PurelyH20 - review

[Brett Wilson]

I placed an order last saturday and havent heard a word. An email and an unsuccessfull call later and still nothing.
Does anyone know the best way to contact them to get a real response?

Thanks,
-Brett

[Brett Wilson]

I find a way that works - email their sales address. sales@purelyh2o.com

[OldSalty]

Bryan has sold the buisness, I still haven't recieved all of my order from last time. I did talk to him today, he says I will get what I was missing, but dont know about that. I e-mailed him and he called me rite back.

Good Luck
Kelly

[PurelyH2O]

Alas
I did sell the business. It was getting pretty busy and consuming all of my time so I had to pass it on to someone who was a little more able to handle the volume. We have experienced alot of back ups over the past few months and I would just like to thank everyone who stuck through it with me. Any orders that were in process during the change over are being handled by the new owner and all of the contact info for them is located on this page under the contact us section of the site.

http://www.purelyh2o.com/help.php?section=contactus&mode=update

Brett Im calling you now :)

Bryan

[Brett Wilson]

More contact info for those that attempt to buy stuff from this retailer:

877-895-3713 - Their new toll free number
386-871-8829 - One of their cell phones
386-882-3771 - Another cell phone.

I just called to get a tracking number for the order I placed on 8-12 and to my surprise I was told that they promise it will go out today. Lovely, it hasnt even shipped yet. I did not realize it would take almost 2 weeks to ship an order, nowhere on their site is this indicated.

Bryan has been quick to respond and fairly helpfull but unfortunately this appears to be entirely out of his hands since he sold the company (or is in the process of).

[PurelyH2O]

Hey Kelly you should have recieved the membranes by now, Im just checking.
Brett Thank you for calling them. They are taking care of the orders that were left over from the transition and their own orders. Most of your delay was from before the transfer which was a result of our being backed up. The new owners of the company are handling allof these issues and no one will be left out. Thank you once again for your patience guys and the good news is that the new company will be much faster and are going to offer better prices so it will be worth it in the end. The transition is just a little tough based on how backed up we were when they aquired it.

Im here if you guys need me :)

Bryan

[Texreefer]

bryan can you call me i have not heard back from my email.. i would like to get those filters and i will buy the DI

[PurelyH2O]

Hey,
I will PM you my private number as I will need to have them dropship the order. Normally I would send the order to them but I owe you some filters from awhile back :)

[Texreefer]

thanks bryan,, good luck

[Brett Wilson]

Finally, I received my shippment on Friday, the 25th.

Summary of ordering experience:
Ordered item on Saturday the 12th.
After not hearing a word from the retailer, I tried calling them on the 17th with no success. after posting here seeing if anyone knew how to contact them (since they have organized group orders here) I found that their sales email address works (as in bryan responded to it). Several days of 'I'll get you the tracking number' went by until I actually was able to speak with the 'new owners' directly which informed me my order would be going out that day. That was a bit of a surprise to me as I thought it had already shipped. Luckily it did go out that day and I got it a few days later, 13 days after I placed the order.

Overall I'd rate them a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (like the resellerratings.com scales).
If a retailer cannot perform their primary functions as a retailer (If they are moving for example) they shouldn't leave their doors open to new business unless they want to drag their name through some mud... One way around that is to CLEARLY indicate their may be some slowness in getting your order on their home page. At least that makes sense to me :)

[JeremyGlen]

I understand your experience, but I am going to assume you have never owned or been in control of a businees that was going through a transistion like this. I'm not flaming, just explaining.

A company cannot just shut their doors during a change like this because of this thing called revenue. They were backed up with supply issues to begin with and then a change in ownership requires lawyers, papers, lots of changes that take time and hours away from filling orders.

It is unfortunate that you ordered right as these changes were taking place, but try not to flame them and give them bad reviews when 90% of it was out of their control. A message should have been sent out to everyone with orders pending, but setting up a message on the website is just driving business away and losing money.

[Brett Wilson]

Communication is key.

You are justifying their lack of communication as necessary to avoid pushing away business. That's lying, is it not?
I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to shut their doors, that's rediculous if they expect to make any money. It was an example.

The more you tell your customers what to expect and what not to expect the happier they will be. Providing poor service with zero pre-set expectation is a great way to drive away business.

Let's say I want to order something online and my choices are company A who has 'ok' prices and has no delays (that I can tell) and company B who has better prices but is going through a backlog and my order will take 1.5 weeks before it ships.
Maybe I'll be patient and take company B, maybe I'm in a hurry and need something sooner so i'd choose A.
Either way, it would be a choice I got to make. If I had known about the delays prior to ordering I would be resolved to waiting 1.5 weeks before I even placed my order so there would be no surprises to me, their customer, when it did in fact take that long. Do you see what I mean?

Take one of the common group-order houses in Florida that maast uses for critters (RT) for example. they are VERY forthcoming on their website with the status of their business. they've moved, been through hurricanes, etc... but, because they are so forthcoming, people love them and know what to expect. They do honest business.

Now if someone sees this thread they will know what to expect and can then make the choice whether or not to do business with this retailer.
I wish I had that luxury before I placed my order, I would have known what to expect.

[JeremyGlen]

Well, so far, everything I've read about the company, up until your post, was 95% positive. So, your going to slam a company that is in a transistion period and possibly reduce the amount of business they recieve from the site because you ran into a one time situation. I do believe Bryan has done everything he can to help get things straightened out and he doesn't even own the business anymore.

[Brett Wilson]

I posted my exact experience. This is a feedback forum, is it not? That is feedback.

Just because one person posted their experience doesn't mean they are flaming them and it doesnt mean that everyone will have the same experience.

[Brett Wilson]

I don't see a need to continue this discussion in this thread unless you think it deserves to stay on the radar - further increasing the visibility far beyond what one persons feedback should draw.

[Texreefer]

i'm going to have to agree with Brett on this one,, i like Bryan and like the company.. but i too had the exact same experience and delays with my order.. the post was one of his experience with this company and was meant to provide info to anyone that wanted to make that choice..

[JimD]

Im going to have to agree with Brett and in his deffence, I dont read this thread as a flame at all, just a report. If you pre-pay for a product and the communication between the party's involved is lost or non existant, that immidiately raises a red flag for me. Even in a transitional period or whatever, its the retailers responsibility to maintain communication and let the buyer know exactly what the order status is, no matter what, if I made a purchase and wasnt able to access order status through the retailer in a reasonable ammount of time, Id most likely cancel the order. I think Brett was very patient, probably more so than I would have been. Thats why companys like Premium and Reefer madness are so successfull... Excellent customer service is the key to repeat customers. Looks like the only thing H2O is guilty of is dropping the communication ball, Im sure theyre a fine company and will do their best to resolve whatever issues that exist.

[Texreefer]

i was also promised some filters from bryan for the trouble and he said he would personally ship them but that was a week ago and i have heard nothing. so i will just chalk it up to experience and hope for the best

[JeremyGlen]

This is my last statement. I hope you understand it as I don't know how to explain my point any clearer.

I know there have been some problems, but I was just angered that someone would post something so negative. I agree with Brett that there were some things that could have been done to make him happier, but his posts kind of lean towards him not even caring that anything like the change in ownership was going on. Yes, communication is key and they dropped the ball big time on that.

"Now if someone sees this thread they will know what to expect and can then make the choice whether or not to do business with this retailer. "

I really have a problem with this statement since the company is under new management that is trying to get out of the hole the company was in. Basically, even under new management, this isn't the service they are striving for and I'm sure they are working towards not having backorder situations like they have in the past.

I just hope this company gets to make an impression for itself after getting settled in and everything squared away.

[Brett Wilson]

Jeremy, I'd agree with your point if you were right, but you have a pretty narrow view of the whole thing. Your suggestion of not having informed customers is actually a perpetuation of the problem.

I tried to point out my experiences because I myself couldnt find any feedback on them when I looked.

I had no prior knowledge of their delays before I ordered, so I didn't expect one. was I wrong for that? No.

After days of not hearing a single word from them I had to go out of my way, including asking around on maast, to figure out how to talk to them because their contact info that I found on their site didn't get me anywhere. was I wrong for feeling that way? No.

Are they having delays right now in getting orders fullfilled, yes. Was I wrong for pointing that out? No. They should indicate this on their site like other major and minor retailers do. Amazon, reeftopia, MAAST, marine depot, online banking sites, buy.com, etc. There's no reason they should be any different. It's an online business....

I'm sure they will get through their backorder, I never questioned that, but the reality is they have one now and if their customers are informed of that before they order they will likely be happier, as I would have been.

[OldSalty]

Boy Jeremy, You don't even want to know what I went thur with them. I Finally got the rest of my order after over 2 MONTHS of waiting. I will say this, If it wasn't for Bryan, I would still be waiting.

[Brett Wilson]

Bryan seems to be good at helping the new owners get things in line.

If it wasnt for him I would not have been contacted for the first time until yesterday (they finally replied to my online message which is their POC they advertise on the home page). Because of him I already have my order. They must be getting better, 2 weeks is better than 2 months.

[JeremyGlen]

Ok. I just don't see how talking negatively about a company that has just undergone an ownership change is going to present an accurate picture of how the new management operates. Unless you've gone through the sale or purchase of an exisisting company, you'll never understand my point.

[Brett Wilson]

Your patronizing comments aren't necessary. You are certainly prolonging this feedback thread, greatly increasing it's visibility beyond what it deserved.

[RNall]

I read Brett's 'feedback' to be just that. He did not seem to be flaming them at all; it was just factual information. My post may have been a bit more inflamatory. His first post was just a question to ask how to contact them.

I'm a little touchy about handing out money and being clueless about my order and goods. I could really care less about a transition. Seriously, it's so simple. I give you money - you give me stuff - I'm happy, you are happy. I give you money - you don't give me stuff and I can't talk to you to find out what in the world is going on, I have to go to MAAST for help, then I eventually find out there is a transition going on...do I care?...NO, am I happy NO, Do I care if the company is happy NO. Does that make me a jerk? (don't answer that) Worst case scenario, there was some unplanned catastrophic event that caused an immediate transition...pick up the phone or start typing and tell the people that have orders that their goods are on the way, apologize and then tell them that everything is being done to handle the unplanned situation.

Jeremy, I think that for one reason or another, you are very, very defensive of these guys. Why are you angered by someone asking for help to contact them and then posting their experience? It was negative because he had an actual NEGATIVE experience with them. The quote that you do not like sounds like the whole reason for this forum doesn't it? Give your positive feedback, your negative feedback and let people make up their minds.

Most people are not in business to run customers off but poor planning and customer service tend to do it everytime. Brett had a bad experience with them. He doesn't seem like the type of person that simply can't be satisfied. This is the feedback forum and he left feedback.

I'm sure these are decent people and if the company is managed better than the transition, the company may run well in the future. Brett first asked for help in contacting them then posted his experience. I can really find no fault at all in that.

[Texreefer]

Amen....RNall.. well said!

[PurelyH2O]

I just wanted to pop in and say thank you for all of the patience and understanding through everything. The new owners have been working pretty hard to get everything back in order. Our company had great CS for a long time and unfortunately it got to the point where we got so slammed that every free moment was spent getting orders out. I agree a letter should have been sent regarding delays. I did try my best to post the status of the orders and delays on the forums for public knowledge but this would not do too much good for someone who does not frequent those places. Jeremy, I sincerely apreciate your words here. In all fairness I have to say that the comments made by Brett are valid. We were very backed up and alot orders fell behind. This is the entire reason I decided to sell the company. Trust me it was the last thing I wanted to do but there was more than just my personal wants involved. It was getting to the point where the very thing that I based my company on was being compromised (customer service) When I started to see this slip away even though I was working day and night, I knew something had to change. I sold the company to someone better and more suited businesswise than myself. They were actually my supplier so they will even be able to offer better prices than I ever could. I tried really hard guys, I really want you to know that. Please understand that these decisions I made were to improve the conditions that began to get out of my control. I will still always be here to help if you need it. Im not going anywhere. The new owners are great people and they are doing a great job in becoming a retail business as well as a wholesale company. All that I ask here is that everyone tries to understand that the problems above were when I owned the company and in no way represent the way the new owners operate. It certainly was not the way I operated either until it happened. Brett, Thank you for sharing your experience. There is no better way to keep a company on it toes :) Your posts were not insulting to me personaly and I can say it could have been alot worse. Jeremy, Thank you again for that loyalty! It means alot to me. Old Salty, Thank you for your patience:) Texas Reefer, Be there soon! PS IM moving to Texas here in the next couple of months :)JimD and RNall, Thank you for your input as well! I hope you guys have a great day. Im shacking up for the storm :)
Again If anyone needs anything at all please feel free to ask.

Bryan

[RNall]

See, no harm, no foul. Thanks for the update Bryan. I've tried running my own business, it's a ton of work to say the least. I don't have the cojones (sp?) for it - to be honest. I have jumped out of planes, been in the Marine Corps and have 5 kids but running your own business is freaking stressful. I'm sorry that you had to sell.

Maybe I'll purchase my next unit or filters from Purely H20...hey, I do need a tds meter. You never know, if I do, I'll post on here....

Thanks,

[Brett Wilson]

Bryan - good to hear your comments. Thank you for not reading into my comments as if they were flames :)

RNall - My TDS meter from PurelyH2O works great and it's the best price I could find by ~ $10 less than anywhere else.

[OldSalty]

I think this thread is OVER! Thanks Bryan. ;)