My experience with ordering SunPaqs
It is really sad what the state of the LFS is these days. To make matters worse, it’s ironic why they even wonder why the online places are putting them in the crapper. Poor on-the-phone presence, minimal product knowledge, lack of availability, difficult to get through etc.
Here is what I went through today. I started by making a list of my local LFS’s and calling them. I started each call in a very friendly and polite tone and simply asked if they had replacement bulbs for the AquaPod 24 with the power compact fluorescents.
Here are the results:
Aquarium Adventures (Carle Place NY) – Nice guy on the phone, but didn’t know if he had any “coming in on tomorrow’s truck” and said I would have to call again tomorrow afternoon. When asked how long it would take to get what I wanted in if he did NOT see them in his shipment, he said “next Friday” -way too long for me. On to the next…
Tropical Showcase (Hicksville NY) – I like this store (mainly because it’s in my home town AND he has a lot of corals and inverts) but unfortunately the owner always acts like you’re bothering him when you ask him for help. His wife? Don’t even bother. She knows NOTHING about saltwater reef tanks, equipment, corals, lighting etc. The only thing she can do is ring you up if you bring anything to the counter or if you just want to buy a fish. Ask her a question where she has to think on her feet, and she will immediately without fail always seek her husband out, but if he is helping another customer you have to wait. I'm not saying anything personally derogatory about her, just that she really needs to be trained on the lingo so that customers areen't left milling about waiting for the ONE GUY that can help...GRRRRRR…. Anyway, I call, she answers and of course as I expected she doesn’t have the slightest clue, so she gves me a tired "hold on" gets her hubby. He tells me he doesn’t carry them. No offer to order them was made, but I didn’t bother to ask if he could due to the above responses I received from asking the same question.
Mutts & Butts (Merrick NY) – Nice guy on the phone but he said that since they don’t have any in stock they wouldn’t have any more until next Tuesday. This was the best call so far, at least the guy who answered the phone knew exactly what an actinic bulb was etc. AND the item is a regularly stocked part in their store, they just ran out of them. In any case, Tuesday is still 5 days away, so on to the next call…
Suffolk County Fish & Reef (Ronkonkoma NY) - Again, another irritating “I don’t know anything” type of call. The woman who answered the phone said that the owner “stepped out for a moment” and that her regular “fish guy” is out, and she was the only one in the store so she would take my name, number and call me back. OK, I give her all the info and she calls me back in about 10 minutes - not bad. Unfortunately, once again, they would have to order the bulbs and it would be a week’s wait.
Pet Den (Commack NY) – Nice guy who answered. I tried calling them first but their line was continually busy so I put them off to last. Unfortunately, he didn’t even know what an AquaPod was. He was the least knowledgeable person I spoke to so far. I mean, c'mon - you sell reef stuff and I have to tell YOU what an AquaPod is? SHEESH! I explained to him that I needed blue actinics and daylights. I got the impression that he had no idea what I was talking about even with the bulbs. In any case, he said he could order them for me. Again, didn’t bother as I cannot wait a week and I was afraid that I would come down to the store and see a box of garage fluorescent bulbs with my name on it!
Aquarium Dreams (Wantagh NY) – I found this one
particularly annoying at first even though it ended better than it started. I called in the AM prior to noon and via their message found that they don’t open until 12PM and they said they would call back if I left a message. OK, no problem, I leave a message. No response at 12:10PM so I call back. Guess what? GOT THEIR VOICEMAIL AGAIN! Now, either they are not open yet, or someone forgot to take the machine off. Either way, it sucks. If you own a store and you are supposed to open at noon, OPEN AT NOON! OR, if you have a message, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE IT OFF! I don’t understand why people can’t see how much business they lose this way. I FINALLY got through at 12:41PM and actually got somewhere. The woman who answered had to get someone else but she returned and said she didn’t carry them. This time, however, she said she could have them in two days. She took my name and number and she actually did call me back right away. The bad thing is, she was wrong about the 2 day thing; since it was “so late in the day” she said that she would have to rush order them for an additional $50 for the pair of bulbs AND I wouldn’t get them until Monday at the earliest. I thanked her for her time and told her that was too long of a wait and $50 was too much to pay for shipping charges.
Finally, I gave up and called an online supplier. They had the bulbs in stock, they will ship them
overnight for $29.99. I think you can easily figure out what I did.
I don’t know if anyone else has similar experiences but the LFS industry is pretty bad. Maybe I'm being overly harsh. Maybe some of you will say, "Hey John, take it easy! These people are LFS', NOT warehouses!" True enough. But when you run sell reef livestock AND in some cases AquaPods you should keep bulbs on hand. You should have at least ONE person in the store that can answer questions, OR train up the remainder so that they are not always running to the owner for a bailout.
Well, there's my rant. Now I will just sit back and await my package tomorrow
