one big scam
so yesterday when i came home from work the white lights on my t5 fixture were out ( frag tank). and with me being sick i took the day off and when i got bored i took it apart to see what was wrong. by simple deductive reasoning while checking the t5 i found that it was a ballast of mine that had gone bad. so i removed the bad ballast and went online to find another one using the model number printed on the ballast.
the first site i checked was a site call www.directpowersupply.com and they had the ballast for sale for $20 + shipping. i was relieved that i was going to be able to fix my fixture for a reasonable price.
but first i thought i should call aquatic life first, to see if the will just send me another ballast. i called them and explained to them how i came to find that it was the ballast that was bad, they even said that was a perfect way to determine the problem. then they told me that a new one would be $60+shipping. i said sorry i found it much cheaper somewhere else and we said good bye.
before buying from this other site i did more googling and everywhere else that had them in stock was fish related and wanted at least $50 for one ballast. so i went back to the direct power supply website and looked into them, i was trying to make sure that this site was current and that i wasnt going to be sending my money to a business that is no more. and i found that they were owned my Lifetime products Co. ( you know the guys who make the folding tables and chairs)
so i tried calling them to place my order, but the line remained busy for hours. so i gave in and just paid online. when i sent paypal it told me i had sent money to Lifetime products (customersupport@petstarz.com)
notice the host name of the email address.. this caught my attention, and i noticed the phone number for the paypal account was different than the one on the website. so i called it....
you wont believe it but the phone number on the paypal account was the customer support line for aquatic life, the people who wanted to charge me $60 + shipping in the beggining.
clearly they are just ripping off hobbyist while sell the same product for 1/3 the price on their other non-aquaria related site.
fyi this direct power supply site has a lot of equipment on there that is used for aquatic life so if your aquatic life fixture stops working you should go to this site.
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