Experience with aquarium plants.com

daveedka

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
3,822
0
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Columbus, ohio
I recently made a plant purchase from this site, and was fairly dissapointed. Several plants were substituted despite being listed as in stock and there is some question for me whather I even received some plants as nothing was identified and everything packaged together. I sent several e-mails and only one was ever responded to, it asked for more detail which I forwarded immediatly and never recieved another respose. So after a week I called them. They answered (this was agood thing, no automated system) I explained my issue and was told that even when plants were liste as in stock they may not be, and that they listed in stock based on incomming shipments which hadn't been verified. I attempted to proceede to my next issue and was asked if it would be possible for them to call me back the next week. I was hesitant but agreed after the owner assured me that he was the owner and that he would call me back and work things out. I never received the call.
During all of this time, I decided to give them one additional chance and ordered a cO2 manifold. I receive e-mail confirmation of the order and receipt, but have never received confirmation of shipping. since the order had been placed well over a week ago, I went to their site to try to track it. When I punched in my info I got a response that stated there was no record of any order. I tried to call again, no one answered, and no voice mail. I also e-mailed them but based on my last experience, I am skeptical of receiving a response.

I the spirit of fairness, I will say that the plants I did receive were in good condition, and my total plant count was above the total ordered, just not the plants I wanted, and no response to trying to make it right.

All in All I am not pleased with Aquarium plants.com, and would not personally reccomend them to anyone. It remains to be seen if I get a refund or my merchandise and I will update any further progress. In my opinion this is a buyer beware site.
Dave
 
That's a bummer, man... I have ordered plants from them twice and gotten pretty good service. They even carried stuff I couldn't get locally or easily anywhere online (Marimo balls). :(
 
Wow! Not my experience at all! I've also ordered twice b4 and decent sized orders to boot. No problem with subs even. I goofed on an order and called and to my surprise, I actually talked to a person! Mark took care of it. I did a quick search to try and find the posts I posted in the past but didn't find them. You called and couldn't get ahold of them? I'd certainly try and try again. If they have caller i.d. and are avoiding you (I doubt it but anything is possible), and you trust me with your info, I'll call 'em for you. ACians have to stick together! :D
 
They even carried stuff I couldn't get locally or easily anywhere online (Marimo balls).
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Yup, one of the reasons I chose them was they had a particular plant that I couldn't find anywhere else. That's the one they substituted, and it's still shown as in stock on their site. The second order was for one of their 3 way manifolds which by all appearances look to be exceptionally designed and good quality. I only placed the second order because I really wanted their particular Co2 manifold, and couldn't find a similar one anywhere else.

I do intend to keep calling, and hopefully will work things out or at least get my money back. Mark was very freindly when I did talk to him the one time, and having a human being answer the phone gained him a lot of points with me. But he was very anxious to get off of the phone, and promised to call back. I was actually suprised when he didn't call me back and even gave him an extra 4 days after the promised date. I do not wish to be unfair to him or his buisiness, and will post if things work out, but I doubt I will ever do buisiness with them again after these issues are settled.

If they have caller i.d. and are avoiding you (I doubt it but anything is possible), and you trust me with your info, I'll call 'em for you. ACians have to stick together!
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I really appreciate that offer, I also really doubt that they are purposefully avoiding me, I dont think I'm that scary. In the off chance that I end up losing the $138.00 I paid for the manifold, I make take you up on your offer.

Dave
 
Hey I just got through to Mark.

Issue # 1. Didn't get my stuff-- All of their shipping software has been down for 3 days, as of now they still don't have the ability to print labels, but assured me that all shipments would go out today even if they had to handwrite the labels.

Issue#2. shipment didn't show when I tried to track it --- shipment tracking is handled by the same software that prints the shipping lables so when It's dead no tracking

On a side note, they have installed a second shipping computer so they don't lose their entire system at once again. Neither computer is fully functional yet.

Issue #3. They still don't have the plants that I wanted, they are still listed as in stock and they will ship me some free when they can. I don't like the policy, but If I get my plants someday, I'll live with it. The plants are having a difficult time getting through customs, and several orders have been killed by inspectors. I still think they should not list them until they have them but it's not my place to tell them how to run their buisiness. Their policy seems to be that if the plants are on their way they are listed as in stock.

Issue #4. no response to e-mail no answer on the phone-- With 600+ customers trying to find out why their respective shipments didn't go out, response to e-mail and phone calls is slow. Neither of us knows what happened to the several e-mails sent concerning my previous order, and I'm willing to leave it at that if things get worked out.

I truly beleive that Mark has his heart in the right place, I don't currently have much confidence in his store. But will wait and see what the future and the fed-ex guy bring.
dave
 
daveedka said:
the plants I did receive:
were in good condition
total plant count was above the total ordered
not the plants I wanted


they list plants as in stock based on expected shipments. I don't like the policy
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This is typical at the majority of online plant vendors, gotta learn to be very flexible.
If your adamant about getting a certain plant then you should call in the order and not rely on the computer in future.
 
I specify that if there are to be subs, I'd like to be notified.

Something tells me, since Mark seems to be the one to always answer the phone, there is a limited staff over there. I have nothing else to base this on, just a hunch. If that's the case and it is as you stated (computers crashed, ppl calling/emailing) he must be stressed out of his mind! :eek:

Hopefully you won't need it, but the offer still stands.

Bill
 
Next time try http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/index.html ...
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Can't do that, while I'd love to support Robert H's store, and am a memeber of his forums, My work schedule and his shipping policy don't meet at any point. If I did order from him I would never actually get my plants so it wouldn't be good for him or me either. I went to AB before I ever looked anywhere else. And I think Robert is aware of the issue, And I am not asking him to totally change his policies for one person with a weird lifestyle. There are actually very few on-line vendors with flexible enough shipping standards for me to buy plants from. It's not really their problem as much as it is mine, but it is still a problem.
dave
 
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