Why I will not use Dr. F&S again

[CarmieJo]

FWIW that is also what happened on my last Amazon order.

[marinefishtank]

I order from dfs on a regular at least every other month, sometimes twice in same month and I don't always get my whole order. This is due to the fed/ex "smart post" I do not know what is smart about it, but I will order salt and a few other items and I always get the salt first by two or three days. This is delivered by a subcontractor of fed/ex the other part of the order is always delivered by the usps carrier. If you don't mind spending a couple of extra bucks ups should ship all at once,unless warehouse is out of stock. I just recieved my order the other day and was missing a item called and was told it will go right out and it was here in three days, I will continue to use dfs, I am sorry to hear about your misfortune.

James

[rayme07]

I think they are using priority so it gets there faster because its salt. I had the same thing happen to me and called in on it and they said because it was something special and can break they had to send it in priority before the others in a less chance of it getting big time damaged in long term shipping.

[stefalopod]

I just ordered a refractometer from DFS, and the horizon line was off kilter. I called them up and they had a new one out to me in three days. The return label is supposed to come in the regular mail, but they're paying for me to return the broken one. That's pretty rare these days.

[badger]

I just ordered a nova extreme t5 from F&S it arrived broken from fed ex but it wasnt packed the best! I must say F&S was amazing with the problem! They will ship me a new one out on money upgraded the shipping to the next level! That was a 50$ option they ate! They also said they would send me a return label for the damaged item! They were excellent! Never questioned me and they were priced the cheapest on this product! Shipping only cost me 18 dollars for a 48 inch light not bad!! I was upset it was broken but I guess this probably happens alot wih lighting fixtures like T5! I will start a new post for my experience with marine depot that I urge you all to read

[Iron E]

Hey badger, did you get the 6-bulb? Which bulbs did you opt for, etc? Is it working the way you had hoped? I know you did a lot of research before you bought it. Did it pay off? I was going to get the Current 6 bulb but haven't got the bread together yet. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, Tom

[badger]

i got it but it was damaged. The new one should be here thursday ill let you know. They had it on sell when i ordered for 330ish

[mpcolson]

It seems to me that all your issues are actually correctly directed at the shipping company not the vendor.

My entire set up was constructed via Dr. F&S or Marine Depot. Entirely mail order. Hell I even mail ordered my tank from a contractor in Tennesee.

So I feel I can say with authority that UPS will park your packages at their docks if they choose to because you didn't pay for expedited shipping.

Fed-Ex does run 2 routes a day and I have had the same experience that was mentioned here where I got one box but the other came 4 hours later. (wasted an entire day but I got alot of dusting done! ha ha) I have learned that if ANY THING FED EX GOES THROUGH MEMPHIS TENNESEE IT WILL GET DAMAGED.

On the other side of the coin when I ordered my sand from F&S I ordered 5 twenty pound bags, they pulled 5 fourty pound boxes. Half of that order was damaged in Memphis so I got it in 2 deliveries. When I discovered what happened I called F&S to informed them I was recieving twice as much sand than I needed and they should call Fed Ex to retract their shipment they caught the orders and turned them around. I never expected them to refund my money as well but they did! You can't beat that CS!

Through it all I didn't have any other issues with either company and I got all my orders in a timely fashion. I had no returns and I will continue to use both companies going forward. I'm not sure about the Live Aquadics for fish etc. but I may give them a try as well.

As with most anything on the net you need to deal with well known companies and both of these are. Maybe you just hit them in a bad cycle or you got a bad CS rep.

Happy Reefing!