Experiences with "Clear for Life" Brand Aquarium

[jbaker6953]

Please forgive me if you have seen this on another list, but I wanted to make everyone aware of my problem so that they have the opportunity to avoid the same problem when purchasing an aquarium.

I ordered a "Clear for Life" 135-gallon acrylic aquarium from reefgeek.com. When I went to get the tank, everything looked OK and I brought it home. Where the tank sits gets direct sun for about an hour or so every day, and when that time came I noticed that the entire aquarium was covered in fine scratches (photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrybaker). I informed the retailer who then contacted the manufacturer. The manufacturer had me bring them the tank for inspection.

When I got to Clear for Life, the president, and owner, Alan Lim, told me that what I was seeing was normal for acrylic and that all of their products look like that. He further stated that they were not going to polish the tank for me to see if that would improve its appearance, nor were they going to do anything else.

I then took the tank to the retailer where I had originally ordered it. I asked him (Greg, the owner of reefgeek.com) what would happen if I returned the tank to him. He had to call Clear for Life because he hadn't done a return before. Clear for Life told Greg that they would not take a return from him either. They do not take returns ... period. I do not want to force Greg to eat the full retail cost of this tank because it would hurt him pretty badly financially.

I just wanted everyone to know that if they purchase a Clear for Life product, they will not accept a return under any circumstances, and if you return a Clear for Life product to your LFS, they will be forced to eat the cost. They are not about customer satisfaction, nor are they willing to even try no-cost solutions.

[Jason Baliban]

Why does it seem that your threads have some type of "situation" attached to them? What does greg say about them? I thought reefgeek only sold tenecor?

jB

[jbaker6953]

I suppose my posts usually have a situation about them because I never think to post when nothing is going on.

Greg has been very helpful and understanding. He saw the tank with his own eyes the other day and said he had never seen that before, but that he had never looked at a tank in the sun before either. I could force him to take the tank back by using the satisfaction guarantee on my credit card, but I don't want to hurt Greg.

[Buck]

This is ridiculous... I feel for you , Greg etc. but let me tell you why

I then took the tank to the retailer where I had originally ordered it. I asked him (Greg, the owner of reefgeek.com) what would happen if I returned the tank to him. He had to call Clear for Life because he hadn't done a return before. Clear for Life told Greg that they would not take a return from him either. They do not take returns ... period. I do not want to force Greg to eat the full retail cost of this tank because it would hurt him pretty badly financially.

This is why we pay extra to buy from a retailer and not from auction type sites. That is the retailers problem , not yours. He bought from them...thats his problem, you bought from him...that is still his problem.

Buyer beware works for retailers as well... Why do you think I dont own my own business... LOL

The one who is responsible is the the one who sells it, the level of the selling ladder dont mean diddly. I feel for Greg but he is the one that needs to back up what he sells to you, then its up to him to go after the the next guy.

If owning a business was easy then everyone would do it

I have bad feelings about this thread , Im not sure that this is the type to ever have clean , positive feedback...it will stay for now but if it gets slightly ugly, dont be surprised if you get a PM to tell you it went bye-bye.

Sorry for your situation.
Remember ... Buyers Beware and ask first not later !!!

Can we move on now ? LMAO

[Jason Baliban]

Thats a tough one. Greg is really cool, but he does need to eat that and carry a better line. I used to work for a music store that carried boogie amps. But they dropped them because their customer service was so hard to deal with......similar to your buddies here.

If you really feel that it is not an issue you caused, then i would leave it in gregs hands to take care of it. Chances are reefgeek will stop selling their stuff. Like buck said....that is the price you pay to run a business.

But moving on.......what kind of tanks do you have? What where you plans for this tank?

jB

[turbomkt]

OK...maybe the products have changed in the last two years or so...but my Clear For Life 50 gallon corner tank looks just fine to me. I saw the pictures you took and posted on either APD or AGA (I can't remember) and have never had that problem. Granted, I don't have the tank sitting in full sunlight, but I have used the flash to take pictures and that should give the same results. It didn't.

If you want to see some pictures (Really OLD pictures) of the tank, check here.

--Mike

[jbaker6953]

Thank you all for your feedback. I really don't want to make Greg eat the cost of the tank. I know it's part of doing business, but I still don't want to do it. The sad thing is that I may have to if I cannot find some other remedy. I will try to sell it, but I don't have long before I have to exercise my right to protest with my credit card. Since Clear for Life says the tank is ok, it should be ok to sell to anyone who would normally buy a 135-gallon from them ... right?

Truth be told, if it's not in the sun, you'll probably never see it. Unfortunately, my apartment is such that there is nowhere else to put it. It has to look good in direct sun. I don't feel like this is something I should have known to check on ahead of time. I checked for scratches at the time of delivery, but it never occurred to me to remove the plastic wrapping and take it out into the sunlight to inspect it. I did call Greg immediately when I discovered the scratches, which was about two hours after I got home with it.

[jimmydrsv]

Acrylic is a polymer and something might have occured in response to sunlight. Polymerization of monomers often are a result of uv exposure so the same might be for the backwards reaction.

I don't know enough about acrylic to cite a specific cause but i know there are chemicals that easily remove finer scratches. You can also remove the bigger scratches as well. So it is not a total waste.

But honestly, acrylic tanks scratch period. With water in them, you will find that it will become much smaller of a problem. My cousin was pretty unhappy about the scratches in his tank until he filled it and they disapeered.

As for the retailer, he wouldn't be biting a huge cost either since he could just set it up in his store as a show tank or for some purpose.

[jbaker6953]

I do plan on filling it with water to see what happens, but I wanted to leave it in its pristine, new state while trying to get the issue resolved with the manufacturer. Now that they have chosen their course of action, I can fill it and see.

If the retailer has to absorb the cost of this tank, he doesn't have a retail space to use it for display. He is purely a warehouse operation. He would have to wait until someone ordered a 135-gallon acrylic tank with corner overflow.