What would you think/do?

[E-cubed]

I have one lonely Cory habrosus left of two that used to be in my small Betta tank. I have moved him to my Tetra tank and have been trying to find a few more so he will be happy schooling with some friends. My excellent LFS, which has about 200 tanks of fresh water fish has me on their list for these when they come in. (I understand seasonal availability because I was a buyer for many years of other seasonally available products.)

Three weeks ago I got the following email...

Dear (Customer),

We have these cory's in stock.
We look forward to seeing you soon!

The Staff

I quickly sent off the following response...

Yeah! You guys are great. I will let them settle in at the store for a while and I will be getting a group of them. Thank you so much for getting them and for the email.

I went into the store the next day and searched through their approximate 20 tanks they have devoted to Corys, and no C. habrosus. When I asked the staff and told them about the email they said, "No we have not had those in a long time, but they are on the buy list. I wouldn't blame you if you burned down the store."

!

I was always very courteous and was not at all angry, so that response from the staff really surprised me. I left disappointed but understood that things happen. When I got home I mailed another letter with a return receipt so I could know when they read my message...

Dear (Fish Store),

Apparently you never got these in? I came into the store Saturday and the staff knew nothing about them, saying they had not been in stock for some time. Yes, I am a bit disappointed, but will still patiently wait knowing full well that many fish have seasonal availability. Still, I'm a bit chagrined that I was sent this announcement... maybe they were invoiced and not sent?

A simple "Oops, we're sorry" in reply would have sufficed. But nothing, not even a notice that they had read the message, but I suspect they did read it.

The lack of reply has left me not liking the customer service very much and has me wishing there were another store that took care of their customers better. The fact is, there is one more good store within driving distance, and every time I have bought fish there, I have also bought Ich. The store in question undoubtedly has a great selection, very healthy fish, but a surly staff that seems to not like their jobs and apparently a lack of concern for accurate email notifications to their customers and no desire to engage in communication when things go wrong on their end.

What would you think and do?

(I do not want to defame the store in a public forum, so I am not using the store's name.)

[neilanh]

It's so hit or miss on quality LFSs that it is frustrating. Only you can really get a feel for how this one is and you have to trust your own judgement. If this is the only thing bad you have to say about this LFS, then perhaps you just chalk it up to a one time thing and move on and hope that it was just a simple mistake.

The attitudes of the sales people you can't help. You either find a store that only employs people that are truelly interested in the hobby, or you don't. The latter is more likely, as from my experiences MOST (definately not all) sales reps at LFSs are younger people that are willing to work for the amount of money LFSs are willing to pay. An LFS, especially a really good one, isn't a high profit line of work, and sometimes you get what you pay for. This is why it's so crucial that we tell people to do their research online, and not trust LFSs until they've proven themselves.