Out evil Petco franchise!!! OUT!!!!

[ultratonic1]

Well my friends, I'm sure you'vr heard all the stories before. I just have to share mine about Petco.

I went to pick up some more fish for the bottom level of my 20 gallon high. Petco is near, so I figured I'd have a go there and grab some cory cats. The story goes down hill from here.

The guppy tank, sealed off, under observation

Pleco tank, most dead or dying- NOT under observation

Cory cat tank had one cory, no sign of anything else in the tank. placed in the AGGRESSIVE section!! WHAT!?!?!

Rummy nose tetra tank had ick in it's most mature stages on most if not all the fish. ( I'm talking 20 fish here!) NOT under observation!

Blue Trigger fish, 2 in in the tank and both dead or really good at playing dead.

Platy tank, all dead

2nd platy tank had a few living but many dead and sucked up against the filter.

Ciclid tank had a peice of the overhead filter or some sort of fixture on the bottom of the tank.

Koi tank smelled like a sewer, clearly from overfeading.

Albino red fin sharks- all swimming sideways or nosediving into the gravel.

AND ON AND ON AND ON!!!!

I called the customer hotline and the district manager MAY give meme a call. They should not be allowed to sell fish.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

The Petco here is totally awsome. The guy who works in the fish section know's his stuff, and you very rarely see even 1 dead fish. And the SW tanks are incredible. So it all depends on the store and who's working there.

 

[Guest]

The Petco here is totally awsome. The guy who works in the fish section know's his stuff, and you very rarely see even 1 dead fish. And the SW tanks are incredible. So it all depends on the store and who's working there.

Yeah, if you see a bad one like that, just don't buy there - a lot of Petcos are good though.

 

[krap101]

the one here use to be good.. now its crap

 

[tropicfishman]

We don't have one, we have Berts pet center ( pretty good ) Seaquariums ( really really good is ya liek saltwater ) and a pet land in southpoint ( ehh its ok not to bad of prices but not worth driving to if your not already aout that way ya know )

 

[ultratonic1]

it just angered me to see such a terrible state of affairs. That does not just happen overnight. this is from long term negelect.

 

[YuccaPatrol]

Our local petco is much nicer than any of the other large chain stores. I guess it just varies from store to store, but your's sounds terrible.

 

[tropicfishman]

I do agree Ultratonic 1 these types of neglect do nto happen overnight, it takes days and weeks if not months to get that bad, I think what happens is, with a major corporation such as Petco, Petland, Walmart, etc. the managers getto involved with the more expesive animals ( this obviously excludes walmart ) and the showroom and taking care of customers that they tend to forget that fish are needy also plsu its not like they have a cheap setup setup at pet stores for fish either, all the tanks, gravel, filters, fish, etc costs them a pretty penny and in the end there just losing money. I think what all pet stores need is 2-4 trained employees for each type of animal, have some trained in depth on all the fish and how to care for them, the cats, reptiles, dogs, birds, ferrets, hamsters, all of those and they should stay in there department only unless needed somewhere else for a breif moment, thats how i would run a pet shop at least

 

[ultratonic1]

I think 2-4 trained people would more than do it. Simple steps could have minimized what I saw. Don't even get me started on Wal-Mart. Why they even bother carrying live fish is a mystery to me. But this petsmart fiasco puts Wal-Marts neglect to shame. And that is a most dubious accomplishment.

 

[maxwell1295]

I am within decent driving distance of 5 Petcos and 2 Walmarts. IMO, Walmart has better fish and seems to take better care of them, even though the "sales" staff there don't have a clue about anything. I assume the people who actually care for the tanks are pretty good at it. The Petcos are a different story. I would only trust 2 of the 5. Amazingly, the guy who knows more about fish than any of the stores I've gone to, has the most dead fish I've seen in ANY of these stores. I wouldn't think a buying a fish there...

 

[Cooter]

I must agree that the franchise stores do seem to have a bigger problem in maintaining aquatic life, freshwater, saltwater, and aquatic plants. All of the reasons above are accurate, but do stop to consider what is driving this change, economies of scale. The corporation makes more money by paying less to the customer service rep, less money paid equals less experience and commitment. This is a trend that is happening in all franchise/chain stores, regardless of the industry. Banking is a great example, why should I half to pay the bank to keep MY money in THEIR establishment?

My local Petco has some knowledgable people, but the tanks are in poor condition and WalMart is even worse. I drive 30 minutes to another town to purchase fish from a local shop, no franchise/chain affiliation. Yes, I pay more for some of the products because they can not buy in bulk, but the quality of the product, in my mind, outweighs the cost. The old adage of you get what you pay for, holds true when dealing with most items.

 

[tropicfishman]

I'm still trying trying to get my local walmart to let me take care of there tanks full time, I've been blowing there phones up with calls, I have no social life anymore so doing some serious hours is no problem, plus I told them i would show the other employees how to do everything on my off time and they still won't give me a straight answer, they only have2 people for that department and one lady calls off all the time, i mean all the time shes there like 3 timesa month, i would live there if they would let me lol I just don't want the fishies to suffer anymore ya know, its sad

 

[chelli]

I feel the same way.. I would help them for free but Wal-mart just doesn't care about it's stock or it's fish, and to them, fish are just stock.. It's a miracle they don't leave them in the bags on the dry dock whilst unloading an 18 wheeler full of socks and paper towels and canned cat food. They simply DON"T CARE!!!

 

[ultratonic1]

I'm curious as to what will be asked of me if the Petco district manager calls. As for Wal-Mart, they should stop selling fish if they can't take care of them or worse, they don't care. Just stick with selling aquarium kits and pet food.

 

[Andos99]

Here in Phx I have 10+ Petcos to choose from and they are ALL very different. It basically comes down to the staff and those who genuinely have pride in what they do and care about the animals. The location nearest my house is staffed with people the really care about fish and fish health and it shows in their tanks and attitudes. The more common scenario is the manager who doesn't know jack about aquatics and hires 16 year olds with no job experience, let alone fish experience to clean the tanks and sell fish. It almost makes you want to apply for a P/T position so you can clean up!