BEWARE A.W. SALE PRICES

[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.