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Frustrating Experience ordering Fish Online


ArtemisCai
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On 8/20/2021 at 11:58 AM, PineSong said:

I'm so sorry this happened and your first time ordering fish, too. Sounds like that business has problems with boundaries and are trying to do too much or are afraid to fire people who don't do their jobs right. I know a therapist who could help them with those problems 😉 but it's crummy that the little fish and your enthusiasm had to pay the price.

I was afraid to order from an 'unknown' (to me) seller on Aquabid--their website is so 1990's it's hard for me to even look at it, let alone make sense of it-- but I contacted a seller with good reviews and his responses were prompt and helpful, so I took the chance and it worked out well.  You may want to consider Aquabid, too.

Their website is definitely a throwback lol 

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The measure of a good seller is how they respond to a shipment gone wrong and make things right.

Shipments go wrong; weather is hard to predict; shipping gets delayed, etc. etc. It's just the nature of the game.

No state is too far to receive fish from in my opinion, as every state is one day shipping away from the next.

Over all, I find I personally get better, healthier fish online than I do in the local aquarium stores near me.  

For instance, I recently bought 6 chili rasbora locally. They all died in one week. I replaced these with 20 I bought online and havent lost a single one.

I think it's all about knowing who the good businesses are with healthy, well taken care of fish, whether they are online or an LFS, and giving those your business.  This does take some trial and error to learn, or word-of-mouth.

I'd rather pay the shipping costs and have fish that last, then not pay it, and have fish that don't.

Edited by tolstoy21
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@ArtemisCaisorry this has occurred. If I was you I’d wait for the fall For another fish order. With the heat you’re experiencing at this point in the summer in AZ better to wait for fall. One thing you can do is have the order held at the post office or at FedEx/UPS. That way it’s in a climate controlled setting not on a unairconditioned truck. 
Ive been using several sellers on Aquabid, had fair success with AquaHuna, and several other online retailers that if you want names you can send me a DM. 

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On 8/20/2021 at 8:56 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

If I was you I’d wait for the fall For another fish order. With the heat you’re experiencing at this point in the summer in AZ better to wait for fall.

Yeah, I was just discussing this with my Husband and daughter-in-law today. I told them them I will probably wait until cooler months before ordering any more livestock online. It is just too hot here. I'm not willing to take that risk again.

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On 8/20/2021 at 7:39 PM, ArtemisCai said:

I usually am more careful when making decisions, I think the excitement of finally getting to put animals in my aquarium made me lose my senses a bit.

I think very few of us can keep our senses under control with the fish hobby (awe to those who can). This is why multi tank syndrome is so very real. I am a frugal thoughtful meticulous planner in every aspect of my life but fish…I look like a serious drug addict! Go to a dollar a gallon sale at a big box store once it’s worse than Black Friday!  Don’t beat yourself up for your impulse fish are to hard to resist! 😁

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On 8/20/2021 at 12:58 PM, PineSong said:

I'm so sorry this happened and your first time ordering fish, too. Sounds like that business has problems with boundaries and are trying to do too much or are afraid to fire people who don't do their jobs right. I know a therapist who could help them with those problems 😉 but it's crummy that the little fish and your enthusiasm had to pay the price.

I was afraid to order from an 'unknown' (to me) seller on Aquabid--their website is so 1990's it's hard for me to even look at it, let alone make sense of it-- but I contacted a seller with good reviews and his responses were prompt and helpful, so I took the chance and it worked out well.  You may want to consider Aquabid, too.

Aquabid is in some desperate need of some modernization. It honestly probably hurts their revenue a lot, I imagine many people are turned off by it. Makes the site look unprofessional, and like you said, hard to navigate. 

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On 8/21/2021 at 10:58 AM, sudofish said:

Hey now I love old school websites lol. I'm planning to design one just for fun. Maybe I'll make it fish related I dunno. Yea I have weird hobbies I guess.

Maybe you're not as old as I am, lol. When I see the Aquabid front page, I hear this in my head and have a flashback to the nightmare of trying to load a site, having enough time to go downstairs, make a sandwich, read my kids a bedtime story and have a shower while I waited for it to load! 

Retro for fun is one thing--I play Ms. Pacman! Retro for fish shopping is meh at best.

 

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On 8/21/2021 at 2:38 PM, PineSong said:

Maybe you're not as old as I am, lol. When I see the Aquabid front page, I hear this in my head and have a flashback to the nightmare of trying to load a site, having enough time to go downstairs, make a sandwich, read my kids a bedtime story and have a shower while I waited for it to load! 

Retro for fun is one thing--I play Ms. Pacman! Retro for fish shopping is meh at best.

 

I used to write sprite programs for vic20 & Commodore 64 so aquabid looks fancy to me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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On 8/21/2021 at 2:59 PM, Guppysnail said:

I used to write sprite programs for vic20 & Commodore 64 so aquabid looks fancy to me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yea I remember the magazines that came out and you typed in the program and then had to find the typo you made to get it to work. I asked for the commodore 128 for christmas once but got the 64. A classmate's dad was big in to computers and they had a fancy Amiga that I was in awe of.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@ArtemisCai I am so sorry....

 

I know which company and that has become the norm. There are other great companies to work with, and while Cory has asked us not to name companies in the forum to prevent any issues, let me say that I have not had a single bad experience ordering from companies that offer an Aquarium Co-op discount, and that I have had wonderful experiences going through Aquarium Co-op videos to find various breeders to order directly from. 

 

Look for reviews from other Nerms on the company sites.

 

Read reviews, and look for bad reviews (if there are no bad reviews, I don't order. A bad review gives me an opportunity to see a breeder or a company's integrity, as well as their customer service model).

 

See who follows up.

I'm next door to you. I only place animal orders in October / November, and March / April. Not worth the risk to animals in the summer, especially with covid affecting shipping times.

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Regardless of where I order from when the temperature is above 80 or below 40 I consider having them "hold for pickup" in the main customer center for the package guys or local office if I go that route.  

Packages held in the building and held off trucks for longer theoretically gives me a buffer. Id put my wager on the building AC staying comfortable as compared to those trucks. 

In AZ and places including or me up here by the sun radiant heating is insane on those insu big metal boxes/trucks.... especially  in summer. It might be better to limit that truck time. 

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On 8/21/2021 at 2:59 PM, Guppysnail said:

I used to write sprite programs for vic20 & Commodore 64 so aquabid looks fancy to me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

The Timex/Sinclair 1000 for me and the TI-99/4A. I used to love programming those guys. Kids today are spoiled with nearly unlimited memory to play with. Try writing programs for 2 kb of memory for the Timex/Sinclair 1000. I did break down and buy the 16 kb expansion module for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 later to make my life easier. The TI-99/4A was more fun. (It had color! Whoo-hoo!) And more memory. Not a lot more, but more. 

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On 8/30/2021 at 8:27 AM, gardenman said:

The Timex/Sinclair 1000 for me and the TI-99/4A. I used to love programming those guys. Kids today are spoiled with nearly unlimited memory to play with. Try writing programs for 2 kb of memory for the Timex/Sinclair 1000. I did break down and buy the 16 kb expansion module for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 later to make my life easier. The TI-99/4A was more fun. (It had color! Whoo-hoo!) And more memory. Not a lot more, but more. 

My buddy still has his Sinclair 1000!   The TI was a decent little machine, had some great games for it!

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On 8/30/2021 at 9:36 AM, GameCzar said:

My buddy still has his Sinclair 1000!   The TI was a decent little machine, had some great games for it!

My Timex/Sinclair 1000 is still in my basement and my TI is (I think) in my attic. They were neat little gadgets and a lot of fun. Not quite up to modern standards, but fun. Great learning experiences.

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On 8/30/2021 at 9:27 AM, gardenman said:

The Timex/Sinclair 1000 for me and the TI-99/4A. I used to love programming those guys. Kids today are spoiled with nearly unlimited memory to play with. Try writing programs for 2 kb of memory for the Timex/Sinclair 1000. I did break down and buy the 16 kb expansion module for the Timex/Sinclair 1000 later to make my life easier. The TI-99/4A was more fun. (It had color! Whoo-hoo!) And more memory. Not a lot more, but more. 

TI  have not even thought of when they first hit the market in ages🤣

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On 8/30/2021 at 9:50 AM, Guppysnail said:

TI  have not even thought of when they first hit the market in ages🤣

I got my Timex/Sinclair at K-Mart in the watch department on sale for like $79.99 at the time. I think I had to pay around $50 for the 16 kb expansion module a bit later. That was around 1982-ish. You can get a lot more memory for the money these days. DIgital watches were pretty trendy at that time and Timex figured that a digitial watch was just a small computer, so they hooked up with Sinclair to make a home computer. 

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Wowza. I have only ordered fish/shrimp/snails online a couple of times. But both times they were packed beautifully, everything was healthy happy and alive. I ordered a betta fish from Texas, and he’s my healthiest and has a great personality. He arrived very alert and active. Same with the shrimp from a different online business. The snails of course were all closed up, but very quickly acclimated and are just fine. I would not write off all mail order suppliers. I would, however, use places that you learn of from other hobbyists. I’m so sorry that happened to you and your fish. I would have been livid. 

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