Hate Petsmart/Petco?? Vent here, and tell me/us why!!

[loganizzi]

If posted here it would be libel.

Originally Posted by fishfreek

Just a reminder.
Its ok to talk about why one store is better or worse than another but its also important to not go as far as to become slanderious.

I am with you on the animal shelters.

First of all, all pets should be neutered/spayed. Not only does it promote longer and healthier lives, it would keep the population of unwanted pets to a minimum.

People dont realize that animals have feelings, and emotions. Pets are for life, not a little while. It is not okay to bond with your pet and then give it away because you dont feel like caring for it anymore. That is so rediculous.

Today my mother told me about a guy who was going to drown his 6 month old pitbull puppy because "he didn't want it anymore". Someone should drown him.

People can be so stupid. Animals have lives just like human beings. ****, Humans ARE ANIMALS!

[An t-iasg]

There's a PetCo and a PetSmart very near me. I went to each one once. They have okay supplies (Petco had more meds), but l don't think either store is very knowledgable about the fish. Petco had these little teeny vase shaped "bowls", if you could even call it that, for the bettas. They also had bigger bowls, but if I was the fish manager, I would not even stock those teeny things. I agree with SixFootDaisy -- they should sell the supplies but not the pets. I also agree with Zic that I do my own research before going in.

I do most of my shopping on-line, mostly at Drs. FosterSmith.com. There are very knowledgeable people there to help. I only go to Petco if I need a medicine quickly. I'm way too allergic to the dogs and cats that go in there, plus the hamsters, birds, etc. I get the meds to cure my fish, but then I get sick! There was a fish-only store about a half hour away, and it was wonderful. It was mostly saltwater (I have bettas), but they got me meds a few times when I explained my difficulty with going to other pet stores. But unfortunately, they closed recently. They took very good care of their tanks, and I always liked browsing and looking at the saltwater tanks. Their bettas were in bigger-than-usual cups, and were very pretty. That was the first time I had ever seen a Cambodian betta. I miss that store (and I'm sure a lot of saltwater owners do too!) That was not your average [acronym:794284032e="Local Fish Store"]LFS[/acronym:794284032e]!

[SoCal]

I have only been to Petco once ever and that was to adopt a cat from some group of people at the front of the store. It was hot and humid in the store (very uncomfortable) and it smelled. I usually go to a store called Petkingdom which is an adventure in its self, almost have to tackle someone to get them to help you. I was in there yesterday and I was the only person on the sales floor. As for the PetSmart near me, I have found their staff to be under qualified and you have to go to the cashier to ask for help, but the people are really nice.

I like a store called aquatic warehouse, they are a wholesale store that sells to the public. They have healthy fish, a huge selection of filtration/media/parts and the staff is scary knowledgeable. I did have a bad experience with one guy there, I wanted to buy some peacock bass and the guy started talking down to me like I was some newbie that just won a goldfish at the carnival and wanted to add it to my saltwater tank. He actually would not sell me the fish so I said whatever I'll go buy it somewhere else and then walked out. Every time I go in there this guy gives this look like he wants to fight me, ([acronym:73b60fccfd="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:73b60fccfd]) but the store is GREAT and I get a kick outta how mad I made this jerk.

www.aquaticwarehouse.com

[TankGirl]

Please be careful, folks. One chap (I can't remember the details) got sued for THOUSANDS of dollars (like 50, I think?) by a company that he posted about on a message board. He was unhappy with the service he got, and said so, and they sued him. This was on an aquatic board similar to this one, posting about fish and/or supplies.

Just a cautionary tale....

[purplestarfish]

There are both a Petsmart and a Petco near my house, so I've gone to both. However, I vastly prefer Petsmart. Petco just seems . . . cramped. There are more dead fish there as well. I know some of the staff are oblivious to the needs of animals as I went to it once and observed one man bag literally dozens of fish for a woman. He remarked that she may have to get a new tank for all these fish. Her reply? "Pssh! I gotsa fi'ty-five gallon!" and he consented with this! The tank was already overstocked with the amount of fish she had requested. Not only that, she and he disregarded the schooling fish from the other fish, so she would have only a few tetras (for example) and then a large amount of gouramis (also for example). Worst of all, it was clear to me that with the amount of fish she was getting today, she was just going to dump them all in the tank. No cycling, no preparation, no nothing; I doubt she'd even float the bags. I wonder how many dead fish she would discover within the next week. At the time I was there, I was aided by a young man clearly knowledgable in the ways of fish, but he was probably just an exception to the rule. The only really really good thing that came out of Petco for me was our third adopted cat, and even she was SPCA or something (as in she wasn't from a kitten mill or anything; we know she was one of the cats up for adoption from the SPCA and was placed in Petco for a greater audience so she would be more likely to be adopted. It worked, obviously!).
As for Petsmart - I do find the occasional dead fish, but all fish are susceptible to diseases so it's not that bad. I have yet to discover an entire tank plagued by ick as I've seen elsewhere. The fish are prettymuch grouped with their own kind - goldfish near goldfish, cichlids near cichlids, etc. They're also labled as community or aggressive and other basic classifications. The only problem is that they don't always have prices labled. The staff - well, I don't know about the staff, as I usually go to drool and not buy. One time, though, I did get plants and the person helping me knew nothing of them, so of course I didn't get correct lightbulbs or [acronym:ecd3d4225f="Carbon dioxide"]CO2[/acronym:ecd3d4225f] injectors or anything necessary. It's actually a bit of a dream of mine to be able to work at Petsmart (as it's so close to my house) - I'd get to work with fish, get discounts, and best of all tell all the uneducated people of the world how to take care of their fish so that they don't die.
When I can go anywhere, I go to House of Tropicals. It's a bit hidden and out-of-the-way, but the staff knows what they're talking about (I went with my mother and when we talked to employees, she would ask what fish they had at home and every member we ran into had several tanks worth in their abode). The prices are a bit high, but the selection is wonderful including more exotic and rare fish (like two kinds of arowana - silver and Asian - and freshwater stingrays and saltwater Mandarins and just about everything ).
But enough chitchat. I've already taken up too much space!

[Rho_Cassiopeiae]

Let's face it, the staff usually know nothing, the tanks are often way overstocked with obviously diseased and/or dying fish at these chains. I only purchase dry goods at these stores.

It's not libel if it's fact. As long as you preface with 'my opinion' you're on safe legal ground.

And the real travesty is that most dedicated aquarium stores are not much better.

In Ohio we have a store - with a national reputation - that is dishonest

Example: purchased some tetras - turned out they had "neon didease".
Store admitted to me they lost entire contents of some tanks to this. But when I went in a few days later they were still selling fish from that tank - what few fish were left - and you could see the fish in it had the disease.

They should at leaast have had a Not For Sale sign on that tank - but they are in business and it's bad for business to advertise that you have sick fish (in this case incurable).

There are good stores out there but my experience is they are very few and far between.

[meow]

im a former petsmart employee. i honestly think that the store takes better care of their fish than most of the [acronym:85f919e603="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:85f919e603] in my area. not once while working there did i ever see a case of ick. a 14 day guarantee policy... who can beat that? my [acronym:85f919e603="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:85f919e603] has a 2 day.
as for the unknowledgable staff, illa dmit there were some people working in the fish department that probably shouldnt have been. but, petsmart is such a big store and there are about 15 fish department employees.. my [acronym:85f919e603="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:85f919e603] has 2, the owner.. and his daughter. one way petsmart tries to prevent unknowledgable staff is by giving raises for every test you take and pass. they have tests on plants, small animals, fish, ect.
petsmart will never shut down their selling of live animals. its where they make most of their money.
besides petsmart being a threat to smaller stores, i think they are a pretty decent store.

[Zic]

Well said, meow. I think the test for raises is a great idea. Besides it being better for the customer, it's better for the store. Think about it. They may have to pay out a little more for payroll, but if your employee's are informed you will have more sales because
1) If they could explain why a customer shouldn't try to fit ten tetras into a five gallon tank, they may end up buying more supplies (like an expensive tank)
2) If a semi-informed fishkeeper senses that an employee knows his/her stuff, they are more likely to listen to their advice
3) A well informed employee can stress the importance of testing, so they will probably sell more tests
4) Most importantly, if a fishkeeper (at least I'm this way) gets good advice, they remember it. If they get bad advice they REALLY remember it (and every person they know will soon know it, too)

I know if I could get a raise by studying about fish, I'd be a marine biologist by the time I was done!

[SoCal]

[acronym:3d4ae2359c="For your info"]FYI[/acronym:3d4ae2359c]. my previous post IS MY OPINION as a consumer. [acronym:3d4ae2359c="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:3d4ae2359c]