I recommend avoid Blue Zoo Aquatics

[rkpetersen]

I buy livestock online very frequently.
About a year ago, I started buying animals from Blue Zoo, mostly CUC and inverts with an occasional fish.
At first, it went ok, aside from regular glitches on their website.
But now, they've screwed up my last two orders, and I think I'm done with them.

About 2 months ago, I placed an order and requested a specific delivery date.
Then someone there called me out of the blue and badgered me into having it sent earlier.
The night they shipped it, there was a freak cold snap and the temp here plummeted below freezing.
Most of the livestock was dead or dying on arrival.
I emailed them back about it but got no reply.
If they had shipped it when I requested, it would have been fine.

Last week, I decided to give them another try.
I placed an order for $400 worth of inverts; snails, shrimps, crabs, stars, and lettuce slugs.
All listed as in stock. Order went through and confirmed. Expecting delivery today.
And then, at 6 PM yesterday, I get an email which I didn't see till this morning:

Hello Randall,

Thank you for your recent order with Blue Zoo Aquatics. Unfortunately, we were unable to ship your order out due to the fact that some of the animals you ordered need to be observed a little bit longer before ship out. The curator here inspects all the animals every day and if he is not 100% convinced they will not get too stressed out during shipment, he likes to hold the order back until he is satisfied with the animals and their ability to handle the journey of shipment. He will be inspecting your animals daily and when he feels they are ready to ship we will call you and be able to ship that day or any day after that works for you.

We apologize for any inconveniences. Please understand that shipping animals isn't like normal online orders where we can just grab a product and stick in a box and ship it out. We like to make sure the animals are going to have a safe and healthy journey to your door.

Thank you,
[Name and phone number removed as required by R2R.]

www.bluezooaquatics.com


Really? An email like this in the evening before scheduled shipment, around business closing time?
What if I had taken today off work to receive this shipment?
Could they not have sent a partial shipment of the items they do have in stock?
Couldn't they have phoned me about this unilateral change of plans, maybe give me some options?
Does anyone actually believe the above excuse?
I think they just don't have all the livestock that they claimed to have available.

Anyway, this was a second chance for them from me, and they blew it.
So, I"m done doing business with this company.

 

[rkpetersen]

The previous order wasn't the first time. I had ordered from them before that, as I mentioned.
And as I also mentioned, I wanted to give them another chance. $400 isn't a huge amount of money but it isn't trivial either.

And I'm hardly the only one that has issues with their questionable practices.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/blue-zoo-aquatics-trash.450570/#post-6080750

 

[rkpetersen]

I emailed them yesterday morning requesting a refund, and haven't received either a reply or the money yet.
Time to file a Paypal complaint.

 

[rkpetersen]

So, it gets better.

After no reply, I suddenly did get a reply on Wednesday, after filing a Paypal complaint.

Sorry I wasn't able to get back to you yesterday, it was a Monday on a Tuesday! Got your messages and will cancel your order, I have put your order in our Pending Refund batch and alert the accountants to refund your order as soon as possible. They usually go into that folder once a week and do all the refunds at once. Be watching for your refund.

Hmm. Are there any honest statements in this?
So you weren't in on Monday or Tuesday, even though you open on Monday after being closed for the weekend.
Accountants? 'Pending Refund batch'? Wow, you must be a big operation, with a lot of refunds to process, if you need to do it this way!

So, basically now he's just screwing with me.
That's ok, I'll get my money back eventually, either from him, or Paypal, or my credit card.
And he'll lose who knows how much in future sales from this documentation of his game-playing.

 

[rkpetersen]

Still haven't gotten a refund. Sent another email yesterday, no response.
Initiated a Paypal claim today. Unfortunately they give him 10 days to respond.
Seriously, avoid buying from this guy.
It's great if everything goes fine.
But request a refund after he causes a problem, and see what happens. :mad::mad::mad:

 

[rkpetersen]

Final update:

Deadline for the seller to respond to my paypal claim is tomorrow.
Not surprisingly, today he issued a refund, 1 day before the deadline, with no direct communication.
Apparently his guy likes to play petty games with customers, and he's obviously manipulated the paypal claims process before.

AVOID.

 

[Tplummer]

I buy livestock online very frequently.
About a year ago, I started buying animals from Blue Zoo, mostly CUC and inverts with an occasional fish.
At first, it went ok, aside from regular glitches on their website.
But now, they've screwed up my last two orders, and I think I'm done with them.

About 2 months ago, I placed an order and requested a specific delivery date.
Then someone there called me out of the blue and badgered me into having it sent earlier.
The night they shipped it, there was a freak cold snap and the temp here plummeted below freezing.
Most of the livestock was dead or dying on arrival.
I emailed them back about it but got no reply.
If they had shipped it when I requested, it would have been fine.

Last week, I decided to give them another try.
I placed an order for $400 worth of inverts; snails, shrimps, crabs, stars, and lettuce slugs.
All listed as in stock. Order went through and confirmed. Expecting delivery today.
And then, at 6 PM yesterday, I get an email which I didn't see till this morning:

Hello Randall,

Thank you for your recent order with Blue Zoo Aquatics. Unfortunately, we were unable to ship your order out due to the fact that some of the animals you ordered need to be observed a little bit longer before ship out. The curator here inspects all the animals every day and if he is not 100% convinced they will not get too stressed out during shipment, he likes to hold the order back until he is satisfied with the animals and their ability to handle the journey of shipment. He will be inspecting your animals daily and when he feels they are ready to ship we will call you and be able to ship that day or any day after that works for you.

We apologize for any inconveniences. Please understand that shipping animals isn't like normal online orders where we can just grab a product and stick in a box and ship it out. We like to make sure the animals are going to have a safe and healthy journey to your door.

Thank you,
[Name and phone number removed as required by R2R.]

www.bluezooaquatics.com


Really? An email like this in the evening before scheduled shipment, around business closing time?
What if I had taken today off work to receive this shipment?
Could they not have sent a partial shipment of the items they do have in stock?
Couldn't they have phoned me about this unilateral change of plans, maybe give me some options?
Does anyone actually believe the above excuse?
I think they just don't have all the livestock that they claimed to have available.

Anyway, this was a second chance for them from me, and they blew it.
So, I"m done doing business with this company.

Going through ths very same thing right now. The only different is that they didnt bother sending an email.these companies dont give a **** about their customers

 

[Eryeal]

"Alert the accountants" - yeah, like they have a team of accountants working there full time - so busy with accounting that they can't do refunds except once a week. Who knew Blue Zoo was doing millions of dollars in sales a day to keep them that busy!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I buy livestock online very frequently.
About a year ago, I started buying animals from Blue Zoo, mostly CUC and inverts with an occasional fish.
At first, it went ok, aside from regular glitches on their website.
But now, they've screwed up my last two orders, and I think I'm done with them.

About 2 months ago, I placed an order and requested a specific delivery date.
Then someone there called me out of the blue and badgered me into having it sent earlier.
The night they shipped it, there was a freak cold snap and the temp here plummeted below freezing.
Most of the livestock was dead or dying on arrival.
I emailed them back about it but got no reply.
If they had shipped it when I requested, it would have been fine.

Last week, I decided to give them another try.
I placed an order for $400 worth of inverts; snails, shrimps, crabs, stars, and lettuce slugs.
All listed as in stock. Order went through and confirmed. Expecting delivery today.
And then, at 6 PM yesterday, I get an email which I didn't see till this morning:

Hello Randall,

Thank you for your recent order with Blue Zoo Aquatics. Unfortunately, we were unable to ship your order out due to the fact that some of the animals you ordered need to be observed a little bit longer before ship out. The curator here inspects all the animals every day and if he is not 100% convinced they will not get too stressed out during shipment, he likes to hold the order back until he is satisfied with the animals and their ability to handle the journey of shipment. He will be inspecting your animals daily and when he feels they are ready to ship we will call you and be able to ship that day or any day after that works for you.

We apologize for any inconveniences. Please understand that shipping animals isn't like normal online orders where we can just grab a product and stick in a box and ship it out. We like to make sure the animals are going to have a safe and healthy journey to your door.

Thank you,
[Name and phone number removed as required by R2R.]

www.bluezooaquatics.com


Really? An email like this in the evening before scheduled shipment, around business closing time?
What if I had taken today off work to receive this shipment?
Could they not have sent a partial shipment of the items they do have in stock?
Couldn't they have phoned me about this unilateral change of plans, maybe give me some options?
Does anyone actually believe the above excuse?
I think they just don't have all the livestock that they claimed to have available.

Anyway, this was a second chance for them from me, and they blew it.
So, I"m done doing business with this company.

I went thru the exact thing with them in 2017. Truth is they go to the wholesaler, and hope they still have in stock, what's on their website, blue zoo site. If not, they send you that email.

They forget, it's more expensive to win back a customer. If they drop the ball. They drop the ball when they send you that email.

 

[Houstoner]

Man I wish i stumbled on this post before ordering from them. It has been 4 days since I got that same email and still nothing, will never buy from them again.