do NOT shop at THE FISH TANK, sunnyvale, ca

[carpus]

I just came back home enraged at THE FISH TANK in sunnyvale, ca. I went back to return a nitrate sponge I didn't use and to get a price readjustment on a seio pump M620. The store charged me 62.99 for the pump when it is realli $35 at marine depot. Even with shipping, marine depot's price would not 2x the price of the product. They knew I thought they were ripping me off, but there reason for the high price is because the store needs to pay rent, its excellent advice, and its neighborhood feel. The manager asked one of the co-manager to explain the high prices, as well. But all she did was make a stammering sound

My reasons to counter those reasons for overpriced products is (1) rent would not cause a store to double the value of the product, every store pays rent and not every store rips their customers off. (2) the workers there are high school students who have little, if at all, knowledge of the marine/reef aquarium hobby. No valuable advice was given when I mentioned red bugs. The standard answer they give is water changes. But water changes do not help red bugs. The cure is interceptor. They did not know that. The employees only know how to catch fish and to lie to customers to buy their products (3) The workers, being from high school, did not give a neighborhood feeling with their swearing. The employees congregated together at the front desk, talking.

Secondly, the store gave me store credit for the returned product.

And lastly, the store manager questioned my ethics by checking the returned product. He thought I used half the product and decided to get my money back by returning the rest.

Please pass word on about THE FISH TANK. They are not a great store and I would not reccomend them. I would suggest boycotting their store and hopefully they will shut down.

 

[Reefugee]

Not trying to flame you, but I am not sure why you are mad at them. We all know that LFS tend to be higher than online places. It doesn't surprise me that it's 1.5 to double the price. Sometimes I need something immediately, so I pay the higher prices. If you were unhappy with their price, you should have just ordered the pump from MD. When I pay too much - I am usually mad at myself for not doing my research before purchasing the product.

Second, I don't know what the store return policy is. Some store have return policy where they give you store credit only. If that is their policy, and it's posted, you can't really be mad at them. Also sounds like you were trying to do a "price match." I don't think it's fair to expect a store to price match a online store, and then get mad at them if they don't.

Third - if I was the store manager, I would double check all returned products. It's actually a good thing that the manager did it. I would be even more ****ed if I was a customer who purchased a "new" product only to find out someone else had returned a used item.

Anyway - I don't have plans on shopping there, so boycotting it won't be hard for me. :lol:

Minh

 

[strictlySPS]

I will be the first to comment on this....the price is only a little overpriced, however, the store does not only have to pay rent, but property tax, workers, workers comp, electricity, etc. etc.... you should never compare an online retailer to a brick and mortar store....they do not have even close to as much overhead as they do, hence the lower prices...they are just there for convenience....

just my 2 cents

 

[PiNaPLeX]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience, and I've personally never been to that store. But many LFS stores charge WAY more on their products than the online places, and yes, sometimes more than double the online cost. That's just a matter of their profit margin, and the fact that the don't sell nearly as much volume as the online stores do. There's nothing wrong with overpricing a product, it's just a matter of whether you chose to pay that price or not.

I just don't think it's worth trying to shut them down over a dispute over a return.

 

[Kinetic]

i don't see how their high prices aren't similar to every other LFS out there. are you saying boycott every LFS? And only buy from marinedepot?

you could be smart about it and purchase at marinedepot. store credit sucks, but if that's their policy... there's not much to say. it's pretty fair. A lot of businesses do that, and it's not this one LFS that's putting you down for that.

 

[Parrotlet]

I shopped at the Fish Tank for more than 12 years and I will keep on shopping there. The LFS has been managed by a few different owners now. I want to support the LFS and hope that they will be there for a long time. They did provide what I wanted.

Sorry, I am not a member of BAR and I hope that you don't mind.

 

[Kinetic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7349322#post7349322 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Parrotlet
I shopped at the Fish Tank for more than 12 years and I will keep on shopping there. The LFS has been managed by a few different owners now. I want to support the LFS and hope that they will be there for a long time. They did provide what I wanted.

Sorry, I am not a member of BAR and I hope that you don't mind.

glad to hear you're supporting the LFS

 

[teachermark]

The only fault I see on their part is what they told you about the red bugs, otherwise I think you are over-reacting.

 

[GreshamH]

Compairing online prices to what LFS's mark at isn't a sane practice IMO. The online large etailers get HUGE bulk discounts, where as the LFS gets from a distributer that buys their stock for nearly the same price as the online dealers. The distributer marks it up, usually just about the online price. Then the LFS marks it up.

 

[Vincerama2]

My tale of woe about how an LFS employee (and BAR member) convinced me to buy a Prizm skimmer;

Actually it's my own fault because, having taken up 20 minutes of the guys time, I thought to myself "Well, if I'm going to buy a skimmer, I might as well buy one from this guy, since he spent this time talking to me about it". So I was trying to be nice and patronize the store. Little did I know that it's a piece of crap, and the guy knew it. He also convinced me to uy some crappy Marc Weiss product, telling me how amazing it was. I actually bought a lot of stuff from this guy. He told me that he couldn't actually give me prices on anything unless I committed to buy it because otherwise I'll go and buy it online. He also told me how all those "internet guys" don't know anything. When I found out he was a member of BAR AND someone who participated in the Reef Central forums, I felt like this guy was just playing me for a fool.

My advice is this;
1) For drygoods, the internet sites are hard to beat for price
2) For "advice" ... again, read the forums and do some research. Don't think that an LFS employee has any better advice than any other random person on the internet.
3) Livestock might be better purchased at an LFS. The cost of live shipping is very high. Also you can see the fish/coral.
4) For livestock care, listen to the LFS guy, but do your research too BEFORE you buy the creature!
5) Salt and sand and other heavy stuff..probably better at the LFS, even if it's cheaper online because of shipping costs.

if you want to "support the local stores" then by all means do so. I for one will only buy what makes sense from them. For higher ticket items, I'll get it online. I don't care if a store has to pay rent and utilities because I do too and I'd rather pay my own rent than theirs! (OK, mortgage, whatever).


V

 

[funman1]

teachermark: Ditto

 

[Qwiv]

Yah, you are totally over reacting. Try to price a Mag pump at any of the LFS in the bay. 2x homedepot if not more. They normally don't stock them as they have the ViaAqua for 5x what MarineDepot sells it for which is what the Mag woud cost. They firure, why sell a $65 mag for $140 when I can sell a $15 ViaAqua for $120.

They do this because fish stores have a HUGE overhead. They have to bring in a few hundered dollars a day to break even and it isn't like they have 100s of customers a day. If they could lower there prices, they would or someone else would do it next door and put them out of buisness. Supporting a LFS is like supporting union workers. Your supporting a better life. I have worked in places like marinedepote and they are underpaid he11 holes. Try calling a marinedepot sales person about a problem in your tank.

On the red bug thing, THE FISH TANK is a fresh water store, with a little salt water stuff, they don't know much and do not advertise that they do. Ask the owner, he is totally honest about his experience. If you need to stay in sunnyvale, go to Natural Life Aquarium.

 

[Sparkss]

I have to agree with just about everyone that has responded in this thread so far. The only one to blame or be "mad" at is yourself. Market price is whatever someone will pay for it. Think about LE corals.. if you are willing to pay that price then that is what it is worth. As for price matching, I know of absolutely no brick and mortar stores that will price match an Etailer, it is just not logistically rational. Same thing for store credi versus cash. Most all of the LFS I have shopped at have it posted for store credit only, and then often at 10% less than you paid (restocking fee, etc).

Like Vincerama2, I have a box full (a very large box, I am ashamed to admit) of equiptment that I let an LFS sell to me. This was all before I "discovered" RC and MD. How can I fault a salesman for doing his job and selling me items from his store, they don't hide the fact that that is what they are in business to do. I keep the box of "crap" around to remind myself of my mistakes, in the hopes that I won't repeat them (too often ).

As for inspecting the returned item, I would have requested that they do so, if they didn't check it on their own. And I would have requested that they check it in front of me, so that we both were on the same page witnessing that the returned item was in "new" condition. This just prevents any problems down the road.

Just my $.02.

 

[Vincerama2]

Actually, what is odd is just that with "market price" being "what the market will bear".... who is buying the $120 mags?

Also...I didn't know Home Depot has mags!

V

 

[Qwiv]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7349765#post7349765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vincerama2
Actually, what is odd is just that with "market price" being "what the market will bear".... who is buying the $120 mags?

Also...I didn't know Home Depot has mags!

V

hehe, oops.

 

[dantodd]

Supporting a LFS is like supporting union workers.

Pretty much sums it up

 

[raddogz]

Vince, was it BAR or BARE that you are referring to? Just curious...

 

[Natterjak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7349765#post7349765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vincerama2
Actually, what is odd is just that with "market price" being "what the market will bear".... who is buying the $120 mags?

Hehe, well I once had a Rio return pump fail on me, and had to make an emergency stop at an LFS to buy a $100 Mag 7.

Of course, it wasn't until a year later that I realized that the Rio just needed to be cleaned - it works fine now!:lol:

 

[Unarce]

Since carpus is MIA, anyone care to reminisce of the good old days when Mike, than later Bill, used to run the Milpitas and Sunnyvale Fish Tank stores?

 

[Reefugee]

Hey Carpus -

Don't think that I think any less of you because of the post. I have had my fair share of "foot in mouth" situation (that's why I know what toe jam tasted like :lol: ) where I posted because I was angry, and it turns out I was the unreasonable one. It happens to all of us. But if you do it again, we will grill you alive. JK. (or am I?)

Minh