Marineland's A Terrible Company!!!

[jonnywater]

So I primarily use Emperor or Penguin products for "maintaining" my aquariums. They used to be good at getting rid of ammonia and nitrites in a tank. However over the last week or so I had both manifolds crack on my emperor 400's. Both went out at the same time (rather odd I think). Next of all, if you do need a part they charge an arm and a leg for shipping even if the thing is still under warranty.
So needless to say I was told that it would take 4-5 days to get the part. This was last Monday. Saturday rolls around and still nothing. So I call on Monday. The 7 dollar an hour rep tells me that he is sorry - but they forgot to mail it out so he will overnight it. Today rolls around, my ammonia has spiked (completely different tank then my 55), and I have lost half of my livestock in this one tank. I call Marineland back and the guy tells me this "I am sorry, but they sent it out yesterday 3 day USPS so you wont get it till tomorrow". Meanwhile I asked what is going to be done about my fish because it was now the third time that I was lied too. He said that he just didnt care about the deaths and they were not marinelands fault.
USPS DOES NOT GUARANTEE THREE DAY DELIVERY ON THEIR PRIORITY MAIL!!! In the mean time I could have transfered all of my livestock to the LFS (the owner offered) or to a friends tank. Instead I chose to believe Marineland and am pulling dead things out of my tank every other day. Bottom line is I WOULD NOT purchase their products again. If you havent had a problem with your Marineland product, pray that you dont in the future or you will end up paying 60+ dollars to get something overnighted to your house if it is your primary source of filtration.

 

[cartman101]

Thats why I went with a sump and threw in some live rocks to help with ammonia and nitrite. You dont need that thing to get rid of ammonia,ect. Theres other methods out there......like sumps.

 

[yimmy]

I had that happen 2 a freshwater tank because of them. It was a 40breeder. I had a school of about 20neon tetras all but 1 were dead...I was pullling them out forever. I sent the product in (not so cheap) and they said it would be there in 2 days I said 2 days I can live with it. Wound up taking 2 WEEKS. Everything died but 1 neon tetra. The company is horrible and i will never use them again. My dad got mad and the company got a piece of his mind if you get what I mean. They gave us a new filter for free but the company is horrible

 

[jonnywater]

There are other options. However the 3 year warranty was attractive to me at the time. RIDICULOUS!!! What this guy said to me on the phone. You should have heard the conversation. I plan on holding them responsible (legally) for the loses based on the facts that I was going off of the info. that was told to me by Marinland employees 3 times.
The thing that gets me the most though is the fact that this guy didnt even care (the last guy). Most hobbyists would be extremely hurt if someone broke into their house and stole one of their favorite fish or something. There was no i'm sorry for your losses or nothing at all. I asked why he didnt even care and he said that he just didnt. According to three different people, it was supposed to be here Saturday, Today and now sometime within the next 2 days. All this time I could have transfered my animals to a healthy tank.

 

[ophiura]

I'm sorry to hear all this. I have not had any issues with my marineland products

But I do have to ask...considering how critical a filter is to a tank, why did you not go to walmart and buy even a cheapo interim filter? Granted it is another $15 you don't want to spend but for my livestock I would have been there in the middle of the night if I had to. If they were without a filter just hours, its worth doing something else and not waiting. Considering the filter isn't all that expensive, I probably just would have gone for something else and cursed Marineland all the while. How old were these filters?
Really, circulation is the key....some airstones or powerheads and just leave the biowheels in the tank? That probably would have been fine

Hope you didn't lose too much? In the future though, I wouldn't wait on anything to come through the mail.

Marineland is a large enough company that, like Tetra, they really don't have to care about you and worry about it.

 

[squidd]

Or done a water change or added a powerhead to increase circulation and oxygenation, or lightened up on feeding or "something"...

 

[ophiura]

True, I mean many people run tanks without a "primary filter" like a hang on, canister or even sump. They just have circulation and Live rock...no problems. Its an unfortunate situation.

 

[jonnywater]

i dont have that much LR or LS in that tank. Not since I needed to remove some before all this happened. Secondly what good does a mechanical filter do me when i am, having chemical problems with my tank. Walmart isnt going to save my tank. Now if there was a guy around here that purposely had 4000 emperor bio-wheels on his tank with already cycled wheels on them, then I probably would have purchased one. However chemical additives couldnt even control the problem. you should see my tank, it would make you sick.
Also we are forgetting the bottom line. Which is the fact that everything should have been fine had some small arse mom and pop shop been able to handle their business. Funny how I get the same guy every time that I call and people drop off the line so you are the next caller at exactly the same time. They have MAYBE 2 techs at this place. It was not my responsibility to go running all over the city (which no one had anything) or state trying to find a solution. It was however THEIR job to get the parts to me in the quickest means possible. Which they said they would and I was lied to three times. It's like saying ohhhhhhhhhh.....if someone purposely dumps a bottle of bleach in your tank then tells you that you shouldnt have had a bottle of bleach around your house in the first place.