Fish_N_A_Box
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2019
- Messages
- 144
- Reaction score
- 173
- What state or country do you live in
- Alabama
Let this be a warning to others...
First off I do not like bashing a business online. However, I'll do it when it needs to be done. I run my own business and to see other owners treat paying customers like I was today, burns me.
So on the evening of the 10th (Thursday) for a 1.5" Yellow Hybrid Tang and a magnificent foxface and a few crabs (to get me to that free shipping threshhold). Saturday I noticed that they had listed a pink streak wrasse that I would take as well. My order had not been shipped. Send them a message via FB asking if I could add to it (get a auto reply). Monday afternoon rolls around no answer. I send another message saying that I would like to add to the order (another auto reply). So Tues I call them, leave a voice message basically stating the same thing. No call back. Order still processing. Mind you at this point I have also ordered everything required to QT the fish for 30 days.. so roughly 100.00 worth of meds/copper/test kit... and spent the time get everything set up while I'm waiting to hear back from them. Just in case the order shipped out/ delivered without prior notification I would be ready.
So now it's Wed and I call them, again, mid day and get a answer. They ask for the order number, I provide it and then I'm told the Yellow Tang didn't make it. Didn't make it? You mean it died? yes. (I bite my tongue).... Due to this they couldn't ship my order as I no longer meet the free shipping amount. But I could order another fish in place of it.... this is where it takes a turn.. for the worse... I said sure.. how about the yellow tang hybrid you have listed right now that is 349.99, since it is the EXACT same fish you just told me that died. Yes they relisted the fish I had already bought at a higher price. Mind you this is on the WYSIWYG page. .... there is a stutter.. some crickets chirp. Before I called I had already been on their site again and as of Tues the same fish (picture) and exact stock number was relisted from the 99.99 that I paid to 349.99. .... Then the guy tried to back pedal and say there must have been a stocking error, because they got a bunch in (but wait why are using the same picture of a WYISWYG if that is the case?). I stopped him mid sentence I said you just confindently stated it died, now you are changing it to a stocking error. Which is it.. did it die or a stocking error? ... crickets. Comes back with "I don't like your tone".. No you don't like me calling you out on a lie. They offered to cancel the order. I declined and said I wanted what I paid for. Clearly you have the fish as it is available this very moment. He said they don't handle that side of things, someone else does. But the fish had been sold/no longer available, yet there it was available on the site to buy..hmmmm. (keep this in mind, at this point the fish went from dead, to stocking error, to sold.. all in under 5 minutes.. we'll circle back around to this again with the owner later).
So the guy wasn't happy with my tone.. yes it was stern.. welcome to ticking off someone that doesn't like being lied to and BS'd... this is what you get. Someone with a stern voice that will not back down and will not be talked over. You created the situation, now you get to deal with it. He said he would have to talk to the owner to see what could be done. That's fine. Well a few hours later the owner calls.
He explains that it was a error made by the people in India who list the fish on his site. They did not realise that it was a "Class A Bright Yellow Hybrid Tang" which cost more. This is not my fault. If it had been 100.00 difference he said he would have let it slide. This is also not the first time that I've heard/read this excuse on the internet about V.A. .... I ask why I was not contacted when my order went into processing on Monday about this? Was given the excuse they are very busy and they are doing these great services and deals for the reefers. So they are busy. Ummm what? You have a paying/paid customer that you are neglecting/ignoring. Your employee then proceeds to spin a story that changes three times. He then goes on to say that the fish had just sold, or he would have discounted it for me to make me happy. This is where we circle back around... now remember the employee said it died, stock error, no longer available... the owner tells me it sold after I called earlier. Also keep in mind they have no control over what is listed per the employee, that's outsourced to India. Strange thing is.. I had the fished pulled up on my screen and I wanted to see how long it would remain in stock. Minutes after my initial phone call it was marked as "sold". Now what are the chances of that happening? They do have control over their site or someone they talked to does. .. I point this out to him and he then says he doesn't like my tone of voice... again you get the stern voice when you BS me. You created this problem, you now get to deal with it. He's steadily trying to talk over me.. I mean steadily. Clearly he is not used to being told off and scolded, because that is basically what I was doing at this point. At some point I told him that I ran my own business and in cases like this I either eat the cost or I reach out to the customer as soon as it is discovered to explain the situation. I don't make the customer chase me and then lie to them. Back to him not liking my tone of voice. He then said he didn't know how I have customers if this is how I talk to people on the phone. Probably because I'm professional and I don't have to be stern with my customers. Basically if you call him out on his BS, he automatically doesn't like the tone you are taking with him.
So to recap... he couldn't give a clear answer why no one had called me, why my FB messages went ignored, other than they were busy giving us reefers great fish and deals. That if I didn't change my tone with him he would not deal with me anymore and I would miss out of great deals (strangly I also read this somewhere else as well, so a common scare tactic?). His employees lied like they had rehearsed it 100 times over, but then when caught couldn't find a hole to crawl into quick enough. He lied about the fish being sold just before he called me (went from dead, stock error, not available (while still being listed), to soon as I hung up it sold, to just sold before he called me).
The thing is I told him to cancel the order within the first 90 seconds of the conversation as soon as he finished explaining how this happened. He spent another 10 minutes trying to prove he was right and I was wrong and I shouldn't be upset and speaking with him in such a tone of voice because I would loose great deals even though my order had been in limbo since Friday, no contact, I had to chase, I was lied to by his employees.
So to clarify, he did start off with explaining that it was a listing error, explained how it happened, but then he went on to make it like it was my fault, not theirs, that is when it went sideways with him as well.
"I don't like your tone of voice" = stop calling me out on my BS.
given what I dug up today on the internet though about him and his business and my own interactions... thumbs down, I can't recommend after today.
Included are the pictures of where the one I paid 99.99 for, the price increase with a change to how they titled it, and my order showing it was processing on the 11th. Just in case someone calls BS on this... there are the pictures to back it up.
First off I do not like bashing a business online. However, I'll do it when it needs to be done. I run my own business and to see other owners treat paying customers like I was today, burns me.
So on the evening of the 10th (Thursday) for a 1.5" Yellow Hybrid Tang and a magnificent foxface and a few crabs (to get me to that free shipping threshhold). Saturday I noticed that they had listed a pink streak wrasse that I would take as well. My order had not been shipped. Send them a message via FB asking if I could add to it (get a auto reply). Monday afternoon rolls around no answer. I send another message saying that I would like to add to the order (another auto reply). So Tues I call them, leave a voice message basically stating the same thing. No call back. Order still processing. Mind you at this point I have also ordered everything required to QT the fish for 30 days.. so roughly 100.00 worth of meds/copper/test kit... and spent the time get everything set up while I'm waiting to hear back from them. Just in case the order shipped out/ delivered without prior notification I would be ready.
So now it's Wed and I call them, again, mid day and get a answer. They ask for the order number, I provide it and then I'm told the Yellow Tang didn't make it. Didn't make it? You mean it died? yes. (I bite my tongue).... Due to this they couldn't ship my order as I no longer meet the free shipping amount. But I could order another fish in place of it.... this is where it takes a turn.. for the worse... I said sure.. how about the yellow tang hybrid you have listed right now that is 349.99, since it is the EXACT same fish you just told me that died. Yes they relisted the fish I had already bought at a higher price. Mind you this is on the WYSIWYG page. .... there is a stutter.. some crickets chirp. Before I called I had already been on their site again and as of Tues the same fish (picture) and exact stock number was relisted from the 99.99 that I paid to 349.99. .... Then the guy tried to back pedal and say there must have been a stocking error, because they got a bunch in (but wait why are using the same picture of a WYISWYG if that is the case?). I stopped him mid sentence I said you just confindently stated it died, now you are changing it to a stocking error. Which is it.. did it die or a stocking error? ... crickets. Comes back with "I don't like your tone".. No you don't like me calling you out on a lie. They offered to cancel the order. I declined and said I wanted what I paid for. Clearly you have the fish as it is available this very moment. He said they don't handle that side of things, someone else does. But the fish had been sold/no longer available, yet there it was available on the site to buy..hmmmm. (keep this in mind, at this point the fish went from dead, to stocking error, to sold.. all in under 5 minutes.. we'll circle back around to this again with the owner later).
So the guy wasn't happy with my tone.. yes it was stern.. welcome to ticking off someone that doesn't like being lied to and BS'd... this is what you get. Someone with a stern voice that will not back down and will not be talked over. You created the situation, now you get to deal with it. He said he would have to talk to the owner to see what could be done. That's fine. Well a few hours later the owner calls.
He explains that it was a error made by the people in India who list the fish on his site. They did not realise that it was a "Class A Bright Yellow Hybrid Tang" which cost more. This is not my fault. If it had been 100.00 difference he said he would have let it slide. This is also not the first time that I've heard/read this excuse on the internet about V.A. .... I ask why I was not contacted when my order went into processing on Monday about this? Was given the excuse they are very busy and they are doing these great services and deals for the reefers. So they are busy. Ummm what? You have a paying/paid customer that you are neglecting/ignoring. Your employee then proceeds to spin a story that changes three times. He then goes on to say that the fish had just sold, or he would have discounted it for me to make me happy. This is where we circle back around... now remember the employee said it died, stock error, no longer available... the owner tells me it sold after I called earlier. Also keep in mind they have no control over what is listed per the employee, that's outsourced to India. Strange thing is.. I had the fished pulled up on my screen and I wanted to see how long it would remain in stock. Minutes after my initial phone call it was marked as "sold". Now what are the chances of that happening? They do have control over their site or someone they talked to does. .. I point this out to him and he then says he doesn't like my tone of voice... again you get the stern voice when you BS me. You created this problem, you now get to deal with it. He's steadily trying to talk over me.. I mean steadily. Clearly he is not used to being told off and scolded, because that is basically what I was doing at this point. At some point I told him that I ran my own business and in cases like this I either eat the cost or I reach out to the customer as soon as it is discovered to explain the situation. I don't make the customer chase me and then lie to them. Back to him not liking my tone of voice. He then said he didn't know how I have customers if this is how I talk to people on the phone. Probably because I'm professional and I don't have to be stern with my customers. Basically if you call him out on his BS, he automatically doesn't like the tone you are taking with him.
So to recap... he couldn't give a clear answer why no one had called me, why my FB messages went ignored, other than they were busy giving us reefers great fish and deals. That if I didn't change my tone with him he would not deal with me anymore and I would miss out of great deals (strangly I also read this somewhere else as well, so a common scare tactic?). His employees lied like they had rehearsed it 100 times over, but then when caught couldn't find a hole to crawl into quick enough. He lied about the fish being sold just before he called me (went from dead, stock error, not available (while still being listed), to soon as I hung up it sold, to just sold before he called me).
The thing is I told him to cancel the order within the first 90 seconds of the conversation as soon as he finished explaining how this happened. He spent another 10 minutes trying to prove he was right and I was wrong and I shouldn't be upset and speaking with him in such a tone of voice because I would loose great deals even though my order had been in limbo since Friday, no contact, I had to chase, I was lied to by his employees.
So to clarify, he did start off with explaining that it was a listing error, explained how it happened, but then he went on to make it like it was my fault, not theirs, that is when it went sideways with him as well.
"I don't like your tone of voice" = stop calling me out on my BS.
given what I dug up today on the internet though about him and his business and my own interactions... thumbs down, I can't recommend after today.
Included are the pictures of where the one I paid 99.99 for, the price increase with a change to how they titled it, and my order showing it was processing on the 11th. Just in case someone calls BS on this... there are the pictures to back it up.
. All their chromis on their WYSWIG section have Uronema. 
..... just do your research... I looked into them briefly before I placed my order. almost pulled the trigger a few times in the past. It seems they are great or they are terrible, nothing in between. All fish shops get that disgruntled customer because as we all know many in this hobby have reef tanks that look like a toilet, spend money they don't have on it, but blame the seller when stuff croaks. In this case I caught them red handed in multiple lies and the shipment never was sent. My gripe is how they handled customer service.
