In Stock/Out of Stock

[Red_Six]

I have placed 3 $225+ orders with LiveAquaria and I am completely satisfied with the quality of the livestock and their shipping methods. I have however noticed a problem, one that was mentioned here on RC before, in that the actual stocking of items and what LA has listed on their web site differ. I just recently place an order and was notified the next day that one of the corals was not actually in stock. I was told that when it was in stock it would ship. When the in stock portion of my order came I found that there were several other items that did not ship as well. I was never informed about the status of these items and I had to call to find out why they were not shipped. The nice person on the phone took some time but eventually told me the items are out of stock (the web site currently says they are in stock btw). She told me that LA's policy is to then ship them out when they are in stock without additional shipping fees. If the item does not become available within two weeks then the order is canceled.

When I place an order I specifically wait until it is over $225 for the free shipping. I can now only hope that the rest of the livestock becomes in stock before my two weeks is up. The part of my order that did not ship totaled about $80 and consisted of 4 different species and 18 critter in total. It was mainly cleanup crew items (snails, crabs, sea stars), which are pretty important to me. At this point I am guessing that LA has a lot of experience with this and they know that two weeks is plenty of time for them to get more stock and I should probably not worry about a thing.

 

[dfs/la2]

Red_Six,

Thank you for your orders with Drs. Foster and Smith’s Live Aquaria. We apologize that we were unable to ship your complete order. Unfortunately, when dealing with live animals the availability changes literally minute to minute. The health of animals can be variable and we pride ourselves on shipping specimens of above standard quality. We hope this will explain why we may place an item on back order, even though it did show the specimen available when you had placed your order. The order shipments depend on what we have available at our holding facility and the health of the specimens. Our holding facility does receive daily shipments from the divers, so the stock can change regularly. We apologize, we are unable to give you a specific date as to when we will have the specimen on your order in stock.

If your back order items do not ship with in the two weeks, please feel free to contact our Live Aquaria Department at 1-800-334-3699 or via email at customerservice@liveaquaria.com
to discuss other options. Again we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.



Cassie Z.
Technical Support
Drs. Foster and Smith

 

[rmougey]

Hey Red_Six,

In my experience when ordering from LA, you pay no shipping on a short order (if original is over $225) if they are out of stock AND when the animal is available, you don't pay any extra shipping when they send it to you. It's a win-win for us. We get healthy animals.... they cover shipping for the original and all back orders.

If's similar to when you order out of Diver's Den and from general stock. You get two shipments: one from Rhinelander and one from LAX. You pay only one shipping charge, or free if you've ordered enough.

-Rob

 

[jmaneyapanda]

rmougey is right. whether the ship it or not, you pay no additional freight. I had a similar problem (which F+S took care of), but they just have too long a web of communiv=cations. Theyre doing better, though, and they will do you right.

 

[Talonn]

I know what you mean Red_Six, like usual I also just placed an order last night and it shipped today and I got that same message that items are not available. But what really burns my back side is their website still shows everything I ordered is still available.

LiveAquaria REALLY needs to get a better system!!!!

 

[Red_Six]

When I called to inquire about the missing items I made sure that a note was added to my order that when the items became available that they only be shipped on a Thursday for a Friday delivery, just like my original order. I got an email today saying I have a package coming from LA tomorrow. I am assuming it is the remainder of my order. I don't get home until 5:30pm tomorrow and todays high temperature was 98 degrees. I was wondering why this happened, and I am concerned for the health of the critters.

 

[dfs/la2]

Red_Six,

We sincerely apologize for the mis-shipment of your backordered items. Please contact us at 1-800-334-3699 at your earliest convenience so that we may assist you.

Nate M.
www.liveaquaria.com