Gosh Darn Petco!

[lando]

Whenever you put "Petco" in the title people seem to be interested. Just thought I would share a story from yesterday. The more I think about it the madder I get. So...I was in the local Petco getting dog food and I swing by the aquatics section to see if they have any saltwater fish that are still alive. While I am over there, there is a guy with two very excited young kids. Hey is carrying a 10 gal. tank filled with a bag of Instant Ocean salt, power filter, heater, net, light, etc... then it happens. The employee hands the Dad two bags of fish. One has two false percs in it and the other one...you guessed it...a very small regal tang. I must have walked in on the middle of the conversation, but the employee is saying "Yup, just mix up the water and you should be good to dump in the fish." I almost fell over. So I politly interrupted and offered some advice about tank size, cycling, how to properly start a marine tank. As it turns out, the Dad did not buy the fish. He actually booght a book and upgraded to a 29 gal. I gave him this site and told him to do lots of research. The employee just left sometime during our conversation. I then spoke with the assisstant manager and, without mentioning the employee, suggested some type of employee education program. Seemed to fall on deaf ears but at least I tried and hopefully saved three fish...for a little while anyways. Just thought I would share. Thanks for listening, Lando

 

[piggybank2005]

It varies from store to store.

When I was a beginner, a Petco employee would not let me buy more than one Maroon clown.

 

[quarryshark]

Good job lando. The fish would probably already be dead if it wasn't for you.
Petco should stick to dog food.

 

[msuburg]

Good Job!

Good job man, gotta keep those guys in line! I've read some interesting stories in here regarding Petco....glad to know three fish will be safe for a while longer though,

-Matt

 

[BillyZ]

I'll second piggybanks comments. It will varey greatly from store to store. And even more so from employee to employee. With the bigger chain stores they can't always control who is "manning the aquatics section" and the employee lando (thankfully ) interupted probably isn't the kind of person who cares about fish. This doesn't necessarly excuse the chain stores, I just object to broad discreditting of stores based on employee performance. The PetCo in my area is hit and miss, some days there are a couple of well informed kids working there, others, there aren't.

So anyway, Well Done Lando! Looking forward to meeting the new member you sent this way!

 

[revhtree]

Great Lando!!

Suprising that he took your advice. I am glad he did.

If SW tanks were that easy, then everybody would have one.

 

[BillyZ]

They're easy. They're just not that easy

 

[revhtree]

Too bad they are not that easy.

 

[quarryshark]

I'm glad they are not "that" easy. Then it wouldn't be that special.

 

[revhtree]

True, True.

 

[blorkiemom]

Good work, Lando! A little OT, maybe, but I've got goldfish, too, and Petcos are notorious for selling people a 2-gallon bowl and 3 fish (GF need 10 gallons per to flourish). One woman on my GF board made up little cards that say something like "Don't buy this bowl; your fish will die" (nicer than that, maybe!) and directs people to the GF web site--she sneaks the cards into the bowls. Too bad we can't attach little tags saying "Put me in a 29-gallon tank and the Tang Police will come a-knocking" to all the Dorys in Petco tanks.

 

[darb2]

kudos

 

[phases99]

Great story. I have no Petco's in my area, but there are 2 Petsmart and thankfully they do not carry any SW fish.

 

[Lindsikins00]

well, I am one of those people that work at a "chain store", Petsmart. We have to do endless amounts of workbooks and watch videos on information about different things.....I know more about grooming and electric fences than I would ever like to know. But I work in the fish department (almost 4 yrs now) and still have continued training over there almost every month. I'm not an expert per say, but I know enough to give good solid advice about most things. The person working in the fish department probably didn't even know a thing about fish and that makes me very mad. But it is also a persons responsability to read up on their own as well. As frustrating as it is to hear about stories like this it is even more frustrating to be talking to someone who is buying a 3 gallon tank to set up that day, a 5 inch bala shark, and I'm telling them "Your fish will surely die in this tank" and they say "I don't care, it is just a fish" You wouldn't believe how many times I hear that. It is extremely disheartening.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

what makes me mad isnt neccesarily the big chain stores many of them are trainging staff. As lindasikins has said. I to worked at a petsmart with the same story. Wha makes me mad is if you are an employee you can spend hours trying to negotiate with people and they don't listen, for some reason they have it in there head that A. the person selling me this animal knows nothing because of there age or exp. or B. Its my my choice ill buy what i want dont you be telling me what to do.

 

[Lindsikins00]

We have that stupid 14 day warranty too......i get people that put a goldfish in a bowl, and I tell them "they really don't do that well in bowls, bettas really do better" and they say "don't you have a 2 week guarantee? I just exchange it every 2 weeks" that makes me even madder. Cause we lose money and the fish dies cause of their stupidity. For a while I would right in their reciept "no gaurentee" for extreme cases, but people complained and now we have to sell fish to anyone. I guess I'm just venting.... That is why I need to open my own fish store

 

[blorkiemom]

Lindsikins00, that's got to be really frustrating. At least you know you do your best and save the animals that you can. If people aren't going to listen, they just aren't. I wish all the employees cared as much as you do. (Yesterday I pointed out to a Petco employee that one of his goldfish tanks was full of dead fish and the 3 living ones had their eyes eaten out and were just suffering needlessly. He said, "Oh, yeah, huh," and walked away. If he didn't care about the fish, wouldn't they want to avoid grossing out customers?)

If I were queen, pet stores just wouldn't sell inappropriate (or wrongly labeled) equipment. Yeah, if I were queen.

 

[quarryshark]

We have that stupid 14 day warranty too......i get people that put a goldfish in a bowl, and I tell them "they really don't do that well in bowls, bettas really do better" and they say "don't you have a 2 week guarantee? I just exchange it every 2 weeks" that makes me even madder. Cause we lose money and the fish dies cause of their stupidity. For a while I would right in their reciept "no gaurentee" for extreme cases, but people complained and now we have to sell fish to anyone. I guess I'm just venting.... That is why I need to open my own fish store

We'll if they don't follow advise and do irresponsible things, it should render the warranty void. IMO. Bet they would listen then. Maybe you could petition the company executives, if it saves them money, maybe they will listen.

 

[Lindsikins00]

well the idea behind the guarentee is to get customers (of course). Our department actually complained about the fact that we couldn't void the warranty, and their response was "well, if they are going to get a goldfish for a bowl, and we deny them a sale, they will just go somewhere else, so might as well sell them a goldfish and hopefully help them by giving them as much advice as possible." or so they say. I suppose that makes some sense, but not enough to justify those problems. I have worked for petsmart longer than 99% of the people in the store. I would have quit a long time ago, but I feel some sort of obligation to the animals. I guess I will just keep working there till I graduate and get a zoo keeper job.

 

[electrikat]

The petco here in Waco and the one in North Austin have major sw problems and I would never by fish there, but, the guy at the Austin store was very helpful and recommended a REAL fish store (Austin Aquariums). Of course he said it very quietly and he was a sw guy himself and very knowledgable. The problem is that the employees don't control the way the store does business and half the time the fish person is just someone that got roped into it that day. Now Petsmart is different indeed. I have had freshwater for years and now have only salt, so I have used Petsmart for years. Although most of their people are young, they do seem to have the basic knowledge of most things fishy. I have been asked almost every time I bought fish the basic questions. How big is the tank?, what else is in it ?, and they will tell you if something is incompatible or if your tank is too new for something.