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My Arizona Aquatic Gardens experience..



Well, I am happy for those of you guys who got their orders from AAG 
straight.
I was not so fortunate however ;(

When I ordered, I decided to stick with their $35.00 minimum order 'cuz 
I didn't wanna spend all my plant money in one place;)
I called them up and told them what I wanted. Everything seemed alright 
at that point. They said they had everything I wanted.
I got my package when I was supposed to, but I was extremely 
disappointed when I opened it. Only half of the plants originally 
ordered where there, and that was only half the story.

I got two batches of cryptocoryne 'petchii' (one should be green and one 
bronze). I didn't see any difference between the two. I called Peter, 
the manager, and he'd told me this was not his fault that I couldn't say 
which was which. 

My MarbleQueen was a very nice plant only if MarbleQueens were plain 
green, which they aren't.

On my Java and lace ferns they thought it was alright to double the 
quantity (?)and charge me for it too. Same goes with echinodorus 
tenellus which they freely substituted with e.quadricostatus.

Tiger lotus was a bulb with one tiny green leaf coming out of it.
I expected a plant with at least 3 decent leaves with some nice dark 
spots on them. The plant is now growing in my tank and has green leaves 
with brownish shine. I does NOT look like any tiger lotus I've seen so 
far.

I called Peter on the phone to ask what was going on, and to get credit 
for the plants they've sent and I haven't ordered.
In short he said that he didn't have time to argue over few dollars so 
he would replace the plants I didn't like and send the reminder of my 
order free of charge. He also said he was going to pick and pack the 
plants for that order by himself to make sure everything was OK.
And if I didn't like those plants I would be "unsatisfiable customer, 
and they didn't need my business".
Well, how would YOU feel if the place you spent your money with told you 
that? Frankly saying I didn't expect such a response, I was so struck by 
it and so stupid (I guess) that I almost apologized to the guy that I 
didn't like the plants they sent me.

Anyway, he called me at the beginning of January to tell me that he was 
sending next package with the rest of my order, free of charge.

I got replacement plants: 
REALLY!Nice Marble Queen, 
Tiger lotus that actually had leaves(but now it grows and looks just a 
tad more red that the one they sent before, still no spots! :(

So much for replacements. I also got couple of Rotalas macranda, and 
corkscrew vals and a barclaya bulb.

I browsed twice through the bunched up newspapers looking for the rest 
of promised plants, but there weren't any. I was like "no, not again.."

I didn't feel like talking to them on the phone anymore so I sent 
e-mail.

Peter replied on Jan.14,'98:
"Sorry about the items back ordered.  Hairgrass, Pennywort, and 
tennellus will
not be available for some time due to our cold weather we had wiped us 
out.
Generally back orders are dropped after 3 weeks.  I don't expect to see 
them
any time soon.

Perhaps when you place another order from us, we will have those items 
in
stock and will give them to you n/c.  As far as sending you a 4 dollar 
red
spot ozelot will cost us more to ship than what the plant is worth....."

Call me weird but I don't feel like spending another $50 on another 
order when the first one hadn't arrived HERE in one piece. 
I still want the rest of my plants; pennywort, hairgrass, tenellus, 
heterantera and Red Ozelot. It doesn't look like I am going to get them, 
since Peter hasn't sent his reply to my last e-mail yet.

Sorry, for my long post but I have to get it off my chest where it 
counts, and partially because I've read a good posting about AAG on this 
very List back in December.

Their prices? Yes, they are very attractive, but the way I've been 
treated I don't intend to order from Arizona Aquatic Gardens ever again. 
I think their manager, Peter, is rude.

Thanks for listening 
Paul





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