Anyone Ordered From Fishbitz Or Living Seas

[McG]

Hi to everyone,

Just wondered if any of you have ordered from Fishbitz or the Living Seas, unbeknown to me at the times of ordering they are both part of the same company, (lighting from Living Seas and a heater from Fishbitz) I ordered my heater on 17 October (they're site advertises 2-3 days delivery, well now 12 days too many emails and a particularly insulting telephone conversation later "it's not my problem you live in Scotland", the way I'm feeling right now it's just as well I live in Scotland and not a short trip away!

Twice I was informed that the heater had been dispatched, only to discover today on the phone that they're expecting a delivery tomorrow. When I asked that he cancel the order as I needed the heater 12 days ago, the guy told me tough and to wait for the goods to arrive his justification -there's a problem with Juwel Hi lite tubes and how could he claim back the loss of postage £50 he said its costs as soon as deliveries go north of Cumbria or that he would get the goods they have alleged to have sent.

Re the lights same thing I contacted the Living Seas numerous times to find out the order status to be told it was on it's way - i cancelled that order via email and have only just got the refund now - that's two months after canceling, and 30 days longer than they are entitled to hang onto to the funds - I'm fuming flipping mad.

Just wondered if it was me or had anyone else experienced this with these folk?

I thought I'd try somewhere different from my usual online supplier Aquatics Online, who are spot on in terms of keeping you informed, reasonable cost and reasonable delivery times.

Sorry if this a breach of advertising but think there should be somewhere easy to find out about unscrupulous traders

 

[Schmill]

Totally agree. Most forums have a 'Named & Shamed' area, as well as a 'Recommended Suppliers' area.

Don't know if you know, but there is a rule called "Distance Selling", which I believe gives you 7 days 'cooling off period' to return goods you buy over the phone or the internet to the company for a FULL refund as part of your statutory rights.
I know it doesn't help you get your item any quicker, but it does mean if you chose to buy it elsewhere to get it sooner you could return the one they are refusing to 'cancel'. Not sure how it would work with you getting the postage refunded though.
It might be worth having a look at the 'Cancellation' section of the link below;

Distance Selling

 

[rabbut]

Did you pay by Credit card or Debit card? If debit card, use the distance selling regulations as Schmill surgests, or with the credit card payment option, call them and tell them that if they don't give you a full refund on the spot, you will go the the bank to arrange a chargeback, and they have voided their side of the contract. They told you delivery in 3 days maximum. They failed to do this, and you gave them benefit of the doubt, so you are under no obligation to complete your side of the transaction with payment for goods, as you have

a)not recived them yet
b)you didn't recive them in time

They cannot force you to complete the contract if they have breached it themselves. If they are increasingly aquard, keep a track of all conversations, e-mails and letters, quoting names and telling them your legal team is involved ATM, and every letter is incuring a cost, which will be billed to them. If they don't sort it by the end of the week, you go to court. They should crack with that and sort it. If they don't, fill in the court paperwork, photocopy it and post the copy to them saying you have untill x date to refund, or I file it. Whether you do or not is your call, but they don't need to know you haven't made that decision yet...

I have delt with Livingseas before and found them excellent, but you are not the only person having issues with them on here ATM, which raises my concern slightly...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[McG]

Thanks Rabbut and Smill, the info you've gave me is very helpful, i paid by credit card, and think I'll have a go at what you suggested- the 7 day cooling period is a very handy bit of info for future. I've still got everything and been sitting on my hands trying not to type an email telling them what I think of them, even when the guy was giving me his spiel I managed to remain calm and not have a go, hoping the cliche about being nice to get something done would prevail, but the more i think about the madder I'm getting -50 quid to send £35 goods north of the border - man the cheek!

Right, deep breaths and count to ten thousand million in fairness you've said you've had good service so I don't want to go on, and a lot of these places are small scale regular folk trying to make a living so need to try and get a perspective-

To make matters worse I took a delivery of T5s today and thought it odd when the UPS guy ran (no exaggeration) down the stairs after I shut the door, was so excited about opening my loot that I just signed before checking. Phoned the people at Lampspec who are sending another lot so should be here by the end of the week he said- so there's a positive, obviously not UPS but Lampspecs- think they deserve some credit for their speedy delivery and customer service - will confirm that the replacements are in good condition when i get them.

 

[backtotropical]

I was looking to buy some stuff from Living Seas. Don't think i'll bother now. Thanks for the heads up, McG!

P.S. Where in Edinburgh are you from?

 

[Gav935]

I've ordered from them twice before and didn't have any problems. I don't see how delivering up here is an excuse for shoddy service, don't think I'll use them again if that's their attitude!

 

[McG]

Another day another dollar eh -

I followed your advice Rabbut and read through the Distance selling info last night - I wish I could be this productive for positive reasons and have had another email from Diane- who I add has been very pleasant even if she deliberately never answers the questions I ask e.g.

When did you send the goods?

"The goods have been sent by Royal Mail"

Did you send the goods by Express Courier where a signature is required this time seeing that the first order 1)did not arrive and 2) the negative experience from the first order?

"It has been sent a second time. I have checked the address and this is all correct. I am really sorry for the delay through Royal Mail. If this time it does not get to you then we will have to issue the refund."

Please apply the refund immediately and notify me when this has been done.

"We are going to do a refund on this as this has not come again and I will claim off Royal Mail"

So I'm waiting on the posty for today and being the perpetual optimist hope it arrives today- if it does then I'll keep it and lesson learned about shoddy service and will be staying put with A Online in future - again I can't sing their praises highly enough.

 

[elaine128]

you should read my post on hydor external filter,i also spoke to diane

 

[McG]

DELIGHTED - NICE ONE FISHBITZ

Just got notification of my refund for the order- though not an experience I hope I'll ever repeat, just wanted to let you all know its funny how some things work out- I looked onto Elaine's thread (barged my way in more like- sorry Elaine if you read) and Literal Line cracked a one liner (not the best I've heard by any means) but managed to get a smile out of me, now got the refund, so set up for the weekend and can order a new one- I am delighted. Might have a wee go on the coupon tomorrow

As I said in one of my posts I realise that a lot of companies are just normal folk trying to get by, and if this has been a wee bit of a blip due to staff changes as advised then I hope that they get it sorted soon because some folk who gave good advice have defended you so reckon it's a shame (honestly) and wish you the best for future though you'll understand I'll not be in hurry to come back- and seeing it's all on a better plane- you don't pay Diane enough

 

[strangeworld2002]

I and my girlfriend have been treated in the most awful way by fishbitz and Diane. The emails she has sent us in response to requesting where our orders were have been extremely unhelpful, rude, arrogant and unprofessional. They seem to think because you are getting items for a cut price they have the right to lie to you and make you wait 4+ weeks for your goods.

Fishbitz are operating under numerous names due to them having a poor reputation. I would avoid like the plague, they should be put on some kind of shoppers blacklist and shutdown.

I will post some of the emails on here that I have received showing blatant lies and disgusting behavior.

They get items in to order and do not keep anything in stock. When you are made to wait too long for an item they just tell you there is a problem with this and a problem with that. The latest in their string of lies is that they have had to change their courier as UPS were breaking everything. Funny how their website still states ups delivery. Makes me laugh that they will let you pay for next day delivery or even saturday delivery when there is no chance on this earth you will receive anything that early.

I ordered an Eheim air pump and an Eheim filter from them and they told me Eheim products were difficult to get hold of as they came directly from Germany. Perhaps they do but what about a Juwel Rio 125 aquarium, possibly one of the most popular brands and style and 5 weeks on it has still not been delivered.

 

[elaine128]

I and my girlfriend have been treated in the most awful way by fishbitz and Diane. The emails she has sent us in response to requesting where our orders were have been extremely unhelpful, rude, arrogant and unprofessional. They seem to think because you are getting items for a cut price they have the right to lie to you and make you wait 4+ weeks for your goods.

Fishbitz are operating under numerous names due to them having a poor reputation. I would avoid like the plague, they should be put on some kind of shoppers blacklist and shutdown.

I will post some of the emails on here that I have received showing blatant lies and disgusting behavior.

They get items in to order and do not keep anything in stock. When you are made to wait too long for an item they just tell you there is a problem with this and a problem with that. The latest in their string of lies is that they have had to change their courier as UPS were breaking everything. Funny how their website still states ups delivery. Makes me laugh that they will let you pay for next day delivery or even saturday delivery when there is no chance on this earth you will receive anything that early.

I ordered an Eheim air pump and an Eheim filter from them and they told me Eheim products were difficult to get hold of as they came directly from Germany. Perhaps they do but what about a Juwel Rio 125 aquarium, possibly one of the most popular brands and style and 5 weeks on it has still not been delivered.

please read my post below, marked hydor external heater,sorry its such a long post but its mostly about being let down
by a lfs

 

[jpeg6785]

HI i'm new to this forum but id just like to add my personal experience of "The Living Seas" et.al and ordering, it does appear as stated that they hold very limited stock, however I have ordered from them three times now and without problem, and non stocked basic items have been replaced in the box with similar more expensive brand items at no extra cost.

I have personally had many dealings with Diane and unlike most internet companies the phone is "always answered" which is always a plus point, I have always found Diane to be very friendly and helpfull, I suppose you have to way up the pro's and cons..... yes you might have to wait a couple of weeks for an item but you need to balance this against the urgency of your needs and the potential cost savings, I have had to cancel an order in the past due to delays and the urgency of my needs but have not experienced any problems with refunds.

 

[zedd]

I bought a Hydor ETH300 heater from The Living Seas and bought over their website on a weekend. I checked my order status (through google checkout) and it stated they were waiting for stock. I telephoned on the Monday to check when they were expecting stock, and they said they were expecting it on the Wednesday. I got the heater within a week from ordering.

If I needed it urgently (i.e. in 2 days) I'd have bought it from somewhere that offers next day delivery.

Again, because they were the cheapest and I got my heater ok, I bought a Fluval FX5 and 7 bags of Eco-Complete substrate from them. I telephoned first to check they had physical stock of the items, and they did, so I paid over the phone. I asked for some discount beacause the order was around £250ish, and they said they couldn't reduce the price down as they were already the cheapest, but would give me next day delivery free.

The items arrived the next day, but the Eco-Complete was one bag short. I telephoned The Living Seas where a nice lady confirmed the number of boxes they had sent, and that I was one short. She suggested I check with the courier, and if no joy, to give her a call back. I telephoned the couriers and gave a reference number from one of the delivered boxes and they confirmed one had been held back in their warehouse. They said it would be delivered the next day. It arrived the next day.

All-in-all, I can recommend The Living Seas from my two experiences over the last couple of months. Looking at the other feedback on this forum, I think I would ring them first to check they have stock before ordering.

 

[Lofty1988]

Hi all! I'm new here, but i just thought i'd throw in my two pennies worth of experience for this store.

One word would sum it up quite well... AWFUL.

I ordered the product, was told it would arrive in 2-3 days. About a week later, no sign of it so i e-mailed the shop to find out where it was (May i say, not rudely at all, merely just asking where the product was, and that if it wasn't here soon i'd need to purchase it elsewhere.) to be told that if i want to 'go off at someone, then go off at the Royal Mail'.

Great, they sound so professional already don't they! E-mails flew backwards and forwards, including a phone call where i get told i have a '####ty attitude' and that i'm 'taking the piss'. Never did quite get either of those, all i was doing was chasing up a product that they told me would arrive and didn't. Was eventually told a refund would be issued.

Shock horror, about another week passes and still no refund, so i e-mail again, get the same rude, unprofessional replies. Also get told my e-mails have been shown to other customers! So do you really trust them with your credit card details?

Anyway, nearly a month later, finally the refund gets processed today, and i recieve an e-mail from Diane saying-

you ####

Great eh, they really respect their customers.

I really just cannot believe how this shop have treated me, if anyone is interested i would be more than willing to post the e-mail conversation up here so you can judge for yourselves. All i can say is.... NEVER AGAIN! I have probably ordered hundreds of things online previous to this, sure, things go wrong, but these guys have no idea how to deal with it! Along with what looks like a pretty awful repuatation...

Ben

 

[vinylman]

Actually, Lofty, any communication like the one you recieved is an offence under the law, whether it be a phone call, email or whatever. If you wanted to, you could make things VERY unpleasant for them. If I had a bargepole, I certainly wouldn't touch them with it. Any company is only as good as the staff it employs.