Positive Reviews from Users and Dealers
***** “Just received my tank and stand! Simply beautiful! Awesome workmanship. The custom measurements were right on, brought it into the house without problem. Very well packaged. Thanks for you excellent service.” Willy – Southern Pines, NC
***** Gorgeous Tank! One of best purchases I made! A+++++++++++++++.” Brian – Plainfield, IL
***** “I recently purchased a 130 gal bow front tank. The project finally got finished this weekend and the tank is together and functioning . Everything is great I am really impressed with the quality of your products.” Ken – Cape Coral, FL
***** “The tanks are great. I think I need another one. Let me know if the 180 OV 1/2 cylinder in F139 with the black background is in stock.” Kim – Lansdale, PA
***** “Got my Moon View tank combo today. Looks top-shelf. Couldn’t be happier! Very impressive quality and details of the tank, furniture, and lighting fixture.” Todd – Oregon City, OR
***** “Of the many tanks I own and service, the ones from you are the bests ! Your craftsmanship is unsurpassed.” Peter – Nassau, NY
***** “We have set everything up and all the aquariums look great! …No doubt you guys are doing some amazing stuff! Seriously consider it, I would love to promote your resources outside of Texas !” Craig – Midland, TX
***** “Even our customers agree your aquariums make other makes on the market look like junks. We would like to stock only your tanks now.” Silvia – Hackensack, NJ
***** “During the last 6 years, I’ve seen your company has come a long way and accomplished a lot. I have been a picky person at the beginning and now I find myself no reason to be picky about your products. Well done! Keep it up !” Craig – Pearl River, NY
***** “Thanks a lot for allowing me to come visit your shown room and ask so many questions. I am no longer suspicious about people saying your aquarium is the Rolls Royce. Now I am ready to order. Who is your dealer for my area?” Menic – NYC, NY.
***** “The unique styles and exceptional quality of your aquariums have enabled us to get more customers. I am glad I found you”. Glen – Westchester, NY.
***** “The unit arrived in perfect condition, well packed. The tank is beautiful, workmanship superb. The sump and pumps well designed. I have set it up with stock from an older tank and it is truly impressive. Thank you for a beautiful product at a fair price. I am very pleased. Thank you again”. MM – San Antonio, TX.
***** “My 170 gallon seamless bow front tank has arrived and it clearly exceeds my expectations. I wish I had an aquarium store to sell your products here, and will definitely recommend you to our friends”. Sam – Wichita, KS.
*****Hi Alex: just wanted to thank you for all the help with this tank. I am really enjoying it now. It sure is beautiful and well built!! My neighbor called it the Biltmore of fish tanks!! lol Have a good one. Deborah – Bluffton, SC.
*****Greetings Alex, I received my tank today. It is a work of art! I am impressed with the craftsmanship. The packing was superb as well…. Mike – Fishers, IN.
***** “I received the shipment today. The tank and stand look fantastic. You and your crew have done a great job.” Ryan -Spokane, WA, who also posted more on this link: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1439097
***** “Absolutely gorgeous! The little touches, from the very nice doors and finish to the feeding slot and the plumbing being included, very silent downflow – just an excellently designed tank, and everything FIT, which just made everything go so much more smoothly than any tank I’ve ever set up. I won’t hesitate to recommend your company to anyone who asks.” CJ – Spokane, WA.
Negative Review:
If any company actively engaging in its business for more than 10 years has never got any negative review, it must have been either because it’s not successful enough in the eyes of its competitors, or because its products are not demanded enough by the consumers.
Aqua Vim products are sold mostly through its authorized, exclusive dealers. We sell to a customer directly only if the customer is far away from our existing exclusive dealers and only if the customer is outside of New York State. Because it’s mainly on exclusive basis, some of the pet stores who applied for Aqua Vim dealership were not approved, often either because their locations are too close to our existing dealer (s), or because they have insufficient store spaces to display required minimum sets of aquariums to show the public how nice Aqua Vim craftsmanship is. While we respect these resellers and appreciate their desires in carrying our products, we understand the frustration and unhappiness from them not being able to sell our products.
Buyers receiving products from us do have various questions and sometimes encounter problems, most of these questions or problems were brought up by people who just got into this wonderful hobby seeking advices from how to setup reef to what other accessories are needed. While we encourage you find these information on Internet and on our web site first, we do want to assure you that we will reply you within two business days as long as your question relates to our products. If you don’t receive a reply within 2 business days, it’s likely your email was spammed by our email filtering software. Please don’t leave negative feedback just because you did not receive your email reply, call us instead.
Other issues buyers may encounter, although it’s been rarer in recent years, are relating to damages caused by shipping company. It’s been rarer because, after years of shipping aquariums all over the country, we have learned how to packaged our aquariums to avoid shipping damage and we have known what shipping companies to avoid. Shipping damages do occur, but we understand the frustration and guarantee that we will help resolve the problem. Anyone receiving a damaged merchandise should be calm enough not to accuse the seller purposely ship a defective item, knowing it would not make any sense for a seller to ship an defective item then to spend time or money trying to mend it. Bear in mind, the seller is with buyer against the shipping company in such an event, not buyer against seller, or the other way around. To protect our customer’s interests against shipping damage, all we request is that buyer inspects the goods as per our advice in the shipment notification (that is sent by email after we ship it out), so in case a shipping damage occurs, we can help resolve the problem in a fair and professional manner. Our principle is: If a problem is not due to your fault, it’s our obligation to help resolve it. But please do not threaten, a damage by a 3rd party is already an agony for both the seller and buyer, and it obligates the seller to put up a lot of time and efforts trying to resolve it for the buyer. If the buyer threaten, it could just derail the whole purpose, just like the ugly case we will show you shortly below:
Despite of fact that we have thousands of positive feedbacks and happy customers that are too long to list, we know one or two negative reviews could undo the reputation that took us years to built and push large groups of customers away. That’s why we work so hard trying to make each of our customers happy.
So here is the particular one negative review we encountered several years ago that is still hurting both parties (Despite the fact that the customer received full refund and kept several expensive accessories while we on the other hands, sustained much bigger loss). To give people the full story, here is the exact phrase posted on Internet by the unhappy customer/complainant, Mr. Bruce Snell:
Quoted:
Aquavim Aquariums And Products
| China South Group Fraud and Extortion | |
| Alex Zou committed fraud and extortion when I ordered an aquavim aquarium including cabinet, canopy, lights and accessories. The glass aquarium arrived cracked and the wood canopy and cabinet were warped from improper storage. It was clear they were sent that way but he refused to replace them and blamed me. He extorted a good ebay feedback from me in promising to finally send me a new one, but then refused to due so after i gave him the feedback. He has legally and physically threatened me because I prevailed on my Paypal/Ebay dispute and received my money back after returning items to him, and he continues to commit fraud and is still appealling the paypal decision and claiming damage to property that HE sent damaged. It goes on and on and on, and he admits no liability or neglect. Stay away from him as he is dangerous as well as a con man. | |
Unquoted.
The complainant posted the same phrase quoted above on www.complaints.com, and www.complaintsboard.com, but after he realized the words he chose were too far away from fact and could bring himself legal troubles, he removed it from the web sites.
However, several months later, the same phrase strangely appears on www.merareview.com. According to the original complainant, it was copied and posted without his authorization.
We tried several times to post a reply commend on www.merareview.com under the complaint. The comment box of the web forum took our comment but never published it. They never replied our emails.
Many months later, the same phrase mirrored on www.webeef.com, a questionable web site that automatically re-direct viewers to pornographic contents of other web sites containing malicious computer viruses.
We hope people who read one side of story of Bruce Snell have the time to read the truth that we present here, to not only defend reputation of Aqua Vim and Alex (who have been serving aquarium stores for more than 8 years and make 99.9% of hobbyists happy), but also, to let people with hearts of fairness determine who is right and who is wrong, and maybe even give me a suggestion what to do under such situation:
Here is what happened:
After we shipped Bruce Snell or Marcia Snell, a set of 5′ aquarium and accessories, we sent an email to him, just like to every buyer expecting delivery, specifically requesting that he must open and inspect the goods at delivery to make sure goods are delivered in good condition. We even emphasized it in highlighted red fonts: “Do not sign any paper admitting goods are received in good condition unless you are sure there is no damages”.
According to his own story, he did not inspect the tank that was in an easy-open-top wood crate on a skid, rather, he chose to sign his name next to “received in good condition” then added “pending inspection”.
24 hours after the driver was gone, he told us that the tank was damaged. He sent us a picture showing that the cracked tank that was already lifted onto top of the stand. We asked for pictures showing packing materials that might indicate any sign of outside shipping damage. He told us the packing materials were all thrown away. – The tank weighs about 250 lbs and needs 3 to 5 people to lift up – we did not understand why the tank was all unwrapped but nobody noticed such a big damage, until it was lifted up by multiple numbers of people and placed on the stand.
He insisted we should be responsible it, and demanded we send him a replacement right away, and threatening all along the way. The funny part was, the replacement he wanted now was a 6′ room divider aquarium set that is several thousand dollars more than the 5′ one he paid for and received.
With a view to limiting both his loss and ours and still attempting to make him happy, we told him: a). We needed to have the accessories and stand of the 5-ft aquarium stored in his place, so he did not have to spend money and time packing and shipping it back to us; b). We would have to find a new buyer interested in a similar aquarium from his area, and when we do find one, all we have to do is just send a glass tank only, without stand and other accessories. This would save both his money and at the same time help us reduce the loss from his failure in inspecting the goods.
With the above in mind, we gave him a proposal in his favor, with all 3 pre-conditions laid out clearly: We would send him a 6′ aquarium complete set, at a deeply discounted price, minus the amount he had already paid for the 5-ft aquarium, even if the shipping company does not pay a penny to settle the damage claim, IF he: (1). Agrees that shipping damage was not our responsibility; (2). Leaves positive feedback on E-bay; and (3). Agrees to make the remaining undamaged items available for us to sell to other buyer.
He paid the difference and did (2), making it look like he agreed. But he tried to avoid (1) and (3). When we asked him to assure us his agreement on (3), he unusually muted for 2 days, until we told him we had finally prepared the 6″ aquarium for trucking but were still waiting for him to assure us that he would make the 5′ aquarium stand and accessories available to new buyer.
Then he said he did not want people to come to his home. – We felt very disappointed at the fact that, after all the efforts we made, after taking the risk that is a certainty of not getting paid by the trucking company for the damage, and the 100% certainty that we would loss money on both the 5′ aquarium and 6′ aquarium, all trying to take care of the mistake he made in not inspecting the goods on delivery, just to make him happy, we did not even get a small cooperation that requires him to do nothing but showing it to a buyer at the convenience of his home? Worse than all, he still thinks we should be responsible for shipping company’s fault, completely disregarding wholeness of the conditions we laid-out previously.
We felt strongly, if we went 100 miles, shouldering all the consequence from his mistake, trying to help him and make him happy, he should not slam his door in our face, making our attempt of helping him impossible.
Because of his attitude, we did not feel that we could comfortably rely on his willingness of letting other buyer to pickup the remaining undamaged items from the 5′ aquarium set unless we bond him financially to the success of such a sale. Therefore, we told him we could either refund his payment he sent for the 6-ft aquarium set, or we could ship him the 6′ aquarium set replacement only after he send us $1000 security that will be refunded upon the undamaged items currently in his place are sold and paid for.
After receiving the above email from us, he first sent us an email in the middle of a night, saying he would agree the condition mentioned above, and within 2 hours right after, before he could wait to the next day morning and before we could have the time to say a short “yes”, he filed disputes and claims with Ebay and Paypal trying to get all his money back.
Although we have spent more than 12 hours in wood-crating, Styrofoam-packing, double-boxing, shrink-wrapping, and banding the replacement tank, we have agreed to refund the payment for the 6′ aquarium set that we did not yet shipped out, to relief ourselves from the pain in dealing with him any more. We refunded $2507 in full.
He then wanted more: Refunds for all the items he already received, by first telling story that the items were “not as described”, then realized it did not make sense, and changed it to “Internal Damaged”. This was after he threatened both the shipping company and us trying to force both to pay for his mistake.
Then, Paypal Resolution Center determined, without getting the full story from us (Only half of our contention ended up reaching Paypal Center because of their text space limit), that he could return all the goods to us for a full refund. We did not even fight after getting this result, and we did not say a single “No” when he said he wanted to keep the damaged tank.
The problem was, unlike us, he did not protect the furniture with sufficient packaging when he shipped, and only wrapped a thin paper around, and the fine wood furniture got damaged during return.
Although the stand was damaged, we told Paypal, it could be repaired and sold at discount, we could accept the furniture and refund her but only if he could pay for the damage, that would consists only small part of the amount of the refund.
Then he became uncontrollable and was saying we commit “fraud” and Alex was a “con man”, and post such words on almost all the major Internet forums, includingwww.complaints.com and www.complaintsboard.com. These slander went on without us knowing for months, and during the period of time, we even gave up the request for partial payment holding for the damage of the returned furniture, and refunded him all the money in a wish to put this unpleasant matter behind us for good.
The result, is that, he did not lost even one single penny, and was able to keep the tank, the accessories, sump, light, pumps, even extra bonus items. The only thing he sent back is the damaged furniture. As to us, the shipping company had officially denied the claim because he signed “received in good condition” on cargo receipt, we lost not only the above items and shipping charge, but also, at least $75,000 worth of business loss due to his compulsive, irresponsible words on Internet scared off a lot of potential buyers. This amount is still adding as of now.
Realizing his own words defining us and Alex as “Fraud” and “Con Man” were too much out of line that could give himself legal troubles, he removed his posts from www.complaints.com and www.complaintsboard.com many months after. However, www.merareview.com still has his same exact words posted. He stated he could not remove the posts because www.merareview.com copied it from www.complaintsboard.com without his authorization, and no one fromwww.merareview.com responded to his request.
Summary:
Since the beginning of the matter, we have endured a great deal of patience, trying to make this person, Marcia Snell/Bruce Snell, who claimed to be a law student and know a lot of lawyers and kept threatening us every step of the way, happy. We frankly told him, if he did not threatened, result could have been a lot nicer.
We also have to point out:
The glass tank shipped to him was banded onto pallet in wood crate built with easy-open wood strips, he could have easily noticed any outside packing damage. It’s unbelievable that, After the driver left, he opened the packages, and threw away all the packing materials, without noticing such a large crack so obviously appeared on the outside of the aquarium. Then he had quite a few people altogether, who all had to grabbed tank bottom with their faces facing the big crack, still not seeing the crack, and they labored, and lifted it onto the stand. Then he unscrewed the door handler from inside canopy, mounted onto the outside. Only after all these, he told us the tank was cracked !?
It doesn’t make sense! If it were cracked during shipping or before shipping, he and all the people helped would have noticed before he managed the laboring of lifting it onto the stand. They would not bother spending so much energy struggling to lift such a heavy glass tank, not to mention that he had a mood to spend time installing the door handler.
Although we have strong reason to believe the tank was not damaged during shipping, but after, in his home, we did not even use this as the reason to refuse him.
What troubled us most, knowing unlucky things happen, we tried to help and made things easier for him. At one point, I almost got ready to take the loss myself and ship the 6-ft aquarium set that he found he actually wanted, provided that he shows some understanding that taking care of the mess he made was difficult, and provided he gave us some cooperation to make the task less difficult.
But all he did was to threaten and press us, trying to make us agree and do things within his time in his way, without having to admit his part of responsibility, completely disregard our good will. We kept taking his threats until we finally could not take any more and said to him: If you want to slander, go ahead but if your slander damage our reputation we would make you pay for our damage too. Thus in his words, became the source of his saying that we “legally and physical threatened” to him.
Finally, we hope an attorney specialized in civil slander case happens to read this article and get in touch with us. These untruthful postings have caused our business monetary loss and also reputation damage.
Questions regarding legitimacy of www.merareview.com:
The web forum implies it is operated far from the country of Indian. We don’t have the authority to know if this means it can keep getting “click” money without the obligation to remove posts as per original complainant’s requests. We did a little research on www.merareview.com, and found a few interesting sites describing it, for your own discretion:
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/merareviewcom-c271649.html
and:
and:
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.merareview.com
and:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/scam-website-c346843.html
Want to know more about the quality of Aqua Vim products? click below:
AQUAVIM LUXURY AQUARIUMS 