Help with the most frequent questions and answers
What makes My Tanklife different?
My Tanklife is an online marketplace, rather than an online store. My Tanklife itself doesn’t sell products, we provide a platform to allow businesses to sell online, a lot like how vendors can rent a stall in a neighbourhood market.
Stores on My Tanklife are run by the business owners themselves, and your order is fulfilled directly by them. Nothing comes from a centralised warehouse. You are buying directly from the small time hobbyist’s home aquarium, recreational breeders, established pet stores and distributors all supporting South African businesses.
Where is the My Tanklife shop?
My Tanklife is all online, which is how we are able to offer you one of the biggest range of plants, fish, invertebrates and related aquarium equipment in one place.
How do I order?
It is simple. On any of the shop pages find something you like, click on add to cart and away you go!
What are the shipping costs?
Each vendor will use their preferred shipping options and the cost will be calculated in your shopping cart. Shipping costs range between R50 and R250 dependant on your location, however livestock, especially fish can be more as most vendors use overnight express services and cooler boxes to ensure the safe delivery of your precious cargo. In many instances each vendor will also offer a free self-collection option or free shipping above a certain order value. Keep in mind that if you purchase products from multiple vendors at the same time a shipping cost will be calculated for each vendor separately.
I have questions about a product?
You can submit a query in a couple of ways. Ask a vendor a question using the contact form on the vendor’s store page. Or you can click on the link “ask owner” which is on each product listing. Each vendor page also has a “Get Support” button if you are a registered user for further support on your purchase.
What countries will you ship to?
Each vendor sets their own shipping policies, so this varies from shop to shop. However due to the inherent challenges and legalities of shipping livestock and plants outside of the South-African border international shipping is not available on these items at this stage. The shipping of non-livestock items will be up to each vendor.
What payment options are there?
My Tanklife currently supports payment by Visa, Mastercard, Instant EFT and most South African debit cards.
For payment processing via Instant EFT, credit card and debit card processing we use Payfast. Neither Mytanklife nor Payfast has access to full card or bank details and all card transactions are initially processed via 3DSecure. 3DSecure requires you (the customer) to authenticate these transactions, by entering a one time pin (OTP). This OTP is triggered directly to the you via SMS, USSD, or email depending on the your arrangement with your bank. Neither Mytanklife nor Payfast operations staff have access to this OTP; therefore neither Mytanklife nor Payfast can abuse the your card.
Do I need to create an account to buy on your site?
No, you are welcome to buy from us without creating an account. However, if you’re planning on buying from us again in the future creating an account will allow you to save your details for future purchases.
How long will my order take to arrive?
You will get a confirmation email with your order details immediately. Wait times may vary depending on the item you have purchased, but the vendor will let you know when your parcel is on its way to you or make arrangement for physical collection or delivery.
What are your return/exchange/refund policies?
As we mentioned, each store is run by the vendor themselves, so each store will have its own set of policies. We encourage our vendors to be as flexible as possible, but for certain items stricter policies may apply and due to the inherent nature of livestock there is never a guarantee that a living creature is free of defect/illness etc. We’d recommend you read through them before buying.
What do I do if there is a problem on my order?
The best thing to do is to contact the vendor directly, since they’re responsible for fulfilling your order. Their contact details are in the order emails you received when placing your order. My Tanklife is always present and casting a watchful eye over the process to ensure things are running smoothly. If you encounter an issue that you are struggling to resolve please e-mail us on hello@mytanklife.com and we will gladly assist.
Where is my order?
My Tanklife is a platform for independent South African vendors to sell online, so your order is directly with the vendor who may be anywhere in the country. We don’t actually produce or ship any items ourselves. Typically vendors on My tanklife are very responsive to emails and keep their customers in the loop regarding the status of their orders. Occasionally this isn’t the case though, and when that happens, we’re happy to help you track things down and get a status update. Send us an e-mail with your order ID to hello@mytanklife.com or you can use our track my order page at any time to check on progress yourself.
