Customer Service, best experiences, please share!

[happyhourhero]

I’ll also add that TSA has called me pre ship to let me know a snail knocked a live sale purchase into another coral and there could be potential damage. They wanted to let me make the call of switching to another option, waiting or ship as is. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

[homer1475]

`Blue zoo aquatics.

Ordered a few times from them. One time during the winter, they noticed it was going to be unusually cold here. They actually called me to find out if I wanted to hold the delivery for a different day, or to hold it at the fedex facility.

 

[LiquidEric]

Luckycorals refunded me for a lobophyllia that melted quickly after being added to the tank way back last year. He deduced I was a newer reefer and let me use store credit despite it likely being my fault. I haven't purchased from him in a little while, but quality CS and great communication means I will again eventually.

Thanks for sharing. Hope the tank is going well!

 

[Apotack]

Viparspectra, a power supply died on one of my lights long after the warranty expired. I contacted them to see if I could purchase a replacement power supply. They asked for my address and sent one for free without being asked. Pretty nice for a cheap light.

 

[jphilip813]

This can be sbtopic if controversy
Some peoples opinions will not only differ but there are people no matter what you do can be pleased
For me- Neptune apex. Aquasd and ice cap
There are some that will agree and disagree with my picks

I would second Neptune Customer service had vastly improved...I couldn't say that two years ago...the representatives I interacted with on three separate occasions was repugnant, but that has definitely changed, I love their follow-up responses

 

[flashsmith]

Neptune hands down the worst. Nobody comes close. They will never get another dime of my money. Their warranty policy is a joke. Spend all that money then have to spend more when it breaks under warranty. Wish my dealer would have shared that with me. Yes this was recent.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Shockingly Bubble Magus. I live near the us distributor and emailed them about a part for my out of warranty filter roller. Got a reply that says come by and pick it up, no charge. Ended up getting a extra part and my roller filter is back in service within 24 hours.

I also had an OK BRS experience. Bought a Aquamaxx FC120 skimmer when I started up my 120g from Marine Depot. The needle wheel failed on my skimmer, 3 months into it. Marine Depot sent me another skimmer pump. 3 months later the same thing happened again, Marine Depot is now BRS. I called customer service and they ultimately gave me my cash back in 'points' so that I could buy another skimmer, due to no pumps being available until prolly 2022 (if ever). Downside was that this was August 2021, sub 300$ skimmers on BRS didn't exist in my required footprint/bio demand. I ended up placing a order for consumables and other things from BRS instead and ended up finding a Sicce needle wheel that worked. The pump is roaring in my stand, pulling out nasty skinmate as I type.

 

[JNalley]

Neptune hands down the worst. Nobody comes close. They will never get another dime of my money. Their warranty policy is a joke. Spend all that money then have to spend more when it breaks under warranty. Wish my dealer would have shared that with me. Yes this was recent.

heh, this is about good customer service experiences, not bad ones... try and come up with a good one... There are always situations where you get bad customer service, most of the time you get ok/par for the course/mediocre customer service, so lets celebrate the rare occasions you get great customer service and promote those companies...

 

[Wasabiroot]

Thanks for sharing. Hope the tank is going well!

It is doing decently well. My brother watched it while we were on vacation a few months ago. Bless him, but I'm just wrapping up the fixes on the tank now two months later. Just switched to all for reef powder (it's a 50g cube) so we will see how that goes. I should probably update my build thread...

 

[JNalley]

TLDR: BlueZoo Aquatics has immaculate customer service...

So, I want to give a big shoutout to Greg at BlueZooAquatics.

I ordered fish on Sunday, January 30th, and selected Thursday the 3rd delivery without realizing there was a storm coming. After I realized it, I decided to give them a call Monday morning, I left them a message saying if they could ship out Monday for Tuesday delivery that would be best, but if not to give me a call back so we can arrange something else. Unfortunately for me, Mondays are their busiest day and I got a call back from Greg on Tuesday. We set it up for Shipping out on Monday the 7th for Tuesday the 8th delivery.

Well, somehow FedEx delayed the order, I called up FedEx early Tuesday morning when I saw the package was still in Fort Worth, Texas, and was met with "We're sorry, we don't have control of the package at the moment, we suggest you call the shipper". Since BlueZoo is West Coast, and they open at 9:00 am (2 hours behind me) I decided I would wait till Noon my time to give them a ring. I didn't have to wait, before noon my time rolled around, I already had an e-mail from Greg saying the shipment was delayed, he'd been in contact with FedEx, and that if it arrives at my locale that day then there's been arrangements made for me to pick it up at the local FedEx facility.

Unfortunately, the package waited around all day and most of the night in Fort Worth and didn't make it to Kansas City until like 2:00 am Wednesday morning. When the package arrived, It was nicely packaged in a styrofoam cooler type box, and several warming packs. Even though it was 24 hours late, it didn't feel like the temperature was down too much. I proceeded to follow the instructions that Greg had given me for their acclimation process when a package is late. Sadly, one of the fish hadn't made it, and 2 others looked pretty worse for wear. About 1 hour into their drip acclimation I e-mailed Greg giving him a heads up of the situation. By the time Acclimation had completed, 2 fish were dead, and a 3rd was still looking rough. An hour after being in the tank the 3rd passed away.

I e-mailed Greg the required pictures, and inquired about one of the snails I had received, I ordered 4 Tongan Nassarius, and one of them looked like a Vibex. I received a quick response and was told he'd start working on the refund/credit as well as filing a claim with FedEx to get the Shipping fee back, and that he'd talk to the curator about the snail. I had ordered enough for free shipping so I thought this was odd. Today, I received a call from Greg about the snail in question, he said they get asked that a lot, but that all of the snails they get are sourced from Tonga, but if I wanted credit for it, it was only $5.00 and he'd be happy to oblige. I explained it wasn't about the money, I was just curious and since it was only $5.00 it wasn't going to make or break me. He explained that he was still waiting on FedEx for the shipping credit and that it's usually done on Fridays, so since it wasn't done today, it would be next Friday. I told him that I got free shipping, and he said that they do this so that I can order just what was lost and not pay the shipping fee to have it shipped to me, which I feel is a pretty awesome way to do business.

Long story short, I've never worked with a shipper that was so proactive in reaching out to their customers every step of the way. This was my first time ordering from BlueZoo but it definitely won't be my last.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I've ordered from a lot of places over the years. My favorite online retailers with great customer service have definitely been:
1. @AquaSD - there's a reason I keep coming back and spending all my money
2. @Bulk Reef Supply
3. @AlgaeBarn -- may be unpopular with some, but they've always been prompt to respond and very professional with me and always send me extra swedish fish
4. Gulf Coast Ecosystems (Live-Plants.com)
5. Reefcleaners.com

I have an order coming on Tuesday from Reefpros and an order coming from CoralReefTN (Sustainable Aquatics retail page), so I will update once those arrive.

As for my LFS, these are my shoutouts, in no particular order.

1. Blue Thumb in Saginaw MI
2. Moby Dick Petstore in Waterford MI
3. Sunset Corals in Linden MI
4. Stingray Bay in Eastpointe MI

 

[damsels are not mean]

Honestly I've been pretty blessed to not deal with any issues in this hobby personally. That said, I ordered from riptide aquaculture a while ago and accidentally double charged myself for shipping. Realized immediately and sent an email and the issue was fixed in minutes! That's all I got really.

 

[Jeffcb]

Tunze was great. I just picked up the phone and call the owner of the North American Dist Roger. My 3155 was doa. He had me check a few things and then decided to ship me a new controller the same day just asking for me to send the old one back after I received the new one. Very pleasant experience.

Apex was good and personal. The tech actually called me after I set an appointment. Even though salinity probes just don't work. I think we all have figure that out.

Red Sea was the best. A seal started looking like it would eventually fail. Even after discussing it and figuring out I probably damaged it with a scraper Moises RS customer support, offered to me a new tank.

WWC Great customer service.

And last but definably not least my LFS! The dude lets me quarantine high end fish for up to a month. Doesn't even ask me to pay for them up front but I do.

 

[biecacka]

Orphek, James has been awesome.
Tunze, roger is the man
GEO, when George ran it

those 3 have always impressed me!


corey

 

[Pale Morning1]

Jonathan, who I believe is the owner of corals.com goes above and beyond in the customer service department. When I first started out with the reef tank he corresponded with me via email extensively after my first purchase. His advice coupled with the quality corals frags I purchased from him helped to make my first reef tank an easier experience.

 

[Wasabiroot]

I've ordered from a lot of places over the years. My favorite online retailers with great customer service have definitely been:
1. @AquaSD - there's a reason I keep coming back and spending all my money
2. @Bulk Reef Supply
3. @AlgaeBarn -- may be unpopular with some, but they've always been prompt to respond and very professional with me and always send me extra swedish fish
4. Gulf Coast Ecosystems (Live-Plants.com)
5. Reefcleaners.com

I have an order coming on Tuesday from Reefpros and an order coming from CoralReefTN (Sustainable Aquatics retail page), so I will update once those arrive.

As for my LFS, these are my shoutouts, in no particular order.

1. Blue Thumb in Saginaw MI
2. Moby Dick Petstore in Waterford MI
3. Sunset Corals in Linden MI
4. Stingray Bay in Eastpointe MI

Love stingray bay. What they lack in corals they make up for in service. I get asked if I need help at least 2-3 timed minimum when I'm there.

Moby dick gets in cool freshwater but I find their salt section a bit pricey.

I wish there was a public place similar to cherry corals in metro Detroit. I hear that place in Romulus has a lot of coral beds.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Love stingray bay. What they lack in corals they make up for in service. I get asked if I need help at least 2-3 timed minimum when I'm there.

Moby dick gets in cool freshwater but I find their salt section a bit pricey.

I wish there was a public place similar to cherry corals in metro Detroit. I hear that place in Romulus has a lot of coral beds.

Tropicorium definitely does! I've only gone a couple times though since it's so far from my house (I live north of Flint).

Stingray Bay normally has an amazing selection of fish with great prices and normally very healthy. They tend to get the rarer reef safe wrasses in healthy and cheap. Just watch the Chromis and anthias for Uronema.

Moby ***** has expensive, albiet healthy fish, and selection is either hit or miss.

Blue Thumb and Sunset Corals both have amazing owners/staff, and outstanding coral selection, but are lacking as far as fish selection.

Seaworld Gardenworld has a ton of tanks, but selection is hit or miss, and a fair number of the fish have various diseases. Occasionally you'll find a diamond in the rough. Also more expensive then Stingray Bay just down the road.

As far as some of the other stores in Michigan, Preuss in Lansing is amazing, but has crazy expensive prices and the fish selection has been hit or miss the last few times I've gone. Kee's in Shelby Twp used to be great, but lately selection has been rather dismal, the few fish they have are mostly sick and skinny, and little coral selection with outrageous pricing. Sorely disappointing pretty much every time I've gone over the past 2 years. The other stores I've been to that carry saltwater are hit or miss, sometimes they'll have a nice healthy fish, but very little to no selection, and pretty high prices, or have little selection and it is overpriced and diseased. Nothing to write home about by any means.

 

[Ocelaris]

Coralvue - pump broke, needed an impeller, and the ceramic bearing; they didn't sell the bearings, but they sent me some anyways. Every time I reach out I get a quick response, sometimes even by Carlos himself. I will always go to them because they maintain parts long term. I know they don't make the products directly, but their support is very good and they back their products.
Neptune - I was fixing an older EB8 for my buddy, asked some spec on the relay, because I had already replaced the chips, and now a relay went out, but they offered me a refurbished one for their cost; it's still working great today.
BattleCorals - Adam is the best, I've blown way too much money. I don't know how he deals with all of us pestering him!
LiveAquariua - I ordered two SPS colonies, both died, I gave up asking for a different colony, but they promptly refunded my money. They are great, if I didn't hate ordering live goods, I'd be all over them.
Sea Level Aquarium in NJ - the guys always help me carry the boxes of salt to my car, I'm a younger guy than them often.