Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/09/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hired Clean-a-Tank to do maintenance on our fish tank for an algae problem. They came out yesterday, said that the tank was great and all water testing levels were fine with calcium exception that they dosed to raise the level. He said the water would get cloudy (it did) but that the fish would be fine. Said they were impressed with how well my son was keeping it. Today, all of the fish but one are dead and the one still living is struggling to breath. One is uncommon and i have no idea where we'll get a replacement. They are refusing to take responsibility. After telling us what a great job he has been doing on the tank and how impressed they were, they are now saying that the tank was a bomb waiting to happen because maintenance hadn’t been done on it sooner. Had they told us of the risk, we would have set up a separate tank and moved the fish once it was cycled to have their current tank cleaned. We were not told of this risk at all. They dosed 8 capfuls of reef calcium into a 13.5 gallon tank. The instructions on the bottle say 1 capful per 20 gallons twice a week, do not exceed 3 capfuls per 20 gallons per day. Calcium overdosing can not only kill fish, it may end up killing the coral and invertebrates in the tank. They told us to dose with nitrofying bacterial by adding an entire bottle to the tank since it was crashing. Instructions say one capful per 25 us gallons. We spoke with a former employee of a local aquarium who told us to NOT do what they said. The websites we checked also said not to do that. She recommended one capful at most since instructions on the bottle say 1/2 capful for our tank size. I am seeking a refund of the payment they charged in addition to the cost of replacing the fish and any future inverts and corals that may die. I have uploaded picture of one of the dead fish, video of struggling fish can not be downloaded but is available upon request. The others were already eaten by the time we discovered the problem.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 05/08/2023

  Service was scheduled for 2:30pm on 3/8, and we arrived early.  Service proceeded normally and the tech was keeping the customer updated as the cleaning progressed as they chose to be present for the entire cleaning to watch what he was doing so they could do their future maintenance on their own.  Verbal updates on what was being performed and the condition of the tank were provided.  Everything proceeded normally until he started cleaning their sand bed, at which point he encountered a pocket of methane gas.  This was pointed out to the customer as a serious concern and a discussion followed where it was determined that the sand bed had never been disturbed since they set up the tank.  Due to this situation, the tech decided not to change any additional water and then cleaning was completed.

  Unfortunately, no one had checked the tank for 24 hours after the service, at which point the whole tank had crashed.  The delay in finding a problem probably caused a cascade effect in the tank at which point not a lot could be done to save the remaining livestock.  Also unfortunately, the client did not contact our main office right away to report the problem, instead reaching out to our road tech directly (assuming they had his phone number from a text he probably sent regarding his arrival time from the day of service.  From my discussions with the client, it appears that there was a disagreement on what caused the problem and the conversation degraded pretty quickly.  Before any resolution could be reached, the client had discontinued her phone call with the tech.

  I had to leave early on the 9th for a family emergency and I was not made aware of the problem until the evening of March 9th after I had left the office, by which point the customer and many friends & acquaintances had already plastered our Facebook and google pages with negative replies to dozens of unrelated posts and multiple negative reviews for a single customer incident.

  I placed a phone call to the client 1st thing on Friday, March 10th around 9AM once I had spoken to the road tech to gather details about what had transpired.  The client returned my call around 10:20AM the same morning.  Despite not agreeing with the client about the root cause of the problem, I apologized that the tank had crashed and for her experience with her communications with the road tech that led her to feel so angry.  Since the initial phone conversation could not proceed to resolution, I explained that we would 100% refund her service charges since she was not satisfied with the service she received.  We are normally involved in helping a customer rectify any issues with their tanks, but additional assistance from us was not desired from the client.  I asked the client to catalog any livestock that was lost as a result of the tank cleaning, I informed her that we would reimburse her for any replacements and asked her to provide any receipts for those purchases.

  Her service fee of $98.00 was refunded via Venmo immediate upon conclusion of our phone conversation on 3/10/23.

  I attempted to contact the customer multiple times to follow up and provide any assistance I could offer but was asked by the client to not contact her anymore due to the stress she was experiencing due to her son's reaction to what had transpired and that she would send along purchase receipts for reimbursement once she made her purchases.

  Customer finally sent an email regarding reimbursement of livestock on 3/21, but her attached pictures did not come through in the email.  I responded to her email letting her know that receipt images did not come through, and a second attempt was sent on 3/23 which DID include the receipt images.  On 3/24, I was able to total up all of her receipts and sent a 2nd Venmo payment on 3/24/23 for $214.02 to cover the costs of replacement livestock listed on the receipts she provided.

  Having had received no further communication, I finally reached out to the client again on 5/3 to follow-up on everything even though she asked me not to contact her anymore.  My phone call with her was very cordial.  She said she had sent a 2nd group of receipts for reimbursement, but I informed her that I had not received any additional receipts.  I asked her to please resend those receipts to me, but she said she considered the matter adequately resolved, but I insisted that she please resend the 2nd set of receipt for reimbursement, but as of this writing, nothing has been received.  I apologized once again for her experience with our service and she thanked me for my professionalism and handling of the situation to "make things right".

   

   

   

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/19/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my complaint and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  Complaint ID: 19576828
  

  
  
  
  
  
  I am responding at this late date because I was waiting for resolution from the company.  Although the case is closed, I am writing to say that, while I disagree with their summary of what happened, we have come to an agreement on the resolution.While the owner did not initially want to provide monetary compensation, the sales manager handled the matter in a satisfactory manner.  He was very apologetic and worked with us to reimburse for replacements in addition to the cost of the initial service.Again, the case has been closed because the issue hadn't yet been resolved but I am providing this information in the event that you want to update it.regards,