Am I expecting too much?

Woke up one day last week to the sound of water running out of the filter and into my fish tank from a greater height than it should. Nightmare. Came downstairs to find about half (120l) had escaped from a failed silicone joint on one side. Managed to save all the fish which are now costing me a fiver a week to store.

I’ve put so much time and effort into setting the tank up, keeping it clean. Keeping it stable. Probably an average of 4 hours a week for 14 months. Fish, ornaments, pumps, test kit, tank..all told spent around £6/700.

Had to take the day off work. Carpet is ruined, floorboards and under are soaked. Contacted all pond solutions who found my purchase history but said I needed to go through ebay. Ok. Contacted again through ebay to be told they needed photos. Sent. Now said I needed to send video, which luckily I’d managed to get while tank was in place.

At this point (once I’d given them evidence to show to their supplier which will work for them in some way down the line) I’m told that the tank is 2 months out of warranty and they’re willing to send me a tube of silicone to try and fix the fault.

So a £5 tube of silicone is all my efforts,hassle,loss of earnings,damage to the floor..is worth because its out of warranty by 2 months.

Yes they’re within their rights but to waste my time by not telling me this at the start of the process is totally out of order.

If you read all that then congratulations but what does anybody else think? Anyone have experience of All Pond Solutions? They’re a big enough company to offer a replacement by way of good will. Even a reduction off a different type of tank would have been less of a **** take.

So a £5 tube of silicone is all my efforts,hassle,loss of earnings,damage to the floor..is worth because its out of warranty by 2 months.

Seems so. Were you expecting them to buy new carpet and reimburse your lost pay because a product failed out of warranty?
Carpet and floorboards would be covered by your contents insurance anyway.
Surely you can just dry out the joint and reseal it? Stuff happens – you were unlucky, but move on.

I’ve not looked but can you get alarms that trigger if the water in the tank drops below a certain level?

Wouldn’t help if you were out unless it could text you but at least an unseen leak whilst you were in could be caught in good time.

I’ve not looked but can you get alarms that trigger if the water in the tank drops below a certain level?

Oh good idea. Would be easy and cheap to set up a Raspberry Pi that would monitor the tank level and temperature and email/sms you if things went out of spec.

‘Seems so. Were you expecting them to buy new carpet and reimburse your lost pay because a product failed out of warranty’

Obviously not. Anyone with a brain cell could tell I’d only included that to show how I’ve been inconvenienced. I mainly wondered if people thought it was ok for them to waste my time asking for photos and videos when they knew it was out of warranty at first contact.

‘Simply’ resealing it means removing gravel. Cleaning and drying the tank perfectly then recycling the tank so that ammonia,nitrate and nitrite levels don’t spike and kill any fish that are reintroduced.

I mainly wondered if people thought it was ok for them to waste my time asking for photos and videos when they knew it was out of warranty at first contact.

No that is unnecessary, looks like they were trying to make it so much hassle that you’d not bother pursuing.

As for expecting them to warranty and expired product. Yeah I’m afraid that was expecting a bit much.

Best of luck getting it sorted and I hope your home insurance covers you for the costs.

I’ve not looked but can you get alarms that trigger if the water in the tank drops below a certain level?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquarium-Fish-Water-Level-Alarm/dp/B003ELR77Q

Annoyingly for the OP, sold by All Pond Solutions.

‘Simply’ resealing it means removing gravel. Cleaning and drying the tank perfectly then recycling the tank so that ammonia,nitrate and nitrite levels don’t spike and kill any fish that are reintroduced.

Keep the filter in tank water or dechlorinated tap water. Either add small amounts (1ppm) or Jeyes CleanOff or other pure ammonia ( must have no surficants!!) or add a small pinch of fish food to feed the munchers and keep it cycled.

To be fair, if you have a big tank full of water in your house you have to be prepared for accidents to happen.

And fixing it needn’t be an issue, you are making a big deal out of now difficult it will be – it is barely any different than doing a full annual maintenance clean.

Did you keep any of the conditioned water?

I mainly wondered if people thought it was ok for them to waste my time asking for photos and videos when they knew it was out of warranty at first contact.

It may have been out of warranty but you are still covered by the Limitations Act up to 5 years after purchase if the fault is caused by a manufacturing defect (although after 6 months the onus is on you to prove this) so perhaps this is what they were assessing.

This is one of your rights as a consumer in law whereas a warranty is essentially a goodwill gesture/marketing tool.

There is a good guide on MSE which is worth reading: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange

Anyone with a brain cell could tell I’d only included that to show how I’ve been inconvenienced.

Obviously if I had a brain cell I’d be rather annoyed at this comment and might suggest that you suck it up….. baby.

But it seems I haven’t so I won’t.

Sharkbait you are so STW.

Can I have your email address then when I have a problem and want the opinion of more than one person who go forbid may actually be able to offer some relevant guidance or opinion or may have had a similar experience you can just tell me to deal with it,move on,suck it up etc.

Thanks everyone else.

Looking around online and with the benefit of hindsight there seem to be a lot of negative reviews for All Pond Solutions. Should have done more research before going to them. Could be worse I was told at the shop where my fish are being kept that another customer of APS had an 800 litre wall mounted tank fail in a 3rd story apartment. 25k of damage apparently.

BS: You asked

Am I expecting too much?

So I basically asked what were you expecting then suggested a way to pretty cheaply make a ‘better than standard’ early warning system.
You then insulted me
Someone then told you something you probably already knew
The next poster pointed out that accidents happen and suggested that you were blowing some things out of proportion
And finally someone posted about a law that no-one really knows about, uses or works.

I’m not entirely sure who you’re thanking, but you seem to be moving on so that’s got to be good.

BTW, had you thought that the company were asking you for this this extra info so they could help (although contacting via ebay bit is rubbish).

At least they sent you some of the [what I presume needs to be] correct silicon FOC so you can make a repair. They didn’t have to do that.

Anyhoo, email in profile, always happy to help.