Customer service is everything..can someone let Red Sea know.

B

bboyvital

New member
Soooooo.....

i was thinking maybe my corals (primarily zoa/palys) needed some vitamin C to help boost their color and polyp size and health all around. The fish store i went to suggested Red Sea Reef Energy A/B(aminos and vitamins..blah blah). Ive never bought or used red sea items before but the store said they used it and said it works great in there tanks!

I bought the Reef Energy A/B i guess you could call it a trial size. Then again i only have a 30 gallon tank. Came with A/B and a pipette to add to the tank. Shook up the A and added to the tank. Shook up B and dipped the pipette in and it was chunky/gooey inside. Pippete couldnt suck it up. So just assumed i didnt shake enough. Shook and shook but still basically the same gooo. Thought to myself this couldnt be right.

well after talking to the fish store (which was great) then contacting red sea through there website Brian (pinky bullot?) responded to my enquiry. With some pictures from me and great email correspondance from him at first he said he would send me a replacement. i gave him my address and he mailed out something. I received it about a week later but it was not what i purchased. it was some sort of calcium addittive. i have no use for it. if someone needs it let me know you can have it. Calcium pro/B or something.

i emailed Brian and he sent out what i was hoping was the correct stuff. Well this time i wouldnt know as it went to some address in Lancaster, CA. I live in Palmdale, CA. I emailed Brian and his response is that he sent it to the address i provided (which he obviously didnt if the first packet got to me and the second went to some other place) and he copied the UPS tracking confirmation which confirms it never came to my address but was delivered to someones door in Lancaster. Even the tracking number states they had the wrong address information and had to get corrected information.

The last email i got from Brian seemed fairly final that he sent it and thats it. No response after that so i guess i am safe to assume i will not be getting any further response from Brian or replacement of the product i bought and cant use. As i told Brian in my final email to him, it was my first experience with any Red Sea product and it is now my last.


The product may have been $10.00 bucks and nooo i am not some baller that can drop fat cash on every new toy that comes into the reef scene so yes $10.00 is alot to me and it was an investment into the coral i have. I work in customer service/sales and you finish what you started and do what you say you were going to do.

wont be messing with anything RedSea! i dont care if they figure out how to make fishes never die and and coral multiply as soon as it hits the water.

Take what you want from the story..just thought ide share my experience.
 
It could be Brian got transferred to different department or he quits Red Sea.....Give Red Sea a chance. You should not judge Red Sea because of 1 customer service person you interact with!
 
That sucks. I like their products and plan on trying more of them but that is terrible. I will avoid that guy if I ever have to call customer service.
 
i received a snarky response but a response non the less . basically indicating he has done me a favor by sending it out twice at no cost to me. Well there was a cost. the original cost of an item that was no good to me. He says he's gonna send it out again. hopefully he double checked the address this time. sounds like ill have reef energy a/b for trade if it ever gets to me cause im not using it.

Im sure there product is good otherwise there wouldn't be so many people using them and the fish store i went to would not have recommended them. Too bad i didnt have the chance to see for myself before being turned off by there support team. There is no reason it should take 3 attempts and almost a month to resolve something so simple.

i appreciate you guys listening to me complain. i guess its better than another for sale thread, though i do appreciate a great deal..lol.
 
Sorry to hear Johnny.

You may want to give Red Sea a call and speak to a manager just to inform them of what transpired. Don't know if it would help but whether they're on your side or the CSR's, they should know of your situation. More stress for you but it's the CSR's fault.

Possible stress over a $10 item for you, and you may have been right in you're initial assesment afterall or they have an idea of a possible bad egg in their CSR lineup and maybe make an attempt to make it right. Your call.

But I agree with you that first point of contact is what's important, cause it's what people see, which I always think reflects on management as it should.

It sucks when you can bad customer service and they still get paid the same $ as the good ones.

You can probably tell I've been there at least once or twice.

At least RC is a good place to vent. LOL
 
Johnny, sorry you are having this problem. Problem aside, I have what you are looking for here at my house and you are welcome to use it. It doesn't solve your problem in one respect but it solves your problem in another. Try it on my dime. Let me know
 
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Why didn't you return item to the store you bought it from?
If it's the store I think it is he would have made it right.
I use reef energy it's ok I guess. I don't like their salt.
 
Rik - I appreciate the offer but ill pass on red sea.

Billy - i picked it up at chance of coral and they are kind of a ways from here. Robert said he would replace it as soon as i informed him of the issue but i did not feel it was the stores issue and of course i thought it would be much more convenient for Red Sea to ship it. If the product is not what it should be it is Red Seas fault not the stores anyways.
 
I reread your initial post and subsequent posts Johnny. Is this about money or is this about principle? Either way, you are welcome
 
This is principle though money started the consumer process.

The first mention of cost in the first post was for people who would say its only $10.00.

The second post referring to money was because Brian acted as he was doing me a favor by sending me out replacement items for the defective items i was sold at "no charge to me".

i cannot appreciate or support a company that does not stand behind there product. Or a company that will not take ownership of there error until the consumer is pushed to voice their concern online.
 
First off when they sent you out the Calcium supplement that is a very easy mistake as most 2 part alk and Calcium are referred to as A and B, easy for a human in shipping to grab the bottle marked B instead of the Reef Energy B? As far as the shipping mistake I do not know, but I will admit my company makes mistakes and if you are unhappy with how one of my employees is handling a situation I would ask that you call a manager or a owner. Now the part that you should really think about before passing judgment and the real reason these mistakes probably happened. Red Sea does not sell to end users they sell direct to large distributors, they do not deal with shipping small packages to consumers, they ship pallets to distributors. When mistakes are made they issue credits to the distributors and the local store then receives a credit. Why didn't you take the product back to the store you purchased at? Reef Energy is similar to a bottle of juice on a grocery shelf, once you open it it needs to be refrigerated or it will spoil, unfortunately you got a set that someone at the store opened or smelled and it went bad. If you had a $5 bottle of juice that was bad would you take it back to the grocery store or just pitch it? Probably give it a second try? Give Red Sea another chance they make great products and I am sure if not for the holidays they would be chiming in on this board. Brian's mistake was not apologizing and asking you to return to the point of purchase. Funny how one employees mistake can lead to principals?

Why didn't you return to your LFS? You could have saved your Energy and put the new bottle of Reef Energy in your tank? The stuff does work, wish they could come up with a blend that did not require refrigeration after opening.
 
Pciscott you are right mistakes do happen just like at any company. I've made mistakes also. No one is perfect. How you resolve the problem shows what kind of company/person you are. Yes as a company you also have the burden of being responsible for the reps you choose to be the voice of your business. There are plenty of other ways this could have probably been handled but this is the route I took and this is the result.you are right being responsive and an easy apology probably would have resolved the issue.
 
i can admit i may have overreacted a bit. A bad experience with a rep (though i still feel a company is responsible for properly training reps in communicating with customers big or small) should not affect the views of the entire company and its product. With the support many have in regards to the benefits of the red sea products i will most likely try the product and hope to not to have to deal with Brian again.

thank you all for you input. Based on being upset (still not happy with the customer service) i could have probably passed on something that would be quite beneficial to my aquarium.
 
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I have had a less than super experience w/ RS also. I use their Pro series for alk/cal/mg. I was visiting a friend and ran into a lfs. Bought a new test kit set from them. I got home and realized the set was due to expire in 1 month (I should have checked the date, I realize that).
The store I purchased from is far away, so a drive there to return is not really feasible. After emailing RS, they told me to go back to the store that sold it to me. I realize that its not their responsibility to check expiration dates but they were going to receive that box back in a month from the store anyway if no one bought it.
Basically after getting my info, they didnt get back to me for weeks and when I called them, they gave me the "we'll get back to you".
I have dealt w other companies and I feel they would help me out in this situation. Oh well
 
dodgerblew said:
Ok Johnny, with that said, drive 10 min west and take mine home and use it until they get it right for you :)
Click to expand...

thanks rik but ill wait for the replacement. ive already waited this long..lol. You should try it if you havent already. Robert over at chance of coral had recommended it and they use it in there tanks. let me know what you think of it.
 
ReefPharmer said:
I have had a less than super experience w/ RS also. I use their Pro series for alk/cal/mg. I was visiting a friend and ran into a lfs. Bought a new test kit set from them. I got home and realized the set was due to expire in 1 month (I should have checked the date, I realize that).
The store I purchased from is far away, so a drive there to return is not really feasible. After emailing RS, they told me to go back to the store that sold it to me. I realize that its not their responsibility to check expiration dates but they were going to receive that box back in a month from the store anyway if no one bought it.
Basically after getting my info, they didnt get back to me for weeks and when I called them, they gave me the "we'll get back to you".
I have dealt w other companies and I feel they would help me out in this situation. Oh well
Click to expand...


that bites man. i hope you were able to get a newer test kit eventually without having to just rebuy.
 
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