Best customer service I've ever received

[MoreReefPlease]

*CAUTION LONG AND WORDY*

I just want to preface this by giving a little background, I'm a person in their 40's. I'm active duty ex-military. I've lived on every continent besides South America, Antarctica and Australia. As far as the U.S. goes, I've lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Arizona, California, Kansas, Florida (my home state ;Joyful), Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and now Illinois.

Throughout my years of living, the multiple people I have met and places that I have gone - I have never had as good customer care and support - than I have from the lovely people @LiveAquaria.

After my families latest move ( hopefully the last until we go somewhere warmer ), my JBJ 29 got upgraded after my tank crashed having to move it multiple times. I lost my previous beautiful BTA (which also spawned 4 other BTAs) that hosted my platinum clownfish, among other beautiful animals.

I've been in the process of slowly stocking my new 40b with 20g refugium over the last year and have for the last month considered it stable enough for an anemone after multiple water quality tests and observance of microfauna. I have a beautiful RFA from @reefcleaners that has been feeding on krill (and Kole Tangs) for nearly 2 months now, which I have also used as an indicator.

In April I made my first attempt at purchasing an anemone. I've used @LiveAquaria in the past for many of my livestock purchases and I consider them my "go to". When I ordered, they had a beautiful purple LTA from SE Asia that I bought. My sand bed is between 3-4.5 inches deep, which I considered good enough for this species.

Unfortunately, when the animal arrived, the bag was so cloudy I couldn't even see the animal. Upon removal the animal was pale, it was deflated, its mouth was gaping and during placement after acclimation it expelled large amounts of zooanxthellae.
This poor guy didn't make it and @LiveAquaria gave me store credit right away without issue.

After about a week, I saw another beautiful anemone, this time a green speckled BTA on Divers Den. I purchased the animal and waited excitedly for it's shipment. The day it was supposed to ship, I received a message from customer support saying that the anemone has been damaged trying to remove him from his container. I was disappointed to hear this, especially after what happened with the first one but realized, stuff happens. @LiveAquaria returned my credit to my account and refunded the rest.

After another week of waiting I stumbled on another green speckled BTA on Divers Den, thinking 3x a charm, right? This one arrived on time, the water was pretty clear but I thought someone had pulled a joke on me. I couldn't see the anemone until I looked further, It was smaller than the size of my thumb nail, but it had good color. When I went to touch the bag the water was cold, colder than my tap and the temp was 63F that day. When I looked at the box again, I saw that there was a freezer pack taped to the lid off the box. I was surprised to say the least. Why would an animal shipping from 50 degree weather in Wisconsin need an ice pack when shipping to adjoining state that had a similar forecast? Needless to say, something happened during boxing.

I contacted @LiveAquaria here on the forums and the lovely person running their account ( they didn't give me permission to use their name so I won't ) helped me out more than I would have expected anyone to.

Not only did they give me credit for the shipping - something they really didn't have to do since technically it was shipped correctly, it was the boxing that had a mistake - they extended the warranty 14 more days and afterwards they reached out to me and asked me personally about having their ops manager pick out an animal for me in the size range I had ordered before. I let them know that size really wasn't an issue, I had plenty of space and that I wasn't hung up on a speckled one.

@LiveAquaria got back to me with some pictures they had taken from the facility and asked me if I would agree to one like they had pictures. These were larger animals and I were more expensive so I thought it was only fair of myself to return the $30 shipping credit towards the new anemone. I was/am a very happy customer!

I guess the real point of this is, @LiveAquaria went above and beyond on what ultimately was a very small purchase by myself. Have a had many of these smaller purchases? I sure have and they've added up to quite a bit. Does that matter? It sure does because these people actually treated me like a valued customer.

You pay $150 a month for cable or satellite or internet. Do those people treat you as a valued customer? 99% of people would say no, I know mine doesn't.

I just got done buying $500 worth of AquaIllimuniation lights and the colors on the LEDs are way off between the two units. There are other reviews on BRS saying the same thing. Do you think AI is going to take my word for it? No, getting a new light is going to be like pulling teeth and I've spent way more money than I did on an anemone.

I used to work at a Porsche dealer and I've been involved in conversations where people fought over a couple hundred dollars after a $100k purchase. Why argue with a customer over change when they're giving you not only a sale, but their business.

I have never had as good customer service as @LiveAquaria has provided and they will be the only place I purchase my maintenance and livestock items from online. Yes, they may be owned by Petco but many of these people have been there since the DFS days and they deserve my support for helping me out so much and never once treating me like anything but a valued customer.

I love @LiveAquaria and I am a lifetime customer because of the care they have given me.

<3

 

[Biglew11]

I give them credit for there customer support. But truth is these deaths were avoidable, and these animals died from errors at the facility. Look up the horror stories of people who have got clams from them. Very poor track records.