Bad PETCO!

[gilraen]

Bad in the sense that yesterday I went in there to buy a fish. The guy waited until I was ready to pay to tell me: "by the way, we don't guarantee saltwater fish because..."!!!! Thankfully the the fish is healthy and eating just fine. But, what kind of poop is that? no guarantee? not even for 1 or 2 days?

They just lost me as a customer, I'm not taking anymore chances like that!

Oh, and then I noticed that they didn't have any inverts for the exception of 1 small peppermint shrimp. They are starting to have algae growth all over the tanks. I asked the guy the reason for not having inverts, he said "because they don't sell" 8O they don't sell? please man...

Anyway, what do you all think? are they messed up or am I going overboard over nothing?

Well they know SW is easier to kill so thats why they do that.

If you are fine with not having a guarantee, then thats fine.

[Dr.Nate]

I've been burned by PetCO enough that I've finally learned my lesson......I still go and look, but I DO NOT BUY fish from them anymore. Thanks to them, I've had ich in my tank for about 4 months straight....finally going fallow and I'm only 2 weeks in. My advice is that if you have another LFS close, try there. If not, buy online! (I use Drs Foster and Smith, never got a sick fish yet.....and they guarantee for 14 days! )

[revhtree]

There are no stores local that garuntee sw fish around me. Aprox. 9 lfs. Thats why I buy my fish online...

[gilraen]

Dr. Nate thanks for the heads up on the ick issue. I'll watch the fish, if it develops ich....it will be war with Petco!!

gilraen, I am PMing you

[gilraen]

We only have 2 lfs and they guarantee their fish, but they didn't have what I wanted

[gilraen]

Originally Posted by zacdl

gilraen, I am PMing you

Huh?

Just check your PMs

[Phyl]

None of the LFS around here guarentee their fish either. I'm with Rev. That's why I buy all of my fish online. Delivered to my door, healthy, cheaper and guarenteed. What more could I ask for?!

[aquafreak]

They aren't very good with salt water fish/inverts....

[skennelly]

One particular LFS in the Chicagoland offers 24 hour guarantee or a 7 day guarantee that you can purchase additional to your fish purchase. Both of these are conditional on you water quality which you must bring in and have the check if a fish dies. I personally have never bought the 7 day and wouldn't.

side note. My brother owns a pet store going on 20 years now and I worked there for 8 years. It is a fresh water store and do not offer guarantees on any livestock. Mainly because our clientel consisted of many people who were not hobbiest's like us, but wanted to just throw fish into a tank and that's it they didn't want to care for them after that. Very lazy customers.

[juskeepswiming]

we don't guarantee saltwater fish because

most people don't guarantee saltwater fish 1) because they are expensive fish 2)there are a lot of inexperienced buyers 3)the time between the supplier to the store owner to the buyer is relatively short and causes great stress to the fish, hence a fish that doesn't eat

most small pet store owners are unwilling or unable to eat the costs...therefore no guarantee


PS Petco is a horrible fish store

[krap101]

that use to be my best store until they started understaffing. you need to wait like 30 mins to get your fish!. then they started like taking real bad care of their fish. i have a friend that works there thats pretty knowledgable but the rest are complete idiots. they had to pull people from grooming because no one was in the fish section. theyve done with 2ce while i was there. the local chains or just locally owned places are better imo

[gilraen]

Originally Posted by krap101

that use to be my best store until they started understaffing. you need to wait like 30 mins to get your fish!. then they started like taking real bad care of their fish. i have a friend that works there thats pretty knowledgable but the rest are complete idiots. they had to pull people from grooming because no one was in the fish section. theyve done with 2ce while i was there. the local chains or just locally owned places are better imo

Oh my goodness, that's another thing! they only had 2 people in there, the cashier and the manager handing out the fish, rats, equipment, answering phones blablablabla...

[lando]

Most around here do not have warrenties on SW fish. There are, however, a couple shops that have 24 or 48hr warrenties but will only give you store credit if you bring in a water sample and all is okay.

[melosu58]

None of mine gaurantee them either. I stiil get them there. Have a good day

[X the Outsider]

One place does here, but it's like an additional 15 dollars. No joke!

Petco doesn't give a discount, because SW fish are so sensitive, and expensive. I did once in ahwile to my regular customers if something just came in, and they wanted it.

Inverts don't do well at Petco either. Mainly because they can only get a select few. I could usually get my pick of whatever, because my shrink was the lowest in the district. Most of the time Petco will only get hermit crabs, peppermint shrimp, and some crabs. When I left they said we could no longer sell snails for some reason.

As far as ick goes I bought my clowns from a LFS, and got ick. I bought my jaws from Petco, and they are still doing great. Even when the clowns got ick they didn't get it.

[skank-a-holic]

To me, Petco is the kmart of the LFS...

[mjvincent]

I have never seen a fish store guarantee saltwater fish... I would like to find one that does!