Aquarium purchase

Denisk · Dec 25, 2017

Hello Everyone.

I usually never write reviews unless they're good ones. But I have never in my life had an experience like this one and wanted everyone to understand what I went through. I'll start off with saying I have purschased aquariums twice from SC Aquariums and have never had a problem until this last time. I was in the market for buying a custom aquarium and reached out to the owner Steven or Steve Chow (whatever he goes by) on 10/11/17. I decided to get a custom built tank along with a custom stand all for $1495 shipping included. I thought to myself that sounded reasonable enough as it was all custom and was going to be done within 10 to 12 weeks. He had been responsive throughout the process and answered all my questions whenever I had them. So I haven't heard from him for awhile and decided I would reach out to him. He told me the aquarium and stand was going to be shipped on 11/30/17 which was fine because that was still within the the time frame he gave me .

NOW this is where it takes a turn for the worse...

The day the logistics company calls me to set up a day for them to make the delivery to my home, I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I had been waiting for awhile, never had a custom tank and finally was going to have something specific to my liking. I ended up taking off work and waited until the truck driver called me to come open the garage... Finally after waiting a few hours on 12/08/17, the truck driver called me and said he was outside! I quickly ran outside and the nice gentleman starts opening up the truck......

The first thing I notice is the pallet was broken...
The second thing I noticed is he (Steve) put a 100 plus pound custom tank on top of the glass aquarium when he packed up the shipment....

I had never seen something like this in my life. Once again I give him the benefit of the doubt since I had purchased tanks from him before. But I thought you know what maybe this is how they conduct business and there was no damage visable as everything was plastic wrapped. Once the truck driver unloaded it off the truck, upon further inspection I started to notice that the stand was not professionally built. I immediatly asked the truck driver to load this back on the truck and he said he couldn't do that. He said once its off the truck he was no longer allowed to put it back on. As he drove off, I started inspecting the stand and you wouldn't believe the quality I saw... I was in utter rage!!!

I was so upset that I didn't even up the box with the glass aquarium. My wife saw how upset I was but said don't worry, you've purchased from him twice already, i'm sure he will take care of you. So she ended up calling him the day of and he answered immediately and of course my wife confronted him. He said "don't worry don't worry you can return everything just send me an email and we will take care of it." Of course I felt much better and I said "ok that was easy" So I contacted PayPal and opened a dispute because I wanted to make sure things were in writing and I wasn't going to be the one taking a loss of $1495. So once I opened a PayPal dispute... Thats where it went even more downhill....

He officially stopped answering me. I tried to email him and call him multiple times and I never got a single response. Not even ONE. I then get a response from PayPal saying if I want to get my money back, I would have to ship it back. I asked if he pay for shipping and they said it was going to be my responsibility. I genuinely almost pulled my hair out... I said "are you kidding me??" and they said thats how PayPal works. So I tried to reach out to Steve another 5 times/called a bunch and once again no reply. I then called another number on the website and I got in contact with someone named Elma who I believe was the front desk lady who works with Steve. I told her the story and she said I will definitely tell him and he will reach back out to you. Waited two days with no response... and I called that number again. She answered once again and I asked why I still haven't heard anything from him and she told me he told her that he already reached out to me. So someone was lying to me and I said please tell him to call me so we can resolve this and she said he is very busy with other clients... Wait a second....but who am I then? Am I not a client? Did I not spend enough money to be worthy enough for a phone call? I mean C'MON now.... I said you know what, maybe i'll call and ask how much it would be to ship it and the logistic company that he used quoted me $2000 to ship it back!!!

I would never want someone to go through this and hence why I am posting this review. I took a hard hit and it kills me that the seller has zero quality control and wouldn't even want to help to compromise. I even was willing to keep the aquarium and to just get refunded for the stand as I would just build one myself. I was willing to even ship everything back on his expense. But he didn't even have the decency to respond ONCE.

I genuinely have never had an experience like this. I know our community is strong and if ANYONE can help me, I will be forever grateful!!!!

This is my honest expierence of what I'm dealing with.

Denisk · Dec 28, 2017

Well how crazy is this, the day I opened up a claim with my credit card last night he replied to me and said he will have a logistic company come and pick up the tank. ( Maybe its just a coincidence) He said I would have to remind him on Monday as he is on vacation... but he would give me a full refund. Fingers crossed everything will be taken care of.

My goal is not steer people away but for people to see my full honest experience. If I end up getting taken care of then great but it isn't to stop people from hearing about my story either.

Tahoe61 · Dec 28, 2017

Just a reminder that only buyer and seller post are permitted in vendor feedback to promote resolution between both parties. All outside post will be removed.

Moderation

Denisk · Jan 25, 2018

All in all I spoke to him last week because he randomly answered the phone. He said yeah yeah i have the logistics pick up ready and and I’ll send you an email. Another week has passed by and nothing. In my opinion he is just a flaky guy.

Denisk · Jan 30, 2018

Well it seems my wife was able to get a hold of him today. Turns out the gentleman has been sick and was just getting better. True or not, he went ahead and refunded me all my money like he said he would. We are still working out the logistics of when they’re going to come to pick everything up but it means a lot to me that he issued a refund without having his product in hand. All in all, maybe things didn’t play in favor for me with this tank but I’m happy to see it turning around.

Just wanted everyone to see how this all ended as well. So everyone can keep it mind when making their own decision on a tank.

Johnny M · Apr 20, 2018

Wow Sorry you went thru hell in beginning. I recently ordered a custom built 66g tank/stand, was a good price from SCA, hopefully when I get it at end of may 2018 everything will be alright. I had some very positive conversations with Steve C. ( text, email, & phone calls). Even contacted him a few days ago to make a minor adjustment on tank - has a rear sump and he replied tank was already built & waiting to 'dry' but he would tell the factory to make the adjustment requested. *Now I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you but 1. as soon as you saw broken pallet & stand on top of tank WHILE it was still on truck you should have refused it THEN b4 the driver unloaded it off truck , that way you could have written on drivers invoice "possible damage noticed upon inspection inside truck, refusing delivery". That could have solved 80% of ur problem. Also if you have dealt with red sea delivery they tell you the same thing about inspecting "everything" while driver waits or write on delivery invoice 'driver refused to wait' or if you see possible damage REFUSE delivery.
When my tank comes I will inspect outer wrapping and if I notice - or even think - there is something wrong I will refuse delivery, while it is still on the truck.