I took a 1.5 hour drive today to ocean gallery, what a waste of time. I was there for over an hour waiting by the frag tank and register for someone to help me while watching some of the pieces I wanted being sold to others who came in long after me. There is no way to know who works there and who doesn't. I finally got someone and they didn't know which coral is which or the price of any of them and they had to keep running to someone else to get prices and names. Some of the corals were priced not to sell. I picked up a few small things, would have bought more but the service was horrible, and I was too frustrated to bother looking any longer. I know this isn't the norm there, because service was good last time I was there. The store wasn't very busy, I guess maybe they had a bad day. Sorry for the rant, maybe they will read this.
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Ocean Gallery
- Thread starter TheGuyFromNJ
- Start date
I would definitely have asked for a manager (or at the very least PMd our sponsor to ask them what had happened). Sorry to hear about your experience there. Especially after driving a good distance to get there. Hopefully you can work it out with them to ensure a better experience next time.
I was quite surprised after reading your post and your PM, not to mention also being a bit upset. The staff at Ocean Gallery enjoys and welcomes constructive criticism and you did have a couple of valid points which we are addressing. We have already ordered polo shirts for all employees so they are easily identifiable and we are in the process of pricing all items in the frag tank as well as the coral and fish tanks.
We believe that the tone of your post was completely out of line. What you neglected to say in your post was that you came with adesimone1 (Anthony and Terri). The 5 of us chatted around the frag tank while I was bagging things up. You never once mentioned that you wanted something that they were purchasing. In fact you never said you wanted anything during the hour or so you guys were here. I asked several times to the group "What else?" You pretty much remained silent. There was no reason I couldn't have bagged your corals up at the same time, after all you guys did come as a group. When I was ringing Anthony and Terri up, I made a comment that you didn't get anything and you joked that you only had $9 in your pocket. I assumed you were along for the ride; not that you needed personal assistance. I then went outside and had a smoke and chatted with Anthony and Terri.
Because all of our saltwater crew were busy, our freshwater guy apparently tried to help you the best he could, . Without pricing on the tanks he indeed had to ask for prices as he doesn't know saltwater, just as I don't know freshwater (I have to ask the names and compatibility of everything when i help with freshwater). I can assure you that in the 15 years that Ocean Gallery has been in this location, NO one has ever waited 1.5 hours for service.
We have made a lot of changes over the last few months at Ocean Gallery, the overall feedback has been outstanding. We are continuing to expand our saltwater as I outlined to you guys when you were here. From the positive feedback we have been getting, we have one of the largest selection of healthy fish and corals in New Jersey and we are making the right moves forward. We are continuing to make changes to better serve our customers and always want to be told when we are doing something not to their liking, but what happened yesterday was NOT entirely our doing.
We believe that the tone of your post was completely out of line. What you neglected to say in your post was that you came with adesimone1 (Anthony and Terri). The 5 of us chatted around the frag tank while I was bagging things up. You never once mentioned that you wanted something that they were purchasing. In fact you never said you wanted anything during the hour or so you guys were here. I asked several times to the group "What else?" You pretty much remained silent. There was no reason I couldn't have bagged your corals up at the same time, after all you guys did come as a group. When I was ringing Anthony and Terri up, I made a comment that you didn't get anything and you joked that you only had $9 in your pocket. I assumed you were along for the ride; not that you needed personal assistance. I then went outside and had a smoke and chatted with Anthony and Terri.
Because all of our saltwater crew were busy, our freshwater guy apparently tried to help you the best he could, . Without pricing on the tanks he indeed had to ask for prices as he doesn't know saltwater, just as I don't know freshwater (I have to ask the names and compatibility of everything when i help with freshwater). I can assure you that in the 15 years that Ocean Gallery has been in this location, NO one has ever waited 1.5 hours for service.
We have made a lot of changes over the last few months at Ocean Gallery, the overall feedback has been outstanding. We are continuing to expand our saltwater as I outlined to you guys when you were here. From the positive feedback we have been getting, we have one of the largest selection of healthy fish and corals in New Jersey and we are making the right moves forward. We are continuing to make changes to better serve our customers and always want to be told when we are doing something not to their liking, but what happened yesterday was NOT entirely our doing.
I'm not going to make this a debate, but I recall asking about the large purple cap when I could get your attention and after you gave me a price you never looked back. But you are right, it was my fault for not pulling you away from another customer. I thank you for the reply, and I apologize for not making it clear that I wanted something even though I waited in the store for service 15 minutes after Anthony and Terri were already in their truck ready to go. I was not interested in purchasing things they purchased, it was things purchased by others who walked in after me. I guess like most stores if you go there enough you know who to look for, this being my 2nd trip, besides you I don't know anyone there, and you were busy filling pod bottles and such. Thanks again for showing you read these posts.