AH CRAP! My favorite online store has been taken over by...

[SCIronMike]

I won't be disappointed if LiveAquaria can still have the same level of customer service. I have had FFExpress offer and actually come to my place and hand deliver a replacement item for me.

 

[Anonymous]

Less competition is rarely good for consumers- don't know why it would be different in this case.

The whole thing where phone operators know nothing about the livestock and can't see the actual specimens is a problem. If you're just buying regular stuff, fine. But I can get regular stuff at my LFS, I go online for the cool things I can't get locally.

 

[teevee]

Less competition is rarely good for consumers- don't know why it would be different in this case.

next thing you know, walmart will be buying out foster and smith. and you can't tell me that nobody working at FFE found themselves out of a job this morning.

 

[Anonymous]

Well in their defense I've bought from both Liveaquaria for livestock and DF&S for some oddball livegoods. Was relatively satisfied both times and they were friendly and professional dealing with the one small issue with the Liveaquaria order.

Question is are they jsut buying the name or are they using the existing FFE infrastructure. I will really miss the collector's corner if they do away with it - had some really cool stuff on there.

 

[Modo]

A great shop with great communication with it's customers (FFE). I hope that doesn't change. Maybe the kind doctors will take some pointers from this operation.

Who believes that these "mergers" will ultimately lead to higher costs for livestock online? I'm hoping the Docs don't start shutting out smaller shops from the wholesalers.

I wonder if we can get MaryHM to comment on these mergers and the effects it may have on the industry.

 

[Joe DeSantis]

Dr FS on 2 occasions has sent me items that were returned to them from another customer, not-so-thouroughly inspected and sent out to me in not-new and non-working condition. A Fluval 404 with a broken clamp and a Auto-feeder with corroded batteries left in it. What a pain in the ass. I will never ever deal with them again. The customer service seems great when they are talking to you but the promises never pan out. My blood pressure raises just thinking about them. I own an aquarium maintenance company and was spending big bucks with them..Oh yea...A friend of mine used my catalog to place an order and paid with his credit card....My whole account with them was switched to his name and they had no record of me in their system even though I had been ordering through Pet whse for 2+ years..."Joe, we will refund your credit card" nothing happened. "Joe we will send you the return label" no return label. And for my troubles they offer me a $10.00 credit.....wow! I urge you all to
STAY AWAY FROM DOCTERS FOSTER AND SMITH......I hope they heard me....Thats all. Thanks for letting me vent

$10.00= slap in face

 

[Joe DeSantis]

Dr FS on 2 occasions has sent me items that were returned to them from another customer, not-so-thouroughly inspected and sent out to me in not-new and non-working condition. A Fluval 404 with a broken clamp and a Auto-feeder with corroded batteries left in it. What a pain in the ass. I will never ever deal with them again. The customer service seems great when they are talking to you but the promises never pan out. My blood pressure raises just thinking about them. I own an aquarium maintenance company and was spending big bucks with them..Oh yea...A friend of mine used my catalog to place an order and paid with his credit card....My whole account with them was switched to his name and they had no record of me in their system even though I had been ordering through Pet whse for 2+ years..."Joe, we will refund your credit card" nothing happened. "Joe we will send you the return label" no return label. And for my troubles they offer me a $10.00 credit.....wow! I urge you all to
STAY AWAY FROM DOCTERS FOSTER AND SMITH......I hope they heard me....Thats all. Thanks for letting me vent

 

[Joe DeSantis]

Well they ended up giving me a 20 dollar credit. whoopie!

 

[Boatwizard]

After the name change from Pet Warehouse to Drs F&S, the prices went up. After a couple of monthes Pet Solutions joined the price hike. Neither have descent sales any more either.
The prices at Etropicals went up after their aquisition, and I have heard several complaints about the quality there in last few monthes.
I have done business with FFE, Drs F&S, and Etropicals in the past and will again.
These changes go along with big business and the quest for the bottom line.
The fish business is not immune to these changes.