2nd I will address Stephen aka pa1ntbru5h on reefcentral. This is another case of someone claiming not to want to ruin a reputation while simultaneously ruining a reputation. Stephen came to me with the understanding that his “established” fish would always be a risk to his tank. He understood that he would not be maintaining a disease free tank but rather introducing disease free fish into an environment where disease most likely lay dormant. He chose to purchase fish from me despite these warnings.
The first group of fish he purchased from me were 3 sunburst anthias. The three fish were quarantined alongside three other sunburst anthias and those three anthias are still thriving to this day in another customer's tank. My other customer is extremely diligent with the proper QT process and has great success. When I deliver fish to a new environment I have no control over whether that environment is suitable for the fish to thrive. Despite knowing this and having a no refund policy I still gave Stephen credit toward another fish because I was attempting to build a good relationship with him as a customer.
I sold him a personally owned fish, a gem tang, that had been fully QT and in my medication free display for an entire month. In that time it never showed any signs of velvet. My entire display tank would have been wiped out in that time if the gem tang did have velvet yet my display tank continued to thrive with no signs of disease.
Stephen then waited until the last minute to contact me about the gem tang. He then asked me to pick up all of his fish from his display tank to re QT while he did a 76 day fallow period. I even offered this service to him at a discounted rate. During this entire situation I took the time and was in regular contact with Stephen giving him advice and listening to his concerns. When he asked me to drive out to him and pick up his fish I again took the time(without charging him a pick up fee) to drive over an hour to his home. He waited until I was 15 minutes away to call and tell me he no longer wanted my help because he couldn’t catch all his fish and was overwhelmed by the entire situation. Despite the frustration of being flaked on I didn’t hold it against him. Stephen calls me “unreasonable” and unwilling to work with him yet I have continued to work with him, help him, give him free advice and give credits for fish even when I didn’t have to. He demanded a full refund on Jan 4th at 9:53pm. This conversation continued until 12:53am with no resolution because he refused to accept facts and a no refund policy. I did not get “aggressive” or “snap” at him. I simply didn’t bend to his will. I understand that being told no can sometimes make people emotional but I was straight forward in my conversation with him.
As far as the achilles and the hybrid they were both healthy upon delivery. I had 2 achilles and 1 hybrid QTing in one tank separated by dividers. One of those achilles is still very much alive and in another customer's tank. The hybrid and other achilles went to Stephen and are now apparently dead from velvet while the other achilles is still disease free.
I dropped them off December 4th to Stephens home and he claims that they died within the first several days of being in his care. He waited to contact me until January 4th about the death of these two fish. On top of that he had nothing but good things to say about my business on January 3rd when he posted about me in the forums.
He claims to not want to destroy a small business yet his argument for why TSM Aquatics couldn’t be responsible for the velvet is because of how large their facility is and how many employees they have. I am simply a small business running out of my home with just my wife and I running it so he automatically targeted me. The size of the business does not determine how legitimate it is. He was more likely to get a small business to comply with his demand for a refund from purchases made over a month ago than to go after a large business that would laugh at him for even trying. He even threatened me with “escalating” the situation if I didn't provide him with a refund. I would never point my finger at TSM Aquatics. Stephen and I have had conversations about their stellar reputation. I’m trying to help Stephen understand that I can not take responsibility for his fish when he’s introducing multiple livestock sources at once.
My take away from this is that some customers need to be properly educated on disease processes and proper environments for fish to thrive and to maintain a disease free tank.
One thing that really bothered me about Stephen is he told the community he is only writing this review to protect the community from people like me yet in the same breath admits he wouldn’t even be writing this review if I would have given him his refund. So he is telling everyone here that if he had contracted a disease from my business, he would not tell anyone as long as he got his money back. It seems to me this is less about protecting a community and more about money. I get that times are tough for everyone financially, but wrongfully demanding refunds from small businesses is not the way to go about things.
The first group of fish he purchased from me were 3 sunburst anthias. The three fish were quarantined alongside three other sunburst anthias and those three anthias are still thriving to this day in another customer's tank. My other customer is extremely diligent with the proper QT process and has great success. When I deliver fish to a new environment I have no control over whether that environment is suitable for the fish to thrive. Despite knowing this and having a no refund policy I still gave Stephen credit toward another fish because I was attempting to build a good relationship with him as a customer.
I sold him a personally owned fish, a gem tang, that had been fully QT and in my medication free display for an entire month. In that time it never showed any signs of velvet. My entire display tank would have been wiped out in that time if the gem tang did have velvet yet my display tank continued to thrive with no signs of disease.
Stephen then waited until the last minute to contact me about the gem tang. He then asked me to pick up all of his fish from his display tank to re QT while he did a 76 day fallow period. I even offered this service to him at a discounted rate. During this entire situation I took the time and was in regular contact with Stephen giving him advice and listening to his concerns. When he asked me to drive out to him and pick up his fish I again took the time(without charging him a pick up fee) to drive over an hour to his home. He waited until I was 15 minutes away to call and tell me he no longer wanted my help because he couldn’t catch all his fish and was overwhelmed by the entire situation. Despite the frustration of being flaked on I didn’t hold it against him. Stephen calls me “unreasonable” and unwilling to work with him yet I have continued to work with him, help him, give him free advice and give credits for fish even when I didn’t have to. He demanded a full refund on Jan 4th at 9:53pm. This conversation continued until 12:53am with no resolution because he refused to accept facts and a no refund policy. I did not get “aggressive” or “snap” at him. I simply didn’t bend to his will. I understand that being told no can sometimes make people emotional but I was straight forward in my conversation with him.
As far as the achilles and the hybrid they were both healthy upon delivery. I had 2 achilles and 1 hybrid QTing in one tank separated by dividers. One of those achilles is still very much alive and in another customer's tank. The hybrid and other achilles went to Stephen and are now apparently dead from velvet while the other achilles is still disease free.
I dropped them off December 4th to Stephens home and he claims that they died within the first several days of being in his care. He waited to contact me until January 4th about the death of these two fish. On top of that he had nothing but good things to say about my business on January 3rd when he posted about me in the forums.
He claims to not want to destroy a small business yet his argument for why TSM Aquatics couldn’t be responsible for the velvet is because of how large their facility is and how many employees they have. I am simply a small business running out of my home with just my wife and I running it so he automatically targeted me. The size of the business does not determine how legitimate it is. He was more likely to get a small business to comply with his demand for a refund from purchases made over a month ago than to go after a large business that would laugh at him for even trying. He even threatened me with “escalating” the situation if I didn't provide him with a refund. I would never point my finger at TSM Aquatics. Stephen and I have had conversations about their stellar reputation. I’m trying to help Stephen understand that I can not take responsibility for his fish when he’s introducing multiple livestock sources at once.
My take away from this is that some customers need to be properly educated on disease processes and proper environments for fish to thrive and to maintain a disease free tank.
One thing that really bothered me about Stephen is he told the community he is only writing this review to protect the community from people like me yet in the same breath admits he wouldn’t even be writing this review if I would have given him his refund. So he is telling everyone here that if he had contracted a disease from my business, he would not tell anyone as long as he got his money back. It seems to me this is less about protecting a community and more about money. I get that times are tough for everyone financially, but wrongfully demanding refunds from small businesses is not the way to go about things.
