Online And Mail Order Store Reviews And Recommendations

Miss Wiggle

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if you see this topic, I'm doing some work sorting out the pinned topic on mail order fish stores and I need your input.

So please post about the online or mail order stores you use and what you think of them.

i'd want to cover online stores and ebay, plants, equipment and accessories as well as just fish, then combine all the recommendations throughout the post onto one page, sorted into groups like oddballs, cichlids, betta's etc

I'm waiting for William for a response about his views on this but personally I would like to keep this positive due to the arguments/problems it could pose for William if his site hosts bad reviews of stores and he's seen to support it by pinning the topic. So only post up positive reviews. If you've had problems with a store that someone else has recommended can you just pm me with details, not entirly sure how we'll decide which review to go with or how to sort it but i'll have a think and get back to you on that one!!

Can you please include the following information-
- Name of the store/seller
- Link to they're website - please note if they also sell on ebay can you please get me the link to they're ebay store as well as they're 'normal' website
- If they've no website then contact details
- What area they specialise in (either fish groups or fish/plants/equipment etc)
- What you have bought from them (don't need to give specific items, just fish/plants/equipment etc) and what you thought of
i - the product(s)
ii - the delivery time/service
iii - the customer service
- Any extra information you think would be helpful.

so thanks in advance for helping :good:

edit - one more thing to add, keep this UK for the time being please just cos of the amount of work involved and the time I have..... I'm sure if someone else wants to start one for the USA or anywhere else that'd be fine.
 
aquaticsonline- goods arrived at time specified in excellent condition, good customer service, pleased with goods (tank dividers and some food, so nothing very difficult- but I was pleased)

greenline- plants arrived at time specified, in excellent condition, helpful website

trimar- some initial arguing over the phone as to what sex ratio I could have and then they found the fish I'd asked for were actually something else, but I decided to have them anyway. Fish arrived at time specified, well packaged, in excellent condition.

All in all, I've done well.
 
www.tropicalfish4u.com

bought some fish off them the other day next day deleivery fish arrived well and well packages going to buy off them again
 
Store: http://www.drsfostersmith.com
Bought: Filter media, foods, and medicines
How Many Orders Made With Them: Over a dozen over the years.
Shipping Info: Their standard shipping takes about a week to get to me; slow but I don't want to pay for faster shipping
Comments: Their prices on the supplies I want are cheaper than Petco and PetSmart, but not by much. ... Once they got my order wrong and I had to send it back, but they corrected their mistake with no cost to me.

Store: http://aquariumguys.com/
Bought: 2 heaters and a filter
How Many Orders Made With Them: One
Shipping Info: Shipping was faster than expected; it only took 3 days and everything was fine.
Comments: No problems whatsoever and pretty affordable. :D

Store: http://www.ahsupply.com/
Bought: 13W compact fluorescent kit
How Many Orders Made With Them: One
Shipping Info: Took a few days; no problems
Comments: When I called to place the order over the phone, the person who answered was very nice and friendly. Anyway, I bought this kit to retrofit the Eclipse 6 I have, but it's still sitting on my shelf. I don't really need it with just my betta in the tank. But I did test out the kit with the directions they sent and it works perfectly. I will definately use it in the future.

Store: http://www.aquariumplants.com/
Bought: plants
How Many Orders Made With Them: One
Shipping Info: Did the recommended overnight shipping
Comments: Arrived without a problem, but the shipping costs makes it pricey.
 
excellent thanks people, keep them coming.

spoken with William re negative comments (his comments are on the thread linked at the start of this post if anyone wants to see) you can post comments if service or something was bad, however please keep it factual.

and if we can give all stores a mark out of 10, 1 being worst, 10 being best. If there's more than 1 person gives a score I'll take an average so feel free to post up your scores out of 10 for shops others have reviewed :good:
 
Store: http://www.bigalsonline.com - Big Al's Online
Products: They sell most all aquarium products.
Bought: I have bought many things from them., including media, thermometers, food, dechlorinator and driftwood.
# of Orders: At least 3
Shipping info: You have options. I generally use the cheapest, UPS Ground. Cost of shipping increases with the amount you purchase. Some items, such as substrate has extra shipping because of weight. Usually ship within 24 hours although Wednesday orders can take 48 hours (see comments).
Comments: I have been very happy everytime I have ordered from them. They also have a points program where you earn points toward discounts with each purchase. Wednesday is double points day so order on Wednesday.

Store: http://www.aquariumplants.com - Aquarium Plants
Products: Plants and plant related products, aquarium products, driftwood/bogwood, pond products.
Bought: Plants
# of Orders: 2
Shipping Info: Options available, I used overnight. Shipped within 24 hours.
Comments: It has been almost 2 years since I last ordered from them but I was very happy with what I got. The plants were in wet newspaper and were in very good shape. I thought their prices were as good as any place I had found online.

Store: http://petsolutions.com - Pet Solutions
Products: Most all aquarium products as well as live fish, both FW & SW.
Bought: Filters, heaters, lights
# of Orders: 1
Shiping Info: Options available. I use UPS ground. Shipping was within 24 hours and products arrived without problems.
Commetns: Once again, it has been 2 years but their prices were the best I found at that time. I ordered all the hardware I needed to set up my 75 gallon tank.

Store: http://www.hellolights.com - Hello Lights
Products: Aquatic lighting products
Bought: Upgraded power compact lights
# of Orders: 2
Shipping Info: The usual options available. Within 24 hours.
Comments: I was very happy with both orders. The pricing was the best I could find at the time.
 
bump, come on guys, sure you can come up with more than this!
 
I recently used aquaessentials.com for plants and a snail excellent quality, communicationa dn service. Speedy delivery too x
 

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