Bad Guy HerpKeeper/Digital Aquatics

[l0vx3]

I may get lots of arguments over this, but I don't care. This was MY personal experience with Digital Aquatics, and that company should be prepared for bad reviews if they are going to treat potential customers the way they treated me.

I have a long story about them on Facebook so I'd like to keep this one brief. I am posting this to warn others who are torn between thermostats. I'm sure the Herpkeeper works just fine (save for the non-proportional heating); however, if you are someone who values good customer service, I suggest you steer clear.

***I did not go through a vendor. I went directly through the Digital Aquatics website.

With that being said, you'd think the actual company would offer the best customer service. Anyway, they charge for 3 day shipping. No other options, which I was fine with. I wanted my thermostat ASAP. But, if I am paying for 3 day shipping, I better get it in 3 days or get some kind of explanation and apology why I didn't. I got neither of those.

I wanted an update on my order because it was not shipping out as fast as the website promised. So an ACTUAL, LIVING staff member finally emailed me and told me the exact day it would ship. I checked my order all day long, and it never shipped. That would absolutely deserve an apology, no? Never got an apology. I argued with them for awhile afterwards, because they were passive aggressive with me and never acknowledged their mistake. Also, I had asked for a refund over 5 times, called about 3 times and left messages for a refund, and they ignored that. That is really bad.

Then days later it finally shipped, and I had to go through a respected vendor, so that he could contact Digital Aquatics and get them to give me a refund. It was madness. Never once received an apology. They lost a lifetime of business and recommendations. Honeslty, after the first staff member gave me false information, all they had to do was apologize and keep me updated with explanations. I would have been patient if they were going through problems. We are all human. But nope. They showed me that if I had their product and ever experienced problems with it or needed help, they wouldn't be there for me.

I ordered Herpstat by Spyder Robotics after I got my refund. They shipped it immediately and it arrive sooner than I expected. Just a bit of comparison.

 

[Lucille]

Have you notified them of this thread? Do they have a TOS that includes shipping info?

 

[frostgfx]

Their website for Herpkeeper/Herpkeeper Pro http://www.digitalaquatics.org/herpetology/
does not contain any TOS or ordering/shipping info... Looks like they want you to call them for details... Not the way I would conduct a business. I was looking at their systems and glad I chose to hold off due to finances. Lately glad that BOI is there to provide more info about dealers, breeders and sellers on cornsnake.com.

 

[l0vx3]

Why would I notify them of this thread? I notified them throught every struggle I had with them to the very end and they were nothing but mean to me. They do not care what I think of them.

 

[l0vx3]

frostgfx: Also, like I stated in the post I called them probably about 4-5 times through out this ordeal and they never answered their phone. I'd call within business hours. Left multiple messages stating my name, reason I was calling, please call me back because it was urgent, and my phone number. Never called back or answered once.

 

[juliasara]

I ordered and received my herpkeeper setup 2 weeks ago. I was told it would ship monday but it ended up shipping Wednesday and I received it friday. I never tried calling but did get responses to emails. I'll admit it was kind of annoying that I had to wait 2 more days to get it but I'm extremely happy I did! So far I'm extremely pleased with the product and can't wait to order another one when I save up enough!

 

[hhmoore]

Why would I notify them of this thread?

So they can respond, if they so choose. It is considered common courtesy to send the other party a link to the thread when you post a negative BOI thread.

 

[yeloowtang]

I can't speak about their service as i never got their product directly from them, always a supplier.
I've been waiting to hear about how the herp model performs..

I have had the reef keeper and reef keeper elite for my salt water reef set ups and they worked great.. the price is a little high but in addition to controlling 4 seperate cages you have 8 sockets to plug into, you can also add more PC4s for even more options. not sure you can add more to the pro model, but the elite model can have up to 18 modules.

Just a word of caution to the new users, unless they have fixed this issue.

if pluging misting pumps with low wattage, DO NOT plug them into sockets # 2- #3
ONLY use them into 1 and 4 because they are master sockets.. if you plug them in 2 - 3 the low wattage will not be detected and the pump will not shut down, it will simply mist until the reservoir is empty then kill your pump.
I havent tried this with the herp version, but from what i know, the system and software is the same..
in my reef tank, this was a issue with the auto top off pump that made my sump overflow and the pump to my Kalk reactor that stayed on and overdosed the kalk in my tank

 

[dlegare]

I have a Herpkeeper and I believe it could be a truly awesome device save for one huge problem. The Digital Aquatics team appear to not give a (6th letter of the alphabet) about customer service, support, etc. Customer support is extremely hard to get ahold of, if and when you do contact them they are full of excuses, the site has many dead links, and again if you bring this to customer service attention you get excuse a plenty. Updates are few and very far between, recent update killed a very useful function and they won't eve acknowledge the issue, and they have been making claims for years that a controller software is in the works... Holding breath until it arrives...

The above being said, I really do like the controller. It has worked flawlessly for the many years I have owned it. I do not, however, use it for temperature or humidity control. I do use it for misting and lighting control. And I also use it for lunar cycle lighting.

I have absolutely no experience with the Herpkeeper pro but it does use the same modules so I would also expect the same rocky support for that item as well.

I really want to love the Herpkeeper but thanks to DigitalAquatics I probably never will.

 

[juliasara]

My experience with them was different. I contacted them with a question a few days ago and had a response within 36 hours. Not as fast as some companies but I definitely have had to wait longer with some. I'm not sure why they respond relatively quickly to some and are slow to answer others. I really like my herpkeeper, hopefully they can fix the flaws in their customer service.

 

[Guy Castro]

I ordered Herpstat by Spyder Robotics after I got my refund. They shipped it immediately and it arrive sooner than I expected. Just a bit of comparison.

Better late than never, figuring out to order from the "Herpstat Kings!"