PlanetCatfish.com

I want to share my bad experience with this company. I hope our members would learn from it.

I was looking for L25 pleco (Catus) for a long time without any luck. A few weeks back, I found this company had them for sale. I contacted them and made the deal quickly to buy 5 of these little beauties. I paid them through Paypal the cost of the fish, shipping plus 4% additional charge when I pay by Paypal. Fish arrived the next day. Excellent packing and fish were healthy...no question about that. After unpacking, I found one of the was different than the others. It looks like a L114 to me. However, when I thought I was buying from a reputable dealer and their owner is a "Pleco Master", I told myself it might be because it was due to the stress from travelling. I should leave them alone for a few days before questioning. They adapted to my tank very well and started eating the next day. 3 days later, I told another closer look and found the color/pattern hadn't change at all. I PM'd him the next day. He replied to affirm they are the same fish. It can't be a L114 cos they were collected in different area. He bought them from the fisherman, not from the exporter........so it couldn't be wrong...........

The rest of the story can be read from the link below.............
http://bcaquaria.com...read.php?t=1440

I am not trying to bad mouth anyone. I just want to warn our members...."BUYERS BE AWARE".......

Link doesn't work, but here is the proper link:

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1440

Unfortunately, I don't think you can see the pics unless you are a member, so you may want to post your pics here.

For the record, I've had many transactions with Canadian Aquatics, and so have many others on BCAquaria.com, but since most of us live in the area, we've never dealt with the shipping aspect before. Most of my exotic (and some not so exotic) plecos are from them, and I've not had a bad experience. I'm sorry that your experience of getting an L273 instead of an L25 left such a bad taste in your mouth. Have you tried to call him on the phone to reconcile this?

Swong:
First of all, I don't think the right solution to this sort of problem would ever be to "advertise to everyone that it went bad".

From the link Gary posted [I suspect the reason for the original link not working is that it's a copy'n'paste from somewhere else], it seems like Charles from Canadian Aquatics have made efforts to clarify the situation and help out.

And yes, it's correct that it's VERY unlikely that it's L114 that is mixed up as L25 - the suggestion of L273 is much more likely, as it comes from a river much closer to the L25's Rio Xingu (and a very nice fish in itself, but clearly not the L25 you wanted). I haven't seen your pictures, as I haven't signed up with BC Aquaria forum, which is needed to get access to the pictures.

I think it would be much better if you discuss with the seller, and try to negotiate a solution that you both can accept - that is of course if you haven't done so much damage to Canadian Aquatics reputation that they do not want to deal with you.

--
Mats

I'd kind of disagree witht the L273/L114 mixup thing, with the whole Brazil export ban thing. And bear in mind with either L25 or L273 we're talking about fishes that are illegally taken from the wild, then they are more and more likely to be "blurred". Anyway, forget all that, I agree with Mats saying that isn't a good way to resolve this.

If you're interested in a second opinion, feel free to post the pics of the fishes in question here. We don't have any limits around members seeing attachments here.

Otherwise, agree with Mats and 'wheels, talk it over.

Jools

OP forgot to mention some of the things on the slander thread hopping from forum after forum...

1) if you are so concern about the fish, I would take a photo first and sent on the same day. The thread in BCAquaria is the first time I have seen the photo.

2) he kept telling ppl about he is getting a L114 when he is buying a L25 hoping to get sympathy from other people. Many people have viewed the photo and ID the questionable fish as a L273 which market value worth more than a L25.

3) This order was sent on March 26 2010. I don't get any complains till days later. And without even settling this, the OP actually contacted me again on May 11 2010 requesting 10 L46. If I am such a bad seller, I wonder what the intention to be ordering another 10 L46 without settling this problem.

4) I have offered him many options as he insists on his way. Then he started to slandering me without telling the whole story.

I was not going to response as I have said enough. Many of my customers have emailed me about the OP forum hopping. And as many of you know, I am in good standing with many of my repeated customers. I go above and beyond to satisfy my customer in many ways. I remembered I sent 9 over size L273 instead of only 6 over size L273. The fish worth twice as much for that size but I sent them anyway just so my customer will be happy. I am sure many of you have received fish from me and don't have any problem at all; with the exception of Jackson's 2 DOA fish which I credit him with no question ask after he sent me photo of the DOA the same day.

Many places will just ignore him or if they will take the fish back, they will charge 25% restocking fee. Paying cost of shipping back is standard. I just shipped 2 L25 to east cost and it only cost $74. And the customer already working on the next order as both packing and the fish are in excellent condition.

If you are a seller and you don't get email days later about the order, and then you don't even see photos of the questionable fish till much later, would you do what I do? I kindly discuss the matter with him in the open forum and offer him many options. There is always a reasonable time limit to report a problem rather it is DOA or wrong fish. And he expired on that. Like many people have already suggested to him, sell the fish and take the credit, it is not that difficult to sell as L273 only been imported to Canada by only a handfull of people.

With the choice he is making by hopping from forum to forum slandering my name, that leaves me no choice of retracting all my offer to him. I already said enough and I will rest my case here. People know me know that my reputation is great and that is why some of the members from many forums have showed support to me. And I thank you for that.