Back on October 11th, I blogged about a die-off that occurred in several of my tanks due to the addition of Top Fin heaters that appeared to have been contaminated with some sort of toxins.
I did file a complaint with PetSmart, the vendor and owner of the captive brand Top Fin. The response took three weeks, but that appears largely due to their email being sent directly to my spam filter. I received word yesterday that PetSmart will honor the full amount of my request for compensation to replace my livestock.
They did not, however, admit any guilt in the incident. Rather, PetSmart stated that the compensation is a gesture of “good will.” They did note a similar complaint earlier this year but the QA manager apparently did not duplicate the problem in “his own tank.”
What is unclear from the email was whether the attempt to duplicate was with one of the heaters I purchased, or with the heater from the previous incident. I suspect it was the latter, but what astonishes me is that the QA manager would put the heater into his own tank in an attempt to duplicate. I’d really like the opportunity to speak with this person, but I doubt I will get it.
While I’m pleased that they agreed to the compensation, and to the full sum I requested, I’d like to know exactly what happened. That they agreed so quickly (less than two days after the spam filter thing was noticed) leads me to believe that my hypothesis about the root cause landed pretty close to home. Recall that I am an experienced aquarist with more than fifteen years engineering experience tracking down root cause for product failure.