The iFISH StoreReviews of theifishstore.com

Response from The iFISH StoreFeb 6, 2023

Hello Michael; We’re very sorry your fish perished. We would have liked the opportunity to work with you when you first observed signs of ill health. If you’d notified us we may have been able to recommend treatment or advise on tank parameters and tankmates. Also, how did the fish appear and behave upon receipt and once acclimated. We are always more than happy to work with our customers if they are having difficulty with the fish they received from us. We are sorry this was your experience with us and wish we had the opportunity to look further into the situation.

Response from The iFISH StoreFeb 3, 2023

Hello Anthony; We apologize again for the delay. When you had placed your order on December 20th, even though our usual processing time is 7-10 business days, we were running behind due to the winter storm which caused shipments from our suppliers to be cancelled. We eventually were able were to receive another shipment and began the quarantine process for your RedTail Catfish. You finally received your order on January 10th. We are truly sorry for the delay that you experienced and any inconvenience this may have caused. At the same time, we certainly hope your fish are doing well.

Response from The iFISH StoreDec 16, 2022

Hi Garrett, We’re sorry to hear that 5 of your African Cichlids perished. This is the first we were made aware of your situation and are wondering if you could provide us with a little more detail by email at [email protected]. Shipping can be stressful for fish and we certainly pack them in a way that will help reduce any stress from environmental conditions. However, it’s possible they can still arrive stressed and typically recover after a successful acclimation. We have worked with customers that have notified us immediately after receiving their fish and would have liked the opportunity to do the same with you. If you can provide us with more info on the appearance and behavior of the Cichlids, your tank parameters and the timeframe in which they perished following acclimation, we can go from there. Thank you for your feedback and we look forward to an update from you at [email protected].

Response from The iFISH StoreDec 13, 2022

Hello Hendre; We’re sorry to hear you’re disappointed in your Discus and Cichlids. You had purchased juveniles and their color/markings are not yet fully developed. With proper tank conditions and feeding, you will see them develop into healthy adults which will look like the adults we show on our site. We include a note to this effect on our site. One other note…we strongly advise that you not keep your Discus and African Cichlids that you purchased in the same tank. Unless they ask, we always assume our customers are aware of what species you should include or avoid in community tanks or have at least reviewed our Tank Compatibility Charts on our site. If you have not separated your Discus and Cichlids, you may run into aggression problems which will certainly cause health issues.

Response from The iFISH StoreDec 11, 2022

Hello Dr. Mah; We’re sorry you feel this way. We genuinely tried very hard to work with you from the moment you placed your order. We think it's only fair that we point out the timeline of events here so that anyone reading this review can make an educated decision about our business. On 11/14, your Discus order was packed with warm packs; standard procedure for all shipments. We also check the temperature at shipment destinations to ensure we include the proper number of warm packs. In your case, the destination temperature was in the low 40s and we packed the appropriate number of warm packs. At 2:17PM on 11/15, we received a FedEx delivery notification which included a photo of the box on your porch. At 10:19PM, you contacted us indicating that the Snakeskin Discus were black and sank to the bottom of your tank but all others were doing fine. We were a bit concerned that you contacted us 8 hours after receiving the fish. Per our policy, we kindly ask that customers notify us within 2 hours after delivery when there is a problem so we can immediately address it. Nevertheless, we extended our Live Arrival Guarantee on the two Snakeskins to see if they would recover. On 11/17, you reported that the Blue Diamond Discus was now black and sinking to the bottom of your tank. You also conveyed the Snakeskins were barely alive. On 11/18, we requested that you send your water parameters and photos of the affected fish so we could evaluate further. On 11/20, you communicated that the Blue Diamond was flashing against the plants with damaged fins. This type of behavior in a fish is a sign of unacceptable water conditions. But without providing any specific water parameter readings per our request, we could not accurately assess the situation. We keep our Discus in very tightly controlled conditions and it’s critical to take a close look at the conditions they are transferred to on the customer’s end to try to root out the cause of the ill-health or distressed behavior. You also relayed that the Snakeskins perished the night before, that there were no warm packs in the shipping box and that the box was “freezing” when it was delivered. You stated that we needed to send replacements and do a better job shipping them. As is our policy, we requested photos of the perished and ill Discus. On 11/22, we asked, again, for photos. On 11/27, we finally received pictures. Due to the poor photo quality, it was very difficult to come to any solid conclusion. Quite frankly, some of the fish in the photos didn’t appear to be perished. Also, one Discus appeared to have superficial burn marks which is typically a sign of poor water conditions. As if all of this wasn’t challenging enough, you also kept insisting that you did not receive a Cobalt Blue Discus which we finally concluded was the “turquoise fish” you kept referring to in your emails. It’s quite common to mis-identify juvenile Discus since their coloring is still a bit muted. However, we repeatedly assured you that it was a Cobalt Blue as it was validated, twice, in our packaging/shipping systems and procedures. By the first week in December, we decided that we needed to come to some closure and communicated that we would refund the cost of the two Snakeskins. But we would not ship a replacement Blue Diamond or any other Discus you claimed was damaged due to poor packing or that we believe you mis-identified. We simply didn’t believe that the packaging caused any of the health problems. We stand by our rigorous packing procedures. Even if faulty packaging was the case, we would have expected a much more immediate, consistent, and focused communication from you. Also, if ALL fish arrived perished, we would have replaced the order at no cost to you if you simply contacted us immediately and provided photos. We tried our very best to work with you, Dr. Mah. We truly appreciate our customers and take great pride in our Customer Service. We’re sorry this was your experience with us.

Response from The iFISH StoreNov 22, 2022

Hello Grace; We’re sorry one of your cichlids perished during shipment and you were so disappointed in receiving a refund for the cost of that cichlid only. We explain on our site that shipping costs are not refundable. We make no profit on our shipping fees and at times actually lose money. The cost to ship a standard box for a small order weighed down by water and insulating materials overnite is costly no matter what carrier you use. We think you’ll find that non refundable shipping fees are pretty much an industry standard. All this should be considered when making the decision to purchase a small number of fish online. On occasion, and unfortunately, tropical fish perish from the stress caused during shipment even though we take extreme caution and care when packing them. We are always more than happy to provide a refund or credit for any perished fish. If a customer provides photographic proof that all fish perished, we have even provided full replacement, including shipping. However, in your situation, only one of your cichlids perished and hopefully, the other is doing well so we followed our policy and provided a refund for the perished cichlid. Again, we’re sorry you were disappointed in our policy and certainly hope the other cichlid you ordered is doing well in your aquarium.

Response from The iFISH StoreSep 2, 2022

Hi Kayla, Have to admit we were stumped when we saw your feedback. You had ordered 10 fish on August 5th which included African Cichlids, GloFish Tetras and Gourami. If all of your fish perished in shipment and you contacted us immediately, we would have gladly replaced the whole order. And if within those 10 fish, you believed we did not ship the correct species, we would have addressed that as well. However, you never contacted us by email or phone. We take all of the feedback we receive from our customers very seriously. The only thing that we request is that any problems are reported ASAP so we can work with you to correct any issues. We're sorry we did not have this opportunity with you.

Response from The iFISH StoreSep 2, 2022

Hi Boban, Thank you for your feedback. We are very sorry for the delay in your shipment. In mid-July we were faced with several cancelled international flights that caused a substantial delay in receiving our inventory. We tried to keep you up-to-date on the status but certainly understand your frustration. We are a bit surprised to hear that that once you received your order, you observed that some had parasites and perished after 3 days. We did go back and check all other stock associated with the lot your fish were selected from and found no signs of parasites. Nor have we received any communications indicating parasites from customers that received fish from that same lot. We wish you’d contacted us immediately so we could have identified the exact parasite and recommended treatment. We may have been able to save those two fish that perished. Again, we apologize for the delay in your shipment and wish your experience with us was a better one. We certainly try to communicate with customers when there is a bump in operations that may cause a delay. We do rely quite heavily on customers notifying us ASAP when they spot any signs of illness shortly after receiving their fish. It’s the only way we can address the problem and are always more than happy to work with you.