Rainforest Farms International...?

[amyers]

Well folks I see the saga goes on, like i said in my earlier post the website has been renamed to "Rainforest tropical fish" , no doubt to catch unsuspecting enthusiast like myself. This guy must be a millionair by now, charging people for poor quality goods at premium price, I paid $70 bucks for sick 2 inch fishes that was supposed to be 3.5 - 4 inch. Its only a matter of time before he does it to the wrong person and he'll be stopped.

[mteel7237]

Well, obviously this guys has issues. I purchased my first 4 discus from him several years ago and I had the same problems most people here had....dead fish, poor quality, bad customer service. He messed up on the shipping date (after having two conversations with him regarding when to ship). so my first shipment sit at my door step for 24 hours in 20 degree temps. No one survived. I nearly quit before I got started. My wife was giving me the "your discus career is about over" look.

Then I read about Hans on this board. The complete opposite. Great healthy fish, friendly and informative. I'm so happy to have meet him and his discus.

[treker5]

I hate to say it but I was also a victim of Tom from RFI. I wish I did a search on his business but I paid the price for not doing so. I had ordered six discus from him, two out of the six were ok; purple cobalt that had a dwarfed anal fin, two red spotted lemon f2 which turned out to be red checkerboards, and a cerulian blue which was sick and died. I also bought the plant package for the discus tank was infested with snails. Till this day I'm battling with snails in my tank.
I was so upset with this purchase and being a newbie with the discus hobby I decided to make the best of what I got. From this experience I am skeptical buying discus via internet.
I like the darn critters too much that I will definitely buy through word of mouth and thank goodness for this forum that I can read and hear members voices and perhaps good discus vendors.

[dagray]

I too purchased from this outfit and was severely disapointed when the package arrived on Thursday 28 Feb 2013. One bag had leaked and it contained one live and one dead fish. The bags weren't inflated in the slightest, the shipping water smelled like a stagnant ocean tidepool and was full of debris. The fish are probably the right color strain (Red Alenquer) as they are starting to show the color pattern, but they were listless and not swimming upright (more like at a 45 degree angle). Of the eight fish I ordered I recieved seven live and they are still swimming (maybe I got lucky).

I found this business when doing a search for Alenquer discus and came across a photo of a Red Alensquer Discus so did an internet search for that color pattern and only got this one hit in the search engine that showed the pattern I was looking for. I wish I had known about this forum sooner.

I do have some experience with discus as I purchased seven dime sized discus not quite six months ago and raised them up in a breeder box inside my 75 gallon tank until they were 1/2-dollar sized when I turned them out to the main tank with the angels. Now the five discus that made it (lost two at dime to nickle size due to them getting stuck in the slots in the bottom of the breeder box when I was at work) are 3.5-5 inches with the exception of one that is about the two inch size. In fact one of my discus is in my avatar.

I will not deal with Rainforest Farms International on anything and will just chock up the loss of the one fish as shipping charges as his "live arrival guarantee" would have me paying shipping for the replacement fish and quite frankly my thought as a business owner is that if a product doesn't get to my customer in the condition expected that the shipping to make the situation right is on me.

God Bless,
Dave

[dagray]

Update: I have been doing 25% water changes daily and when I can twice a day in the 20 gallon tank. This evening at 5:00 when I got home from work there was a dead one on the bottom of the tank and my mother in-law said it had been that way since 8:00 this morning (must have died after I left for work). That leaves six discus with two looking very black in color (I know this isn't a happy/healthy color). Also noticing clear stringy fecal matter not the poop I am used to seeing from my other discus and angels in my other tank.


Needless to say I am disapointed and frustrated.

Dave

[peglegderek]

bought a few pigeon based fish that had more peppering than a pepper shaker!!! could never tell which fish was wich!! this was about 6 years ago

[darkknight87]

I feel for you Dagray, I bout 6-7 from them about three years ago..and that sounds exactly what happened to me. After a week they were all dead.

[dagray]

I feel for you Dagray, I bout 6-7 from them about three years ago..and that sounds exactly what happened to me. After a week they were all dead.

I may if things don't start turning around and after contacting this vendor to see if they will make it right (i.e. refund for the dead fish) contact my credit card company (USAA) and see about reversing the charge at least on any animals that die in the next week if the vendor won't be accountable. I think I would call him and if no action then e-mail him and then send the e-mail plus any response to my bank.

with the tank lights off most of the fish are a light red to light brown as young discus should look (comparison of my discus when they were that size and their color to the color of these). One of the fish looks like a white faced marlboro red and not the red alenquer I ordered.

Dave

[DiscusLoverJeff]

I think what you are experiencing Dave is common when people don't know much about a company. Sure it has a flashy name to it, but from all posts I have read, they sell some poor quality, not taken care of fish. Buyer beware as they say.

You had many suggestions regarding buying from a sponser or member of Simply Discus. There are many reasons why you should, repeat and satisfied customers.

No not everyone has the knowledge on where they can buy fish, but there is always "Google", The Better Business Bureau, and many more resources.

You have the right idea about cancelling your credit charge with them, but that could be a long drawn out issue. It is extremely sad that people will take advantage of others in the same manner as you. Hopefully your post along with others here will help when someone decides to buy from this company.

[dagray]

I agree and I wish I had found this when searching for the discus. Unfortunately I did a search for alenquer discus found a photo of the red alenquer discus and did a search for them neglecting to do a search on the business name. I know I could order fish from anyone here or TAF II (a primarily angelfish forum) without any problem as I have purchased dime sized angels and discus from a breeder on Aquabid and grown the fish up with no problem as well as buying angels and other fish from vendors on aquabid with great results.

we were trying to get some other color than blue in the 75 gallon tank.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

If I lived near you I would give you some of my juvies. Sorry this happened to you.

[dagray]

If I lived near you I would give you some of my juvies. Sorry this happened to you.

I appreciate the offer. I take responsibility for making the order and as such would insist on paying for your discus to at least help with the cost of our hobby. Also small discus (dime size) shipped from Florida via USPS priority have reached me in great shape it's all about the packing (and these weren't packed well at all).

Dave

[darkknight87]

Good luck with that. I tried to get him to do that with me, and for months he claimed he sent a refund that my bank just didn't accept..( which I didn't buy ofcourse) The owner is a very shady guy.

[Northwoods Discus]

I can't believe this guy keeps on screwing people. He sounds like a good guy and has a nice website, but you get poor quality, not the strain you ordered in poor packaging that always breaks and leaks. If there was some way to place reviews on him where unsuspecting potential buyers could see easily, he would be out of business in no time. He obviously knows his way around that.

[dagray]

And to top it off his "Live arrival" guarantee isn't too great as he keeps making money on the shipping as he claims he will replace the fish if the customer pays the shipping even if the dead fish is due to the vendor's negligence. That should have been a clue.

Oh and I did call him he said he would replace the one dead on arrival even though I didn't have a photo (I figured it was more important to get the fish in clean water than take a photo) and the one that died yesterday if I would pay the shipping. I won't deal with this person/company again. I have dealt with Joe Gargas on Angels and discus and always received what I paid for and it was packed well; I have also dealt with AngelMania (Lee Gordon) for angels and the packing was exceptional as well as buying some Khuli loaches and fresh water shrimp from various vendors on Aquabid without issue.

The box that came from Rainforest Farms had lots of empty space so the bags could shift as opposed to having the empty space filled with newspaper or other filler, the bags the fish were in were 1/3 full of water and not even semi-inflated to keep the oversized bags from collapsing on the fish, the shipping water was very cloudy and stinky and full of fecal matter showing that the fish hadn't been prepped for shipment by fasting them for a few days prior to shipping to keep the shipping water cleaner (free from amonia and other harmfuls due to bio-waste).

Dave