How bad really is liveaquria

[Dieing for a Drink]

To be Honest only fish i bought lately was for my mothers freshwater system(not helpful)

 

[The_Skrimp]

I had to vote terrible. When I started this tank up I ordered a lot of my clean up crew from them. I wasn’t happy with the amount of dead livestock I was receiving. It didn’t seem right. I have not had a problem receiving dead livestock from anyone else I’ve ordered from and I’ve ordered from plenty of smaller vendors on eBay and Etsy.
I gave up on them after of the dozen or so scarlet reef hermits I ordered in two separate orders, only one of what they sent me was even a hermit crab. I got lots of empty shells and they even sent me a whelk with one of my orders instead of a crab.
To make things worse, the refund process is a headache. They’ll only give store credit, no refunds, and using your store credit isn’t as simple as clicking an option in the check out box. I just felt burned by them and never went back. They can keep the rest of my store credit for all I care.

 

[Tired]

Best to go somewhere that has generally positive experiences, not a huge mix like this.

 

[mfinn]

IMO they could be considered the worst vendor around.
My last 3 of 4 orders were a disaster.
One was a coral shipment that arrived during a cold spell and it did not have a insulated box or heat packs. Just that phony insul bag. 1/8" and foil isn't going to do much at all. No internal support for the bags to keep them from rolling around. The box wasn't even taped securely. It was open to the cold. Same with the insul bag.
Sure, I got credit, but the replacement order came the same way. When I tried to submit a claim a second, I was denied because it took the corals more than the 7 days to die. They lasted a whole 12 days. They gave me a $25 credit and told me this claim was over.
I tried to use the $25 credit on frozen food and it arrived completely thawed. Shipped in the same manner as the corals. No proper insulated container.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Year’s ago they were hard to beat. But the last couple of years they are probably the worst. I won’t ever buy from them. The boxing and shipping is a mess. Oversized boxes, bad insulation and then only store credit for refund.

 

[The_ReefB0y_FOX24]

Sounds like liveaquaria is a disaster I have heard good things about dr.reef and there quarantined fish they any better

 

[Tired]

They are massively better! Besides the fact that you get fish that are fully quarantined (or at least conditioned), they actually care about the health of the livestock. They can also do custom orders. TSM Aquatics (or TSM Marine, one of those) is also good.

 

[MillennialReefer]

I used to order from them a lot and loved them, I've then tried other vendors and they were all horrible. Due to whatever that happened to live aquaria I stopped. I now only go to my LFS and buy whatever they have or place an order if I want something specific. Don't want to deal with shipping, customer service and back and forth emailing. When I could just get a fish or coral in my home on the same day for the same price or even less.

 

[bruno3047]

LA and PETCO are now owned by a wholesaler called ETROPICALFISH. They are originially from SRI LANKA and their sub office is in California. They collect and ship from Sri Lanka to US and there seems to be a lot of hit and miss on fish and health.

I don’t know where you got this information from but it is incorrect. Petco is a publicly owned company whose stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol WOOF. The stock closed today at 13.97, up .32. Liveaquaria is now owned by the original founders, the same people who sold it to Drs. Foster and Smith. For future reference.

 

[threebuoys]

I've ordered numerous fish from them over the past 2 years. The only problems I've had were with UPS. I filed claims against the warranty, all done online, and all were resolved without issue. My orders included tangs, wrasse, dwarf angels, cardinals, clownfish and more.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I don’t know where you got this information from but it is incorrect. Petco is a publicly owned company whose stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol WOOF. The stock closed today at 13.97, up .32. Liveaquaria is now owned by the original founders, the same people who sold it to Drs. Foster and Smith. For future reference.

I am friends with the owner Sam and I am also a retailer that buys fish from many wholesalers including them.

 

[mfinn]

I am friends with the owner Sam and I am also a retailer that buys fish from many wholesalers including them.

You should tell " Sam" his shipping method sucks. Bags, packing, etc.

 

[hart24601]

It’s the odd thing, live aquaria has always and still drop ships from the importer if says ships from CA (quality marine it used to be before AND after petco bought them) or ORA if says ships from Fl or divers den if ships from WI. They don’t even touch the majorly of orders since most are drop shipped from the wholesale company in CA. DD has always been decent although they have had a rocky road when the great director left a while ago. They have more aligned with other similar stores which isn’t as nice since now only store credit and shorter guarantee though

 

[h20cyclone]

Only purchased once from them and never actually received my order. Fedex seemed to had lost my order and I got store credit to use with them. Not necessarily LiveAquaria's fault but not a good first impression with an order. Never had an issue with any other seller or business with live goods being shipped. Very well could of just been bad luck too though.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

I am friends with the owner Sam and I am also a retailer that buys fish from many wholesalers including them.

Yes. You should tell Sam he sucks for compromising so many poor animals.

 

[mfinn]

Yes. You should tell Sam he sucks for compromising so many poor animals.

I don't think this is Sams fault. More of a company thing? I was half joking, and serious at the same time ( is that possible?) But according to LA's customer service, they are using eco-friendly packaging. But it's not worth the attempt if it doesn't work. Plus, in my area the styrofoam containers are recyclable but those thin bags are not. They go in the landfill.

 

[bruno3047]

It’s the odd thing, live aquaria has always and still drop ships from the importer if says ships from CA (quality marine it used to be before AND after petco bought them) or ORA if says ships from Fl or divers den if ships from WI. They don’t even touch the majorly of orders since most are drop shipped from the wholesale company in CA. DD has always been decent although they have had a rocky road when the great director left a while ago. They have more aligned with other similar stores which isn’t as nice since now only store credit and shorter guarantee though

Liveaquaria, even though it has been owned by various entities specifically Drs Foster and Smith and then Petco, has always been operated as a separate and distinct business. When Petco bought DFS, they continued to operate LA as a separate and distinct business. They integrated the entire DFS operation into Petco except for LA, which was sold back to the original founders, who are operating it at present. And yes, they do drop-ship everything except ORA and DD from Quality Marine. ORA is, of course, drop-shipped from ORA in Florida.

 

[Tired]

I don't think this is Sams fault. More of a company thing? I was half joking, and serious at the same time ( is that possible?) But according to LA's customer service, they are using eco-friendly packaging. But it's not worth the attempt if it doesn't work. Plus, in my area the styrofoam containers are recyclable but those thin bags are not. They go in the landfill.

Surely the owner of the company can enforce better standards, though. Maybe enough people saying "hey, we're not buying from you, your shipping sucks and you need to have more respect for the living things you sell" would get through.

 

[Dcloser12]

Bought some coral, all came in dead. No refund given as they claimed it was due to a shipping delay and fell under FedEx not them. Ordered a second round and received a dead fish and coral in the cheapest package I've ever seen. Never again. Coral survived but had necrosis for 2 months until they recovered eventually. I use frags2fishes and pieces of the ocean. Can't say enough good things about them. Great customer service and I've never had any hitchhiker except some brittle stars or the occasional star fish and copepod.

 

[The_ReefB0y_FOX24]

Surely the owner of the company can enforce better standards, though. Maybe enough people saying "hey, we're not buying from you, your shipping sucks and you need to have more respect for the living things you sell" would get through.

I think R2R will get the message through loud and clear.