to minimize the effects of water, but complete water proofing is nearly impossible and in some ways may make things worse - if they advertised it as water resistant, then they set themselves up for complaints when people aren’t be as careful and splashed too much water on them.

I agree, having the controller (and all power strips, etc) is preferable whenever possible, but not always feasible for everyone. Beyond that, organizing your sump to minimze the likelihood of accidents is key - whether you have a controller or just power strips and cords.

 

[[Cameron]]

Customer service hoops are designed to intentionally cause customers to self correct or buy replacement gear. They know once a person is in for $600 plus they have them by the 'nads. Who is going to throw out their Apex controller over a $150 module? Not many.

I’d have to agree. The main unit is designed to minimize the effects of water, but complete water proofing is nearly impossible and in some ways may make things worse - if they advertised it as water resistant, then they set themselves up for complaints when people aren’t be as careful and splashed too much water on them.

They should epoxy their boards which would solve a lot of electrical issues. It isn't even that expensive. What it prevents is them refurbing those boards and passing it onto other customers as new... good for them bad for their customers.

 

[Grey Guy]

name one serious controller that is waterproof....

My point exactly

 

[Grey Guy]

Exactly the reason the controller and modules are in a separate enclosed cabinet. I don’t know about others but no matter how careful I am I always drip/spill water when performing tanks Maintance. It is nice Having piece of mind knowing that the important electronics are protected. Also having the electronics not exposed to high levels of humidity in the sump should help prolong the products longevity.

Best option for now, and worth the space,extension cables and effort. If I had it to do all over again....

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

well, regrettably i have another controller saved the day story. It is more a value of controller example more than just being an apex. But someone remarked its all bad, all it is is problems and that is not the case.

I had not seen my blue throat trigger for two feedings. i could see him wedged in his little hole though. Yesterday my ORP sensor recorded a big fast drop.. meaning something is eating up oxygen in the tank.

Please not the trigger, please not the trigger... he wasnt in his hole and i had to pull some rockwork apart and i found him dead and squeezed in a tiny slot. He apparently got in and couldnt get out, he was beat up pretty good.

Really sucks, i loved that little guy.

But, my apex prevented a massive dose of ammonia, nitrate and phos from a decaying fish and the resulting problems. Again, it wasnt an alarm, it was seeing the steep dive in the fusion graph.

 

[[Cameron]]

A single fish in a properly sized tank with healthy bacteria and fuge wouldn't even burp at the death of most fish.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

A single fish in a properly sized tank with healthy bacteria and fuge wouldn't even burp at the death of most fish.

That is a pretty broad and actually not all that true statement. i have seen PLENTY of tanks that spawn an algae bloom from a dying fish. Sure.. one anthias not going to cause a problem.. an adult tang, trigger, or other good sized fish will ABSOLUTELY throw things off.

You throw a block of frozen food equal to the weight of an adult fish in your tank and see what happens to your phosphate numbers.

 

[[Cameron]]

That is a pretty broad and actually not all that true statement. i have seen PLENTY of tanks that spawn an algae bloom from a dying fish. Sure.. one anthias not going to cause a problem.. an adult tang, trigger, or other good sized fish will ABSOLUTELY throw things off.

You throw a block of frozen food equal to the weight of an adult fish in your tank and see what happens to your phosphate numbers.

A dead fish doesn't dump all its nitrates at once. It takes days for it to break down. A well designed and properly sized fuge can sustain a tank against a massive amount of nitrates over time which is exactly what a dead fish is... a constantly emitting source of nitrates over a period of time not just one dump of them. A controller isn't necessary to "save the day" from a dead fish IMO.

 

[[Cameron]]

Sorry dbl post.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

no, a controller isnt required.. but it my case, it saved my tank from dealing with a large influx of nutrients. You act as if a fuge can just lap up tons of nitrates and ammonia. I have a 100 gallon fuge and that certainly isnt the case. Not trying to convince you of anything. Gave that up a ling time ago. I will just lump.you in with the "i never QT and never had a problem crowd.

it does not have to do anything with "opinion" it is just fact.