"I ordered fresh waterplants. Only 50% of them arrived healthy the others died in transport because they got too cold even though they where delivered in less than 48 hours. There was no insulting material an only one very small heating pack in the box. My complaints received no response at all."
"MY FISH ARRIVED JUST FINE ! I'M SO HAPPY CUZ ,I NAMED HIM AFTER MY UNCLE WHO JUST RECENTLY PASSED AWAY, THAT'S PRETTY COOL."
"I ordered from this business a few years ago with no issues. While I have no real issue with the overall quality of fish I received, their customer service is terrible.
Read all of the shipping rules, before placing an order.
I had two fish arrive DOA. The rules are specific that you must contact them within 24 hours of delivery and add a clear picture. I followed these rules. Never got a response.
A few days later I realized that I had not received one type of fish that I ordered. I admit that I had not looked at the packing slip, but had checked the online order and it listed that the order was complete, 2 days before I received the order.
I contacted them by chat on their website. Says that it will be a couple of minutes, but it was hours, until I got a response that the fish were backordered.
I again contacted them using the contact page on their website, asking what is the status of this order and could I order 2 more of the fish that arrived DOA. Again never got a response. I found out the fish were coming only because I got an email from the shipping company.
The fish showed up today, and what I received is not what I ordered. Ordered Dwarf Thicklipped Gourami and received Blue Gourami. Slightly cheaper fish, but more concerning to me is that these fish tend to get larger than what I ordered.
Update: Sent an email complaint to the business, and for the first time got a response. Basically telling me that you must let them know if you do not want any substitutions. (Conveniently hid in the long worded shipping agreement, and not mentioned on the website's order form page). The rest of the email basically stated that placing a poor review may be used as evidence in a defamation suit. Explaining how this can be harmful to their family farm. This response has done nothing but confirm my initial review. This company's customer service is terrible. Buyer Beware."
"The fish I bought where big beautiful and healthy. Customer service was outstanding.
Im very happy with ny purchase and I will be making more purchases in the future with Pete and his wife.
Thankyou both you!
Sincerely
Terry"
"I ordered “American Aquatic Plant for freshwater aquariums”. However, what I received was nothing like what the website descriptions stated or pictures shown on their website. It's more pond like plants which sold as freshwater aquariums.
Their respond is I need to be patient so it can spawn into little plants when their descriptions and pictures all reference to small plants.
If this is what they intend then they should explicit stated so under descriptions and show an example gigantic size of the plants customers are expect to received."
"This was probably the worst online experience I have ever had. 80% of the fish died within a day of putting them in my tank and they looked pretty malnourished when they arrived. Not to mention, half of the order wasn't included in the shipment. When I inquired about this, i received a reply days later saying that the other half of my order was back-ordered. I only learned about this when I actually was able to get a hold of them. When I finally talked to Peter and told him that I was dissatisfied with my experience and would be leaving a negative online review if he wasn't willing to help rectify the situation, he completely freaked out and accused me of "threatening him and his family." Buyer beware; really wish I would've read all of the negative online reviews before purchasing. But in all realty, with Peter at the helm, I'm pretty sure this company won't be around in a year from now..."
"First, I know a lot of reviews on here are poor. I purchased a bunch of fish and plants from this company back in 2013 and STILL have some of the fish and plants from back then. When I was resetting one tank and starting a new one, I decided to order from them again. In my research window, I contacted AAG several times and Pete responded to me each time by email within a few days. When my questions became more complicated, Pete actually called me and we spoke for at least 20 minutes getting all my questions answered.
When I finally ordered my items, almost everything was shipped that same week. A few things were on backorder, but that was reflected on the paper invoice. Pete texted me that the fish were not ready to ship and they were sent to me 2 weeks later at no additional ship fee. He even helped to determine the best place to ship and hold my fish at (local post office) since I didn't want them sitting on my porch while I was at work.
YES it is expensive to ship fish. I work in the retail industry and it is not cheap for second day/overnight packages. The fish cost less than what is in a pet store because they absorb the shipping costs into the price of the fish in the store. YES there can be DOAs involved. This happens with pet shops as well--and you pay for it in the cost of a fish. YES refunds are only given in the form of store credit. The website disclaims all of these points clearly. If you don't read, that's on you not the vendor. In fact, it even recommends to order MORE than what you plan to keep in the anticipation of some losses. Whether or not you feel there is a value in this type of purchase vs. a LFS is a determination only the purchaser can make. If you won't accept substitutions, NO SUBS in the notations will be accepted.
For me, even with the ship fee, the retail cost of the fish I wanted far outweighed what I would pay at a LFS. A pair of Rainbow Fish around her cost around $40 and I was able to purchase TWICE as many of the same types from AAG. It's a shame this review site doesn't allow for pictures because I have 2 gorgeous tanks filled with lush plants and gorgeous colorful shrimp and fish from AAG. Some of these varieties I could never find locally and I'm sad to say that most LFS are the chain stores with the claimed "puppy mill" fish that are usually sickly or disease ridden. I purchased a bag of fish from one of these places and they were dead in the bag before I made it home. I returned to the store with the bag and receipt from 20 minutes prior and they refused to refund my money without a sample of my water EVEN THOUGH THE FISH WERE NEVER RELEASED FROM THE BAG! I like a bargain fish, but not at the risk of bringing ick or other contagion into my tank.
Plants are even harder to find in variety. The ones you do find are either yellow and weak or sold out of water, which means they will "melt" away when acclimated to water. I purchased bulbs from AAG and they were already sprouting when I put them in the tank. 6 weeks later, I have leaves on my Madagascar Lace that exceed 20 inches and the shrimp LOVE to crawl on it. The micro sword plugs have spread into a beautiful "lawn" and the crypts were equally healthy and colorful with strong roots to attach to driftwood. I got a few different types of moss that I am growing on rocks and coconut shells. The only problem I am really having is the overgrowth of some of these plants!
To summarize, this type of plan really only works for large orders to offset shipping. Order varieties that you trust to be hardy and in quantities with losses expected. I can say that even German Blue Rams made it to me ok and they were stunning in color. Only a few of my fish currently lack color, but they are still juveniles. I prefer the younger stock that I can feed quality food and raise in my own conditions. I will have to wait until I need a lot of stock to use my store credit, so that is one drawback (but I knew about it beforehand). READ all the policies before ordering, and decide for yourself, but no deceit was in this transaction!
"
" I ORDERED SOME 3 INCH FRONTOSAS SENT ME 1 INCH AND SAID THAT WAS A GREAT DEAL STAY AWAY VERY DISHONEST COMPANY"
"Bad people doing bad business. Don't care anything you say. Short my orders half plants is dead. First time buying things like this. I swear is the last time. Don't do it, they are con."
"i order 8 otocinclus catfish from them, and they sent me 8 SAE, never response to my emails and phone call,
will never buy from them again
no wonder their rating is so low"
"This Company is by far the worst company I had to deal with. Everyone is right about Peter, order 6 fish, paid $200 waited 3 weeks and still my fish has not been ship. I spoke with Peter EVERY week, 1st week tells me that these fishes are not made, they have to be collected. Ok I can understand that. 2nd week came around, call him again and he said look you can keep pushing me, your fish will be collect from our farm and ship out as soon as it gets to our warehouse. 3rd week came around he stop taking my calls. IF YOU GUYS NEED 3 MORE THEN 3 WEEKS TO CATCH 6 FISH, there is something wrong with your system. I cant believe when Peter says they have been in business for over 20 years. My god, who would put up with this 4-5 week shipping. Maybe you should put on your website next to live animals that it may take up to 5 weeks for us to catch your fish. So now no return calls, no update status, I have to file a claim with paypal to get my money back. Once again, this is by far the worst company I had to deal with, its the mentality of its either our way or no way. You cant pay me to buy from this guy again. The reviews doesnt lie, one or two bad reviews ok, but 12/13 review with only 1 star...... "
"This place is a crazy rip off. Peter will lie to you and tell you anything you want to hear to get your business. After not hearing back for two weeks about my order, I emailed several times to cancel. This is when peter called me, he told me that he would make a shipping date happen for me and that the fish would be OK. Well he lied. Several fish were dead in the bags as a result of the additional 30+ hours in shipping. DO NOT BUY FROM THESE GUYS. DO NOT GET HAD. "
"The fish arrived happy, active and all alive. Customer service was expecially nice to me. I don't know why all the negative reviews, as I've had no problems. Will order again from. Some fish were not available to be shipped on schedule, I called and everything is taken care of in 5 minutes. Call during their business hours and you will get answered. I called about 5 minutes before closing and they still answered. "
"Beware / stay away/ no, run farther away. Dead fish , days to get any response from them and when I did finally get them on phone I listened for 5 or 6 min to a grown man throw a rambling ranting profanity laced tirade over my request for a refund. Of 10 rasboras I ordered- 2 doa, 2 dead in 48 hours, of six survivors, 2 wrong species as was one of the dead ones. 5 emails got 2 inane responses over 4 days later and multiple phone messages got no response till I finally called the cell phone they ask you to text pics of doa's to. After the 5 min trip through luneyville with their rep I started checking reviews online. Every site I checked lists them as about a one star with many reviews cleary stating it should be possible to give them something less than zero. Many reviewers report they will be going to every effort to see if they can be shut down or prosecuted. BBB gives them an F(lowest possible rating) They are not members and do not even reply to most bbb complaints. Several reviews I can't confirm or deny report to have first hand knowledge of their operation and that they bulk order all their stock weekly after recieving orders then repack it in their garage for reshipment and all the stuff on their website about pond raising fish and plants is BS, more than one describes them as an aquatic puppy mill. Just my opinion as I have only my experience and online reviews to go by but Ive never seen reviews so overwhelmingly and consistantly negative and frankly I have a hard time believing the 1 out of 30 or 40 reviews you see that aren't horrifically negative are not posted by themselves or some shill . If your thinking of ordering from them my opinion is clear. If you have already been victimized by them as I was before you checked for reviews and bbb ratings please take the time to post some reviews and file a Bbb complaint, enough honest people take the time to report fraudulent scam artists and they will eventually run out of victims to prey on even if the authorities seem powerless to shut them down. In a perfect world my rating would be zero"
"I thought I was getting a good deal on colorful rams, and apistogrammas. I was fooled by the nice pictures they have on the website. Instead I received 16 gray, washed out female mostly fish. I'm very disappointed. My wife picked up better looking rams from petsmart, never again. Sad. "