Comments regarding Arizona Aquatic Gardens

Arizona Aquatic Gardens has some very unusual and interesting aquatic plants that are difficult to find. A friend and I placed an order that totaled over $100 and included liverworts, vals, moss balls, etc.

The 3 pound package arrived overnight and I took it right from the hands of our FedEx guy. It was opened immediately and with great excitement which quickly turned into disappointment. Our liverworts were mush, the vals had badly burned ends, one plant was mislabeled, one item was not shipped and another was in pretty rough shape.

The stuff that was right was beautiful however, I have to give them that.

However, the plants were not wrapped in damp newspaper, just stuffed into plastic bags and stapled shut. This may well account for the sorry condition of the valsinarias. The liverworts looked exactly like a wad of drained frozen spinach, well drained chopped spinach. Perhaps if they had been shipped wet they would have fared better.

The plants arrived Friday and I called Monday to report the problems. The person I spoke with was pleasant, offered either house credit or credit card refund, and did not argue with me. However, when I requested the shipping charges I was nearly knocked off my feet. It cost us $78.27 to get a three pound box of plants from Arizona to Virginia!

I've been buying plants by mail order for years and have never been socked with a charge like this. I can't imagine that fish stores pay these rates either, otherwise they could never afford to sell plants as reasonably as they do.

If you are looking to buy aquatic plants, find another grower. Arizona Aquatic Gardens may have nice offerings but until they find a more reasonable shipping system and learn how to properly pack plants they are not worth your money.

This company does not deliver what you ordered and paid for. In addition, they won't answer the telephone or don't choose to. We never have gotten the full order we bought, nor have they called us about the shortage. They also were late in their delivery and had inferior stock. I would never use them again for anything.

I bought cattail plants from AZ Gardens in April 2007 and May 2007. They were beautiful healthy plants; however I was concerned when I got my credit card bill in May because there were four charges from AZ Gardens. I didn't recognize two of those charges. I emailed and phoned AZ Gardens. They did not respond to either. So I called my credit card company to dispute the two additional charges. After the dispute forms arrived in my mail, I decide to try and contact AZ Gardens by phone one more time. They actually picked up the phone.

The owner said the additional charges were for shipping. He walked me through his website and true enough there is a lenghty and rather ambiguous explanation that you will be charged for shipping at a later time. He said it took him years to craft this website.

I told him I would no longer dispute his charges; however, I found that his website was less than clear about shipping charges. His response was that his second grade son understood it. I told him I thought it was deceitful and required that the buyer beware. He told me he would win this if I took him to small claims court. I agreed, he would win. Again, I told him I thought he misrepresented the shipping charges and thought it was deceitful. He called me a Hillbilly and hung up on me.

By the way, the first shipping charge was for $53.79 for a purchase of 15 cattails for $73.85. The second shipping charge was for $57.72 for a purchase of 22 cattails. I saved a boxing fee of $5.00 since I bought $100 worth of plant in the second purchase.

I just had my first and LAST experience with azgardens.com and wanted to put the warning out there for anyone else thinking about doing business with them. As others have mentioned, the way they do shipping is really unbelievable. They will charge you for the merchandise but not tell you what the shipping will be - seeing it on your credit card bill is the first time you see it. So I ordered six small fish and a small aquascaping tool - total merchandise $45 or so. A small light square box arrived a week later along with a shipping charge of $62!! There is just no excuse for it. I've ordered other places like liveaquaria.com and from ebay witihout this kind of gouging. Every other ecommerce site out there can figure out shipping why can't they?

We were even more surprised to find upon opening the box, that they had shipped the wrong fish AND not included the tool. I had to email pictures of the wrong fish, and then write again a week later before a got a terse response that the tool was on backorder - nothing about the fish. I wrote back, and finally another week later, another terse email that everything should ship out in another week. When it finally did arrive the fish were fine but they had sent the WRONG TOOL! These people just can't get their act together, they make lots of extra money on shipping and are very poor with communication. I highly recommend you AVIOD. There are plenty of other good vendors out there.

I've never had a problem with the quality of their merchandise, and have little shrimp from them eating and breeding away in my aquarium, and the apon bulbs have been a real joy.

That said, they really need to join the real world when it comes to their shipping practices. They're an easy 40 minute drive from my house, but flat-out would NOT let me go there and pick up the merchandise. I had to pay for shipping from the other side of town. I don't think I'll order from the any time soon for that reason. They have too much competition who really go out of their way to court your business to behave as if they were the only show in the galaxy.

Just ordered some blue lobsters from the site. The shippment arrived in good condition and the cost are fair. The cost of the lobsters were around $55, but the shipment cost is $70 for a 5lb. package from AZ to CA!!. It might not be their fault, but there is not even an estimate of the shipping charge. I called them to ask them if they can just put an estimate of the shipping charge on the website in the future, it seems the person on the phone was not very friendly and insists the website provide enough information on the shipping charges. I wish I have done a little research and found this site before I made the purchase.

I have ordered from Azgardens.com at least three times. The first couple of times the quality of their aquatic plants was outstanding and when they stated XLarge the plants were huge. This last time I ordered 3 habitat packages. When I received them I had many plants missing, the plants that I did receive were not wrapped in newspaper but put in bags with little to no water. I called and explained the problem and was told that it would be corrected and sent out the next Thursday. The second order I received sent me plants that were in poor shape and for the XLarge show anubias coffeefolia I received regular size Anubias Barteri. I'm extremely dissapointed. I spoke with Tony on the phone the second time and explained it but I'm looking for another company in which to do business. BTW the shipping for a 4 lb box to Chicago was over $80

I was so surprised by the negative comments that I felt I had to relate my three experiences with AZA. There were several years between the these orders. Both times I ordered aquatic plants, I ordered large quantities of a variety of South American plants. All of the plants arrived in great shape, well wrapped in wet paper. The time I ordered fish (Siamese Algae Eaters) I got them promptly and all in good shape. I had no problems with them or their service and am planning an even larger order to be placed this week.

Not the most personable people on the phone and I don't like not knowing the shipping charges upfront (although it is bluntly stated on their website in several places that they charge separately for the shipping and that they charge by actual weight of the boxes). Based on the weight and size of the boxes, I feel they charge fairly.

I recommend them for the quality of their plants and livestock. I was very happy with the condition of my orders.

I ordered from az gardens and i did receive all my plants. But my stargrass plants were all melted, and most of my plant orders were pretty small. I always heard so many coments about their orders being quite generous but i didn't really see anything special. I wouldn't really want to order from az gardens.

This company has been all-around terrible. They shipped me dead bulbs, promised to replace them, never shipped new ones, took forever to respond to my emails, and now have been ignoring my emails completely and will not provide a refund.
I have filed a claim with the better business bureau (//www.bbb.com) and would like to incite others whom have been mistreated by this company to take 10mins. to do the same. The BBB tends not to pay a lot of attention to a single claim, but if they receive multiple complaints, they will likely put pressure on this company to shape up their act so that future customers do not have to go through this treachery.

I ordered water plants which arrived dead, and was refunded with dying ones! I will never order from here again...

I ordered from them 3 weeks ago. When I ordered by phone, I was told my credit card would be charged for $99.98 for the plants plus what ever shipping was (they could not tell me what the shipping would be until the package was weighed.) My credit card was charged $134 for the plants and $50 for shipping! I have tried to contact them by email with no response. I will never order from this company again.

I ordered water plants from them. The plants arrived in very good condition and were very reasonably priced. Why didn't they get a positive review? Their site doesn't list shipping costs when you order, and I know thats my fault for not looking into it closer, but their shipping costs are very high. If you can get the shipping cheaper, a good place to buy from.

I have obtained excellent service from Arizona Aquatics as well.