Comments regarding Aquarium Plants (Aquariumplants.com)

Plants were not in great shape when they arrived. After a few days they looked worse. Tried emailing them but never heard back.

Like the OP, I ordered the AQ.com $20 aquascaping service about 10 days ago. I sent them three emails asking what else I needed to do and never heard back. Finally, I sent a fourth demanding a refund and instantly received a reply, which was, "Take this down and you’ll get a refund.." with a link to this page.

I was not familiar with this site, but I'm glad I was directed here by AquariumPlants.com. I can already see that it's a site worth getting to know better!

It's amazing how one can get fooled by a website. Aquariumplants.com is a great website. They even offer Aquascaping Service where for $20 you give them a budget, and all info about tank, water, etc. plus you get to add a photo for them to work by.
I ordered this service with a $200 budget two weeks ago. After a phone message left (unanswered) and 5 emails (all unacknowledged) I am resigned to losing the $20, but realize what a good lesson this was: always check reviews for a new company you haven't dealt with before. Don't get fooled by the website, these people suck.

When I wrote to complain to this merchant, I was informed I had better be careful not to "libel his company."

From the vendor, "Be DAMN careful NOT to libel my company. Once again: Be DAMN careful NOT to libel my company."

Okay, noted.

If you decide to order, pay CLOSE ATTENTION to the very confusing shipping terms.

As I recall, 2nd day shipping ($25) was required for my order --- the merchant is in Tampa, I'm near Lauderdale. UPS Ground in Florida is delivered in one day, at a cost much less than $25.

And while I paid for 2nd day, the vendor sent the items ground.

Huh?

WTF?

The vendor emailed, "I chose the shipping method." Okay, so then why didn't you send it 2nd day? The vendor chose the cheaper method, yet billed me for the more expensive method.

And the packing was a padded envelope with the plants wrapped in paper towel and stuck inside a ziplock back.

Quite obviously, I could have saved a bunch of money.

But alas, that wasn't to be.

Look elsewhere for your plants, is my opinion. No need for nastiness.

"I will never order from this place again. They are the most rude/ unprofesional/ incompitantly slow company i can imagine. I placed an order and payed for second day delivery after a week i called to see what was going on. The persone who answered... Mark.... was so rude and disrespectful after calling me a "little fucking punk" he told me that since i ordered at 11:30 on sunday instead of before 9:00, they would not ship till A WEEK FROM WEDNESDAY. Yes my 2nd day delivery turned into two weeks and when i called to complain about it i was treated with such disrespect i thought i was speaking to a high school kid. DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE PEOPLE IF YOU ARE EXPECTING TO RECEIVE YOUR ORDER IN UNDER A MONTH!!! OR ANY TYPE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE WHATSOEVER. I went to leave feedback on the website and you have to email your comments to them before they post them.... OBVIOUSLY THE COMMENTS ARE ALL FABRICATED BY "MARK AND RANDY" THE OBSURD "CUSTOMER SERVICE" reps

On Sunday night at 9:47P.M. CST I made a 120$ plant order from Aquariumplants.com. I had selected 2nd day air, however, living in Florida I decided I better do overnight. I email them to that affect and also asked if since I was changing to overnight my plants would arrive (Thursday) instead of Friday. Their response, "Will upgrade for you
yes will be there Thursday".

Apparently they meant next Thursday. I called on Thursday to see where my plants were and they had not been shipped at all. On their website it said orders after 10PM CST will be shipped a week later. I would like to note that the website now says 9PM. Regardless, I'm sure an hour late order on a Sunday night hardly prevents them from getting an order ready. Realize that when dealing with this company you may be waiting weeks to get your order regardless of what the say in their correspondence.

Posted on September 6, 2013, updated September 10, 2013
Absolutely horrible. These jack wagons don't know what customer service is!!! I have called them 4 times to get a SIMPLE tracking number.

If you HAVE $500+ of my f'ing money, give me a TRACKING number. Worthless. You don't even have the item I'm ordering. You're PASS THROUGH! How hard is it?

Apparently it's quite difficult for this small brained company. ONE week has passed that you have MY money and I have NO tracking number. Really???

Morons!! Word of mouth goes a long way, and my mouth is BIG.

"On Sep 10, 2013 8:14 AM, Aquarium Plants (Aquariumplants.com) responded with:

Woooo Cowboy! First of all let's get the facts straight. You placed your order on Friday August 30th at 5:44 pm, 16 minutes before we close for the weekend. Since Monday was Labor Day, we were closed and so was UPS. You called in Tuesday morning, the first day we were open since you placed your order late Friday, Screaming and demanding a tracking #. I explained this to you and told you your order would process today and we would get you a tracking # more than likely by the following day. You again call back later the SAME day wondering about a tracking#??? There were no issues with other companies. We do stock 90% of the items we sell and there are some items we ship directly from the factories. Some day when you GROW up and own your own business you can run it how ever you want! Bottom line is you had a tracking # on Thursday, the 3rd BUSINESS day after your order was placed!
I know you have a self proclaimed BIG mouth, but state the facts and be careful not to slander my company!!"

I've ordered from them several times in the past, and I thought they were pretty good. In my last order, one of the plants, Aponogeton boivinianus, unfortunately melted away within a few days in my tank. I wrote up a detailed review of my experience, including substrate, lighting, temperature, and other tank parameters, and posted it on their website for that plant. Since I didn't want to be overly negative, I also posted more positive reviews of a couple other plants from that order (Aponogeton longiplumulosus and Tiger Lotus, Green) on the same day (April 19, 2012 as "Mike from Boston"). At the time, I know all 3 reviews were posted and visible.

Then a couple days ago, as I was browsing their site, I noticed that my review for Aponogeton boivinianus was missing. An older review for the same plant is still there. My other 2 reviews for the other plants are still there. It was just my review for Aponogeton boivinianus that is gone.

I concluded that my review for Aponogeton boivinianus had been deleted because of the negative experience. I e-mailed the company's customer support. They e-mailed back, essentially saying that customer reviews are "permanent", but their website's "shopping cart version changed", and that could have affected some things.

"Shopping cart version change"? I'm not buying that as the reason my one negative review disappeared. A company that filters, edits, or deletes customers' reviews has no integrity, and I can't trust them and won't do business with them. What if we gave them a huge benefit of the doubt and accept their excuse? In that case, I still lack confidence in a company that allowed serious technical issues to affect customer feedback and the ability of customers to judge potential purchases. That's a significant problem that degrades my trust in the company. So, either way, I cannot recommend aquariumplants.com to anyone.

Also… just realized this company has a rating of F from the Better Business Bureau!
//www.bbb.org/nebraska/business-reviews/aquariums-dealers/aquarium-plantscom-in-tea-sd-113002629

Company said it would notify me via email, when they ship my order. This never happened. When I received the order the plants were garbage. They were DOA. Small and shriveled up like they were freeze dried!
After contacting the company via telephone the person who took my call (claimed to be the owner) was extremely rude, said they do not warrant their product and will not replace the tiny, dead plants they had sent me!
I will never order from this place ever. No wonder businesses are failing with attitudes such as theirs.