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All About Fish (1 Viewer)

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Nice small store, but not worth visiting. The owner is very rude and lacks customer service skills. He will sometimes follow you into the other room (dry goods) and hover behind your back almost as if he thinks you’re going to steal something. His coral and dry goods are priced about 2-3x higher than most places. Once...I needed some Fern Caulerpa algae for my sump refugium and thought that he would just give me a little bit because he had a lot. I mean come on it’s algae that grows like a weed! He literally pulled out “two” strands, put them in a plastic bag, and charged me $30. Really?? What bothered me the most was the way this guy stared at you while you were trying to shop for fish and coral. I like to take my time and really look at things before I buy them. I think most reefers do, but here you felt forced to hurry up and buy. I absolutely hated that. I used to live about 2 miles from this store. The only reason why I visited was because he was conveniently located to me. Even then...as much as I wanted to stop by and grab a fish or coral some days...the price and “his stare” would prevent me from pulling in. This is the absolute truth. I don’t sugar coat things.

 
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NEWBISH

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I got the same vibe, used to go in all the time about 4 years ago when i had my last tank due to the location being so close since i live right of the beltway. He has good selection pricing did seem pretty high but i was just checking things out for my new tank, so i wasn't really looking at price real closely, more so just what he did and didn't have most times i'll pay a little extra for the for the convenience and he did leave me alone for about 5-10 min while i looked for livestock, but when i tried to talk to him he just wasn't as friendly as most people in the hobby long story short i'll be using another shop for my LFS.
 
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Yep...Agreed. To his credit, he probably had the cleanest store around and would have done well had he just treated his customers a little better and been more helpful. Not everybody wants to buy when they enter a store. Sometimes people just wanna look or what they are searching for isn’t there. Some people don’t plan to buy and run across something they really like. If you are patient and nice to your customers they will buy. Then they’ll return to buy more. If you can’t handle people looking, maybe having a salty business isn’t for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people up at Ocean Life or FJW just hanging out. Most didn’t buy anything those days, but the next time I saw them with bags full of coral or fish. A lot of people who go to look, and if you let them look long enough, their wallet opens. If you don’t want your business to do well all you have to do is this. Be rude to your customers and make them feel rushed to buy or obligated to buy. People will quit visiting your business. There’s a lot of little reef stores around Houston. :)
 
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NEWBISH

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Couldn't agree more its a nice place! Its just more often the small things that keep people in business and people always WANT to support local business, myself included especially since i work for a small company. Maybe one day he will get it, seems like he has been in business a while one way or another,I mean he seems really knowledgeable just lacking personality.
 

frankc

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I have mixed feelings about this store. The owner is not overly friendly, but I've never had a real problem with him, either. You do need to know about pricing. When I was just starting out with corals, I paid $80 for a small pink bird's nest frag that I would soon learn everyone else sells for $10-20. On the other hand, I got a flame angel from him that was reasonably priced, and it was the first flame angel I ever had that didn't die within a few weeks. In fact, I had it 5 or 6 years and probably would still have it if it hadn't hidden in a conch shell when I moved. His livestock always seemed to be very healthy.
 
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