Bad Guy Petown DIY Acrylic tanks (poor qaulity)

[Meadowknight]

I wanted to warn people about the "Petown" acrylic tanks as I have had a very bad experience with the seller, and product, and I am now out $130.00 with two horrible tanks that are going to need some serious work to even be useable. DO NOT buy these tanks unless you have low standards and don't mind paying $70 for a junker. People have already given me good suggestions on how to get around it's problems, but for $70 I was not expecting a junker that's questionable safety-wise for pets. Here are some more details....


1. These tanks are not good for ANY animal that requires misting! They merely screw together, and screw together in a very cheap way. Any water you mist doing your daily gecko mistings will leak out of every corner. I tested this, and the outside corners were wet. These are also clearly mass produced in china which is evident in the quality, and in the instruction sheet which has very little English.

2. Screw ends are exposed on every single screw in the inside surfaces of the tank, and there are a LOT of screws (the worst are the two connecting the front top of the lid, but all are exposed). I took a couple of photos to show this

This second photo of the screws is the inside of the tank, I followed the instructions properly.

3. I had to remove a screen top on the inside of the lid that had a jagged metal exposed (I almost cut my finger, I can't imagine what it could do to a crested gecko's soft foot, or any other exoctic animal).

4. Poor design. There are a ton of vents on three out of the four walls (worse in person than what they look like in photos), which pretty much eliminates the whole point of the tank being super clear to view your animal, or to hold ANY humidity (especially when paired with the horrible metal screen). This also makes misting impossible, unless you also want to spray your surrounding walls and shelves...I now have plastic on two of the walls, and I replaced the top metal hazard with polycarbonate. The sliding door is awkward, so I just take the entire thing off whenever I need to open it...otherwise if you pull too high it just falls off.

5. The seller does not appear to care for customers. I made the mistake of asking for a discount since I was buying two...which resulted in the seller requesting I pay him through paypal as a "gift" so he didn't have to pay paypal fees. All this has resulted in, is me being unable to open a dispute now that I see his products are of unusable quality without major modifications. Before trying this I complained directly to him, and I did so as polite as possible. He had cut me a $10 off deal originally on the two tanks, normally priced $70 each. Now that I want a refund, he is only offering to refund me $60, and not the full priced one I paid for. Shipping was also free, but he will not cover it for a return. What this amounts to, is even if I returned one, it would probably cost me $25-$40 shipping it back..leaving me with at most a $35.00 refund out of the $130 I paid, and a already opened tank that I hate. He will not refund the one I opened.

All this being said...I have contacted paypal even though I can't open a dispute, and explained the situation. I have also taken a screen capture of our conversation on facebook of the seller asking me to pay as a gift. If anything that may get his account suspended. I am doubtful I can get my money back but I am going to try. If you have these tanks and enjoy them, good for you (seriously, I don't want anyone to feel how I do right now). For anyone else considering buying them...consider my review here. I am very upset, and now I don't have the money to get the tanks I need. I'm going to try sealing the corners for now at least on the opened tank, and maybe turn it into a project habitat when I have money again for some pet safe epoxy free form habitat supplies. If anyone is interested even after this crappy review, I do have an unopened one that I would be willing to sell or trade, if anyone wants a project piece. It's 12" X 12" X 20", and was purchased here --> .http://www.petown.net/ . I live in California, I might be willing to ship it, but it might not be cost effective to do so :/.

Thanks for reading. I joined this site in order to warn others about this tank. Thankfully I have had some great luck with crested gecko sellers/breeders though, so in a day or so I'll write up a positive review for each of them.

~Angela

 

[Meadowknight]

P.S. YES I now know not to accept the gift option from any seller...I have been using Paypal for over 10 years and just never had a problem of this nature with a seller until now.

 

[Snakesatsunset]

We use TONS of Petown cages, and they are awesome. They are easily adaptable to different uses....we use for all sorts of animals. The tray can hold excess water from spraying, but not a mist system as thats not what cage was designed for. Obviously you bought a cage with vents on three sides, just like in his pictures, so expect water to go through the vents, common sense....the corners are not water tight as you DIY together....they are not meant to be water tight, that;s not the design of the cage.
By looking at your pictures seems you did not build correctly at all. One picture shows the corner bracket on inside of the tank not outside...then the built picture shows on outside?
The pictures on website clearly show the three walls with vents. I think you wanted something and didnt research or look before buying and have buyers remorse.
The sides are not the viewing sides, the front is the clear door with no view obstruction. The door slides smoothly on the 50+ we have made and sold...of course the door comes off when you slide it out of the track....thats the point. you pull it up through the tracks, and put to the side to do whatever you need to do in the cage. The jumbomodel has a magnet to hold door as the door is much larger then the little one. You want to adapt it to have magnets to hold the door, just glue two magnets.
I think you had an idea in your mind of what you wanted it to be, not what it is.
The screen lid is for a heat lamp to not melt plastic, or poly, or plastic mesh. The screen is flat, and attached, so dont see how it has jagged edges sticking out unless the metal got bent, if so you can bend back in to place.(flat) against lid)
Its a DIY cage not designed for a specific animal. Its designed to be adaptable and easy to work with to customize to what ever you need it for. We put fly screen between metal screen and border of lid and on vents to adapt it to Williamsi Gecko cages....

Either way, Cliff is a great guy, bends over backwards for people.
His cages rock, and wish he had more then three designs!

 

[Meadowknight]

Cliff has stopped replying to me, and I have assembled the cage correctly. I asked for a partial refund to cover the tank and the shipping since I paid for free shipping. I have seen OTHER acrylic tanks in person that are of a high quality. To say I have not researched is presumptuous..I have been reading up on, asking about, and looking at acrylic tanks for months. I'm sorry but I am just not happy with the tank at all, and he did everything he could to offer me as little payback as humanly possible.

 

[Snakesatsunset]

Send them back, ground only $10-12 bucks at post office....he travels almost daily, so be patient. These are super high quality and are sturdy, easy to put together, and cheaper then acrylic already pre-made and glued displays of equal size. I think your top lid is put on wrong by the way. the bracket is on the back, not the front. I checked a cage built here and none of the screws stick out the back....the quality is fine, like I said, I think you were expecting a crested cage, not a cage. You have to customize it to what you want, thats the whole point of DIY. (Do It Yourself) the cage is just a base for you to start with. Also spraying from the TOP not the front you wont get water all over the walls. The vents are clearly visible online on his site...so you bought them while knowing. Its pretty obvious you spray towards them they wont catch water hence they are vents.

 

[Meadowknight]

I'm sure he's a nice guy to some people, and like I said in the review...if you have these tanks and enjoy them, good for you. For me I feel like I flushed $130 down the toilet. I was ready to settle on being paid back for 1 plus shipping, but he offered to refund the lower costing one instead of the normal price, AND not cover shipping....that just isn't right. personally I would NEVER do that to a customer in my own business, and I never have. There is also very little information on the website and it states nothing regarding returns.

 

[Meadowknight]

Send them back, ground only $10-12 bucks at post office....he travels almost daily, so be patient. These are super high quality and are sturdy, easy to put together, and cheaper then acrylic already pre-made and glued displays of equal size. I think your top lid is put on wrong by the way. the bracket is on the back, not the front. I checked a cage built here and none of the screws stick out the back....the quality is fine, like I said, I think you were expecting a crested cage, not a cage. You have to customize it to what you want, thats the whole point of DIY. (Do It Yourself) the cage is just a base for you to start with. Also spraying from the TOP not the front you wont get water all over the walls. The vents are clearly visible online on his site...so you bought them while knowing. Its pretty obvious you spray towards them they wont catch water hence they are vents.

Thank you for being polite, I'm already upset about this and the last thing I need is a lynch mob. The top in the photo looks odd because I added a makeshift polycarbonate piece...that's why it looks raised. After reading your post I rechecked all the connections on this thing...there is NO corresponding hole for that bracket on any of the other pieces but the front piece. I'm a professional artist and pretty good at assembling things..and I took this slow, I'm not being prideful here, but seriously I put this together right...I even tried that bracket a few different ways. Maybe I got a defective kit.

The main reason I feel so gypped here (one of the main reasons), is that he only offered to refund me the lower discounted price I paid, and THEN on top of that will not cover for any shipping. That's just tacky and cheap. I should have at least been offered $70 worth of refund. As for shipping, I am in CA, and he (unless I'm mistaken) is in Florida. I have shipped many packages to Florida way smaller and lighter than this, and THOSE cost $12. Cliff even said he thinks shipping would be approximately $25...so $60 refund- $25....leaves me with $35, and a tank I hate, after spending $130. Regardless of whether or not these tanks are just great for other people, I am extremely disappointed. What I want to do is throw them out, that's how much I dislike them. The least he could do is cover the regular costing one I bought, and shipping. There is NO warning about this on his site. If he will do that, refund me the regular cost one, plus shipping, or at LEAST cover shipping too on a $60 refund...that would be fair, and I will edit my OP and let everyone know he made right on this. But as of now I'm left with two tanks I hate, and a $130 gap in my wallet.

Anyways, regardless of how many people reply to this not agreeing with me, it's not going to change how I feel about how I was treated as a customer, and about the quality of these tanks. Regarding him being gone for a couple of days...he just stopped replying mid conversation, he didn't even say he had to go and would reply later. To me I translate that as ignoring me.

It's past 5am here and I'm going to get soemr est...I won't be able to reply again here until later today.

 

[yeloowtang]

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this trying to help you with these cages..
but an easy way to fix them and make them perfect.. would be to illiminate all the screws and simply bond the acrylic with the bonding agent..

I agree that the screws are a negative aspect, but they are DIY cages ..
I've built my own cages and sumps for salt water tanks out of acrylic using the bonding agent or a gel one named "weldon 56" you can use this one to act as a joint sealer (like silicoe) but this will chemicaly bond the crylic together..
find a plastic shop , here in Canada we have LAIRD plastics or Cannus plastics !! i'm sure in the USA you will have even more laces to shop from..

the main bonding agent is in a liquid form and comes with an application bottle with a needle tip..

all you have to do is assemble it with the screws, run the agent on the joints and they will bond instantly..
mind you, once you do this !! you can't take them appart as they will be proffesionnaly bonded together permanently..

from the pictures i see, they look quite nice (without the scews) i would love to get these and glue them as i mentioned.. having them come with the vents, doors cut out is great because when i get the acrylic cut from the plastic shop they don't do the machining part..
at the price these sell with all that already done for you ?? i think it's a great deal

I know this is a little off subject but wanted to try and help you out in getting the max in these cages..

I agree that the screws are not good.

ohhh and that weld on 56 gel would fill in the holes left by the srews too if needed..

 

[Dennis Hultman]

The main reason I feel so gypped here (one of the main reasons), is that he only offered to refund me the lower discounted price I paid, and THEN on top of that will not cover for any shipping. That's just tacky and cheap.

Would you post the whole conversation including the part where you asked for a refund?