FishTacos2
Active Member
Headed down to the San Diego Zoo with the family today. I had read so many good reviews about Aqua SD and was happy when my wife agreed that we could stop in on the way home.
Looking forward to this all week, I walked into the store with $200 burning a hole in my pocket. My goal was to get at least one nice stand out Acro frag.
When I got there they had some (<20) SPS on display but none were show stoppers. The guy made a point to tell me that these frags “had not sold for a long time as evidenced by the completely encrusted frag plugs”. While he ment this to be a selling point it was no wonder these particular frags had not been sold. Not the centerpieces I was after.
I asked the worker if that’s all they had in stock, well knowing that their website boasted a much larger selection.
I was told that most of their coral was in the back room. You could see it was a huge warehouse with row after row of frag tanks.
The worker said I couldn’t go back there unless a worker supervised me. Ok, I think, let’s go! But, he explains, you have to already know what you want.
Odd…normally when shopping for anything one would browse the inventory until something caught your eye. I asked if he meant that I had to shop their wysiwyg section online and pick a piece first. He said no, but he needed to know what I wanted and what I was willing to spend.
I quickly responded “I'm looking for an acro frag in the $100 price range”
He said he would check in back. Returned saying everyone was processing online orders. Then said he would check in back again. Then said nobody would be able to show me around. Lots of awkward pauses later he says I could wait 15 minutes until maybe someone got back from lunch.
Sleeping kids and wife in the car, it was time to call it quits. I left with a confused “ what the heck just happened” feeling.
I wouldn’t waste your time with this store. Based on reviews, I’m sure their online ordering is probably great. In my experience they could care less about an in person sale from a motivated (nonetheless excited) buyer.
Looking forward to this all week, I walked into the store with $200 burning a hole in my pocket. My goal was to get at least one nice stand out Acro frag.
When I got there they had some (<20) SPS on display but none were show stoppers. The guy made a point to tell me that these frags “had not sold for a long time as evidenced by the completely encrusted frag plugs”. While he ment this to be a selling point it was no wonder these particular frags had not been sold. Not the centerpieces I was after.
I asked the worker if that’s all they had in stock, well knowing that their website boasted a much larger selection.
I was told that most of their coral was in the back room. You could see it was a huge warehouse with row after row of frag tanks.
The worker said I couldn’t go back there unless a worker supervised me. Ok, I think, let’s go! But, he explains, you have to already know what you want.
Odd…normally when shopping for anything one would browse the inventory until something caught your eye. I asked if he meant that I had to shop their wysiwyg section online and pick a piece first. He said no, but he needed to know what I wanted and what I was willing to spend.
I quickly responded “I'm looking for an acro frag in the $100 price range”
He said he would check in back. Returned saying everyone was processing online orders. Then said he would check in back again. Then said nobody would be able to show me around. Lots of awkward pauses later he says I could wait 15 minutes until maybe someone got back from lunch.
Sleeping kids and wife in the car, it was time to call it quits. I left with a confused “ what the heck just happened” feeling.
I wouldn’t waste your time with this store. Based on reviews, I’m sure their online ordering is probably great. In my experience they could care less about an in person sale from a motivated (nonetheless excited) buyer.
