Nightmare Tank Makers

[ViS]

Just wondering as if it were me, I can assure you I would have forgotten to allow for bridges, because I am like that

Ditto. I actually did just that with my sump, and had to take out a complete section to fix the problem

[CThompson]

When I discussed bridges, the only request I had was that they were as small as possible to allow me the greatest access as possible. In the conversation I was told that it was their way or the highway, (almost literally), so it tended to cut off conversation on bridges.

On my drawing I did not draw in bridges as I did not know how the tank maker was going to do them. So my drawing was a drawing drawn with the intention of only indicating the overflow gap, and this was the only measurement on it (I think I mentioned this).

This person makes tanks for a living, he makes thousands (I was told) weekly. If a 30mm gap is asked for, a professional doesn’t need to be told to work out allowances for bridges.

I also asked in writing for a 30mm overflow gap (and verbally), he knew I needed and asked for a 30mm gap. Even if I didn’t produce a drawing, a 30mm gap is a 30mm gap, and what I got was 8mm. There is a big difference there.

As mentioned above, he cut the right end of the tank 40mm less than the height of the tank, so he knew that he had to make allowances for bridges, but didn’t put it through his head with enough detail to work out the math. It is a REALLY basic mistake they have made, and it should NEVER come about.

The basic problem is that the tank maker is not into fish. That means he is not really into making tanks. It might only be a small difference, but at the end of the day it allows an error like this to pass his notice because simply he really just isn’t interested in anything other than the money.

Off the top of my head, here is a list of errors on their part;

I asked for (and paid for) a sump of 10mm glass, he made it out of 10mm but made the left end and bottom out of 6mm.

He constructed the matrix section without allowing for emergency overflow (i.e. he glued the middle partition right to the top of the sump.

He never supplied a lid for the overflow box.

The overflow box leaked (I fixed it).

He didn’t supply the promised two LifeGuard bulk head airline fittings.

He mucked up the overflow depth to the tank.

He didn’t construct the sliding lids as requested (in a drawing… and verbally)

He made the bottom of the tank out of two pieces when three were requested and agreed to.

He moved the locations of all my plumbing holes without notification or request.

I offered to paint the outside back of the tank (in his factory), he insisted (literally) that he would “get the boys to do it”. He turned up on the day with it unpainted, and I had do insist it was painted before construction (it backs up hard against a wall preventing future painting).

There are others but can't think of them now.

Craig

[ViS]

Sounds like a dodgy dealer.

I'd invite all members who would like to know the name of the tank maker to PM Craig.

Craig, I hope you have a "copy and paste" burst of writing to PM back to people so you don't get RSI

[CThompson]

The problem Vis is, he comes across as such a decent and friendly bloke, and he can get away with treating people as he has treated me, due to there being as it seems no accountability/history that sticks to him that future people can access.

I have recently learned that this aquarium manufacture has a second business (partners?) with another well know establishment that advertise in the Trading post every week. I understand he has this second place in case he needs to declare himself bankrupt from his fist business. The story was more complicated than that, and I didn’t’ listen as well as I should, but what I have written gets across the blokes basic attitude.

I have actually responded to all the PM I have received with an individually written response. I have now kept a copy that I can past into any further replies. So I hope I get a lot more people contacting me – they’ll be doing themselves a favour if they do.

Craig

[YeW]

Hi All -

Here are a few things worth bearing in mind.

1. One bad experience doesnt mean the tank maker is bad. I think I know who is being discussed and I should say ALL, with this one exception, the feedback I have heard has been VERY good. Indeed, the quality of tanks (if the person is who I think they are) produced by this person may well be superior to many others produced in Sydney.

2. There are LOTS of other tank makers, some are good, some are bad.

3. I dont want anyone naming any businesses in this thread - while the person perhaps owes an apology - they dont deserve to be ruined because of one piece of bad service - who knows, perhaps they had personal reasons etc for not responding (remember we arent talking about a multinational company here!!)

4. Is this tankmaker cheaper than the alternatives? I would suspect so! So you're likely to get less service/quality for your money. Price the same tank with Dalbarb and see how you get on.

No one should be naming businesses or discussing the business dealings of others online. I would like this to be removed by the ppl making these comments - otherwise I'll be discussing the removal of this post and a future ban on naming of all businesses with the other admins.

Have some respect for the admins who run this forum if nothing else - these kind of issues cause us problems (legal and otherwise) and stress and I am not happy to see the direction this post is heading in.

[CThompson]

Yew,

I understand and appreciate your concerns. However – no company has been mentioned here on the SCP apart from Wayne’s place (a SCP sponsor), and when you yourself mentioned Dalbarb (which isn’t the company for other readers). I was told I could mention this company's name, and I declined to do so, for concerns not only for myself, but for the SCP.

The company who have made my tank make I understand many thousands of tanks, and I’m sure they make many fine tanks.

The issue is also not one of price, wether the price was expensive or cheap is neither here nor there. A price was agreed to, and there wasn’t some sort of proviso attached to it “anything that goes wrong regardless of wether we caused it or not, is your problem not ours”.

The whole issue I have had is not so much that a mistake was made, nor wether it was their mistake or mine. Nor was it that they wouldn't honour some sort of warranty and help fix the issue. Nor was it that all the phone calls were one-way, nor was it that they lied to me on phone.

It was about telling the person who was fixing it to just walk away and not fix it.

It doesn’t matter how well they make most of their tanks, when they can do this to just one person.

The last thing I want to do is cause hassle, headache and more work for the admin people of the SCP. But do you want to be the next person to order a non-standard tank from this place, knowing how they can treat even one person. I have since spoken to others with tanks from this place and they also have issues, minor ones, similar to some of the other issues my tank had/has. So I expect you have a higher opinion of this place than they deserve. The owner himself comes across as such a nice guy, and I was told he was, and I’m sure he has his reasons, there are after all two sides to a story. But at the end of the day – what prompted me to post on the SCP was about the owner telling the person who was trying to fix the problem to just walk away.

I sent you a PM earlier.

Craig

[ViS]

Craig, I'm going to close this thread now.

I think all views have been expressed sufficiently. I have not talked to the tank maker myself, so I've only heard one side of the story. From what I've read on here and by private email from you, I can see why you are upset. However, I'm not keen to let the discussion continue in case somebody eventually says something they'll regret.

People know to contact you privately if they wish to know more info, and I'm sure you'll agree you've had enough time on the soapbox to let people know how upset you are.

I'll leave it here to be read, but I don't want to see any new threads started about it please (by anyone, not just Craig).

Thanks for keeping it (mostly) civil folks

If anyone has a problem with me closing the thread, feel free to contact me or one of the other admins privately.