Tank Delivery NIGHTMARE!!!

Let me start with apologies to those of you who (like me) actually believed the timeline in my thread "Let the Countdown Begin". Back at the beginning of May I ordered a custom 550gal tank. The tank was finished in a reasonable time frame, shipped by the maunfacturer, and was supposed to arrive in Richmond Va on June 26th. Needless to say, the tank did not arrive as scheduled. At first, the manufacturer had no idea what was up, all they knew was that they had loaded the tank as scheduled, waved goodbye and figured that it would arrive safely. After several days, they got the shipping company to admit that they had sent the tank to the wrong "Richmond". It apparently was quite a challenge to get any reliable information out of the shipping company. My LFS owner (who is absolutely awesome BTW) and I initially had hoped that the tank would just be rerouted to the correct town and that we would see it any day now but I just found out from him that is not how things played out. It may be irrational but I have been getting increasingly worried about this giant glass box bouncing around in the back of some truck hauling G-d knows what else and being exposed to more than 2 weeks of vibration and extreme temperatures. I don't even want to think how hot it gets in the back of a semi driving through Texas in July. Could this really shorten the life of the silicone seams on a tank? I just know that I don't want to find out with 500gal of salt water on my floor and a bunch of gasping fish.

Well I just found out where my tank is:disappoin:sick3:. The shipping company BROKE it (well chipped one of the corners near the top). They also damaged another of the 4 custom tanks that were all headed to my LFS. I'm now looking at another 2-3 weeks to get my tank but they say that "every cloud has a silver lining" so here is mine. I dealt with a great LFS who cares about customer service and he has been working the issue for me. My LFS apparently deals with a great company to build his custom tanks and they appear to care about doing the right thing and making ammends for the whole SNAFU. So this is what I'm told this afternoon:
1. Shipping market is tight during the slow economy and the tank manufacturer tired to get a good deal going with an outfit that they don't usually use.
2. Aparently, the tank manufacturer won't be using this shipping company again.
3. My new tank is being built totally from scratch, hence the wait time for the new silicone to cure. This eliminates my concerns about any less obvious damage that may have occured to the first tank during its cross country odyssey.
4. New tank (and the other tanks in my LFS's order) will be shipped by FedEx Ground this time around.
5. I'm not sure if my LFS or the tank manufacturer is picking up the increased freight cost but they told me that it won't cost me anything extra.
6. The tank manufacturer is going to give me a significant discount on the cost of building a sump for me.

Now all I need is to take a deep breath, have a few more weeks of patience and hopefully I will see my tank by the end of July. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

O wow..... Just wow.......
Uhhhh..... I wouldnt know what i would be doing if i was in your situation.
I know i would be very pissed.

 

Ugh!! Well, at least you have your silver lining. Good deal on a sump. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the safe prompt delivery of your tank!

 

Oh, one other thing. I originally ordered the tank with regular glass but the manufacturer is making the new one with Starphire on the front. Free upgrade -- that's a nice touch, I suppose. I'll just have to be a little more careful not to scratch it.

 

Sucks having to wait but at least it will pay off. This hobby is full of patience test. Good luck with your future endeavors in sw.

 

Thanks, Scott. I picked up a ton of tips and ideas for my build from reading your build thread and greatly appreciate all the help. I did maybe get a little carried away though since a year ago I was thinking that if I could go from a 125 to a tank the size of Otty's that would be awesome. It appears that I may have overshot by a bit. Now all I need is patience and follow through (and lots more good advice).

 

Oh, and a tank.

 

Man I can't wait to see it. At least it wasn't a fish bouncing around all the various Richmonds for two weeks

Hopefully things will work out for the best...eventually. The upgrades are quite a nice silver lining to the whole problem though.

 

The Starphire glass "up-grade" is worth ALOT of money, that alone is a great "silver-lining". My LFS has a 140g tank( W/starphire front), stand, canopy and a filtration system for $4500.00. A big big chuck of that price tag is due to the Starphire front glass. I.........WE expect some pics of this tank!


[SCROLL]Luna[/SCROLL]

 

Sounds like they came through for you!! What are the dimensions of the tank by the way?