# Don't Buy Marineland Products



## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

I just wanted to inform as much people as I could, so I cut and pasted this post I made from another local forum I am on...

(12/07/11)
I just want to post this as to help anyone who maybe in the market for some items.
Don't buy Marineland, their products lately are crap. 
Starting with the stealth heaters that killed my fish before the recall was announced.
Now it's my C-360 that is only slightly over a year old. The motorhead went out on it last night leaving me to use a few 10gal aqua tech filters to do the job.
So I call them to get a replacement as it is still under warranty and they said they'll send me a new one but it could take 14 business days to receive it and to do water changes until then.
WTF??? Why can't they expedite me one as it is their crappy unit that failed. If I loose fish due to a lack of filtration I'm going to be furious.
To top it off they want me to send the broken one back and pay the postage myself, that's BS. They refuse to send me a prepaid shipping label.

Needless to say, I will NEVER be buying any Marineland product ever again...

(12/08/11)
No, the lady said that they will be shipping me a new motorhead and then want me to ship mine to them once I receive it. She said this is a courtesy to me as they typically ask for mine first. And if I don't send it back then they won't extend this "courtesy" again if I need it. 
Well, I'm not spending my money so they can have their faulty unit back, they can send me a prepaid postage label with the new one just like every other company would do if a product was under warranty.
Besides, I don't care about their "courtesy" for next time as there will be no next time as I'll just return the danged thing and exchange it for an Fluval FX5.

And after calling I did a google search on the problem, I found on cichlid-forum.com( I think it was) that this has been an ongoing issue with these filters that Marineland has known about since 2009.
My question is how come the idiots won't issue a recall?

(12/19/11)
Just another little update to help get my point across...

So I called Friday to check the status of the shipment and get a tracking number as they failed to politely give me one either via phone or email when I originally called to get the replacement part. Well this is 7 business days afterwards may I remind you, and they havent even sent it out the door yet! WTH????????? 
Therefore, still no tracking number, piss poor stuck up b!+chy customer service lady, and told me to call back today to get the info.

So I call again today and sit on hold for 20+ min, they tell me it has finally shipped out. BUT, the customer service is still severely lacking as the lady was incredibly rude telling me that the filter "HAS NOT" been recalled as I stated when I told her "I would like to check the status on a recall part I requested". 
OMG, did that open a can of worms, don't use the term "recall" with Marineland. So its not a recall, my mistake....

So then since she was cocky with me I told her that maybe they ought to recall them as I've done some online research and found other forums where many people are having the same issue. (The filter just won't turn on). To that she tells me that there is nothing wrong with their filters as they work great. Only to then accuse me that I broke it due to it being clogged.... WTF?????  That is PURE BS, I clean the thing religiously, and there is not a speck or clog in it anywhere.

I just laughed at her and said "whatever, make sure I get my replacement part, Thank You!" and she hung up on me.

WTH kind of customer service is this place???

So, to reiterate *DON'T BUY MARINELAND PRODUCTS!!!*


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## zchauvin (Jul 28, 2011)

Lol....... Don't buy cheap crap and you won't get cheap crap. When will people learn. You get what you pay for.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


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## aquaman555 (Mar 22, 2011)

zchauvin said:


> Lol....... Don't buy cheap crap and you won't get cheap crap. When will people learn. You get what you pay for.
> 
> Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


To zchauvin - Marineland is a name brand and this filter is priced around the same as similar name brand canister filters, not cheap knock off import. So I don't think buying "cheap crap" is the case.

To OP, I've never had to contact their customer service for any problems. I can say their heaters are great and are workhorses. I've used their HOB filters, which are alright. Customer service says a lot about a company though, regardless of how great their products are. However I've never had that issue so will still be buying Marineland products.


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

zchauvin said:


> Lol....... Don't buy cheap crap and you won't get cheap crap. When will people learn. You get what you pay for.
> 
> Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


I think you need to learn what you are talking about as the Marineland products and prices are comparable with other brands. There is no need to be an obnoxious smart @$$ on here.......[-X:crazy:


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## zchauvin (Jul 28, 2011)

No reason to cry about something either, what were you looking for. Someone to feel sorry for you?
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

aquaman555 said:


> To OP, I've never had to contact their customer service for any problems. I can say their heaters are great and are workhorses. I've used their HOB filters, which are alright. Customer service says a lot about a company though, regardless of how great their products are. However I've never had that issue so will still be buying Marineland products.


I've been happy with my Emperor 400 they make, but that's about it. The heaters I don't trust at all anymore, they've already "burned" me on those when it got stuck on one day and boiled my fish (all before the recall on them was issued). I've also got a few maxi-jets, they are ok.
But, since dealing with this issue and their customer service, or lack thereof I should say. I am not ever going to buy another marineland product, and that is saying something as I "was" an avid customer of theirs.

Anyhow, I was just posting this to help others from being in the same boat I am in.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

I have to agree with RandallW201. I have had two issues with Marineland equipment in the last few years and each time they stepped up and resolved the issue professionally, promptly, and without any cost to me.

I do try to treat the customer service personnel with the same courtesy and respect that I would hope to receive from them. My experience has been that taking an attitude with someone I need help from seldom yields good results.


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

zchauvin said:


> No reason to cry about something either, what were you looking for. Someone to feel sorry for you?
> Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


No I am NOT crying
All I am trying to do is inform people how crappy a company and product is so as not to have issues with it as well. I was trying to help others unlike you who has nothing to offer.

So why don't you take your bad attitude elsewhere to get the attention you desire. And why don't you try growing up and getting some maturity while you are at it...


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> I have to agree with RandallW201. I have had two issues with Marineland equipment in the last few years and each time they stepped up and resolved the issue professionally, promptly, and without any cost to me.
> 
> I do try to treat the customer service personnel with the same courtesy and respect that I would hope to receive from them. My experience has been that taking an attitude with someone I need help from seldom yields good results.


No attitude was given to the customer service, I've been in their shoes. It ain't their fault the product failed so why would I gripe at them?
That is why I am upset and posting this, as if they would have treated me respectfully (just like I did them) when I called and handled the situation professionally there would not be any reason for me to be posting this up right now. 
I don't know why, but I'd dare to guess its an unhappy work environment there. Dunno...


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## aquaman555 (Mar 22, 2011)

LOL, most drama I've seen on this site since I've been here. 

How was the filter working for you prior to it going out? Maxi-Jets are popular with reef folks and always have been.


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

Tell me about it, I guess some people just have to make a scene...

Anyhow, the filter worked fine prior to going out. I was actually happy with it. I wasn't happy when it went out but I though, "oh well, I'll just call marineland and they'll take care of me since it's still under warranty". And then all this crap happened. It's more of the customer service that turned me off, but with the combination of both the faulty products and CS I'm done with marineland.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

I've had nothing but good results from Marineland; albiet several years past now. I had a HOT 250 Magnum that would suck in air. They promptly shipped me out a new gasket and several tubes of aquarium grade silicone grease.

My most recent purchase was a Maxi-Jet 600 powerhead. The only issue is that the diverter gets blown off when you rotate it too far. Its keeps on running.


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## pbh (Dec 9, 2010)

I use the Visi-Therm heaters. Over the years I had a couple quit working. They have a lifetime warranty and customer service replaced them without any trouble.


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## corsair75 (Dec 21, 2011)

I thought about it for a while before deciding to weigh in here. Full disclose: I'm the buyer in a mom and pop, full line pet store. I've been in the industry as a whole for over a decade, and into aquatics since about 2007. I've worked sales and retail, so I've been on 'both sides of the counter.' I became a hobbyist when I started selling the product. Before that I was not aware there was an alternative to pink plastic pirate ships. I say all this just so you know where I'm coming from. This is my own humble opinion, and it's not worth any more than the next guy's.

First of all, as to Marineland and parts. It sucks. Time was that parts were made very available, and were stocked in every aquatics shop. Since then, Marineland was swallowed by Tetra, which was in turn consumed by Rayovac. Now it exists as the nebulous United Pet Group alongside Aquarium Systems and the grave of Jungle Laboratories. To the eyes of an overlord, it's way easier to concentrate on "mass" (i.e. Walmart, Petsmart, Petco, etc) and internet accounts (DFS, Marine Depot, et al.) than independent stores. It's a numbers thing. Suddenly, things like a dealer parts support network begin to look costly and unnecessary. IIRC, it was trashed around '06 or '07 and the 1-800# the OP called sprang into the picture.

Now OP, I'm going to make an assumption here. You bought said canister filter from an online vendor? If not, I would be consulting the store that sold you the thing. 99% of the time, the store can handle the warranty claim for you. Shelf models can be cannibalized, or the whole unit replaced. The return is handled at the distributor level and everybody goes along their merry way. Including your fish. Some brands don't work that way, but UPG (err... 'Marineland') does. The poor performance of the Marineland parts network is well known (it doesn't work for us either). My distributors provide me good service, so that I can provide good service. Quite frankly, that is why the pet store charges more, and is entitled to more, for the same product. The extra money you spend is for back-end support. If you can shake a guy's hand, you can punch him in the face. That brings a certain honesty to the game. If you 'save money' online, you opt out of support. Caveat emptor.

The bottom line is this: every product is built to a price point. Each price point brings with it a given failure rate. Fact of life. I'm going off nothing but emperical evidence here, but it seems like as the price point has come down in recent years, so has the quality (i.e. the Stealth heater redesign fiasco...). Even equipment made of unobtanium can break. Rare or not, it sucks if it's you. Either have a plan B ready 'just in case,' or spend your dollars in an LFS that is willing to do some legwork to keep their customer (YOU!!!) happy.


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## joshvito (Apr 6, 2009)

I had a 150B power filter a couple years ago, and it lasted a little over a year before the pump went. On the other hand, I have a Tetra Power Filter I purchased in the late 90's that I still use to this day.

I have top agree with corsair75, "Each price point brings with it a given failure rate". And the old addage also applies, they don't make them like they use to, cause its cheaper to send you a replacement.


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

Wow. I bought my C-360 about 2 years ago and haven't had an issue with it yet. I read some of the complaints on the net about this filter leaking and I figured maybe I needed to contact their support to see if mine was one of the effective units.

So I sent them my unit number by email, never made a call. They emailed me back and the guy told me my unit wasn't one of the effected ones BUT he was gonna send me a whole head unit to be on the safe side. I asked if he wanted my old one back and he said nope, he said if it's still working just fine then just leave it alone. About 5 days later, FedEx dropped off the new unit. It's still in the box and I've only opened it to "look" at it.

So it sucks you had problems and had all that crap to go through with them. I have to say my experience has been excellent, which is a change for me and my luck.


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

If they only would have been that considerate with me I'd be praising the company instead of putting it down. Sounds to me like they have some issues with their representatives they need to get worked out.


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

Yeah if I were in your shoes I wouldn't be too happy with them either.


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## miles (Apr 26, 2006)

tread lightly. aquarists were sued by an online business for posting negative reviews. read this http://www.salon.com/2002/04/04/aquatic_plants/


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

Ha-ha, I'd tell'um to sue me. I don't own anything so I don't know what they think they'd get. If somebody builds a crappy product and then people complain, what's fair about being able to sue the people? But... that's what this world is coming to.


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## miles (Apr 26, 2006)

Sterling919 said:


> Ha-ha, I'd tell'um to sue me. I don't own anything so I don't know what they think they'd get. If somebody builds a crappy product and then people complain, what's fair about being able to sue the people? But... that's what this world is coming to.


they'd take your tank!


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

Dang, I didn't think about that!! Well it's empty right now anyway so I guess I wouldn't be out much. Except the fact that I got a 75 with cabinet and canopy for 100 bucks, where else would I find a deal like that?


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## RandallW201 (Jul 31, 2011)

I don't believe that. Just let them try...


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

My wife's an attorney. Believe it.

Since you put it in writing its libel.

To state an opinion based on something because of personalexperience and loss is OK but to generalize that all of their products are bad and solicit others to follow your demeaning banter is opening yourself up to a potential lawsuit.


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

If I am not mistaken.....was it not Petsmart that went after a few in the herp world a few years back & the corporation won...what a surprise. It imay be America but you can not say what you want without reprecussions


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

I know that PetsWarehouse.com went after a few people who were posting negative info on the web. I think its still in court.


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## miles (Apr 26, 2006)

Newt said:


> I know that PetsWarehouse.com went after a few people who were posting negative info on the web. I think its still in court.


i think it's all been settled. i believe robert novak declared bankruptcy. probably due the negative attention he brought upon himself. kinda ironic.

petwarehouse.com changed their name to drfosterandsmith.com to avoid any kind of confusion.


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

Aquaticz said:


> It imay be America but you can not say what you want without reprecussions


Doggone right, it's America 

You can't say anything you want without repercussion...
you can't yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater, among others.
you can usually say MOST things,  you can certainly think or believe anything you want.
but you shouldn't bash an entire product line because of a customer service issue,
and you shouldn't write it in a public forum.
just my .02 artyman:
Marineland's products are fine and typically fit the needs of most hobbyists,
(to whom their products are marketed in the first place)
I don't mean to be disrespectful of anyone, but it sounds like 
a (relatively) minor issue escalated into a screaming match.
(Hope my <insert significant other here> is reading :banplease)
Their products are fine, we all have bad days.


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

Bingo!



Newt said:


> I know that PetsWarehouse.com went after a few people who were posting negative info on the web. I think its still in court.


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## thefisherman (Nov 26, 2011)

Newt said:


> I know that PetsWarehouse.com went after a few people who were posting negative info on the web. I think its still in court.


+1

i believe it cam be construed as slander if its done verbally. since this post is written then its libel.

Sent from my iPhone


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

Marine land HOB filters rock ^^
I always loved them, the rate of GPH is splended.

Their stealth heaters are okie...never had good luck with them but the concepts cool...black heater.

Their canister filters looks too expensive for my taste (atleast whats sold at petsmart)...fluval is what i trust ^^.

In general i see nothing wrong with Marineland. Sometimes you get faulty equipment that ruins your day. Sometimes you dont .

I do however agree on the customer service part, they should have sent you a prepaid shipping label as AquaticLife recently sent me replacement LEDS for my light fixture and i had to ship them their timer unit back (in exchange for a working one) to them and they paid for it.

Customer service is key in any business, i believe if they provided you better customer service you wouldn't have posted this forum up ^^.

Next time ask for a different representative or the manager guy thats currently on shift. But then again some places only have like...2 people taking customer calls.

Side note: LOL @ the person who posted "i never seen this much drama on this site" i had a good chuckle.


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## anubias6439 (Sep 7, 2010)

first off, Wahhhhhhhhh! Boo hoo. 
Telling someone not to buy marineland products because they are crappy is like saying Ford or Honda makes crappy cars and you shouldnt buy them, Everybody has their own experiences and EVERYbody has at least one bad customer service representitive.

My experience-
Love there Emperor bio wheel filters. I have had one running for 9 years without a single problem. Bought some recently for other tanks, no problems either besides the breaking in period for the bio wheel spashing water onto the glass canopy for a month.

As for the stealth heaters, I found out the hard way with one, lost quite a few fish in a tank. Oh well, life happens. Switched it out for my favorite heater, the ebo jager. I have also had one of these ebo jagers for 9 years and it has been very trustworthy. I will probably not buy a stealth heater anytime soon or not at all but that doesnt mean i am going to bash and throw a tantrum about the whole company.


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## Sterling919 (Jan 19, 2008)

I think what he should of done was what I did, just email them and see what they'd say. Then if that didn't work out so well, call and see where you can get.

There are a lot of people who have complained about the C-360 and it leaking and how terrible it is. Mine hasn't been that way and I personally love that filter, wish I had two more just like it. As with any canister or even a sump, I think a way to break the syphon is a key factor to having one, without it, once a syphon is started it's not gonna stop. I don't run heaters in my tank because I'm afraid they'll hang up and overheat the tank, had a Tetra heater do that, and up until that incident I swore by Tetra stuff. So yea, you get good and bad in everything.


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## corsair75 (Dec 21, 2011)

Why is everybody hung up on this lawsuit stuff? I went through the thread again and I'm not sure what exactly is 'actionable material'. Petswarehouse.com or whatever is probably suing because they aren't smart enough to realize that anybody who even _hears_ about them suing a customer for posting a review is *never, ever going to shop there.* It doesn't matter if the customer goes online and badmouths your mother, even if they win the lawsuit it might eventually bankrupt the business. UPG has smarter lawyers than that, with actual jobs to do...

OP, thank you for posting this thread. If someone from Marineland _does_ read this, I hope their takeaway is that a few more sheckles for the customer service department might be a good idea. This is a program that is only a few years old, and clearly it has issues. If nobody says anything, nothing gets fixed.


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## DeChaoOrdo (Jan 7, 2012)

anubias6439 said:


> first off, Wahhhhhhhhh! Boo hoo.
> Telling someone not to buy marineland products because they are crappy is like saying Ford or Honda makes crappy cars and you shouldnt buy them, Everybody has their own experiences and EVERYbody has at least one bad customer service representitive.
> 
> My experience-
> ...


I somewhat agree, though I think marineland deserves to be bashed. They built themselves a reputation and as soon as enough people began associating their brand with a degree of quality switched their manufacturing process. The stealth heaters in particular illustrate this. They built a reputation using italian manufacturers, then decided to move the manufacture to china. This lead to the exploding heater situation. Yet they persist with moving from reputable manufacturers to cheaper manufacturers. If the supplier has no loyalty to its manufacturers how can they expect their customers to have a loyalty to them? Marineland used to supply quality products at quality prices, but now expect their customers to pay quality prices for discount products. I say demand quality products and ignore brand name since they expect loyalty to work in one direction.


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

DeChaoOrdo said:


> This lead to the exploding heater situation.


i think i had one of those exploding heaters !

but filters are absolutely fantastic ^^


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## exv152 (Jul 12, 2008)

I have an Eclipse 3 made by marineland, it's a 37 gal integrated light & filter system that's been fantastic, no complaints.


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