Swallow Aquatics, Essex - My New Ram

[devon_charm]

Hi, i wan't peoples thinking on this, i want to know if i'm wrong to be really P***ed of with Swallow Aqautics in Essex.

I have been away this weekend visiting my family in Essex and we ended up going to Swallow aquatics and while in there i saw the mose beautifal rams i had ever seen though they were £8.95 each. Next to them was smaller rams at £6.95 per pair and on asking was told that these were yonger thus the cheaper price but they were from the same supplier. So i asked for a pair only to be told that there were no females so i would have to have a pair of males. My tank is pretty big so i though two males should be ok considering they had dozens in the tank next door. So she caught me the two males only to turn around and say i would have to pay the £6.95 per fish, erm she just said i would have the two as the pair thus £6.95 the two. Any way as it was gettin on time wise i said i would just take the one. BTW i was told they would travel back to Devon ok in a small tank i had brought.

Now having to pay for a pair of fish but only getting one cheesed me off but this is what top it all off. On gettin home i cleaned the tank used water from my dads tank (water checks were all good) pulled the little guy out of the green back and low and behold he was dead - the drive was 15mins max) it was too late to take him back that night so i took him back today in his bag and was told they would not exchange him as i didn't have a pint of water to run tests on. WTF! he's in the bloody water but no they would not have it and i came away with my £6.95 dead fish!

Am i wrong to be furious?

Sorry for the essay but i think its all wrong. Some guy there even told us he had brought Koi from there that killed off all the life in his pond because they had a bug.

Grrrrr moan over

 

[scouse_andy]

Really sorry for you. It sounds to me like you have every reason to be unhappy.

 

[¬wicked¬]

I'd be p***ed off too! Sounds like a pain in the a**!

 

[madgap]

If the price was for a pair, then a pair is what you should have received. And if they told you that they had no pairs then they should have reduced the price by half or took them off sale until they had females to make pairs.
If I had been given a price for a pair but only got one, I'd have told the shop keeper to stick the fish where the sun doesn't shine. I would probably have inspected all the tanks and made him feel somewhat low by pointing out all the faults. But then, I'm not a very nice man.

 

[backtotropical]

Yip, agreed. Not a good advert for swallow aquatics.

Its a real shame some shops are like that. Find another shop which you like. They're not all bad.

 

[devon_charm]

well luckily i have a very good and helpful lfs near here so i will see if they can get some rams in for me. I was angry at having to pay for just one fish but i really wanted one for my tank and they seem to be a little harder to come by in the lfs' near me

 

[madgap]

Thats true. There is a few here in the Middlesbrough area, but I'll only trust two stores for advice and good stock. Keithlands petshop being the best, in my opinion

 

[x-Twinkle-x]

Swallows is my LFS & usually they are really good! Everything is unbelievably expensive lol but a good shop overall! I do think though that you shouldn't have been charged for a pair of fish and only got the 1! Yeah if I was you I would be pretty p***ed off too! If anything like that happens to me I wont be going back there!

 

[Aqua Andy]

Hi,

Which branch of Swallow Aquatics was it? The one outside of Colchester is my LFS of choice for fish. I bought a pair of Bolivian Rams from them over a year ago. I've bought over 30 fish from them, and transported them the half hour journey home. I've never had any die during the journey, or during and after acclimatization.


Andy

 

[devon_charm]

It was the one in Rayleigh. i have brought nice fish from them before and brought them back to devon and had no problems i'm not arguing the quality of their fish just the service i received.

 

[loachman]

Fish die in transit. It stinks but it happens. The requirement for a water sample isn't something out of the norm either. Many shops ask for a water sample with refunds (the water the fish is sitting in doesn't give a very good indication of your water quality...it does have a rotting fish in the 100ml after all.)

For getting one fish for the pair price, that is unfair. If that's advertised, then that's what it should be. To do otherwise is misleading.

 

[channing]

id have a little chat with the manager about the whole mess!!!!

 

[devon_charm]

The requirement for a water sample isn't something out of the norm either. Many shops ask for a water sample with refunds (the water the fish is sitting in doesn't give a very good indication of your water quality...it does have a rotting fish in the 100ml after all.)

The trouble is that was the only water he was in so how could i give a clean water sample when that was all i had, i did say that to them as well. I pointed to their tank that he had come from and said there you go

 

[annka5]

I think asking for a water sample is fine if the customer took the fish home and put it in their tank where it died. But if it died in the transport water during transit then what water do they want a sample of???! And a pint seems excessive.
Because female rams aren't as pretty to a lot of people as male rams are, then it'd not be totally unreasonable to charge more for males than females, but the same price as a pair for your male is ridiculous - if they'd sold all the females before they changed the sign on the tank, I'd've thought they would at least have sold you him for a fiver or so (I'm trying to be nice about the shop here and cut them some slack).
I'd write to the shop manager /owner and explain what happened beginning to end, and ask them what they will do for you.

 

[chishnfips]

Yeah I would have been hacked of with that too, sounds very unreasonable. not alot you can do about it though apart from not going back there.