BEWARE A.W. SALE PRICES

[beareef19]

Todays big sale at Aquatic Warehouse. ON Fri I looked at all the fish and prices they were clearly marked on the tanks. I decided what I would get and go back for the Big Sale. Iget my selections and :shock: WHOA :shock: I am being charged the price that was posted on Fri. Seems that the prices already reflectd the sale prices for Sat sale If I would of known that I would of just bought it on Fri for the same price. :evil: PRICES LISTED are already 40% off. :o Salt and frozen food was the only real sale in my opinion.


BARRY

[theedprado]

JUST AN FYI THEY ARE ONLY ALLOWING ONE BUCKET PER PERSON SO IT YOU WANT MORE THAN ONE MAKE SURE TO BRING MORE THAN ONE PERSON WITH YOU :twisted:

[Sherri]

Ditto..just got back myself...the prices marked on the tanks look like their everyday prices...I've bought corals there for $19-22 and identical ones are still same price today.

You're right Barry...salt and frozen food was the only real sale going on.... :confused:

[captexas]

I have to agree, fish prices looked just like the prices I have seen there every time I have gone in there over the past year. They definately should have posted about the limit one bucket of salt per person, feel sorry for anyone that drove down from Austin just to save $10 on one bucket, cost more than that in gas to get here! lol

[BA]

agree, thought corals were same old price...never seen some of the corals over 80 dollars!!!if they were 40% off......

[Brett Wilson]

If that is the case on the salt the sale will hurt them more than it will help them. People from austin CLEARLY posted that they are coming down for multiple buckets of salt in the EXACT SAME THREAD that aquatic warehouse started THEMSELVES. How could they let the Austin people do this knowing they would limit them to one bucket? I guess they just didn't watch the thread....

[RobertG]

I wanted a bucket too! ? Never saw the thread, glad I did not make the trip.

[cailan]

there were some fish that seemed a little cheaper (a $7 perc) but not much more than that. i went there for the live rock that was $3/pound and it wasn't just the uncured fiji. all of it was $3 and some of the tonga looked pretty cool.

[thedraven]

If you guys are looking for sale prices, try Fin-Addict every tuesday. Anyone here remember all their specials? I THINK its 25% off fish, 10% off everything else.

[theedprado]

got a medium size tang for 13$ and a large leather for 26$ with my salt. not wholesale, but not bad for lfs. but i expect most of the rare stuff is gone by now.

[::pete::]

I too agree with all and feel for the people that did make the drive from Austin. I looked and didnt purchase anything simply because I stopped there after getting back to town and paid the same price on items that were marked for 40% off. The selection of fish and coral for a "1 year anniversary sale" was definitely disappointing including the invert tanks!!


If you guys are looking for sale prices, try Fin-Addict every tuesday. Anyone here remember all their specials? I THINK its 25% off fish, 10% off everything else.

... more selection and better looking stock in my opinion.

[CD]

Well, as everyone probably knows from the other thread about the AW sale, I went to pick up salt for several people only to find out they wouldn't sell me 4 buckets- One to a customer.

Gee AW, thanks for the heads up!

To make matters worse, I almost had to come back to Austin without TimM.'s frag- I don't even want to go into details of that scenario.
Let's just say that this experience today has definitely left a bad taste.
The only real positive today was finding a nice acro at CB Pets on our way home.

I do have a frag and salt for TimM.
I also have salt for TurboBrett.

Sorry Sharkie, I was lucky to get 2 buckets. I tried to persuade them to sell me a third bucket but it didn't happen.

I still have quite a bit of my old salt left so I will be giving these 2 buckets to those who requested it first.

[GaryP]

Well, I would say that AW's anniversary sale wasn't such a great success. At least not in terms of their long term relationship with MAAST customers.

[CD]

I'd have to agree with ya, Gary...
I did manage to get two false percs for $7. each (which I felt was a really good price). We also bought one coral frag/small colony for $20. bucks that I felt pretty good about. I'll say one thing though...it was a frigging MADHOUSE when they opened the doors. I think they should've taken numbers at the door where people lined up waiting for them to open. Good thing we got there early too...not only were they just allowing one bucket of salt per person :-( but they only HAD about 7 buckets total to sell!! The sales guy there (I forgot his name, but he has a goatee) that helped me with the fish and the coral was VERY nice and helpful...and I'll have to say he was keeping his cool considering the crowd of people in there. On the other hand, the "male person" behind the counter with the cashier ****ed me off. We ALMOST didn't come home with Tim's frag. First Chris requested to pick it up where it was waiting behind the counter, but to no avail. He went out to the car to make some calls so he could verify to the guy who we were, and while he was doing that, I marched back in there ready to make a stink. Thankfully, I managed to convince the guy we were who we said we were, and he handed it over. All in all...well, lets just say I'm glad GaryP suggested stopping by CB Pets.

Wendy

[GaryP]

If there was two guys there, they were probably the owners Tamer and Ivan.

Funny how they advertise a special and then only have 7 buckets of salt. Sounds like what some car delerships do. They advertise a super low price on a car and only have one unit on the lot when folks show up.

Gary

[cailan]

yeah i thought the same exact thing as wendy- they should have had a number system. they also should have ordered a lot more of everything. when you say you are going to have a sale, you should expect alot of people and order more merchandise.

[captexas]

Tamer, the owner, was the one behind the counter working the register while I was there after they opened. Ivan was back and forth helping people along with the other guy mentioned with the goatee. I was suprised they didn't have more help there to get people the things they wanted. I could tell some people were frustrated waiting so long and also afraid they might have to fight with someone over what they wanted.

[Reef69]

Im so sorry you had to go through the trouble of fighting over Tims frag..I told the owner that someone would be picking the frag up for Tim..after that, i found out who Chris was..lol..im really sorry you had to go through that..and i agree, they should have posted one bucket per person..funny thing was, i used to work there until recently..alot of people were asking me if i could get stuff for them, believe me, if i would have had the time i would have helped each and every one of you, regardless if i worked there or not..lol..but my gf was getting crowd sick so we had to go..thanks again Chris and Wendy for taking Tims frag, hopefully next time we will have more time to talk..

[CD]

Im so sorry you had to go through the trouble of fighting over Tims frag..I told the owner that someone would be picking the frag up for Tim..after that, i found out who Chris was..lol..im really sorry you had to go through that..and i agree, they should have posted one bucket per person..funny thing was, i used to work there until recently..alot of people were asking me if i could get stuff for them, believe me, if i would have had the time i would have helped each and every one of you, regardless if i worked there or not..lol..but my gf was getting crowd sick so we had to go..thanks again Chris and Wendy for taking Tims frag, hopefully next time we will have more time to talk..

Hey Silverchair,

It's no biggie- we made it back with the frag and that's the important thing. The salt deal was still pretty bogus though as I couldn't produce for everyone after offering to get it. :(
I kinda understand the situation with the frag but I feel that they could have been more diplomatic. I do possess an Austin address on my driver's license, I knew who the frag was for and I knew to ask at the counter for it. I even told them who left it (silverchair) but unfortunately, I didn't remember your name. :oops:

Anyway, thanks for bringing the frag and I hope we have more time to chat in the future.

Chris

[Reef69]

thanks a million Chris, they should have know who i was..I WORKED THERE..lol..ironic, well, i made it back with a bucket of salt and some live rock..cant wait for fin-addicts one year anniversary sale..lol

[Dahab]

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who came out today to take advantage of our great sale.
Boy, you guys are a really tough crowd. For the sake of saving our friendship we would like to clarify a few things. We didn’t expect the large number of people to attend the first day of our sale. When we saw the large number of people outside, we then decided to limit the salt purchase to one per customer to allow a greater number of people to take part in the sale. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. Surely, you understand our intentions to allow a greater number of people to take part in this rather than a few. We ordered 45 buckets of Oceanic salt and still have a few remaining if anyone would like to come tomorrow. Anyone who comes into our store on a regular basis knows we offer the best selection of corals and fish in the city. All of the prices on the tanks reflected our 40% discount and were a phenomenal deal. (For example: Yellow Tangs $10 & $13, Naso Tang 19, False percs $7, large colony LPS $24-$30, Live rock $2.99/ lb., and many more!!)

Please know that your business is very important to us. Most of you know Tamer and myself personally and you know that we would never pull a “bait and switch.” We sincerely hope this clarifies any confusion there might be. We hope to see everyone tomorrow for the last day of the sale.


P.S.
As for CD’s frag for Tim Marvin. I have never met CD and was very uneasy about giving a frag to someone I didn’t know. I was trying to make absolutely sure it got to the correct owner. For future reference, we are unable to serve as a middleman for frag swapping.

As for Barry: A rose BTA for $39, 8 lbs. Of live rock for $2.99/ lb., 3XL green Chromis for $9 each, and an Oceanic 200 gallon bucket of salt for $29.99. Sherri: 2 false percs @ $7 each. Gary P.: I think you should come by the store before you decide to make an assumption on something you know nothing about. If anyone is unhappy with the purchase they are more than welcome to come back tomorrow. We will gladly refund your money.
Thanks,
:-D Tamer and Ivan—Aquatic Warehouse

[Sherri]

No prob Ivan...I love the 2 clowns I got today or I wouldn't have purchased them. They're beautiful. You can't beat $7 ea. as I stated in my thread (one of them a bit stressed right now). I'm NOT unhappy with my purchase. As I stated to Tamer when I was talking to him while he was bagging my $7 clowns, that I had no room for any corals anymore - that I was now working on a nano...If I had seen a coral I wanted & needed, I would have gotten it...but I wasn't looking for corals - I was looking for clowns...and I found them. And at a great price. All I posted is I noticed the corals I previously have purchased were in the same price ranges. Thanks for having the sale. :-D

[beareef19]

As far as the Rose, Rock, and salt I knew the prices on them on Fri. I was fine with that. Also I was told the Redreefstar which was marked on the tank was $4.95 on Sat it was $20.00 and it is now a Redlinkastar I guess I should of bought it on Fri. Also the chromis was marked $9.00 on Fri 40% off would of been $5.40 2inch chromis go for about $5.99 at saltwater fish . com granted I would have to order them but come on $9.00 is already 40% off.


Barry

[wkopplin]

This should probably be in the Vendor's Experience section....

[TexasState]

..

[CD]

Tamer and Ivan,

I just wanted to clear the air with you guys.

We are happy with the products we purchased from your store today.
My wife Wendy has even made posts on the Maast site recommending your store to others.
I understood your position on the frag situation, however, after driving in from Austin, the last thing I wanted to do was find out that there was a situation that was going to be a headache to resolve. Obviously, you have solved this problem by no longer playing middleman.
We have made the trip from Austin to your store several times and always been treated with courtesy and respect which is why we came back out today.
As far as the customer response to your sale today goes, I think that when you posted to a site like Maast, you should have been better prepared for the response but I realize that you did what you could with what you had to work with.
On the salt scenario- I don't really have a problem with the 1 to a customer policy to allow all customers to get in on the deal.
I think a change in policy at 11:59 am is a little unfair to those of us who drove 100 miles to come to the sale, especially when these multiple salt requests were occuring on your original post.
Also, where were you guys hiding the other 30+ buckets of salt? I didn't see nearly that many and we were 2 of the first 5 people in the store.

Look, I am not flaming you guys here. I just wanted to express my feelings as I spent quite a bit of time on the road today to participate in this sale.
As soon as I get this bug out of my tailpipe, I would like to come back and do some more business with you- if that's OK, otherwise I will just support CB Pets, which seemed very appreciative of my wife and I stopping by today.

I hope there is no hard feelings but, please, put yourself in my position and think about how you would have felt.

Chris

[Tim Marvin]

Two thoughts.
1. The frag exchange probably was a bad idea, although I am greatful.
2. Salt could have been sold, and rain checks issued for the rest. That is just good business sense rather than changing midstream in distribution.

[JeffCo]

OK well,
I was at the store today as well, right when they opened the doors. First off, I want to say there were stacks of Oceaninc salt on both sides of the counter. They had plenty, when I left after the first mad rush, there were still at least 15 200G buckets left.

The prices were good for me, I bought 2 yellow tangs and a copperband. Great prices for all of them. I would have bought more, but they were being snatched very quickly.

I think they will learn from their First anniversary sale. Remember this is their first time and I appreciate the great prices and deals they had for everyone. But, they do need to have some type of number system as people are ready for help. It was pretty crazy in there for awhile, but they were all working their buts off.

One more thing, they were fully stocked!!! Corals, Live Rock, Fish, :D

[Someone]

the only prices that are changed are the food and salt prices, all the other are the same. I know this because I have been thinking about getting a cleaner shrimp and the normal price is 19$, and I went in and I asked how much the shrimp was with the discount and he says its already marked on there. I look and its still 19$ grrrrr.

[beareef19]

The inverts were not included in the sale so the price that was clearly listed was the normal price , from what I was told.

Barry

[Tim Marvin]

At any rate sounds like they had excellent prices and the sale went well. As it has been stated it is the first anniversary sale and they will learn. Retail is a tough business and you can't please everyone no matter how hard you try. I am blown away that the store actually did my frag exchange. IMO that was really reaching out for them I am not sure any LFS would have done that unless they were doing it for a good customer, not strangers! We must give them Kudos for being so nice to do it in the first place. I am also glad, now that I think more about it, that they didn't just hand it over. I am sure they didn't know the value of the frag and if it was worth $5 or $500... I think they did what they thought was right.

[alexwolf]

I will say this. More important to me than price is the service I get. I have had several expierences with the people at that store being rude and nasty to me, my wife, and a friend of mine. There is no reason for us to be treated that way. The store is out of the way for me and tough to get to, but I shopped there for a while until all this started happening. Now I go to Fin Addict, and they are always nice. I was there when Felipe was steaming mad about the a/c, and STILL he was polite and courteous. I will go WAY out of my way for service like that. Even if his prices were too high I would still buy there.

[ClamFan]

Customer service is the biggest reason I no longer shop there. Also, I have seen much more impressive livestock online, and you dont get treated like a nuisance. Ill be checking on Fin Addict.

Sure am glad I missed this sale.

[GaryP]

ClamFan,

You will always find better looking livestock online. Its easy to post a pic of a high quality coral or fish. Its difficult to consistently ship the "cherry" quality that is found online. I can't count the number of reefers I have talked to that were disappointed with the quality or size of livestock that they recieved from a website deal that was "too good to pass up." At least at an LFS you know what you are getting. Admittedly some online vendors are better and more trust worthy than others. In either case we still need to support our local LFS whenever possible. I admit that I have participated in a few group orders but usually only when there was some very unusual livestock involved, but mainly for dry goods such as light bulbs. No LFS can compete with online vendors that are merely direct shipping from the bulb companies such as URI.

Gary

[NaCl_H2O]

I didn't make it to the "Sale", so I can't coment on that. I can however state that Tamer & Ivan (Esp. Tamer) have been VERY helpful with what turned out to be good advice and have always been friendly. I can only imagine the hassle of running a small business and the challenge to remain up-beat at friendly to ALL your customers.

I got some great prices on a large volume of LR from Tamer - basically at his cost knowing some day I would return to buy expensive stuff to put in my tanks :)

Overall, I like AW - just remember they are running a business, and hopefully for all of us, a profitable one!

[Sherri]

I personally have never had a problem with AW myself - both Ivan & Tamer have been nothing but nice & helpful to me. I've learned a lot from and have bought some beautiful corals from them that are prob the most eye catching in my tank. Because of my past experiences with them...I went to their Anniversary Sale.

[blueboy]

sounds like they took some notes on pricing from Austin Aquariums anniversary sale. i went in there a couple of days before the "big sale" and noted prices. the day of the sale they apparently marked everything up about 40% before knocking off the 50%. but what are you going to do after driving an hour to get there an our early so you can wait another two hours just to see whats in the fish room? go home empty handed? and i had #26! i feel for those holding numbers over about 50, they were lucky to go home with a chromis for 5 bucks!

[Ram_Puppy]

these are the same people who babysit tanks, loan out equipment when we suffer disasters, so on, so forth, I can't comment on the sale but we should all remember this: they are a business, making money keeps them around. This is the first time I have heard anything bad about them, but i haev heard so many good things before that. live an learn, for us and them I think.