Bad experience so far w/ AC

[akwtampa]

Ordered what I thought were fairly common items, a ballast and a bulb.. Called after 1 week and was told they would get back with me.. Waited 3 more days, same thing.. Tried emailing, and Nothing.. Called again Friday, and was told an order had come in from the Manufacturer, and they *might* have my stuff in stock now..

I guess my problem with this is, there is NO indication on their site if things are in stock or not.. I would NEVER have ordered if I'd have known they were not going to have my items in stock, and weren't even going to make an effort to get them in stock in a timely manner..

They took my money FAST.. but I've yet to get any communication out of them that gives any hint of care about me, thier customer..

[sedor]

I had this same problem with an ATO I ordered about a year ago...exact same response. I don't want to speak negatively and I hope AC takes this as constructive criticism, but a simple out of stock on the website would keep a lot of people from getting frustrated. When we buy something from a website we usually expect a confirmation email and a tracking number the next day. At least that is what I am used to.

[ebman74]

Just had a similar experience. I ordered a few things one being an Red Sea air dryer. Got no order confermation or e-mail ect. Sent them an e-mail and finally found out that the air dryer was on back order. They offered me an alternative on that could ship oyt then, but when where they going to tell me? Probablly my last order with them. Like you guys stated a simple in stock or out of stock tag on their page like every other on-line merchant has would help them a ton.

[DC_40gallon]

I agree 100%, have you read my experience that I started a thread about about? I'm so happy to see so many people have viewed it! Hopefully that means that over 200 people have took their business elsewhere!

I ordered 4 bulbs for a must need setup and I ordered on a Monday, immediately got a email confirmation, they SWEAR that they didn't get the order on their end until Tuesday (ok ok, I'm alright with that, things happen in cyberworld). Tuesday came and went, wednesday I emailed and was told "hmm don't know should go out today", Thursday I called and was told by Michael at AquaCave, "man I don't know that is weird, I'll look into it". He called back in about an hour and then told me, "I have no clue why the hold up, they will ship it by tomorrow".

So it took from Monday until Friday to get my stuff sent. When I FINALLY got it the next Tuesday, I opened the box and guess what I found - only 3 bulbs! What is even more ridiculous is they sent one ATI blue + bulb and said then on my receipt/invoice it said in someones handwriting "ATI blue plus backordered, will ship upon arrival to warehouse". YET they shipped me one of the two....

In the email AND f-ing phone call they could have told me this but they didn't.

I made my order on February 1, it is February 7 and I still don't have that bulb.

I am more than happy to keep posting these and in hopes that Reef Central will cut their sponsorship. They should not be allowed to be a sponsor here!

EVERYONE, TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE!! If you need something that you can only find at aquacave, check reefgeeks.com, drsfostersmith.com, marinedepot.com, marineandreef.com, fishtanksdirect.com.

PM me if you need more listings or need help finding something and I will take my own personal time to find it elsewhere for you!

[TNTFISHY]

I ordered my Vertex skimmer with promo code rc5 and received 5 percent off. Ordered Sat night an received it the following Friday. No problems other than me Not doing my thrifty research. I couldah got my salt cheaper elsewhere but that's on me not them. I've read some bad stuff on here but gave it a shot, and I was fully satisfied.

[TOM BLEVINS]

I have ordered a couple things here lately, 1-1000 WATT heater & Vertex 250 received both items 4 days later, some items they have listed on their web sight right on the ad with it stating IN STOCK.

[akwtampa]

I've got you one better.. :P My order was placed on Jan 27.. Nothing.. No email replies, no call back.. No nothing..

Gonna call again tomorrow..

[DC_40gallon]

But they never update them when they are out of stock which is the point being made earlier by someone else.

[chris.francis14]

I will never purchase from them again, horrible communication and customer service. I am still waiting on three items that are on back order, none of which were mentioned on their site. I have e-mailed agian today, we will see what happens. **** poor business if you ask me. If I don't get in contact with them soon I will be contacting the BBB.

[slief]

Wow.. I was going to order a reeflo Hammerhead from them as well as some other stuff. I guess I will order from Premium Aquatics or Marine Depot instead.. Thanks for posting this! Vendor feedback is a very important tool and the web can make or break a company..

Aqua Cave, I hope you are reading this! Staying on top of your orders and good communication goes a long way in the mail order business. If you don't maintain proper customer service policies, it can put you out of business as well!

One other thing. It is illegal to charge a customer for products that you have not shipped unless the item is designated as special order. Under that scenario, it must me noted clearly on the website. Paypal may be a way around that, but traditionally, in the mail order business, you can only charge a card upon shipping. You can only obtain an authorization which is converted at the time of shipping. While I am not sure that applies here, I thought I would point it out in case some of you were charged for items you didnt receive.

I was in the mail order business for many years.

[DC_40gallon]

It's so bad that I messaged the RC mods to read these posts for sponsorship review. We don't need companies like this ruining the RC reputation as harming fellow reefers.


I encourage everyone to contact RC moderators with a PM to tell them your story and ask them to read the posts here.

[DC_40gallon]

One other thing. It is illegal to charge a customer for products that you have not shipped unless the item is designated as special order. Under that scenario, it must me noted clearly on the website



Very interesting!

[Baldwin]

I have ordered several times from aquacave. They never send me emial notifications that it has been shipped or tracking, but it always comes super fast. They do need to work on notifications, but other than that aquacave has been great.

[returnofsid]

One other thing. It is illegal to charge a customer for products that you have not shipped unless the item is designated as special order. Under that scenario, it must me noted clearly on the website



Very interesting!

Can you please post references to this law? IME, most companies charge immediately, even if the item isn't going to ship for a couple of days.

[DC_40gallon]

Sleif -


Can you elaborate further? I did my own research and found it to be true.

Returnofsid - if you would read the posts, I was giving my interest to what slief said. Why don't you look it up for yourself and make your own conclusions. I have found tons of information on the first page of a google search.

Fascinating stuff.

[slief]

There are a few factors that are involved. I guess the term illegal would be a bit of an exageration however, all credit card processing companies have a long list of policies that the merchant must sign off on.

Due to the high rate of charge backs, most credit card processing companies such as Chase, Card Service Intl etc have policies that are supposed to prevent merchants from prebilling cards for items that are not shipping within the stated time. For example, most on line stores have an estimated ship time (not transit time but how long it takes to get out the door). If the ship time for an item is 1-2 days and the merchant charges you immediately and ships within that time frame, that would slide through in most cases. However, if site says 1-2, the merchant charges your card immediately and doesnt ship the item for a week as it is not in stock, that would be against most if not all credit card processors policies. They only way around that would be if its stated otherwise in the terms and conditions on the merchants site in the form of a disclaimer. Special order items are another loop hole in which a merchant can pre bill.

Visa, MC and Amex also have their own policies regarding pre-billing. Amex I think tends to be more lenient that Visa/MC.

A web search on the subject yields all kinds of conflicting info however, as I mentioned above, most processing companies have policies to prevent that in order to avoid charge backs.

Lastly, different states or juristictions have different policies regarding these practices. What might be legal at a state level in one area may not be in another.

First place to contact in this instance would be Visa, MC, Amex etc. They all have policies regarding the practices and while many customer service reps are not always familiar with them, they can always escallate the call. They can also advise you who the merchant processing company is if you have a charge for a back ordered item. you can then contact the Merchant processor and find out if its against their policies in which case, they will advise the merchant with a nasty note and threaten suspension or termination of the merchants processing services.

[kimber45]

glad i caught this thread.

was going to make order and give them a try.

looks like i'll take my business elsewhere also. ;)

i guess it always pays to do a little investigation before dealing with someone new.

[AquaCave]

akwtampa,
Please call or email us your order information so we can check why there was a delay in your shipment.

DC_40gallon,
We offered to send your back ordered lamp for free and you accepted it without any problems. From your posts it appears that you are still not satisfied with your purchase. Please let me know if you would like to return your lamps and we will send you return UPS label.

To All,
Thank you for your feedback. It is always appreciated. We will reevaluate our day to day operations to further improve your shopping experience.


Albert

www.aquacave.com

[chris.francis14]

While I was upset about AquaCave sending me half of my package only because the other items were on back order, I do have to say that I am pleased with Albert calling me and checking to see if I have recieved the items that were on back order. I will continue to order from AquaCave, I can't complain about how fast their shipments are.