Waterbox MIA Damaged Aquarium (Peninsula 7225) On Delivery

[jefra]

I work in healthcare and had a particularly challenging time last year. One of the few upsides was a production bonus that allowed me to buy the aquarium of my dreams, a @Waterbox Aquariums Peninsula 7225.

Unfortunately, the tank arrived with a substantial chip on the front corner and a damaged stand. I immediately contacted the Waterbox account executive I'd been working with and completed the claim form on their website within 24 hours per company policy. My claim form included pictures of the damage and a picture of the serial number on the overflow as requested. Despite numerous emails and phone calls, Waterbox hasn't given me a single response. They have ignored my complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau and have completely ignored me. For nearly nine months, ,I have made frequent contact with Waterbox and have not received a single response.

This is a beautiful albeit expensive aquarium. I am profoundly disappointed in the company for not even attempting to reach a resolution with me. From what I've heard, ignoring customers when problems arise is not uncommon for Waterbox. I'm now sharing my experience as a final attempt to get compensated for a broken and unusable tank and also provide a warning to others considering purchasing from Waterbox.

I've included pictures to support my claims.

 

[jefra]

@Waterbox Aquariums continues its practice of not responding. I think the assumption can be made that they consider freight damage on delivery to be the responsibility of the buyer even when that buyer follows all of their instructions to resolve the issue. Very disappointing to have wasted thousands of dollars with this company.

 

[Waterbox Aquariums]

Hello,

Thank you for your post. Our Claims Department responded to you on 06/01/2021, shortly after receiving your claim submission; we never received a response. Please check your spam folder for this communication, as our response may have went there. A screenshot of our response is included below as proof and for your reference:

We are also very concerned regarding your statement that you have 'made frequent contact with Waterbox and have not received a single response'. Please let us know what form of contact you have been using, as we have searched using your phone number, last name and email address provided on the claim and find no calls or additional emails/correspondence from you to our Customer Support or Claims Department. If your communication has been going unanswered, we certainly want to look into this for you.


Please feel free to respond to the email that was originally sent from us back on 06/01/2021 (if it is still available in your spam folder) or by sending an email directly to [email protected] since our R2R account is not monitored daily.

Happy fishkeeping.

 

[jefra]

Hello,

Thank you for your post. Our Claims Department responded to you on 06/01/2021, shortly after receiving your claim submission; we never received a response. Please check your spam folder for this communication, as our response may have went there. A screenshot of our response is included below as proof and for your reference:

We are also very concerned regarding your statement that you have 'made frequent contact with Waterbox and have not received a single response'. Please let us know what form of contact you have been using, as we have searched using your phone number, last name and email address provided on the claim and find no calls or additional emails/correspondence from you to our Customer Support or Claims Department. If your communication has been going unanswered, we certainly want to look into this for you.


Please feel free to respond to the email that was originally sent from us back on 06/01/2021 (if it is still available in your spam folder) or by sending an email directly to [email protected] since our R2R account is not monitored daily.

Happy fishkeeping.

Hello @Waterbox Aquariums ,

Thank you for your response. I just emailed [email protected] as suggested. In the interest of transparency, and frankly, the lack of response I have received for 9 months now, I will keep this thread updated with your responses.

As I mentioned in my email, I made contact with you through three channels, phone, email, and a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I did not receive a single response at any point.

The snippet you included from the response you said you made on June 1st is difficult to view. I can state that I absolutely never received that message. I can also state that message you posted is entirely unhelpful. I detailed "what happened" in the original claim I filed as well as via email and phone with Jessica Stewart, Sr. Account Executive. I received an aquarium with a substantial chip in the front corner rendering it unusable. I was not present during the freight process. I don't know how you can expect me to tell you how it was chipped during the freight shipment. Nor do I think asking that shows a good faith effort in providing a resolution.

The date you listed, 06/01/2021 also contradicts the attached email with Jessica who stated "less than 48 business hours." There is a full 120 business hours between 05/25/2021 (original email and claim) and 06/01/2021. I believe this is yet another example demonstrating the poor communication with your company.



I do not want to continuously exchange emails or Reef2Reef posts with you where you try to deflect responsibility. I want a resolution. Please, after 9 months, provide me with a resolution.

 

[jefra]

We have looked through all our email and call logs and not one contact has been made to us by you in this whole time with either name [removed for privacy] or [removed for privacy] , email address or phone number provided. We would like to make sure all information you are putting online is actually valid which your Reef2Reef thread is not.



The original claim response sent on 6/1/21 was asking about damage to the pallet or aquarium crate as this large of damage to a corner of a thick glass aquarium is caused by an impact. If that were to have occurred during the shipping process the crate or pallet would have shown very noticeable damage. Shipping damage would have required the photos of pallet or crate for us to pursue FedEx for this damage. The only photos provided by you in this claim were duplicate pictures of the damaged area. This does not provide any information to us and when responded requesting more information we did not receive anything back from you until now.



If this was a shipping issue and the shipment came damaged we would have had 30 days from time of delivery to file a claim with FedEx and would have needed photos showing the damage and delivery paperwork marked of damages.



If the pallet or crate was not damaged then this did not occur before arriving to you. Our aquariums are packaged to withstand substantial mishandling to ensure it arrives to you without damage. During unpackaging and inspecting of aquarium before moving it onto the cabinet this area would have been noticeable and per our policy would have been reported at that time. Once it has been removed from the shipping pallet we can not be responsible for damages that could have occurred during moving/set up.



Also, just as an observation from someone who has seen many types of damages occur, this location of large chip is not along the trend of shipping damage and looking at the photo you have provided you can see right below where the chip is the cabinet is also damaged. I am not saying this is what happened but it looks as though the tank/cabinet in that corner was hit which would have resulted in the damage.











We are now at almost 8.5 months post claim submission with just now having the first response from you. There is nothing further we can do in this scenario due to this. Even if we could have claimed it as shipping damage we are 7.5 months past the time frame we could have done that.



We do our best to take care of every Waterbox owner and will find our customer support and claims department to be very highly rated but the circumstances around this and time that has passed leave us with no further resolution.



Looking at the photo it does not look as though the silicone is affected by this damage - which would mean it is possibly not structurally compromised. I can have our engineers review the photo if you would like confirmation if aquarium can still be safely used.



Thank you 2/7/2022 3:57 PM

Yes, you've consistently stated you're unable to find records of my communication with you. My Reef2Reef thread is completely valid. I suppose from your perspective, it would make sense for you to attempt to discredit my attempts to resolve this for nearly a year now. I notice you haven't commented at all on the complaint with the Better Business Bureau I lodged, and you ignored, presumably because you can't claim it doesn't exist as you have with my direct contact with you. There are numerous other ignored complaints on the BBB from customers who tried to get help from Waterbox and were abandoned entirely. Did you lose records of all their communication as well?

There was no damage to the pallet that I was aware of. Maybe this chip doesn't align with the trends you've viewed, but it nevertheless occurred during the shipment process. I can't speak to how it happened. I can only reiterate that it was received in this condition and that your company was informed with a claim filed within 24 hours per your company policy.

I am well aware of the significant amount of time that has passed which is yet another shortfall of Waterbox for failing to resolve this issue for me. I am not the only customer who has been ignored by Waterbox and I would even say the company is getting a reputation for ignoring its customers with issues. So you can continue to make assumptions and try to deflect blame and say you can't find a record of communications, but really, I think people can see through this sort of diversionary nonsense, myself included.

"looks as thought the aquarium is already set up and running in another state and someone is looking to repair it. In this case, I will not worry about having our engineers review the original photos." 2/7/2022 5:11 PM

I have no clue what you're talking about. I can only guess that you're continuing to operate on assumptions and misinformation, and now fabricate events entirely when it suits your purposes. The aquarium is sitting in the corner of my living room in the exact same place for, as you say, "8.5 months" now. It has never been set up or running because it has a substantial chip in the corner which you have ignored my requests for assistance on.

Having your engineers tell me from a picture that an aquarium with a giant crack in the corner "can still be safely used" to then absolve you of responsibility was never an acceptable resolution for me. In what world is that a thorough or accurate analysis by your engineering team? In what world should a customer pay nearly $5,000 for an aquarium with a giant chip and be happy some anonymous engineers have cleared it? But I suppose that's a moot point since you've created some imaginative story about the aquarium being "set up and running in another state" and have now reneged on that offer as well.

This look into the operations of @Waterbox Aquariums has been such an illuminating look at what's clearly an embarrassment. That you would rather fabricate stories about an aquarium being elsewhere and do anything and everything except the one thing you should be doing: provide a resolution for a customer who received damaged merchandise.

 

[Waterbox Aquariums]

Jeffery, here is the post showing the aquarium running:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...rs-that-can-give-input-on-tank-repair.890737/

This is the exact same aquarium - not sure how that is fabricating a story.

Claims Department keeps stating that there is no record of you reaching out to us because it is an important factor as 8.5 months has gone by without one communication from you in response to your original claim or reaching out to our customer service. Our system keeps log of every phone call, missed call, chat, live chat, social media interaction and email.

We also will not keep ongoing in this thread as the circumstances around your claim have been explained by the Claims Departments last correspondence.

Thank you