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Hydor "Contact us"... They don't respond

6964 Views 32 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  Wasserpest, 
The Big Buddha
I bought a new Hydor 50W heater back in January 2012 for my 10 gallon.
It it stayed on and would not cycle off, so I returned it to the LFS for an exchange.

Strike 1

The replacement worked fine until now. It started to heat the tank to 82.4, even when I turn it down all the way to 71.

Strike 2

There is no Phone number listed, and I have sent them 3 emails: 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago, and last week with no response.

Strike 3

Has anyone ever dealt with them before for warranty issues?

Last Hydor product I will ever buy.

Any suggestions for an economical/reliable replacement ?
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mjbn
That's weird. I have contacted them with success as they sent me a replacement and they provided postage for me to send back the defective product. But that was atleast 2 years ago:p Don't know if they went downhill.
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S
I contacted them via email about a month ago regarding a very old internal filter they made. I wanted more info on it since it doesn't have the info on the pump itself and can't find it by Googling. Never heard back from them. Not a peep.
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F
You must expect a lot from something that doesn't cost much. Come on, get serious. A $20 heater and you want them to have a 24/7 call center to help you out? An email might work just don't expect them to get back to you within a week. As for replacements, yea any other 50w heater from a different brand since you don't want Hydor... and if that one goes bad, get another.
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S
I rarely expect 24/7 call center service from a company but see no reason why they can't at least respond to an email or 3 as in the case of the original poster within 3-4 weeks. Even if to say they can't help would be better than no reply at all. It's just bad business not to ever reply to an email or one sent using the "contact us" form on their website.

I emailed Ken's Fish with questions about fish food. It's now almost 3 weeks later and I've yet to hear a peep from them. And guess what, I bought from someone else. If a business won't respond to pre-sale email questions makes me doubt they'll respond to post-sale problems.

It's not always the dollar amount but the principal of the matter. If a company has a warranty they should honor it. They should be reachable. And they most definitely should respond to phone messages left or emails. Again bad business practice when they don't.
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The Big Buddha
fusiongt said:
You must expect a lot from something that doesn't cost much. Come on, get serious. A $20 heater and you want them to have a 24/7 call center to help you out?
Click to expand...
1st- Actually The heater costed me 34.99$ Cdn plus tax at the LFS. (which is 40.23$)

2nd- When I purchase something with a 2 year warranty, and it craps out while on warranty I expect it to be repaired or replaced.

I don't expect 24/7 customer service, I expected a reply to the contact email, and the fact that they don't have a phone number to contact for warranty is poor customer service.

The post was to share the info with other hobbyists, and possibly get some recomendations on a better heater. Hydor also makes some much more expensive equipment (pumps and inline heaters ) So I thought I would share the Hydor experience with other People.

So, Getting serious..... Unless you have something intelligent to post, or want to give me 40$ for a new heater, please keep your lame posts to yourself.
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B
fusiongt said:
You must expect a lot from something that doesn't cost much. Come on, get serious. A $20 heater and you want them to have a 24/7 call center to help you out? An email might work just don't expect them to get back to you within a week. As for replacements, yea any other 50w heater from a different brand since you don't want Hydor... and if that one goes bad, get another.
Click to expand...
excellent idea. Car stopped working for any reason? buy another!

expecting 24/7 phone support is silly (and he is not expecting that), but not having any phone # for the customer to call is even worse, for a company that size.
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If it makes you feel any better, I was planning to "upgrade" to a Hydor in-line heater (amazon doesn't sell any other in-line brands), but your experience has indicated that I should at least research to see what my other options are.

It doesn't help your situation, but you may have cost them $52 :icon_smil
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S
I had considered buying a heater from Hydor due to the fact of how long that internal filter they made has lasted. But given I never received a response from them I changed my mind. So they lost my business also.
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angelsword
fusiongt said:
You must expect a lot from something that doesn't cost much. Come on, get serious. A $20 heater and you want them to have a 24/7 call center to help you out? An email might work just don't expect them to get back to you within a week. As for replacements, yea any other 50w heater from a different brand since you don't want Hydor... and if that one goes bad, get another.
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So you think it's ok for them to manufacture a heater that's basically disposable? He's been through two between January and August - make that three since he'll need a new one now.

Maybe your post was intended as sarcasm?

Ok I'm walking around my house taking inventory of my heaters.

Elite heater is fried.
Make that two Elites fried.
Top Fin still works when it wants to.
Hydor is useless.
Theo working awesomely.
Another Theo also perfect.

From my experience go with the Theo. What's the brand that Marineland makes that blows up? Avoid those lol. I hope it's not one of my brands.
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mjbn
angelsword said:
Hydor is useless.
Theo working awesomely.
Another Theo also perfect.

From my experience go with the Theo.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean here, Theo heaters are Hydor's brand heaters.?

And the Marineland heater is, I believe, the stealth? right? haha not sure about this one.
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angelsword
I meant that I was reading the names on all of my heaters. I didn't do one second of research in to which company makes which brand. Sorry if you read something between the lines that gave you the impression that I knew who made the Theo heaters.

Edit: just went to Drs. Foster and Smith and saw that Hydor does make Theos. I know mine weren't cheap. Maybe around $35. Maybe the more expensive ones last a little longer than the cheaper ones. There's still no excuse for having to replace a heater three times in a year.
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C
As someone who works in IT, I can safely tell you that the 'contact' page email boxes are not always monitored that well, and/or they break and nobody notices (for weeks at a time!).

If you don't get a reply when emailing a company within 48-72 hours, call them, and during the call mention your email.
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The Big Buddha
Hey, thanks for the heater info Angelsword. My Hydor is a Theo as well.

Crazymittens- They have no contact number to call.

I have dealt with Marineland twice with warranty issues and they were great about everything. When I had a fluval issue, I called the US number and they were super helpful until they realized I was in Canada and they had to redirected me to the Canadian company who wanted me to ship back the 20$ Fluval Nano filter at my own shipping cost for them to take a look at it and decide whether to replace the impeller or the whole unit. Needless to say that is why I purchased a Marineland C-160 over the Fluval 106.
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D
I think you need to contact the Hydor USA site for warranty info in North America. Unfortunately, I don't think they have a toll free number after a quick scan of the website.

Hydor USA Inc.
4740 Northgate Blvd, Suite 125,
95834 Sacramento - CA
USA

ph. +1-916-920-5222
fax +1-916-920-5522
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The Big Buddha
Thanks for the number, I found it under location just now after reading your post.
I always hit the contact us for the number. Gonna call them now.
Thanks again deeda.
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The Big Buddha
Oh my god !!!
I call the number and get an automated message saying to contact them through the website via email with the contact us button !!!!!
I left a message for them to call me back.
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S
Please, let us know if they ever contact you back in some form. And if they do respond how they deal with the issue.

I appreciate you starting this thread. It helps to know how a company handles after the sale customer support.
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NWA-Planted
Kind of surprised no one has commented on this unless I missed it.

Check your spam folder! a lot of times email from a company will get dumped in there.

That aside the OP who commented about replacing / you shouldn't expect good service cause of the cost etc.

Huh...? That has nothing to do with it, 5 dollars or 100 service is service, if your going to offer a warranty on your product you better stand by it, and over 2 weeks with no contact back is just absurd

"People who don't like bacon can't be trusted. - NWA-Planted"
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S
Good point about the spam folder. I always check the messages in there just in case something slips though but I know people that don't. I've even had newsletters that are "contacts or trusted" that for several months will go to in inbox then all of a sudden get sent to spam folder. So yeah it's a good idea to scan that folder before deleting them.

And if you're using a Yahoo account (maybe others too) it's best to not have it automatically delete the spam otherwise you'll never get some messages that are sent there in error.
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