larams

I've heard only good things about this guy and that's one reason I shopped with them. Unfortunately my experience wasn't good.

I bought an Atomic bubble counter from them 7 weeks ago. On the 1st day of arrival I noticed the plastic at one end of the bbl counter had a crack. Since I'm a photographer and have the equipment I took some 1/1 macro shots of the crack and sent them to GLA within hours of receiving the counter.
Well GLA just didn't want to be helpful and they definitely didn't want to allow a return. They told me it wasn't a crack and that it was merely part of the process when it is removed from the mold.

Well I'm not a plastic engineer and really the explanation sounded reasonable at the time. Until last week when I noticed my drop checker was yellow and a couple fish were dead. So I started investigating my system. What I found was that my co2 tank had run dry and had gassed the fish.

It didn't take long to figure out where the leak was. The small crack on the Atomic bbl counter had enlarged and you could visibly see counter fluid leaking. So there was no more denying if the counter was defective or not.

Unfortunately for me GLA does not respond to a single one of my emails to get in touch with them. It's been over a week since my last attempted contact.

GLA does not stand behind there products. They do not support you when they sell you something defective. They will try and deny a problem and leave you to deal with the damage caused.

I might be a rare situation but I will never recommend them or deal with them again. In fact even if they contacted me and offered me a complete refund I would not ever deal with them again because I know the only reason they would do that is to make me be quiet. When I try to get anything done privately they don't even make an effort at all.

niko

Let me try to help you here.

What you describe is a perfect opportunity for GLA to get a lot of free advertisement. For that to happen GLA needs to realize that bad news sells very well. And we love to hear and look at bad news. TV programs are only one example. Here, in our planted tank world, we are no different.

GLA needs to handle your issue gracefully and ask you to post about the positive experience in your own thread.

If GLA goes to an advertising agency and asks for a list of target audience that is interested in planted tank equipment they will get 2 things:

1. Complete lack of understanding about the weird request.
2. A nice, very nice, LARGE price for the information. (And it will be general animal lovers - dog/cat owners, cichlid folk, reef folk, folk that keep reptiles...)

By replacing a $20 or so piece of equipment and asking you to write about it here they will get something that has a tremendous value.

Let's see if GLA is smart. Or they play like Robert Hudson, the character behind the non-existent Aquabotanic establishment, which just let bad posts be forgotten and went on doing business like that for an entire decade.

GLA,

What do you think?

Larams,

Send GLA a link to this thread and let's see GLA proving being smart.


--Nikolay

doubleott05

i been doing buisness with gla for a few years and never had a bad experience. they even went the extra step to help me out when i was in iraq.


all we are hearing is your side of your story . two sides to each story

not saying your wrong but we have not heard their side of the story yet.

Thanks
Elliot

Newt

I USED to do business with GLA. I got a bad batch of KNO3 and GH Booster. The KNO3 smelled really bad and the GH Booster was very low quality and took hours to fully dissolve. The KNO3 contained ammonia so it probably had ammonium nitrate in it. KNO3 should have no odor according to all MSDSs for that compound. Several emails got me no where. Orlando could care less as he has lots of business. Great customer service doesnt end with the sale. He is overpriced and shipping costs are absurd.

Unfortunatley we are not alone. You will find complaints like this on many forums.

JustLikeAPill

You get what you pay for... that includes the quality of customer service.

skylarkfvr

This doesn't sound nothing like my experience with GLA. I purchased a "Waterplant" mini-CO2 system from and after a month or so discovered that the regulator was leaking. I contacted them via their website and received a reply in just a few hours. They told me that I could send the damaged part back and they would either fix it or replace it. So I did, and got a brand new regulator couple weeks later, no questions or arguments.
To be fair though, maybe the new one will break just as fast as the old one, which is not entirely their fault, as they don't make it, just import it. But the customer service I got was great.

thekid92sho

I had a positive experience the one time I purchased from them. Purchased before the revamp.

Riverboa

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I have had multiple dealings with GLA, all of them has been positive.
Lately I have been trying to setup breeding /grow out tank in the basement and try to get used instead of new items to cut down costs. I contacted GLA to see if they have used equipments that they are willing to sell at a cheaper price. GLA has been helpful and I was able to buy some items at a fraction of the retail price.

Having said that, I have not tried the atomic bubble counter and cannot attest to its quality.

Good luck and hopefully you find a suitable replacement. Sorry for your fish loss.

fullmonti

I bought some items from them. Emailed them with a question about one thing & they never answered.

Newt

Welcome to the GLA Screwed Me Club.

Sorry to hear this.

What's your question? Perhaps someone can help.