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planetarowana

video sent of impending imports all the same type of arowana in the tank. advised mine would be one of these

update : ordered the fish in JAN with DAVID at PLANET AROWANA, ( http://www.planetarowana.com/ )
should have been delivered in march. many, many delays. had to chase delivery constantly. waited in several times and nothing turned up with no contact to let me know, excuses initially including "I forgot" . " I'm on the motorway wont be back in time to send it". " collegue used the last heat pack " but later just included when it was (allegedly) going to be delivered.
i can understand a couple of missed deliverys and im not even counting the failed delivery due to the APC issue where APC stopped delivery for week or two (although the fish should have been deliverd to me well before then and it would have been nice to know it wasnt going to be delivered at that point either) waited in several times with nothing turning up and no contact to let me know its not actually coming. had to chase constantly to see what was happening.
more missed delivery dates after the APC issue causing me to contact david and ask for my money back. only to be told that i could not have a refund (even though i hadnt received anything to be refunded) because it had aledgedly been ordered in especially. i pointed out that he had offered me one that was already in the shop when i ordered it but told me if i waited for the next import to arrive (which was already ordered) i would get a better fish so i agreed to wait but he insisted it was ordered especially even though it came in with about 30 other arowanas of the same type (so i was told at least). so no way to get my money back. refusal to cancel the order. several failed deliverys even not counting the APC issue.
obviously not happy with me requesting my money back i was told it would be delivered the next day wether i liked it or not (which would have been a monday and he had alread told me that APC wouldnt deliver fish on mondays).
realising i was pretty scr*wed without a refund and potentially receiving dead or no fish i agreed to the delivery suggesting a different day and after pointing out the several failed delivery attempts the lack of conatct or customer service david kindly offered me a £60 credit note or a "huge bag of food" (over the phone though).
i would like to point out that i had originally suggested monday, tuesday or wednesday to arrange delivery and even after failed delivery on those days i had even agreed to take delivery on other days of the week (where delivery also failed after i waited in).

so i finally got the aro 10.6.15 its settled and eating. my kids quickly pointed out that it was one of the few from the video we had been sent that had more black near the top compared to the others in the same tank/order but at least i finally had a fish.

since the arrival of the aro ive been chasing the ever diminishing big bag of food (loose pellets from singapore aparenetly) which seems to be following the exact same path the aro did.
on 18.7.15 i was told it would be next week. after reminding on the 22nd and again on the 24th to send the food i was told it would be sent out the friday. guess what..... no delivery, no contact.
so after yet another failed delivery i contacted david to see what was happening only to be told hes now in spain but has the food and will be back on the 10th and will send it then. the message was along with a picture showing the size of the "huge bag of food" that was in place of the £60 credit note (there were actually two huge bags on a bed next to a water bottle, a sock and a trainer. pic below).

P5In1b.jpg


so the 14th of july rolls round and still no food. so yet again i contact david with a polite message to see whats happening.
reply on the 14th of july was "hi, food sending out tomorrow half a kg"

21st of july today and i dont think anybody will be suprised to hear that i still havnt received the food, be it a huge bag as originally stated or even the lil half kilo one.

sick of chasing this now and i havnt really cared about the food since the first failed delivery i was more interested to see if or what if anything would arrive.
i think i know now why he prefered voice conversations and was reluctant to have conversations via text or email.

im sorry to say that i wont be ordering with david / planet arowana again after this.
ive been polite throughout and even given the chance to reprieve himself with the compensating food only for the same thing to happen again. with the only contact being me chasing more failed deliverys reuslting in a bunch of excuses .

make up your own mind if you want to risk using DAVID / PLANET AROWANA, i hope at least that this message will prevent someone looking in their own tank at a fish they have wanted for so long only to be reminded of the horrendous experience of actually getting it.

thanks for reading. if anyone knows of anyone else with a poor experience of planet arowana let me know as i would be interested to see if it was a similar story (david himself said there was at least one other although it was after i had sent the money).

david - you seem like a nice guy on the phone but even if you weren't trying to run a business your customer service terrible.
right up until very last failed delivery i was still willing to give you a good review especially since you asked me to.
you only have your self to blame.
 
update :

after being insulted as a customer several times (after sending payment) and being terated terribly i was again insulted and woke up to find no less than 43 text messages further trying to inuslt me and suggest that i was trying to run davids business
i cant see any other reason for david suggesting i was trying to run his business other than my telling him that on his advertisment and the place i found his information i pointed out that the link to his own website was wrong and needed to be amended. i thought i was helping but obviously thats not how david saw it.
the only other thing i said was after recieving delivery that the heat packs strapped to the lid of the box had fallen down (potentially contaminating) the water that had leaked out of the bag the aro was in,suggesting that the box has been either rougly handled or poorly packaged.
i only relayed this info to david and suggested that some "fragile tape" might help the package handlers know to be more careful but considering the 43 insulting text messages i recieved over night i gues he wasnt happy with the helpful suggestion. ( although the faulty web link i pointed out was corrected after i pointed it out ).
i also pointed out that i had woked extensivley in package handling in my earlier life) and packing tape doesnt cost much for the benefits but considering the overall service i am not in any way suprised about the outcome.
i hope people wont be fooled by this " del boy " and encourage them to at the very least speak to reputable dealers like richard at wharf aquatics or neil at pier aquatics or even ferrybridge aquatics. ( all great customer service and worth paying that little bit more for. if nothing else they are worth a visit).

i did recieve an arowana in the end. after battling and complainaing about 7months after ordering but i was fortunate to actually recieve an aro.
( after being asked to post a good review for great service and top quality aro, which i obviously can;t )

good luck if you use david car, david carr / planet arowana .
 
Yeah,after that epic read lets see some photos of the aro that you finally received...
 
I've observed that good service in the fish business seems to be more rare than the norm. Don't get me wrong in the states there are good fish shops (where I got my first Lei), but it's really hit and miss.

Now, pictures? :-)
 
Blimey! Bad experience all round. I have had many conversations with David when i have been shopping around for an Aro (still have not purchased one yet though) and he seemed okay. I don't live that far from his shop so i would probably go and fetch myself if i ever took the plunge into an Aro.
So after all this waiting and hastle that you went through, where are some pics of your Aro mate??
 
i wouldnt like to do the seller any favours after he messed me about so much and even asked and expected a great promotion even after telling me someone else had received a terrible service from him and he wanted to make his rep better !
seriously, if this is how he treats customers who hes specifically asked to leave him a great review to promote his business then i feel very sorry for the others !

. even an ugly fish can get good comments (especially if the seller is asking people to).
imagine you took 7 individual days off work to receive a delivery that never arrived. you got insulted for chasing said delivery then after attempting to cancel the order get told told there were no refunds even though you never received anything. i wonder what the trading standards policy is on this ? or if his suppliers realise just how badly he is promoting / reselling their products.

i wouldnt like to post pictures of the fish in quiestion as i expect there will be several people who might be inclined to try and make del boy / david / PLANET AROWANA look good in the hope of discounts and a better service.
this thread is to hopefully encourage these types of sellers to provide better service all round.
i wish those people luck as that was what was suggested to me too.

the fact that david suggested i was telling him "how to run his business" by offering a couple of helpful suggestions coupled with the terrible service he offers to me and apparently to others too suggests he wont be in business long anyhow. he might also want to find out what gasses hes actually putting in the fish bags as he didnt seem to know when i asked. he said it was oxygen initially but then said it was just compressed air .
i would hope that it would say what was in it on the order sheet but maybe he just picks a container at random when he orders them :-D

if anyone knows of a RELIABLE seller of arowana please post as i am considering getting a nice one.
 
"if anyone knows of a RELIABLE seller of arowana please post as i am considering getting a nice one."

I would strongly recommend Deamfish Inc. out of Singapore as the source farm. They are very well respected. You might want to see if anyone in your country is already importing from them. If you are looking for a special high end fish, then you might consider importing it yourself. You can see some of the history of the farm (and its reliability) here:

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=488122

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=139

http://merlionarowana.com/member/index.php/blogs/2/22/mer-lion-arowana-blog-16-dreamf

http://merlionarowana.com/member/index.php/

http://www.dreamfish.com.sg/

http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=121
 
You can purchase yourself from singapore or even malaysia. But the thing is that by just buying a single fish, you're gonna pay alot more for flight charges and may need to do all the import document yourself. Usually it takes about a week for singapore side to process your export document after submitting the info needed from you. Then the rest will be farm doing their own quarantine and flight delivery date. Usually heat pad will only be used if the destination country is facing cold weather and heat pads are usually placed or taped to the underneath of the stylfoam lid of the box where the fish is bagged properly in there. Even if the heat pad fallen off, it should not reach the water inside.

End of the day, if you're willing to spend alittle more and doesn't mind the hassal of doing up the import document yourself, you can anytime contact any of the farms through email or call them up. You will definetly get your fish in less than 7 months. At most a month or less than 2 months.
 
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