Anyone order from AquaVibrant?

[opie77]

I ordered a tank heater and controller from them last week. Was going to be delivered Saturday, but the postman said there was 2 packages with the same tracking number and he couldn't deliver them. I shoot an email to AV to inform them of the problem. They reply rather quickly that first thing Monday morning they'll look into the problem. Monday morning, I get an email saying they talked with their post office and they said there is no way two packages shipped with the same number and that my postman tried to redeliver and left a note.
I go to my post office and the postmaster is aware of what's going on. She shows me two boxes with the same tracking number and same address. She said someone HAS to pay for one of the boxes. Advised me to let her send them back and have AV resend. I offer to pay for 2nd box. She puts me in line to wait to pay for the 2nd box. I open the one box I got to keep and it has my heater and controller. So I let her know I have what I ordered and to ship the other box back.

Get home, email AV and let then know what's going on. Open controller box, plug in, see the display light up and then POP! Smell something burning and now something rattles inside. Controller still lights. Email AV yet again for RMA or help.

Fast forward to today. Finally got a reply. Wants me to submit a warranty claim through Finnex. For a part that DID NOT WORK OUT OF THE BOX. Am I screwed?

 

[FishBeard]

Finnex should help you out. Typically once a product leaves the store it was purchased from, warranty claims should go thru the manufacturer. Most stores however will deal with the burden by replacing the defective item and return it themselves for credit or replacement.

 

[opie77]

Id be happy for that. I dunno, I feel like I was blown off. I could have saved $4 and ordered it from ebay but I figured Id buy local.