LA you make me sick

[ShawnM24]

3rd and final order I used the last of my credit. Your echo friendly new packaging killed everything in my shipment that is strike three I am done with you. Only good thing out of it is your rep refunded me all my money. I don’t know what happen to you all and I don’t care. I want to encourage everyone to stay away from LA unless you want dead live stock.

 

[OceanMinded]

I’ve never ordered anything from them but for years now I’ve been hearing horror stories about them

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Seems they have gone downhill. Like they don’t know how to package and ship anymore. You would think they would wake up and realize they have some major problems.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

I’ve never ordered anything from them but for years now I’ve been hearing horror stories about them

I equate this to when I was a chef. If the food was good, I never heard a word about it. If the customer was unhappy with the food I heard about it immediately. Nobody reports positive experiences, but everyone is quick to report their negative experiences. LA is a large company with many customers, so of course you'll hear plenty of bad experiences. I bet the positive experiences outnumber the negatives by a large margin, if they were all bad they wouldn't be in business. The OP got a 100% refund, not sure why they're so upset with that

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I equate this to when I was a chef. If the food was good, I never heard a word about it. If the customer was unhappy with the food I heard about it immediately. Nobody reports positive experiences, but everyone is quick to report their negative experiences. LA is a large company with many customers, so of course you'll hear plenty of bad experiences. I bet the positive experiences outnumber the negatives by a large margin, if they were all bad they wouldn't be in business. The OP got a 100% refund, not sure why they're so upset with that

What you say is correct, but at the same time recently the numbers of unsatisfied customers seem to be growing in numbers.

 

[mfinn]

I also used to be a long term customer, but I'm done with them also.
The op was very lucky getting a refund.
Most of us are lucky if we get store credit. But that's not always a good thing.
My store credit turned out to be not the same item as listed and when I brought it up, I was sol.
The whole eco friendly packaging is bs too.
Many areas have recycling for styrofoam boxes, and many are able to pass along the styrofoam boxes for second and third uses.
The bags they ship fish and corals in now get tossed in the garbage to end up in the landfill.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

What you say is correct, but at the same time recently the numbers of unsatisfied customers seem to be growing in numbers.

That may be true but hard to quantify. I'll be placing an order with LA in the next couple weeks, I live on the east coast so it should be a good test of their packaging!

 

[shakacuz]

my shipments have arrived alive from LA, but the fish themselves never really lasted (two occasions i bought a CB yasha goby to pair with my pistol. both died within months..)

 

[JoeinLA]

I equate this to when I was a chef. If the food was good, I never heard a word about it. If the customer was unhappy with the food I heard about it immediately. Nobody reports positive experiences, but everyone is quick to report their negative experiences. LA is a large company with many customers, so of course you'll hear plenty of bad experiences. I bet the positive experiences outnumber the negatives by a large margin, if they were all bad they wouldn't be in business. The OP got a 100% refund, not sure why they're so upset with that

1. fair enough but for every one complainer there will be others that are simply unhappy and can’t be bothered.

2. Just because theyre still in business doesn’t negate the concern that they’re going down hill and aren’t providing the quality of product/service that some customers are expecting. If LA wants to give up on the customers represented by OP, of course that’s their business; but seems like OPs concern is one of general applicability and if anything I would think posts like this should at the very least serveas a warning to management re potential points of failure.

3. What really got me was the comment that “hey you got your money back, so what’s the problem?” WOW. I just ordered my first fish online (tank bred, not from LA) and the experience was unpleasant enough that I’ll be resistant to doing it again. a) amount of time (and thus money) wasted waiting for delivery. b) amount of headache when FedEx decides to change overnight to 2 day but not inform you of it until you’ve already lost your original delivery window. c) thank you for allowing me the privilege of paying to watch a fish die or buy a dead fish (see b above.). I think that statement is quite a bit callous re: livestock and those that try to take good care of them. even more so for fish taken from the wild.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

What you say is correct, but at the same time recently the numbers of unsatisfied customers seem to be growing in numbers.

Absolutely correct! Now ecotech added to my list!

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

3. What really got me was the comment that “hey you got your money back, so what’s the problem?” WOW. I just ordered my first fish online (tank bred, not from LA) and the experience was unpleasant enough that I’ll be resistant to doing it again. a) amount of time (and thus money) wasted waiting for delivery. b) amount of headache when FedEx decides to change overnight to 2 day but not inform you of it until you’ve already lost your original delivery window. c) thank you for allowing me the privilege of paying to watch a fish die or buy a dead fish (see b above.). I think that statement is quite a bit callous re: livestock and those that try to take good care of them. even more so for fish taken from the wild.

You do realize that the vendor loses here too right? They paid for the livestock, paid an employee to pack the shipment, sold the livestock, and then issued a 100% refund for said livestock (and paid a customer service rep to take care of that). As much of a pain it is for the consumer (BTW, shipping issues aren't on the vendor, making points B and C irrelevant) its the same, if not worse, for the vendor. They lost all that time and $$, and get a ****** post on R2R about it. At least the OP got their $$ back

 

[Morphinel]

You do realize that the vendor loses here too right? They paid for the livestock, paid an employee to pack the shipment, sold the livestock, and then issued a 100% refund for said livestock (and paid a customer service rep to take care of that). As much of a pain it is for the consumer (BTW, shipping issues aren't on the vendor, making points B and C irrelevant) its the same, if not worse, for the vendor. They lost all that time and $$, and get a ****** post on R2R about it. At least the OP got their $$ back

What about the fish(es) who had to die in the process because of LA’s poor shipping practices? It’s not all about $$

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

What about the fish(es) who had to die in the process because of LA’s poor shipping practices? It’s not all about $$

How many hobbyists have killed fish due to improper QT? I'm willing to bet that number is much higher than the number of fish that perished in shipping. I'm not condoning killing fish, but the thought that only LA does it is laughable.

 

[Morphinel]

How many hobbyists have killed fish due to improper QT? I'm willing to bet that number is much higher than the number of fish that perished in shipping. I'm not condoning killing fish, but the thought that only LA does it is laughable.

We aren’t talking about every vendor at the moment. I would venture to say that in terms of sales LA is probably in the top 5 for live coral/fish sales. That being said, I would also venture to say that they likely have more loses than any other major vendor. Point of the thread is that LA sucks probably more than any other major vendor.

In terms of improper QT, I’ll defer to someone else since I follow Paul B’s guide to raising fish.

 

[OceanMinded]

How many hobbyists have killed fish due to improper QT? I'm willing to bet that number is much higher than the number of fish that perished in shipping. I'm not condoning killing fish, but the thought that only LA does it is laughable.

You lost me here.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

We aren’t talking about every vendor at the moment. I would venture to say that in terms of sales LA is probably in the top 5 for live coral/fish sales. That being said, I would also venture to say that they likely have more loses than any other major vendor. Point of the thread is that LA sucks probably more than any other major vendor.

In terms of improper QT, I’ll defer to someone else since I follow Paul B’s guide to raising fish.

I wasn't referring to any other vendors unless I'm missing something here ;Writing

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

You lost me here.

You've been found, not to worry haha Or are you saying that more fish die due to shipping than bad animal husbandry?

 

[OceanMinded]

You've been found, not to worry haha Or are you saying that more fish die due to shipping than bad animal husbandry?

You’re comparing fish husbandry within the whole community to Live Aquaria. That’s assuming that everyone in the hobby has a R2R account and just doesn’t post their positive experience. I’ve seen posts like the OP’s for the last 10 years.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

You’re comparing fish husbandry within the whole community to Live Aquaria. That’s assuming that everyone in the hobby has a R2R account and just doesn’t post their positive experience. I’ve seen posts like the OP’s for the last 10 years.

Well, yes and no. I was just using a general example to reply to the question of "What about the fish(es) who had to die in the process because of LA’s poor shipping practices?" because apparently I'm pro-killing fish if I'm not anti-LiveAquaria lol