goathead Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 So 9 months ago I bought a (Aqueon) 72 gal. bowfront from the L.F.S. In that time I have steadily increased my coral collection and just recently I found that when I stood back and looked at it, I was actually quite pleased with the way it was coming together. I was almost satisfied and almost to the point of feeling like I could leave it alone for awhile and let it grow.... That is, until last Wednesday evening.... I got a phone call from my wife informing me that there was water coming out around the black plastic base trim of the aforementioned reef tank. Needless to say, I went directly home to assess the damages. What I found was A fairly substantial amount of water on the top of the stand, along with a disturbing amount of water collecting in the trim, almost completely around the base of the tank. Oh, F.M.L. This is not a good feeling! Because it wasn't flowing out enough to drain my A.T.O. reservoir by morning, I let it go and went to bed and tried not to think about it... The next afternoon (Thursday) I went to the L.F.S. where I bought the tank and told them what was happening. They took down my info and told me that they would look into it and get back to me as soon as they had any information. They called Central (the Aqueon distributor) and got all the warranty information for me, along with the name and phone number of the person in charge of that department. I called them immediately and was told that in order for any claim to proceed, I needed to provide them with some photos of my tank, the stand it was sitting on and the "Manufactured by.." sticker, along with a photo of my store receipt. No problem on all of that, except for my receipt... Who in the hell would keep a receipt for 9 months?!? As soon as I saw that it was holding water, that thing was instantaneously round-filed. Anyway, I went ahead and sent her about 15 pictures; some of the tank, some of the stand, some of the tank on the stand, and some of the inside of the sump chamber, so that she could see where every stick of wood was that was holding the tank up off of the floor. I even sent her a picture of the plans I drew up before I built the thing. -- If only I still had that receipt....-- The response I received said that everything with the stand met their requirements and as soon as I could send that picture of the sales slip, they could go ahead and move forward with replacement. At this point, I am feeling like there is some bad news in my future and that I should get myself prepared to shell out another $265.00 since it didn't seem like I had many other options. As a last ditch effort to save some coin, I went back to the L.F.S. and asked to talk to the owner to inquire about a duplicate receipt since he was the one that sold it to me and was the only one that could say it even came from that store.. "I am very sorry, but Paul is on vacation for the next month... He is in Thailand." Seriously?!? Once again.. F.M.L. So I asked anyway and she said that she would make me another receipt, if only she knew how to change the date stamp on the register. I called Central back and told her that I could get a duplicate, but the date would show as today. "Thats o.k." she says. "I just need to be able to show that this tank isn't a second hand tank and that you DID buy it from a store". GREAT!! Things are finally looking up. A duplicate gets emailed to her and by 2:00 pm I get a response saying that they are going to give me another one. Not 5 minutes later I receive a second email. "I am looking at the photos you sent me and can you tell me if what I am looking at on the right hand side of the tank is an overflow box that has been drilled through the side pane of glass?"... W.T.F.!!??!! I tell her that it is and she informs me that the warranty is automatically voided the moment a hole is put in any part of the tank, "but I feel compelled to replace it anyway, since you were so good about getting me enough information to work from." Oh, thank god. SO... I went down and picked up my new tank directly after work, took it home, and commenced to putting holes in it. ?? the reason for this post..... ?? To thank the people that went out of their way to make this story have a happy ending. Deena and Jessy at Pet Time in Eugene and Valerie at Central (in god knows where). Now I get to fix or improve all of the things I have been regretting not doing in the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne82 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Glad everything worked out!! I had my old 55 leak while the family and I were in Maui. Came home to a half empty tank, water on the floor and a very upset wife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spilo Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 These story's scare me.. iv been keeping tanks for 20 years now in one form or another and have never had a leaky tank... I feel like I'm past due when I read these posts... that's awesome she still replaced your tank that doesn't happen like that very often Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goathead Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 No, it really doesn't. I am very thankful that she was as understanding as she was. Several times I had thought I had hit a roadblock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanz Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 You got really lucky. I must have dealt with 4 different reps asking the same questions the previous ones did. It's like the previous one got fired and the emails went along with them. After that I just ignored them altogether as it was pretty much a cycle. I still got taken care of but by jeff at cuttlefish instead. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Good information. The thought of losing a tank is not a good one. Getting reimbursed, well good job that seemed impossible. Had the 29 gallon QT spring a leak two days ago. Best tank that could have leaked, drained it out the window with an MJ before enough leaked to cause too much damage. Have fun on the rebuild! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goathead Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Have fun on the rebuild! Thanks. I plan on it. Now I can spend some time with my rocks and corals and make some much needed adjustments and some much needed evictions of ALL the Xenia and Paly colonies that have decided to overrun my [language filter] tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubasteve Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Well hey dood while your at it why not make that new sump?? One that will fit that 155 sittin in my back yard would work... Just sayin.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legalreefer Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Great to hear everything worked out! I live in eugene and i love going to pet time for all my dry goods paul is extremely vigilant in keeping his prices low. Plus he sells that awesome cat food for 20 bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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