Re: [APD] A Piece of Schadenfreude for You (You Thought it Was Bad Before)

[Jerry Baker <jerry at bakerweb_biz>]

Terry Barber wrote:
> Well you didn't give details - but you got them to take back the acrylic
> tank?  How'd you get that done at least?

I went to the guy I bought the tank from and told him:

"Look, I know this isn't your fault, but I'm kind of stuck. I spent the 
better part of a thousand dollars for something I am not at all happy 
with. I tried going straight to the manufacturer to have the situation 
taken care of without involving you at all, but they were not only 
uncooperative, but outright hostile. In any legal sense, I can't force 
them to do anything because I didn't buy it from them. If I tried to 
recover the cost of the tank from them, a judge would just say, 'you 
didn't buy the tank from them, they don't owe you anything.' My only 
recourse is to return it to the place of purchase. To be honest, I don't 
want to, but the tank hasn't been used at all. The manufacturer says 
it's perfect. I don't see any alternative."

The guy agreed to take it back and *asked* me if I would pay a small 
restocking fee to help him absorb the loss of having to store this huge 
tank until he could find a buyer (he did operate out of a fairly small 
place). I agreed to a pretty small restocking fee and left it at that. I 
think it was like $70.

> Hope this is the end to the bad luck.

Thank you.

I don't understand. When I set up my 75G tank, I just bought the tank 
and stand, filled it with water, and away I went. This project has 
literally been stymied and hampered every single step of the way. I 
don't know what is going on. I ask myself daily what I might be doing 
wrong. I have just been trying to get a 125-gallon tank filled with 
water and plants since AUGUST! Who would have ever thought it could be 
so difficult? Checking my Quicken records I see that I have spent a 
total of $1,977.49 trying to get this going. What do I have that works 
so far? An empty glass tank, two Iwasaki bulbs, and two reflectors. Of 
course I have received some refunds, and contested one charge, so the 
net total so far is $852.99 and almost three months of waiting.

I don't think I did anything wrong, or neglected anything, by ordering a 
standard stand and canopy for a standard 125-gallon tank. I know I 
couldn't help it raining most weekends in October here, and thus 
blocking my painting. I can't see how I could have made the Icecap 
ballasts not operate Iwasaki bulbs ... I made sure to ask if the 
combination would be OK and both Icecap and the retailer assured me that 
it was. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. Of 
course things go wrong from time to time. There's the occasional 
retailer that refuses to act honorably, or the occasional faulty 
product, but I have never experienced such a series of serialized and 
seemingly systematic failures such as this. I pray every time I make a 
purchase that it "just works."

-- 
Jerry Baker
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