Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

Neptune Customer support is THE ABSOLUTE WORST


Mitch619

Recommended Posts

This is a cautionary story for anyone contemplating using Neptune for their aquarium. They have hands down the worst customer support I have ever encountered. When I had a problem with my mp10 ecotech sent out a replacement no questions asked. 

 

So I've been out of town for work and my brand new 3 month old $500 Neptune apex breaks down and 3 plugs stop working all together. I asked my wife to look into it and we verified that the plugs are not working. 

 

So I call get in touch with customer support. I tell them the issue and that I'm out of town. Guess what their customer support consists of? 2 weeks (not exaggerating in the least) 2 WEEKS of them asking me to check the plugs and allow them to remotely access it. meanwhile my lights haven't been on and my heater had to be connected to the wall directly since it wasn't even heating my tank in winter! 

 

What in the world kind of customer support is this? 

Link to comment

I actually had the exact opposite experience. I found their customer service platform to be very easy to navigate and use. My apex classic got fried by a lightning strike and power outage one week after I purchased it. I contacted them and told them the truth about what happened and they REPLACED IT FOR FREE. This was at no fault to them or anything. It was a complete shot in the dark and I didn't expect anything out of it because it wasn't their fault. It took about a week and by system was back up and running. The only complaint I have about Neptune is their prices. But they have a customer for life from me. Sorry you had a bad experience 

  • Like 2
Link to comment

I did let them access it. Very easy to navigate and Apex don’t go good in the same sentence. 

Goat reef I have a hard time believing you. I just got off the phone with them. My Apex is 3 months old. 

 

You know what they literally just told me? That they will ship a box to me so I can then ship it back and they can repair it and then ship it back to me. LOL 

 

I just can’t belive this. Everyone please be warned when your apex has an issue. There is no quick way to fix it. You’ll have to have a backup. 

 

Worst company ive ever dealt with hands down. 

Link to comment
 
Check out the email I got. 
 
Hi Mitch,
 
Thank you for the invoice. 
 
Below is an RMA that you can either provide to Marine Depot if you are wanting your money back as we can not refund you the money as the transaction was with Marine Depot not us directly. 
 
If you want to supply us your shipping address we can supply a return shipping label to you to have the EB832 come in to be diagnosed. 
 
please contact Marine Depot and let them that this RMA is to get your Money back as long as everything is returned back to them (Apex, EB832, Temp, pH, ORP, & Salinity probes).
Link to comment

So you report a problem while out of town and they try to assist but it is difficult / delayed because you are out of town and that's their fault ? 

 

They then offer a refund or repair but that's not good enough ? 

 

Seems to me like they are trying their best to help. 

 

Yes sending it in for diagnosis / repair is a pain for the user but the unit is not working properly anyway so what's the difference.

 

It seems from your initial post that  you expect them to just send a new one out immediately. For all they know you could have spilled water in it or something else not covered by warranty and caused it to go bad. 

 

If the diagnosis finds it to be a Neptune error then it will be fixed and returned to you. 

 

So shipping will take approximately 3 days from you to them, they will need time to diagnose and repair (which there may be other repairs ahead of you) so let's say a week of time best case, and then approx 3 days to ship back. They will tell you 2-3 weeks and then work to get it out sooner if possible.

 

Sounds to me like they are providing the appropriate customer service. You just don't like the process. 

 

Also you should always have backups for anything critical to your system. I have spare pumps , heaters, and even a spare eb8 . Just in case. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
2 hours ago, Mitch619 said:

I did let them access it. Very easy to navigate and Apex don’t go good in the same sentence. 

Goat reef I have a hard time believing you. I just got off the phone with them. My Apex is 3 months old. 

 

You know what they literally just told me? That they will ship a box to me so I can then ship it back and they can repair it and then ship it back to me. LOL 

 

I just can’t belive this. Everyone please be warned when your apex has an issue. There is no quick way to fix it. You’ll have to have a backup. 

 

Worst company ive ever dealt with hands down. 

Are you calling me a liar? How about you reference my old nuvo10 journal and you can recount the events real time. 

Link to comment

It took me no time at all to fill out a help desk ticket with them. They contacted me the next day if I recall correctly. I shipped it out that week and waited a bit for them to fix and ship back and had either a brand new or completely refurbished unit once it was all said and done. I'm not sure which one it was but all I know is that it was fried and it was sent back good as new. While I was waiting everything was plugged into a power strip just to keep the tank running. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but just saying that the company is the worst ever, just because you had a bad experience is just a false narrative. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

just because I don't like being called a liar. Here's the proof from last year when this happened. Take note of the date. Only thing I didn't remember clearly was about the situation was that there was no lightning strike just a power outage. 

Screenshot_20190305-174442.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
HarryPotter
2 hours ago, Mitch619 said:
 
Check out the email I got. 
 
Hi Mitch,
 
Thank you for the invoice. 
 
Below is an RMA that you can either provide to Marine Depot if you are wanting your money back as we can not refund you the money as the transaction was with Marine Depot not us directly. 
 
If you want to supply us your shipping address we can supply a return shipping label to you to have the EB832 come in to be diagnosed. 
 
please contact Marine Depot and let them that this RMA is to get your Money back as long as everything is returned back to them (Apex, EB832, Temp, pH, ORP, & Salinity probes).

 

Sounds like you were uncooperative. If you bought it from marine depot, you need to return it to marine deoy. Why should you buy it from marine depot, but demand your refund from Neptune? Noob. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment

Sorry for the problems, it is frustrating but this is how most RMA's work for expensive components. 

 

When my motherboard on my computer fried, I had to ship it back for repair so no working computer until it was fixed and returned.

 

In some cases I have had products where they will charge me for a new one to send out a replacement ASAP and refund me only after the damage one arrives to them and is diagnosed that I didn't break it. This was for a smart phone bought directly through google. 

 

I don't think Neptune sells apex directly off their website so I am guessing the 2nd option isn't even an option to offer. 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment

I understand the frustration having to ship it out but as pointed out above it’s their process. I had a great experience with them when my EB8 lost a couple outlets...they sent a shipping label and I had it back good as new in less than a couple weeks. Mine was just out of warranty and they still fixed it for me 🤷‍♂️ Can’t complain I thought the process was easy and straight forward. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

So you all are saying that it’s perfectly ok to have a person disconnect their whole reef and ship out a defective $500 fish controller for several weeks. All of this only 3 months into ownership? Do you all wanna valuntarily pay extra taxes too? Bunch of pansies. 

 

I was not uncooperative. My wife was at home trying out all their dang troubleshooting. At a certain point, you kind of want something that works. I guess im not one of those fish losers that has a backup 500 fish controller huh? I know have to go get a meanwhile solution while I ship out my 3 month old product to them in hopes that I get it back in a few weeks. You all are asbulutly mental if you think that’s how customer service works on high end stuff like this. 

 

I even offered to have them put a hold on my card while I get a new one and ship back the old one.  

 

I had a problem with ecotech, guess what? They shipped me a new one with little hassle. 

 

 

 

Link to comment
3 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Sounds like you were uncooperative. If you bought it from marine depot, you need to return it to marine deoy. Why should you buy it from marine depot, but demand your refund from Neptune? Noob. 

They actually said they would have marine depot refund my money by coopoerating with them. But guess how long that takes? Don’t talk if you don’t know. 

Link to comment

No one said to have an entire controller on hand. I mentioned having a spare eb8 and that is due to outlets having a history of going out on people. If the brain were to fail then I would be down as well. My system can easily be ran for as long as needed without the Apex so having the back up brain isn't something that I have purchased yet. 

If your system is that dependant on a controller then yes you should be a loser with a spare $500 controller . 

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
3 minutes ago, jbb_00 said:

No one said to have an entire controller on hand. I mentioned having a spare eb8 and that is due to outlets having a history of going out on people. If the brain were to fail then I would be down as well. My system can easily be ran for as long as needed without the Apex so having the back up brain isn't something that I have purchased yet. 

If your system is that dependant on a controller then yes you should be a loser with a spare $500 controller . 

 

 

 

True. I should have thought about buying a spare. But when you’re specking a several thousand dollar build you don’t really wanna take $800 out of your budget for this. I have the new version which is the eb832. It’s pricier than the eb8. 

 

They should honestly consider putting a hold on people’s cards and send new/refurb equipment. I wouldn’t care about sending back most things for repair. But a vital piece of your reef shouldn’t  have to be ripped apart for weeks. 

Link to comment
2 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

just because I don't like being called a liar. Here's the proof from last year when this happened. Take note of the date. Only thing I didn't remember clearly was about the situation was that there was no lightning strike just a power outage. 

Screenshot_20190305-174442.png

Dude a power outage is no reason for that to fail. You were in your right to get a new one. How the f does a power outage cause it to fail? That’s crazy. It sucks there is no competing fish controllers out there cause I wanna rip this thing out and throw it in the trash. 

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, Mitch619 said:

True. I should have thought about buying a spare. But when you’re specking a several thousand dollar build you don’t really wanna take $800 out of your budget for this. I have the new version which is the eb832. It’s pricier than the eb8. 

 

They should honestly consider putting a hold on people’s cards and send new/refurb equipment. I wouldn’t care about sending back most things for repair. But a vital piece of your reef shouldn’t  have to be ripped apart for weeks. 

I understand that but cost of eb8 vs 832 really doesn't matter here. If all of my outlets fail at the same time as yours , we are both in the same boat. One thing you really need to consider though is what else are you running on that 832. Are you running anything vital on the extra power ports like a core return or maybe your dosing / ato ? If so and one of those fail you are screwed again without a backup . You have so many points of possible failure on that one unit that simply hoping that all is going to be  well 100% of the time is asking for trouble. I would say take this huge inconvenience as a learning experience and start stocking up on any critical life support items. 

 

I too travel for work and having those back up pieces have saved me a ton of stress and tank loss in the past. 

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, Mitch619 said:

Dude a power outage is no reason for that to fail. You were in your right to get a new one. How the f does a power outage cause it to fail? That’s crazy. It sucks there is no competing fish controllers out there cause I wanna rip this thing out and throw it in the trash. 

If there is a surge in electricity when power is restored is can most definitely blow up an Apex. I work on medical equipment and it happens all the time when they switch power back and forth to do generator tests.

Link to comment
21 minutes ago, Mitch619 said:

So you all are saying that it’s perfectly ok to have a person disconnect their whole reef and ship out a defective $500 fish controller for several weeks. All of this only 3 months into ownership? Do you all wanna valuntarily pay extra taxes too? Bunch of pansies. 

 

I was not uncooperative. My wife was at home trying out all their dang troubleshooting. At a certain point, you kind of want something that works. I guess im not one of those fish losers that has a backup 500 fish controller huh? I know have to go get a meanwhile solution while I ship out my 3 month old product to them in hopes that I get it back in a few weeks. You all are asbulutly mental if you think that’s how customer service works on high end stuff like this. 

 

I even offered to have them put a hold on my card while I get a new one and ship back the old one.  

 

I had a problem with ecotech, guess what? They shipped me a new one with little hassle. 

 

 

 

Most of the stuff should be able to run on a power strip... at least well enough to keep corals alive since they don't really depend on sunset/sunrise or sync'd pumps ect to live. Being down dosers is probably the most annoying thing. I hand dose though 👍

 

Some people will not rely totally on apex for this very reason, if the brain or something breaks... everything goes down. Some people purposely buy dosers that don't rely on apex, ATO, ect. Stuff like is bound to happen to someone and it sucks when all your eggs are in one basket. 

 

It is this way because people are dishonest in life. They probably don't do holds because they don't sell it from their website and simply not set up to do so.

 

Nothing can really do exactly everything an apex can and stuff breaks.. and sometimes you get lemons in life 🍋

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
1 minute ago, jbb_00 said:

I understand that but cost of eb8 vs 832 really doesn't matter here. If all of my outlets fail at the same time as yours , we are both in the same boat. One thing you really need to consider though is what else are you running on that 832. Are you running anything vital on the extra power ports like a core return or maybe your dosing / ato ? If so and one of those fail you are screwed again without a backup . You have so many points of possible failure on that one unit that simply hoping that all is going to be  well 100% of the time is asking for trouble. I would say take this huge inconvenience as a learning experience and start stocking up on any critical life support items. 

 

I too travel for work and having those back up pieces have saved me a ton of stress and tank loss in the past. 

Yeah this is definitely a learning experience.

 

Have extra eb8s and eb832s cause if one were to fail, this company has second class customer support that will leave you waiting for weeks. 

 

Whats your defense on that? Would you call their customer support first class? Like ecotech who sent a new product immediately? 

Link to comment

My ecotech pump didn't work out of the box btw... and I had to send it back and wait for it to be fixed and sent back.

 

No lie 😞 I stuck a maxijet on the tank I had for mixing salt.. ha.  

Link to comment
4 minutes ago, Mitch619 said:

Yeah this is definitely a learning experience.

 

Have extra eb8s and eb832s cause if one were to fail, this company has second class customer support that will leave you waiting for weeks. 

 

Whats your defense on that? Would you call their customer support first class? Like ecotech who sent a new product immediately? 

To be honest I've never dealt with their customer service department so I have no idea . I guess I've been lucky to not have issues with mine , I bought the backup as a precaution after reading of fee others having issues

I have had a tunze ato sensor fail and they had me send it in so they could replace the optical sensor. Took about 2 weeks total . 

Link to comment
1 minute ago, Tamberav said:

My ecotech pump didn't work out of the box btw... and I had to send it back and wait for it to be fixed and sent back.

 

No lie 😞 I stuck a maxijet on the tank I had for mixing salt.. ha.  

Dang that sucks. I wouldn’t be too mad about a pump though. I appreciate the responses here. 

 

I’ll take it down a notch with Neptune being the worst but I still think people should know that if they were to run into problems, it’s gonna take a bit to fix. And by a bit I mean 2 weeks. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...