Bad experience with That Fish Place (heavily cross posted)

Hi James,

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:46:23 -0400, j.duprie wrote:

I am the original poster, and I did think about CC:ing them (That fish
place). I decided not to because their customer service (phone) was so bad.
If they only respond to service problems when they are broadcast to a large
population, I still want nothing to do with them.
Would you buy a car from a dealership that will only honor warranty or
service issues if you take out an add in the local paper describing their
refusal to fix problems?

Basically, *they* screwed up. My only mistake was trying to buy products
from them (I won't make that error again). There is no excuse for forcing
me to jump through hoops to fix their screw-up. The fact that its been about
2 MONTHS, and the problems aren't fixed yet should say it all.....

as to the person that thinks this is all made up, I encourage you to go
spend your money at TFP. Spend about a thousand dollars on fairly high
proced filters and pumps, and let us know how many of them actually arrive
whole and functional.

James DuPrie

If you paid with a credit card then the first thing I would do is to call
"That Fish Place" and politely ask them if they are going to exchange the
products that are faulty/have missing pieces. If not ask if they can be
returned. If not then kindly and politely inform them that you will be
informing your CC company that you have paid for certain items that came
damaged and you wish to dispute the amount as you paid for brand new items
- not used. IOW you paid for new and you received used.

The CC company will have you sign an affadavit. If you have any email from
customer service then keep it as evidence. Try and remember all of the
times you called and write them IN LONGHAND in a log - especially the
names of people you spoke to.

When dealing with mail order the CC company is your friend.

In spite of all this it is still your word against that of "That Pet
Place" and so the decision still might go against you.

If that happens then try the manufacturers of the items that you bought
diectly. Call their 800 numbers and say that the item(s) in question
arrived from "That Pet Place" incomplete and you need the following...
Manufaturers know that sometimes their items are packaged incompletely. I
bought a kids wooden table and chairs from ToysRUs for my 4 year old that
came missing a table leg. In the assembly instructions the manufacturer
said to contact them in the event of missing piece. The leg arrived 2 days
later.

Actually it might be better to try the manufacturers first.

From what I've read on the net, That Pet Place seems to be one of the
more reputable mail-order companies and a lot of people (especially on
this newsgroup) have had positive experiences with them. I've never dealt
with them but 2 of my work colleagues whole-heartedly recommend them. I
think that's what you are running into on the newsgroups - people are just
a little bit incredulous and skeptical in light of their own experiences.

Hope this helps & good luck.

John Cuthbertson

Just to chime in here, I have ordered from them for several years and have
generally had good service. The one issue I had was a plant order a while
back that was missing a couple of items. I was able to quickly get through
to a knowledgable person and they decided to credit my account (I would have
been a bit happier if they had actually sent me the plants but they didn't
want to do that - didn't make me unhappy enough to not use them again).

It sounds like they may have mis-handled this situation, but it is only fair
to note that these guys have some happy customers as well.


"John Cuthbertson" wrote in message
news
Hi James,

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:46:23 -0400, j.duprie wrote:

I am the original poster, and I did think about CC:ing them (That fish
place). I decided not to because their customer service (phone) was so
bad.
If they only respond to service problems when they are broadcast to a
large
population, I still want nothing to do with them.
Would you buy a car from a dealership that will only honor warranty or
service issues if you take out an add in the local paper describing
their
refusal to fix problems?

Basically, *they* screwed up. My only mistake was trying to buy products
from them (I won't make that error again). There is no excuse for
forcing
me to jump through hoops to fix their screw-up. The fact that its been
about
2 MONTHS, and the problems aren't fixed yet should say it all.....

as to the person that thinks this is all made up, I encourage you to go
spend your money at TFP. Spend about a thousand dollars on fairly high
proced filters and pumps, and let us know how many of them actually
arrive
whole and functional.

James DuPrie

If you paid with a credit card then the first thing I would do is to call
"That Fish Place" and politely ask them if they are going to exchange the
products that are faulty/have missing pieces. If not ask if they can be
returned. If not then kindly and politely inform them that you will be
informing your CC company that you have paid for certain items that came
damaged and you wish to dispute the amount as you paid for brand new items
- not used. IOW you paid for new and you received used.

The CC company will have you sign an affadavit. If you have any email from
customer service then keep it as evidence. Try and remember all of the
times you called and write them IN LONGHAND in a log - especially the
names of people you spoke to.

When dealing with mail order the CC company is your friend.

In spite of all this it is still your word against that of "That Pet
Place" and so the decision still might go against you.

If that happens then try the manufacturers of the items that you bought
diectly. Call their 800 numbers and say that the item(s) in question
arrived from "That Pet Place" incomplete and you need the following...
Manufaturers know that sometimes their items are packaged incompletely. I
bought a kids wooden table and chairs from ToysRUs for my 4 year old that
came missing a table leg. In the assembly instructions the manufacturer
said to contact them in the event of missing piece. The leg arrived 2 days
later.

Actually it might be better to try the manufacturers first.

From what I've read on the net, That Pet Place seems to be one of the
more reputable mail-order companies and a lot of people (especially on
this newsgroup) have had positive experiences with them. I've never dealt
with them but 2 of my work colleagues whole-heartedly recommend them. I
think that's what you are running into on the newsgroups - people are just
a little bit incredulous and skeptical in light of their own experiences.

Hope this helps & good luck.

John Cuthbertson