Aquarium Specialty first experience is horrible

[bluetang77]

I should have checked here first before ordering from aquarium specialty. They seem to have a dubious reputation in the forums. I recently ordered from them, (March 14, '26) and still have not received the order. No tracking, no shipping alert, no status email, nothing. I am half the country away from them so there is no checking up on the order whatsoever other than emails and phone calls. Phone calls are bit of a lost cause because after the first time I called them a week and a half after placing the order, they don't answer anymore. During the first call I was told that they had just recieved the merchandise that day and would be shipping it promptly. Two weeks later when I called several times, no answer. Then I emailed explaining the whole situation, no answer. Then the same day I called about three times, I had my wife call and someone answered. They told her that they are a drop shipper and that it must be them that are holding up the order. She was told they would call her back with news. As you may have guessed, that hasn't happened yet. So here we are at April 13 a month after I placed the order and I have no information about this order whatsoever. They still do not answer the phone and I have not recieved a reply to my emails. I call this customer service pretty terrible and I have no way of canceling the order other than contacting the bank. The parts I ordered are Ecotech so I am sure these parts are not hard to get. Not to mention that I believe it showed as in stock when I ordered.

 

[bluetang77]

I called back a day later, today and they answered. Denied that they drop ship anything and that he didn't know what happened to my order. I explained that ive been calling there for almost two weeks to get a voicemail every time. I was told it's a two man operation and they can't always answer calls. I asked for a refund which I got. I won't try to order from here again.

 

[xiaoxiy]

I had a similar recent experience, where things were labeled as “in stock, ship next business day” on their website, when in fact they hadn’t received the stock yet. Took much longer than anticipated to get what I ordered and I had to call in multiple times.

I thought this was just an one off experience given that I’ve had good experiences in the past with them, but I guess with your experience, I wasn’t the only one who had issues with them recently.

 

[IPT]

Man, they always were very good. Sad to say I ordered some test kits over 2 weeks ago and still don't have them not have they responded to my emails.

 

[raghavow]

same situation with me, Paid $2,500 to them, I detailed my experience in my recent post

 

[IPT]

Well, I got someone on the phone today. They said ATI was changing their distribution and that was delaying the shipment. I was told someone would get me tracking or more precise info and call me back, but they never did..... :(

 

[raghavow]

Well, I got someone on the phone today. They said ATI was changing their distribution and that was delaying the shipment. I was told someone would get me tracking or more precise info and call me back, but they never did..... :(

dispute the charge, thats the only way to get a tracing number apperently