My recent Liveaquaria experience... not good.

[Maoiwowie]

I have recently started to buy fish for a new tank I am setting up. I dont think ive purchased stuff from LiveAquaria for years... now i remember why. They are running a red sea promo and have their purple tangs at 50% off $130. Nice deal. I wanted one and placed an order for 1 purple tang and to get free shipping, I included 2 fire shrimp with my order. But my mistake i hit 3 fire shrimp. After placing the order i immediately called them to let them know i wanted to change my order. After waiting 2 hours holding on their customer service line, i decided to leave a VM instead. Of course as soon as i try, i get a message that the VM is full and get dropped.... wasted 2 hours for nothing. But i send an email. The next day i try the same and get the same. I finally get an email clearly stating that the policy is once the order is placed, we cannot change the order or anything else.... thats fine, duly noted. But then i get an email stating they cant complete the order and wont be shipping anything... Great! I want to cancel the order completely. Then i am informed that I cant immediately. They told me if they cant fulfill the order within 5 days, then they will cancel the order, and only then. What!?!...That was yesterday. And this is the kicker... this morning i get another email from them stating the order is gonna ship... but im only receiving 3 fire shrimp and they are out of purple tangs or they are too sick to ship.... AND they now charged me a shipping fee! So they baited me to buy a fish on sale and ultimately im going to get three fire shrimp at full price with shipping fees. I did call to complain and they said i am SOL on the purple tang but the shipping fee was done in "error ( we all make mistakes)" so they will take that off.... seriously will never ever buy again from them.

 

[shakacuz]

they've gone downhill for quite some time. some people have success, most others don't. i had 2-3 orders not last long in my tank once received.

 

[Maoiwowie]

they've gone downhill for quite some time. some people have success, most others don't. i had 2-3 orders not last long in my tank once received.

Yeah... Typical. Their policy, the smoke and mirrors, poor communication and little transparency when there are so many other places to shop. Gonna try to keep this thread going for a bit. I seriously feel misled, and customer service said they would take off the shipping fee, but yet it is still there! If people reading this thread has any good experiences elsewhere, let me know. Ill say i dont live too far from Bluezooaquatics.com and my experience with them will calling stuff has been good.

Item #​	Description	Price​		Qty​		Subtotal​
CN-116099	SW - Purple Tang (Red Sea) - Small	$ 130.00​	x​	1​	=​	$ 0.00​
CN-116224	SW - Blood Red Fire Shrimp (Sri Lanka) - Medium	$ 52.99​	x​	3​	=​	$ 158.97​
Subtotal:​	$ 158.97​
Tax:​	$ 15.10​
Shipping: Marine, Freshwater and Corals - 1:	$ 29.99​
BoxCharge:	$ 9.99​
Payment type:​	American Express​
Amount:​	$326.41​
Total:​	$ 214.05​

​

 

[Jamie814]

My last 3 orders have been cancelled by them. First for an Anemone saying it wasn't healthy, then next 2 orders for scarlet reef crabs. They cancelled the first 2 days later, I replaced it and again for the same items and they cancelled that order again even though the items still shows in stock and available online.

The dr's and Kevin ran the place great, Petco purchased it all, shut most down and sold LA and ever since it's gone downhill.

 

[GARRIGA]

In their defense, might have ran out of purple tangs and don't have sophisticated system that updates as orders are paid. Sometimes with a good sale such as that half off on a high demand item there might be several who added that to their cart yet haven't checked out and paid therefore system wouldn't know how many actually fulfilled.

What they likely should do is update the software so that buyers can say all or none or what are they willing to buy should something be gone. Although not same business model, Walmart has a pretty good E commerce software that allows customers to replace with like items or cancel entire order if that really needed no longer available. Granted these online vendors don't have the capital for such software although you'd think there's off the shelf solutions as they aren't doing anything special. End of day they are selling a product. Fish or bread doesn't matter.

 

[Sdbuehler1]

LiveAquaria used to be my go to ordering place for fish back in the day but their shipping quality has gone way down hill. I stopped ordering from them when my shipments showed up in a thin lined cardboard box instead of a styrofoam cooler. It didnt look like any care was taken when packing the animals for shipment.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Same boat. I actually have $175 in store credit that I need to use before April. But I fear its going to end up the same fate as the last one.

 

[exnisstech]

Unfortunately LA has not been good since Foster and Smith sold the company. They were my go to vendor when I first entered the hobby but I won't order anything from them now.

 

[Maoiwowie]

In their defense, might have ran out of purple tangs and don't have sophisticated system that updates as orders are paid. Sometimes with a good sale such as that half off on a high demand item there might be several who added that to their cart yet haven't checked out and paid therefore system wouldn't know how many actually fulfilled.

What they likely should do is update the software so that buyers can say all or none or what are they willing to buy should something be gone. Although not same business model, Walmart has a pretty good E commerce software that allows customers to replace with like items or cancel entire order if that really needed no longer available. Granted these online vendors don't have the capital for such software although you'd think there's off the shelf solutions as they aren't doing anything special. End of day they are selling a product. Fish or bread doesn't matter.

Yes... could be an archaic computer system; or could be just lazy and shady practice. In our digital age and AI... c'mon now!

 

[GARRIGA]

Yes... could be an archaic computer system; or could be just lazy and shady practice. In our digital age and AI... c'mon now!

I've lost faith in AI, based on chats where humans would have understood what I was saying yet their BOT apparently does not contain the necessary background to put things together. Call centers offshore safe at the moment although sometimes I also struggle explaining myself to them. Perhaps it's me that's the problem. Recent thread on free shipping had me all misunderstood :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I ordered a toadstool from them after winning a $100 gift card in a R2R giveaway (made it affordable). I don't recall the packaging anymore, but it is doing well in my tank. Just put this up because you asked for positive experiences, that's my only interaction with them.

 

[Maoiwowie]

And here is the cherry on top.... They pack it with newspaper with this flimsy air pad that lines the bottom. Do not buy from them! $9.99 box fee for this crap!

 

[KrisReef]

I've lost faith in AI, based on chats where humans would have understood what I was saying yet their BOT apparently does not contain the necessary background to put things together. Call centers offshore safe at the moment although sometimes I also struggle explaining myself to them. Perhaps it's me that's the problem. Recent thread on free shipping had me all misunderstood :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

The problem with talking with strangers or computers is complicated by possible language barriers or programming rules, both can limit or prevent you from getting what you want from the interaction but knowing why is not generally readily available information.

I have been getting repeated phone calls from an 800 number. I answered the call two days ago and got a recording; “ Thank you for calling us. Your call will be answered in the order it was received.” I laughed and hung up and they called again yesterday and since I was riding with a friend I picked up the call and this time some stranger was asking about a credit card and of course they wanted to get right into the discovery portion and have me provide them with my name, card number and the color of my wife’s underwear.

I cut them off and said I didn’t have time to deal with this issue because I needed to scratch my bum.

I sometimes leave recorded messages like this just to confound the AI if they are trying to use that to get information.

:cool:

 

[Salty_Steve]

Check out https://nyaquatic.com/ they have a live sale every Sunday and had great price on baby purple tangs. The baby purple tangs were like $90. I have purchased fish from them in the past and have had no problems.

 

[mpatterson42]

I would absolutely be doing a credit card chargeback for that.

 

[Maoiwowie]

I would absolutely be doing a credit card chargeback for that.

Yeah... my payback will be bumping this thread every now and then as a warning to all the reefers out there that save hard earned money to enjoy this challenging yet rewarding hobby. Ill will say that all 3 fire shrimp are alive and in the tank.

 

[DHill6]

A couple years ago I let my credit go since I didn’t want to order from them ever again. With that said, twelve years ago they were alright.

 

[Maoiwowie]

Check out https://nyaquatic.com/ they have a live sale every Sunday and had great price on baby purple tangs. The baby purple tangs were like $90. I have purchased fish from them in the past and have had no problems.

Purchased from nyaquatic for $70 and it was late to me by a day! Packed well in foam and heat.