Octopets.com is the worst online retailer around.

VL

Hatchling
Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
4
Tried to order a couple of octos from them on april 24th and heard nothing back about the order. April 25th I emailed them to confirm the order and when I could expect shipment. No reply. I called the number on April 26th and left a few voice mails. Again no reply.

I finally just cancelled the order today.

Never again will I attempt to order from this jerk. They are cheaper at fishsupply.com anyways.
 
from my understanding
Fishsupply.com buys all their octos from Jim at Octopets
as far as i can find Octopets is the only supplier of Farm Raised Octos on THIS CONTINENT.
he might be a bad retailer but hes the ONLY retailer of Captive Raised Octos.
 
If you do a search for octopets on these boards, you'll see that there have been a number of disasters there recently--Jim has lost the last two entire generations of baby bimacs due to flooding and other things. Don't expect fish supply to have one for you anytime soon.

Dan
 
VL said:
Tried to order a couple of octos from them on april 24th and heard nothing back about the order. April 25th I emailed them to confirm the order and when I could expect shipment. No reply. I called the number on April 26th and left a few voice mails. Again no reply.

While I understand and even share your frustration (I've been waiting almost 3 weeks now and never got a reply to any of my emails either), from everything that I've heard, it's bearly better than a one man operation. Considering that he supplies the entire captive-bred market for the continent, it makes sense that his customer service would suffer greatly. If you think caring for one octo is a lot of work, imagine what it would be like for several HUNDRED, plus all of the other critters as well. Yes, he desperately needs to hire someone to run the business side for him, but I doubt that he makes enough profit to afford someone. Hmm, I wonder if he would be interested in taking on some part-time volunteers?

If you can find an alternate supplier, let us know as there would be many other interested people. Until then, I guess you're stuck waiting in line with the rest of us. *shrug*
 
VL said:
Tried to order a couple of octos from them on april 24th and heard nothing back about the order. April 25th I emailed them to confirm the order and when I could expect shipment. No reply. I called the number on April 26th and left a few voice mails. Again no reply.

I finally just cancelled the order today.

Never again will I attempt to order from this jerk. They are cheaper at fishsupply.com anyways.



Wow. Such a load of cr*p from someone who is unaware of how the fish trade works...
Let me clue you into something here...the breeding of bimacs by Octopets is a SIDELINE business for this guy...he is doing it because he loves the octos, not to make a profit. As such, stock is only available sporadically...now and again, not WHENEVER YOU decide it is time to get one !!!!
Prior to Octopets, you wouldn't be able to get squat in captive bred octos...so go ahead and order from whoever you want...but calling Octopets such names will win you zero favours with me.

greg
 
I agree with Greg - Octopets stands alone in trying to provide us with captive bred octopuses. And it is almost a one man operation. Jim couldn't be making much money-if any- on the octopus side of this venture. I certainly wish him future success.

Nancy
 
In VL's defense, the details of the operation isn't necessarily apparent. If I were ordering an octo from him without knowing the whole story from hanging out here, I'd probably be pretty frustrated, too.

Dan
 
No, there is no defense for a statement like that. What VL said is a complete insult...from "worst" to "jerk".

Don't any of you realize that octopus do not breed all of the year around? Babies are available from time to time, not at YOUR whim !!! This is a small business that is striking out in a new direction, and you are casting feces all over him??? BAH !

No wonder more people aren't doing it, with customer's like this.

greg
 
cthulhu77 said:
Don't any of you realize that octopus do not breed all of the year around? Babies are available from time to time, not at YOUR whim !!! This is a small business that is striking out in a new direction, and you are casting feces all over him??? BAH !

No wonder more people aren't doing it, with customer's like this.

You know, he really may not--a lot of people are used to pets like cats and dogs which have high availabilities. Even things that most people would consider exotic such as iguanas and veiled chameleons, are typically available whenever you go to a pet store. I do agree 100% that its indefensible to use such extreme words about Octopets. I also like your message in the other thread where you talk about people's "amazon.com" paradigm (its even worse here because people expect it tomorrow and not necessarily in 3-5 days!)

I think the big issue here is education. Most people don't know what they're getting into and are destined to have a horrible time with it. How many times do people post really dumb basic questions, didn't know they had to cycle the tank, ad nauseum. Before I got serious about my setup I spent dozens of hours going through the archives on this site and various saltwater sites: The commitment is so large to keep and maintain one of these critters that was the minor part! If someone gets bored researching octos for more than a minute or two, I don't know if they have the patience to be successful keeping them. I don't know how many times I searched the archives for "octopets" "fishsupply" and "aquacultured" before I ordered.

This is an issue in a lot of big hobbies. The other thing I waste my money on is a homebuilt hovercraft. There are countless people who decide what plans they're going to build or what brand to buy based on how pretty the designer's website is, etc. These people invariably spend an amazing amount of time and money for a craft that is tailor fitted to someone else. The end result is the builder masking their unhappiness and trying to sell it after a few years. The builder's friends invariably spread the opinion "Oh, I knew a guy who built one of those things and it really sucked."

"I know a guy who put a whole lot of money into an octopus tank. He kept buying them and they kept dying." I don't want that to be me!

I could never do what Jim is doing because I couldn't stand knowing that 90% of the octos I sent out will invariably die in the hands of an idiot, with or without an Eclipse (I had a premature death in my 75, but I like to think my setup was alright and that he had a fighting chance). The critical thing is that is infinitely better than plucking wild octos out of their homes and sending them to imminent doom.

Now, given all that, I do wish that Octopets would have an availability page. It is very difficult to order the animal and not hear anything for weeks on when the order might ship--I'm sure half the phone calls and emails he gets are about availability, so I suspect it would save him a lot of time!



Dan
 
Damnit Dan...how come you have to come on here and MAKE SENSE !!!! There goes my Zeppelin down in flames....
Sir, you cut to the heart of the matter quite well...yep, I agree...it would be nice if the web page said something like "only available sometimes, etc"...

but it just burned my rear to see people flaming the guy who has done more to help this hobby than damn near anyone else, just because they couldn't get what they want when they wanted it!!!

Anyway...that was a good post.

greg
 
cthulhu77 said:
Sir, you cut to the heart of the matter quite well...yep, I agree...it would be nice if the web page said something like "only available sometimes, etc"...

Wow...that's the first time anyone has ever called me sir without adding, "you're making a scene."

Dan :smile:
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top