Live Aquaria and Divers Den customer service going downhill?

[Cancun]

Hi everyone! I have ordered through LA/DD several times now.....I ALWAYS use the LA drip acclimation method. One item I received from DD was a ultra Potters Angel....I dripped the Potters per DD instructions. He didn't look good during acclimation, but I continued the acclimation anyway. When 60 min was up I added the fish to my aquarium. He floated to the bottom on its side...and died a few min later. I called LA right way.....the rep I spoke with asked my if I had saved the fish...I didn't. ..because in the past I never had too. Finally the rep spoke to a mgr after putting me on hold and refunded my money. Which was good. He then proceeded to tell me that I will have to save any body and ship it back in the future if I wanted a refund. I actually had placed another order with them earlier in the day before all this happened and I called back to cancel my order. Up until now the LA customer service has been great. I am extremely disappointed after todays issue. I see no fine print in the garuntee that states that. I am just wondering if i got a rep on the phone who was new....Please let me know if this is how it is now with LA....they changed their policy etc....or if this was a isolated incident. If this was isolated then I will feel confident in ordering from them again. If not then I will go back to my LFS for sure....I always thought they had the best gauruntee as far as online retailers go. Thanks!

 

[BigBlueTang]

Hi everyone! I have ordered through LA/DD several times now.....I ALWAYS use the LA drip acclimation method. One item I received from DD was a ultra Potters Angel....I dripped the Potters per DD instructions. He didn't look good during acclimation, but I continued the acclimation anyway. When 60 min was up I added the fish to my aquarium. He floated to the bottom on its side...and died a few min later. I called LA right way.....the rep I spoke with asked my if I had saved the fish...I didn't. ..because in the past I never had too. Finally the rep spoke to a mgr after putting me on hold and refunded my money. Which was good. He then proceeded to tell me that I will have to save any body and ship it back in the future if I wanted a refund. I actually had placed another order with them earlier in the day before all this happened and I called back to cancel my order. Up until now the LA customer service has been great. I am extremely disappointed after todays issue. I see no fine print in the garuntee that states that. I am just wondering if i got a rep on the phone who was new....Please let me know if this is how it is now with LA....they changed their policy etc....or if this was a isolated incident. If this was isolated then I will feel confident in ordering from them again. If not then I will go back to my LFS for sure....I always thought they had the best gauruntee as far as online retailers go. Thanks!

Hm. That's interesting. I've basically lived on this forum for about a year and never heard anyone say anything like that. I also recently spoke to LA, as I ordered a yellow longnose butterfly off of them, and he still hasn't eaten well. They extended my guarantee another week.
I'd be very interested to see if your experience was a fluke, or if that's how things are going to be now. In my case, when I told the rep that the fish wasn't eating, she almost immediately refunded my money before she realized the fish wasn't dead.
Sorry for your loss. I know how it feels
If I have to ship back a dead fish.. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with that. The only explanation I could think of is maybe that fish was doing really well at the DD facility and they couldn't imagine it dying? Just my shot in the dark..
LA has been nothing but very good customer service for me. Their guarantee is unmatchable. But still. This is food for thought.

 

[Cancun]

Yea I know it...I was totally surprised! I have never had this kind of issue with them. Until now my customer service experience has always been like yours. I am hoping it was just a fluke because I will still like to keep ordering from them! If anyone has any experiences good or bad please share!!

 

[Dmorty217]

So what's the problem with saving the fish after it dies? Not sure that constitutes bad customer service... You got a refund even though you didn't send the fish back

 

[jraker]

interesting story.

the reason the fish died is because of the ammonium buildup in the bag. when a bag gets shipped to you, CO2 builds up. fish release ammonia on the way. when thet CO2 gets released, the ammonium (which is pretty much harmless) turns into ammonia, which is very VERY bad for fish. here is a link to a thread sk8r made: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959576&highlight=acclimation

 

[wrott]

I believe it's written somewhere to save the body in the freezer or take photo. I know I've done this, like 10 years ago/ LA policy.
Fish from DD are in 1.026 SG water so there's no need to kill it by dripping it for an hour--that's probably what ****ed them off.

 

[CStrickland]

Some online sellers make their guarantee contingent on following their preferred acclimation. For example, reefcleaners won't refund if you drip their CUC order because of the ammonia issue. It's kind of a catch 22.

Iirc my last liveaquaria order came with a packet of ammonia buffer to negate the issue anyway. I don't recall seeing anything about saving a corpse in the fine print, but it was a while ago. I wonder what they think they will learn from an autopsy, lol. Maybe they just want to be sure folks aren't like downloading a pic of a dead fish off the net to get a credit for the next purchase? Seems like a lot of effort though.

 

[ca1ore]

So what's the problem with saving the fish after it dies? Not sure that constitutes bad customer service... You got a refund even though you didn't send the fish back

Just like you to confuse a good debate with logic ..... :lol:

I was always a bit surprised when, in the past, DD required no proof of demise. Prolly says a lot about my non trusting nature. As it were, when cleaning out my garage freezer recently, I found a few frozen fish bodies that I had stored and forgotten about.

Doesn't seem unreasonable frankly.

 

[gone fishin]

Just like you to confuse a good debate with logic ..... :lol:

.

:lolspin::lolspin:

 

[SkullV]

I'm curious as to what your metric for determining that their customer service is "going downhill"? It seems that your first order with live aquaria was less than one month ago.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2554510

I have been ordering from them for years and while the customer service will fluctuate from representative to representative, I have always been satisfied with the final resolution.

 

[Dmorty217]

Just like you to confuse a good debate with logic ..... :lol:

I was always a bit surprised when, in the past, DD required no proof of demise. Prolly says a lot about my non trusting nature. As it were, when cleaning out my garage freezer recently, I found a few frozen fish bodies that I had stored and forgotten about.

Doesn't seem unreasonable frankly.

Logic you say?!? Don't ruin it for the rest of us Simon...

 

[A.Astore]

I just received an order from them on Tuesday and I want to say the paper that came with it actually mentioned to freeze the dead item incase they need a picture. I don't see how this makes them a worse company to deal with though. How many people do you think take advantage of companies with no proof being asked? Considering the prices on some of the Divers Den items I am not surprised they ask for proof via picture or mailed item. I simply do not see the problem in them asking for the proof that the fish is no longer alive. I would go pull the paper out of the box but my garbage was picked up today. I seem to remember though you commenting on a review I had about Bluezoo and mentioning this was a major concern of yours with them. I guess my thing is I would be calling immediately anyway so I would know right away if I needed to provide proof.

 

[SkullV]

Because of the complex packaging procedures for all aquatic life and our primary concern for the health and well-being of all specimens we offer, we cannot accept any returns of any aquatic life. Please make your selections carefully.

In the event you wish to redeem your Arrive Alive, Stay Alive® Guarantee on orders, you may be contacted by our Customer Service Department with instructions requesting receipt of water samples or expired aquaria.

From: http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=28#Title 5

 

[reefcentral123]

i never had problems with them but I always dump my fish in the tank, never drip acclimate them due to the ammonia issue

I'm curious as to what your metric for determining that their customer service is "going downhill"? It seems that your first order with live aquaria was less than one month ago.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2554510

I have been ordering from them for years and while the customer service will fluctuate from representative to representative, I have always been satisfied with the final resolution.

found the liveaquaria owner :rollface:

 

[mike810]

Hi everyone! I have ordered through LA/DD several times now.....I ALWAYS use the LA drip acclimation method. One item I received from DD was a ultra Potters Angel....I dripped the Potters per DD instructions. He didn't look good during acclimation, but I continued the acclimation anyway. When 60 min was up I added the fish to my aquarium. He floated to the bottom on its side...and died a few min later. I called LA right way.....the rep I spoke with asked my if I had saved the fish...I didn't. ..because in the past I never had too. Finally the rep spoke to a mgr after putting me on hold and refunded my money. Which was good. He then proceeded to tell me that I will have to save any body and ship it back in the future if I wanted a refund. I actually had placed another order with them earlier in the day before all this happened and I called back to cancel my order. Up until now the LA customer service has been great. I am extremely disappointed after todays issue. I see no fine print in the garuntee that states that. I am just wondering if i got a rep on the phone who was new....Please let me know if this is how it is now with LA....they changed their policy etc....or if this was a isolated incident. If this was isolated then I will feel confident in ordering from them again. If not then I will go back to my LFS for sure....I always thought they had the best gauruntee as far as online retailers go. Thanks!

I've never had an issue with Live Aquaria. If I ever have a fish that do not make it, I simply take a pic and email LA and they will take care of me no problem. I do not see a problem with requiring proof that the animal did not make it. Are they suppose to just take your word for it? Also they have never ever asked me to send any dead specimens back.

Also you should really test the salinity before you toss the fish into your tank. LA keeps the salinity of their fish holding tanks much lower than our reef tanks.

LA does have the best policy for live stock imo. 14 day guarantee without much hassle!

 

[MorganAtlanta]

I've received a couple DOAs from them (Divers Den), emailed them and gotten credited back with no trouble. I did take pictures, and I kept the bodies until I heard back from them, maybe just a couple hours, but they didn't ask. These were $30 fish though, not $1000. I could see them being a little more careful about higher priced items.

 

[RedStangGA]

With the technology widely available now I'm surprised they don't request a live video chat for proof. Wouldn't blame them.

 

[vikubz]

I had a package this summer that got stuck at the airport over the weekend in the middle of a heat wave. It was not pretty. LA replaced the whole order.

 

[T Haynes]

Seriously? You're mad that they want you to provide evidence the fish is dead? You also likely killed it by acclimating too long. Ask sk8r about that. You only have 30 minutes after opening a shipped fish bag to put them in the tank.

 

[BlackTip]

I lost two fishes in my last order, took photos, emailed them, received refund within the hour from LA. I was not asked to save nor ship the dead specimen.

DD has very expensive fish and corals, so I can understand that they would want to keep honest people honest.