Aquatic Warehouse — Attraction in San Diego

I have been a customer at this aquarium store due to its proximity to my home (a three minute drive away). However, after several negative experiences, I will no longer be returning to the store despite having spent approximately $3,000 on setting up four freshwater aquariums.

One of the first issues I encountered was with the purchase of a primary Sentia doser and three secondary Sentia dosers (totaling $500). Upon installation with my brother-in-law, the three secondary units malfunctioned upon being plugged in. I returned to the store the same day to request an exchange and was made to feel uncomfortable by the staff, who repeatedly claimed that they had never encountered this problem before and insinuated that I was at fault for the malfunction. After testing the faulty units, they provided me with new ones that arrived three weeks later.

While I was willing to move past this incident, subsequent purchases also resulted in disappointment. For example, I purchased a CO2 system with a solenoid and ADA products, which functioned properly. However, when I later bought a Fluval nano light and a Sicce wavemaker, the wavemaker produced an excessively loud hum, unlike my larger Jebao wavemaker and Fluval Sea CP1, which were both silent. Additionally, the Fluval Nano did not provide sufficient light for my 15-gallon column tank, resulting in inadequate lighting for the plants at the bottom. When I returned to the store to request a return or exchange, I was told that they do not accept returns, even for defective items like the wavemaker. They offered to take back the wavemaker because they believed they could resell it at full price but would charge a 15% restocking fee for the Fluval Nano. Given the lack of research on my part with the Fluval Nano, I decided to keep it but was told by the staff that they intended to resell the wavemaker, implying that I was being overly picky about the noise issue.

These policies and the negative interactions with the staff have caused me to seek out other stores with more favorable policies. While some of the employees at this store are friendly, the policies and comments made by the staff have led me to take my...

Posting a review to document repeated negative experience pertaining to an employee tending the front check out area. I did not catch her name but the few interactions we’ve had with her, she typically wears a bandana on her head and wears glasses. She does not greet us or acknowledge us when we are at the register and makes us wait without saying anything every time. Absolutely no customer service. Tonight when we went, she has helping two girls in front of me and when I stepped up to the register with my purchase she ignored me and kept printing out receipts. I realized as a former customer service person myself she was closing the register and counting since it was about 5:20 and they were about to be closing at 6PM. But it seems she would prefer to count the register 40 minutes ahead of time rather than assist a customer. I stood there in front of her as she took a few receipts from the machine and continued doing what she was doing. When she at last looked to me and said how can I help you, she had a “card payments only” sign on the counter and began checking me out with barely any warmth in her voice. I have no idea why she thought it would be a great idea to go ahead and work on closing the register after helping one customer when there was another one right behind them. There was 40 minutes until closing, and I feel for the few minutes she was busy closing the register she could have helped us check out. Even if she was in the middle of something, telling us to wait a few minutes would’ve been fine too rather than having her stand right across me, ignoring me and clicking buttons on the screen. We have been customers for over a year but have never encountered any bad customer service from any of the other workers, only this...

This place is huge and amazing and has everything anyone who loves fish could want. I've been shopping here religiously over the last 10 years as it is one of my absolute favorite stores. However, the last few times I've been there hasn't been a pleasant experience. The place has gotten dirty and disorganized, with lots of dead fish in tanks. But that's not the worst part. I walked into the store after work a couple days ago, there was a good 6-8 male employees working that I could see, and not a single person greeted me, said hi, smiled, asked if I needed help, or anything. A couple employees even made eye contact with me and still nothing! Not even a smile. I walked around the store for about 10 minutes listening to a very loud conversation on dating women, when I finally walked back up to the front counter and asked if they had anyone that could help me. The guy begrudgingly helped me, but was in a big rush, and treated me like I was a bother. For someone who has bred many species of freshwater fish over the years, and has spent a lot of money in this store, I feel it was extremely rude, and I felt very awkward even asking for help. I think ya'll need to have a sit down and talk about customer service and not having inappropriate conversations where customers can hear them. I've been in retail for over 20 years, so I get it, but this was totally unacceptable. I'll give this store a few more chances because they have an amazing selection, but if I experience the same things again I'll be finding a new...