Royal Exclusiv Replacement Parts Shipping Time

[AZRippster]

Does anyone know how long it takes for Royal Exclusiv to ship replacement parts? I had the pump head on my Red Dragon 3 Speedy pump 150 Watt fail this past weekend (4 June 21). I immediately got online and ordered a replacement. I was promptly billed for the part, but it's now Thursday (10 June 21) with no notification of shipment. Being this is my systems main pump, kinda need it replaced.

[slief]

Originally Posted by AZRippster

Does anyone know how long it takes for Royal Exclusiv to ship replacement parts? I had the pump head on my Red Dragon 3 Speedy pump 150 Watt fail this past weekend (4 June 21). I immediately got online and ordered a replacement. I was promptly billed for the part, but it's now Thursday (10 June 21) with no notification of shipment. Being this is my systems main pump, kinda need it replaced.

We normally quote 3-4 days per the website though it’s usually quicker. Orders are processed in the order they are received and there is usually an onslaught of orders over the weekend. Your pump head had to be pulled from a pump in inventory so that compounded things a bit since there is only one person pulling and packing orders. If your name is Russel, this is your tracking number. Our website doesn’t update with the tracking information as that is handled out of Germany where as the orders in the US are fulfilled in Ft. Myers by different personnel.

Anyhow, here is your tracking number.
1Z0172W70397655652

[AZRippster]

I have received the replacement pump head 12 days after placing the order (fulfilled stateside). Please, don't get me wrong, I love the pump and almost worth the $1350 it cost, but if you need to rely on a company to quickly stand by their product to include promptly providing replacement parts, I would take pause with Royal Exclusiv. Never had this issue with Little Giant, Iwaki, Danner, or even CoralVue. I guess it just goes to show that even perceived quality products from Germany fail and when they do, you are at the mercy of the company to promptly stand behind their product through warranty or parts availability. Your mileage may very, hopefully better than mine. Another reason we dumped our Volkswagen CC VR6 not long after the warranty expired (stuff started failing quickly). I'm sure there are excuses for this, but as the saying goes, excuses are like A holes, we all have them and they all stink. Curious to see if another one is provided.

[slief]

Originally Posted by AZRippster

I have received the replacement pump head 12 days after placing the order (fulfilled stateside). Please, don't get me wrong, I love the pump and almost worth the $1350 it cost, but if you need to rely on a company to quickly stand by their product to include promptly providing replacement parts, I would take pause with Royal Exclusiv. Never had this issue with Little Giant, Iwaki, Danner, or even CoralVue. I guess it just goes to show that even perceived quality products from Germany fail and when they do, you are at the mercy of the company to promptly stand behind their product through warranty or parts availability. Your mileage may very, hopefully better than mine. Another reason we dumped our Volkswagen CC VR6 not long after the warranty expired (stuff started failing quickly). I'm sure there are excuses for this, but as the saying goes, excuses are like A holes, we all have them and they all stink. Curious to see if another one is provided.

Sorry it took so long but if you look at the website under the item you order, it states clearly that it’s 3-4 day shipping time (see screen shot below) and by days we mean business days. Your order was shipped on June 11th and you received it yesterday June 16th. The order was placed the weekend of the weekend of the 5th (if I am not mistaken) and Monday would have been the 7th which is 4 business days later. Now you could have PM’d me and I could have made sure it went out quicker since this was an emergency but we had no idea it was a critical issue when you placed the order nor did you chose expedited shipping. People order pump heads all the time because they switch from Pressure pump to flow pump or vice versa but again, our website is clear regarding the shipping time so there is no excuse here.

The reason we are quoting 3-4 days shipping time is due to COVID as we are short handed at our facility in Ft. Myers. Nobody wants to work these days so we are down to one person there. Our website states very clearly 3-4 days shipping time for that reason and those are business day. Instead of shipping your pump head from Germany, we pulled it off of a brand new pump we had in our inventory to insure you got it quicker as we didn’t have a sole pump head on the shelf.

Orders are being packed and shipped in the order they are received and with so many people working from home playing with their tanks, order volume is a bit higher. Especially with resellers.

Either way, I am sorry you are disappointed but as I said, our website is fairly clear on the shipping time and had you messaged me, I could have helped get it out quicker and you know very well that I am Johnny on the spot here when it comes to helping customers in need.

[slief]

And for the record, warranty replacement parts typically go out the next business day and are handled by advance replacement.

[slief]

Originally Posted by AZRippster

I have received the replacement pump head 12 days after placing the order (fulfilled stateside). Please, don't get me wrong, I love the pump and almost worth the $1350 it cost, but if you need to rely on a company to quickly stand by their product to include promptly providing replacement parts, I would take pause with Royal Exclusiv. Never had this issue with Little Giant, Iwaki, Danner, or even CoralVue. I guess it just goes to show that even perceived quality products from Germany fail and when they do, you are at the mercy of the company to promptly stand behind their product through warranty or parts availability. Your mileage may very, hopefully better than mine. Another reason we dumped our Volkswagen CC VR6 not long after the warranty expired (stuff started failing quickly). I'm sure there are excuses for this, but as the saying goes, excuses are like A holes, we all have them and they all stink. Curious to see if another one is provided.

I am curious though. You say the volute failed. What exactly failed on the volute? It’s CNC machines out of a solid piece of PVC and there is nothing on that volute to fail. The intake is threaded in and the output is glued in. The only other part that is attached to the volute is the AKB John Guest fitting and those don’t just fail. Some customers have broken them off by accident but they don’t just fail. I’ve also seen a case or two where the customer over tightens the volute screws and cracked the volute but I’ve only seen that on a 230w volute. Had this been a failure due to manufacturing and had you reached out or had you reached out regardless, this could have had a far different outcome. And while I have nothing against any of the above companies you mentioned, Iwaki, Little Giant and Danner sell parts solely through their distribution channel so you are at the mercy of their distributors. To the best of my knowledge none of the companies you mentioned offer support 7 days a week and none except for may Coralvue on certain products offer advance exchanges for both in and out of warranty service. We are one of the few in the industry that does offer support here in the US 7 days a week and we also offer advance replacement on both in and out of warranty failures. For the record,

I am not trying to justify the turnaround on your order despite the order (fulfillment times being pretty clear) as I am a hobbyist first and foremost and understand your contention but you did kind of throw us under the bus and didn’t even reach out directly when this apparently was a dire situation. Had you done so your order could have been put ahead of others at the very least and depending on how it broke or what failed, rest assured, the outcome would have been vastly different. Had this been an out of the ordinary failure, we could have offered an exchange discount or maybe even covered the part at no charge depending on what failed and how old the pump is. In the future, when you have a problem reach out directly. Especially if it’s a critical situation.

[AZRippster]

Hello,
To provide clarification, here are the facts:

1. Original purchase date from Premium Aquatics for my RE-RD3-150W – 10V: 07/07/2017
2. The failed volute occurred sometime before 5 June 21. I found it on Saturday, 5 June 2021, and pulled the pump to investigate. It was found that the little insert nut being held in by some form of epoxy had begun leaking.
3. I logged into https://royalexclusiv.com/ to see what the warranty period is for the pump. I discovered it was 2 years.
4. Nothing on the site suggested contacting Royal Exclusiv through Reef Central for support.
5. I ordered a replacement volute (pump head FLOW Red Dragon® 3 Speedy pump 150Watt GREY) on Saturday, 5 June 2021, for $363.59.
6. I received an email from Royal Exclusiv confirming my order on Monday, 7 June 2021 (1st Business Day).
7. On Thursday, 10 June 2021 (4th Business Day), I had become nervous that I had not received correspondence stating the replacement volute had shipped. I logged onto the Royal Exclusiv website and used the Contact form to inquire about the order.
8. Later in the day, when I had not received a reply, I logged onto another major forum to see if Royal Exclusiv was a sponsor and found they are not (or at least I cannot find otherwise). I then logged onto Reef Central and found they still are and posted my inquiry to see if anyone had experience with how long Royal Exclusiv takes to ship parts.
9. On the 5th Business Day, I received 2 emails from Royal Exclusiv. The first was at 10:06AM from Torsten stating the part would ship that day, Friday, 11 June 2021. A little later I received an automated system notice with a UPS tracking number. I then received your first response at 7:04PM the evening of 11 June 2021.
10. The replacement volute was received on 06/16/2021 via UPS Ground Service from Florida to Arizona.
11. A new revised volute was received that no longer has the epoxied insert nut that failed. Rather, a standard bolt was included with a standard nut replacing the original design. Perhaps the original design had issues. The original design was problematic due to the bolt requiring insertion from the rear of the motor block. The material was also so thin near the bolt holes where the O-Ring seats light could be seen through it. It worked however, and did so admirably since the date of purchase. I did do regular maintenance to keep things in good working order. I do find it odd that the motor block has a nut mount that mates perfectly to a standard nut (like the other 3 bolts and nuts) rather than using the short little bolt I originally received.

Comments: Nothing personal, but I did not know I should have been doing all my communication through Reef Central’s Royal Exclusiv sponsor forum thread. There is no where on the Royal Exclusiv site that directs this action for needed support. It was due to concern the volute had not shipped within 4 business days I began reaching out where I could. After no response directly through the website, I began alternative means of communication. Oddly, the replacement volute shipped the day after I inquired into the shipping status. I don’t frequent RC as much as I used to. Heck, the Tank of the Month dates to 2015 and many people have moved onto another forum for many reasons I will not discuss here. I’ve included some pictures.

[slief]

Originally Posted by AZRippster

Hello,
To provide clarification, here are the facts:

1. Original purchase date from Premium Aquatics for my RE-RD3-150W – 10V: 07/07/2017
2. The failed volute occurred sometime before 5 June 21. I found it on Saturday, 5 June 2021, and pulled the pump to investigate. It was found that the little insert nut being held in by some form of epoxy had begun leaking.
3. I logged into https://royalexclusiv.com/ to see what the warranty period is for the pump. I discovered it was 2 years.
4. Nothing on the site suggested contacting Royal Exclusiv through Reef Central for support.
5. I ordered a replacement volute (pump head FLOW Red Dragon® 3 Speedy pump 150Watt GREY) on Saturday, 5 June 2021, for $363.59.
6. I received an email from Royal Exclusiv confirming my order on Monday, 7 June 2021 (1st Business Day).
7. On Thursday, 10 June 2021 (4th Business Day), I had become nervous that I had not received correspondence stating the replacement volute had shipped. I logged onto the Royal Exclusiv website and used the Contact form to inquire about the order.
8. Later in the day, when I had not received a reply, I logged onto another major forum to see if Royal Exclusiv was a sponsor and found they are not (or at least I cannot find otherwise). I then logged onto Reef Central and found they still are and posted my inquiry to see if anyone had experience with how long Royal Exclusiv takes to ship parts.
9. On the 5th Business Day, I received 2 emails from Royal Exclusiv. The first was at 10:06AM from Torsten stating the part would ship that day, Friday, 11 June 2021. A little later I received an automated system notice with a UPS tracking number. I then received your first response at 7:04PM the evening of 11 June 2021.
10. The replacement volute was received on 06/16/2021 via UPS Ground Service from Florida to Arizona.
11. A new revised volute was received that no longer has the epoxied insert nut that failed. Rather, a standard bolt was included with a standard nut replacing the original design. Perhaps the original design had issues. The original design was problematic due to the bolt requiring insertion from the rear of the motor block. The material was also so thin near the bolt holes where the O-Ring seats light could be seen through it. It worked however, and did so admirably since the date of purchase. I did do regular maintenance to keep things in good working order. I do find it odd that the motor block has a nut mount that mates perfectly to a standard nut (like the other 3 bolts and nuts) rather than using the short little bolt I originally received.

Comments: Nothing personal, but I did not know I should have been doing all my communication through Reef Central’s Royal Exclusiv sponsor forum thread. There is no where on the Royal Exclusiv site that directs this action for needed support. It was due to concern the volute had not shipped within 4 business days I began reaching out where I could. After no response directly through the website, I began alternative means of communication. Oddly, the replacement volute shipped the day after I inquired into the shipping status. I don’t frequent RC as much as I used to. Heck, the Tank of the Month dates to 2015 and many people have moved onto another forum for many reasons I will not discuss here. I’ve included some pictures.

You didn’t need to communicate through this site but if I had known this was urgent, I would have been able to help get your order bumped up in the shipping order. Email via the contact tab on our website would have worked as well earlier on but that is routed through Germany before getting forwarded to me.

I’m surprised your volute was leaking. The volute makes the seal on the surface annotated in the image below. The design was changed to eliminate the glued in nut because a few customers overtightened the screws and cracked the volutes where the nut is machined and glued in. In your case the volute doesn’t look cracked there. Was it leaking from that nut or around the perimeter where the volute and motor come together? If not from the nut, I wonder if the o-ring was compressed and not sealing properly. In those cases, boiling the o-ring will restore them to like new condition and gently tightening the volute and not over tightening the volute will prevent the seal from being compromised. Those screws only need to be evenly snug. Some customers crank the screws down which is counter productive.

I hear you on not frequenting the RC site. I do when I get notifications of new posts and PM’s but that’s it. I think the timing of the shipping was more coincidental than anything else and I am sorry that it took as long as it did.

Anyhow, sorry for the inconvenience and delay. Feel free to reach out to me here via PM should you have have questions or concerns in the future. I am usually very quick to respond or if you’d like I can give you my email address via PM.

[AZRippster]

When I discovered the pump was leaking, it had developed a salt stalactite streaming from the insert nut area. I removed the pump from the system, cleaned it, and reinstalled it. Upon starting the pump, I watched the entire area around the pump, and pump, to see if anything was out of place. Within short order the insert nut area began slowly developing a drop and then a drip. You couldn’t even see anything in the epoxy plug area like a split or crack to support a leak, but it’s there. Not sure why this design was ever implemented when the motor block has a nut socket fabricated into it supporting a traditional bolt/nut solution without the epoxy nut insert design.

[slief]

Originally Posted by AZRippster

When I discovered the pump was leaking, it had developed a salt stalactite streaming from the insert nut area. I removed the pump from the system, cleaned it, and reinstalled it. Upon starting the pump, I watched the entire area around the pump, and pump, to see if anything was out of place. Within short order the insert nut area began slowly developing a drop and then a drip. You couldn’t even see anything in the epoxy plug area like a split or crack to support a leak, but it’s there. Not sure why this design was ever implemented when the motor block has a nut socket fabricated into it supporting a traditional bolt/nut solution without the epoxy nut insert design.

The nut isn’t epoxied in. Epoxy doesn’t bond well with PVC. It’s a special PVC liquid welding solvent similar to that stuff used to weld PVC pipes. It creates a bond with the PVC unlike epoxy.

The 230w pumps have had that design for several years and it’s never been an issue. The reason that was done was because of the proximity to the output pipe where running a long bolt through the volute would interfere with the output and threading the PVC to capture the bolt would result in customers stripping the threads. Like I said, it’s never been issue and that nut is not exposed to water. It’s buried in the PVC and the hole is outside of the o-ring. To date the only time customers have had issues is when they crank the screws down and crack the volute and in your case, the only way water can come out of that area is if the volute has a crack near the nut.

FWIW, I ran my pair of 230w pumps since they were first released around 2014 or 2015 up until I broke my tank down last January and never had an issue and we’ve sold probably around 1000 230’s and countless 150w flow pumps with the same style volute and we’ve never had any issues with the nut welded in there let alone leaks from it so while it may seem strange to you, the design had proven to be sound and it’s never been an issue.