Rate your online supplier...

[Anonymous]

Choose from one of the ones on the list or add your own for suppliers I have missed. Rate them from 1-10. (10 being the best) Try to explain your vote. (See the 5th post for the voting results)

If you have used any of these suppliers, I would be interested in ratings for the following:

Livestock (Fish)
Cleanup Crews (Snails, crabs, cucumbers, etc.)
Live Rock and Sand
Dry Goods

Advanced Aquatics (Formerly Aquatic Specialists, but not the pool company)
Ancho fish
Aquacon
Aquatic Reefs
Bill's Reef
Clams Direct
CQUARIUM
Drs. Foster & Smith (Formerly Pet Warehouse)
Dr. Mac & Sons
EZTank
Fish Supply
Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation (GARF)
Harbor Aquatics
Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF)
Inland Aquatics
Jeff's Exotic Fish
Lone Star Corals
The Marine Center
Marine Depot
Ocean Encounter
Ocean Rider
Pet Solutions
Phishy Business
Premium Aquatics
Reeftopia
Sachs Systems Aquaculture
saltwaterfish.com
Tampa Bay Saltwater
Tropicorium

Dry Goods Only Suppliers:

Algae Free
Aquarium Hobbyist Supply
AquaTek
Champion Lighting & Supply
Customaquatic.com
That Fish Place
Hello Lights
Inland Reef
Monolith Marine Monsters(m3)
Petmeister.com
Reef Fanatic
Reef Splendor
Spectrapure

Companies that either appear to be out of business or bought out by competitors (with notations made):

Atlantis Aquatics (* Company appears to be out of business *)
eTropicals.com (* Company bought out by Drs. Foster & Smith *)
Flying Fish Express (* Company bought out by Drs. Foster & Smith *)
Lampsnow.com (* Company bought out by Hello Lights *)
The Reef Web (* Company appears to be out of business *)
World Wide Pet Supply (* Company confirmed out of business - Owner started "Pet Fanatic" in 2002 *)

My original experience was with Flying Fish Express, which I would probably give an 8.5. Good customer service. Live Rock was good (although their pictures are flashier), and honored their guarantees when something died in their 5 day period. I have a later post with information about Marine Depot and Harbor Aquatics

 

[dobish]

I've used:
Flying Fish Express and would agree with the 8.5+
Premium Aquatics: 7 (good service, prices a little high IMO)
Pet Solutions: 9 (good service and pricing)
Reeftopia: 7.5 (good service, limited selection)
and unfortunatly World Wide Pet Supply: 0 (very poor service, overnight shipping took 2 days during the winter, sent the wrong items...)

 

[Rich-n-poor]

Have only used Marine Depot so far but they get a 10 in my book. Why ?

1. Fast shipment
2. Excellent Pakaging
3. Good Pricing

_________________
Honda Today

 

[gt8448a]

The only one I've used is Premium Aquatics, and it was my first time ordering anything reef-related from the net. If I had to say, I would give them an 8: turn around time was great, staff is nice and knowledgeable, and I got a lot of shrooms on my piece of rock (and some other type of polyp that looks like a brown non-pulsating xenia - care to take a guess at what it might be?). My only problem was one of the bags leaked, thus tearing the insulated box. Thankfully, all of the water did not leak from the bag. All in all, it was a good experience.

Harrell

 

[Anonymous]

I'm editing the top post and adding names as they come up. I'll edit this post with the ratings as they come in. (Although I originally asked for a rating between 1 and 10, I have accepted zero votes, although I adjusted two negative votes to be a 0.0)

So far:

Tampa Bay Saltwater..........(2 votes:10.0)
Atlantis Aquatics..................(1 vote :10.0)
The Reef Web......................(1 vote :10.0)
Lone Star Corals..................(1 vote :10.0)
Ocean Encounter.................(1 vote :10.0)
Clams Direct........................(1 vote :10.0)
EZ Tank...............................(1 vote :10.0)
Customaquatic.com.............(1 vote :10.0)
Reef Splendor.....................(1 vote :10.0)
Reeftopia............................(7 votes: 9.5)
Dr. Mac & Sons....................(5 votes: 9.4)
Harbor Aquatics..................(5 votes: 9.3)
Gulfview Aquatics................(3 votes: 9.3)
Marine Depot......................(25 votes:9.0)
Petmeister.com...................(1 vote : 9.0)
Bill's Reef............................(1 vote : 9.0)
Inland Aquatics...................(6 votes: 8.7)
Jeff's Exotic Fish..................(8 votes: 8.6)
Flying Fish Express..............(22 votes:8.5)
Ocean Rider........................(2 votes: 8.5)
Tropicorium.........................(2 votes: 8.5)
Sachs Systems Aquaculture.(1 vote : 8.5)
Premium Aquatics................(25 votes:8.2)
eTropicals.com.....................(10 votes: 8.0)
Ancho fish...........................(2 votes: 8.0)
Indo-Pacific SeaFarms.........(7 votes: 7.9)
Drs.Foster & Smith..............(15 votes:7.8)
Pet Solutions.......................(6 votes: 7.7)
The Marine Center...............(4 votes: 6.8)
GARF...................................(3 votes: 5.7)
Fish Supply.........................(2 votes: 5.5)
Liveaquaria.........................(2 votes: 5.0)
saltwaterfish.com................(3 votes: 4.5)
CQUARIUM..........................(5 votes: 3.2)
Advanced Aquatics..............(1 vote : 3.0)
Aquacon.............................(4 votes: 2.3)
World Wide Pet Supply........(5 votes: 0.0)

Dry Goods Supplier Ratings:

AquaTek............................(1 vote :10.0)
Aquarium Hobbyist Supply.(3 votes: 9.8)
Reef Fanatic......................(6 votes: 9.6)
Inland Reef.......................(1 vote : 9.0)
That Fish Place.................(8 votes: 8.3)
Monolith Marine Monsters.(2 votes: 8.0)
Spectrapure.....................(1 vote : 8.0)
Hello Lights......................(4 votes: 7.9)
Champion Lighting...........(10 votes: 7.5)
Algae Free.......................(2 votes: 7.0)
Aquatic Reefs..................(0 votes: ***)

 

[Jawbone]

Saltwaterfish.com: Rating 6.5
A couple of freinds and I got together and Ordered a cleaner package of hermit crabs and turbo snails. I think we ended up with over 400 animals and the package was for 350. a great deal but there was an ad at the time we ordered that said something to the effect of free mushroom coral with each order. I even asked about it at the time I ordered and got a reply that said they would add one for $9.99 which was probably a good deal but I assumed it was free and didnt want to pay for it no big deal I never saw the mushroom coral but really dont miss it. and the ad or special was removed the next time I visited the site.
I give it a 6.5 because I live in the north and its cold up here and the package arrived in good condition ( thank you fedex ) but it was cold ( only 2 heaters ). Plus the confusion of the free mushroom coral

I would guess that overall the condition of the animals was great and they all survived. However I do not plan on buying corals or fish online due to the delicate nature of these specimens. I knew the crabs and snails would survive but fish I am unsure of.


Shipment speed rating 5 ( it took about a week for the order to be shipped next day air )
Packaging rating 5 Heater problem was only negative here
Pricing rating 10 I could not find anything less expensive anywhere and if I had to buy the same quantity at LFS it would have cost around 1100 bucks for what we paid 159.99
If I lived closer to the vendor, I would definetly buy from them again, but the distance has me scared ( at least till summer time )

 

[Alf3482]

FFexpess an 8.
Good service good quality.
My favorite Vendor was not on your list.
www.themarinecenter.com they get a 10
Alwayshelpful
Great quality
Great prices

Etropicals I have not ordered from them scince the new owners but my experince before that was A Big "0.0"
the order was delayed 3 times i still didn't get everything i ordered and shipping bags were leaking I could go on but that would not be fair to the new owners. but i still will not order from there.

Premium Aquatics a 2
I'm the only person in the world that does not like them.
it took mr 25 phone calls to reach them
took 3 days to get e-mail back. I could go on but, no one is going to belive the problems i had with them so i won't.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: Alf3482 ]

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: Alf3482 ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

Flying Fish Express: 8

Well packed, healthy livestock and very good customer service. Doesn't get a higher score because of various human error foul-ups, although the company has always been good about resolving them.

Premium Aquatics: Dry Goods: 10 Livestock: 5

A great company to deal with for dry goods, but they always have such a small selection of livestock that even when I've wanted to give them some livestock business, I couldn't find enough I wanted in their inventory to justify it.


Harbor Aquatics: 9

Slightly lacking in customer service, but great to do business with. Source for some really excellent, uncommon livestock.

Companies not listed:

Jeff's Exotic Fish: Drygoods 10, Livestock 8
Jeff's is my favorite regular dry goods source, and one of my favorites for livestock. I only give him an 8 for that because his inventory is very hit-or-miss. One week he'll be stocked to the gills with an incredible variety of great stuff, next week he'll be low on inventory and selection. At it's good moments, you can grab some great stuff.

Marine Depot: Drygoods 10

Ken Wong's another great guy to do business with. Great customer service.

 

[Anonymous]

Flying Fish Express
Clean-up Crew, Live Rock, Livestock.
8 Good customer service, fair rates, and they delivered the product I expected.

Premium Aquatics
Dry Goods <-- Feed actually.
6 Couldn't keep a package of shrimp frozen overnight for $30 in 75F weather. However, they're smart enough to be the only supplier of said shrimp, so they get a 6 for shrewdness.

Jeff's Exotic Fish (exoticfish.com)
Live Rock
9 Good price, fair service, but totally over delivered on my expectations. I actually thought that they'd put $7/# marshall rock in instead of $3/# vanisi. I'd give them a 10 if their site had more pictures. Since I'm fairly new, I still associate many things by appearance instead of name.

PetWarehouse
Livestock, clean-up crew
7 Fair prices, fair service, the best quality was that I wasn't disappointed when I opened the package.

Almost forgot,
www.thereefweb.com used to have an online store.
I give them a 10. They were expensive. And they had limited selections. But I ordered 1/2# of plants and probably got 1.5#, and a bag of adult brine shrimp too. Plus, all of their livestock were 100% disease free, and most of it was captive bred. I hated to see them go. Their service was more than excellant too.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: benjemon ]</p>

 

[Gatortailale1]

Neat idea, however results are skewed because in my opinion peeps opinions change as they read prior responses before they make their own. Had peeps emailed you opinions then you compiled the results, I think we would see different results. I may be wrong and way off base, but there is always two sides to every opinion poll.

 

[SPC]

Premium Aquatics- 10, have only ordered dry goods from them and could not be more pleased with their service. 95% of the time I receive an e mail reponse back from Jason within a couple of hours, the other 5% within a day.

Marine Depot- 10, only dry goods once again, service has been excellent.

Reeftopia- 10, all animals have arrived in excellent shape, great customer service.

IPSF- 6, have placed 2 orders with them (9 for $99). One arrived with many dead animals due to cold, they did replace these animals but about 25% of them were dead due to the cold also. The other order was placed in the summer and all the animals were in excellent shape.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gatortailale:
<strong>Neat idea, however results are skewed because in my opinion peeps opinions change as they read prior responses before they make their own. </strong><hr></blockquote>

I posted mine before I read everyone else's.

 

[silvia]

Have some really bad experience with World Wide Pet Supply! Didn't ship out my order after placing an order for 3 weeks. no email or phone response for the first two weeks which i try to acquire a tracking number of my shippment! Once i got a hold on them, customer service was suck, they use 2 days to confirm my order and ask me do i still want my order ship. That's it. i cancel the order.

Then I order from PetMeister.com, 4 days, i got everything that i need, and customer service was great! strongly recommand!

 

[mariner]

World Wide Pet Supply=0
I returned an item and didn't get the credit for it for almost a year. I contacted them numerous times and they rarely answer the phone. I sent them threatening e-mails that I would be going to the BBB and they ignored it. I finally did so and got my money back close to a year later. I would never order again or recommend ordering from them.

Marine Depot and Champion Lighting=10
Great all around.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: mariner ]</p>

 

[KanUCme]

<ul type="square">[*]MarineDepot:10 I have ordered many dry good from them, and I recieve everything I order quickly, and packaged extremly well.[*]eTropicals:9I ordered a "built for you" reef package. I told them what day I would like to recieve it on, and Jack e-mailed me back telling me that it would definatly arrive on that day. And as promised it did arrive on that day. Everything was very much alive and the specimens were in excellent shape, coloration. They only lost a point because I was expecting slightly bigger hermits and crabs. I would order again from them. I like how Jack personally e-mailed me and catered to my needs.
[/list]

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: KanUCme ]</p>

 

[danmhippo]

Marine Center - 9
FFE - 8
Inland Reef - 9
Petwarehouse (old) - 8
Dr. Fosters (new) - 4
Spectrapure - 8
Ocean Rider - 9
Algae Free (magnets) - 7
Bills Reef (seaweed, caulerpa, sea grass...etc) - 9
Sachs Systems Aquaculture - Yet to be determined, Just ordered live feeds in bulk.
Inland Aquatics - 8
M3 (Moonlithe Marine Monster) - 7 (unique products, but on very expensive side of scale)

Never give a 10! Simply don't believe in that score.......Not unless they are giving everything out free and no shipping!

 

[mokeyluv]

Great thread.. I hope everyone posts. This is really helpful for those of us who've been away from the hobby for a time.

 

[NaCl-H2O]

I'll give high marks to Marine depot(10), Premium aquatics(10), and Flying fish express(9) and judge them in that order. Saltwaterfish.com(7), Petswherehouse(8), and IPSF(8) are next but not on top. Aquacon(1), caquarium(1), fish supply(3) and aquatic specialist(3) are not going to get any more of my business I'd go to a LFS first. The others I've never used.

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: NaCl-H2O ]</p>

 

[NasotheHutt]

Premium aquatics - 7
Overall good service, ordered alot of snails once and was called and told they didn't have all of them, even though their website showd more than enough. Half the snails I got were dead, or died within 24 hrs.

ChampionLighting - 7
They have great prices, and I have ordered from them alot, and will continue to do so. There serivce sucks! Online orders are supposed to recieve an email tracking #, and I never have. When calling them for one, they get an attitude. I ordered a ampmaster 3000 once, it was dropped shipped from dolphin, they chose not to contact me and let me know it would be 3 weeks. Same with the 400W e-ballasts. If not for the serivce a perfect 10.

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: NasotheHutt ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

I want to ask for two things.

There were a few people who mentioned companies they liked and didn't liked without putting numbers. I would like to ask that they edit their posts to put them in. I will edit mine when they do so.

Also, if someone feels that they would like to change their numbers after reading the other responses, feel free to do so, but edit the posts rather that adding new ones. I'll try to keep on top of it.