apawling lfs

[n00dle]

any of u ever heard of pets at home or pet smart well they have crowded 2 oscars into the smallest tank ive ever seen they have about 50 guppys in a tank with is a about a foot all round they have fish with olsers icth fin rott and nipped fins in most of the tanks and iam deciding to rant about this because i brought 2 fish from there and they instatnly died as soon as i got them in my tank which i have alot of the same fish in giant danios is the name and dieing my game i took them back and they said well u must not have cycled your tank them my dad went in there threatend to knock one of em out and i got about 10 free plants and a backing for my tank and then my friend went in there and brought 2 gold fish i repeat gold fish and they died in a matter of hours in his tank so never never go there coz they are *cough asses cough*

 

[MAM]

write a letter to management and other higher ups. thats just terrible. the petsmart near me that i use for supplies mostly, sometimes fish too, is great. their staff actually knows about fish and equipment, and when they have someone who is new and doesn't know, they go and ask someone who does. theyre real friendly too. and their tanks always look clean, no visiable diseases. and tehy don't mix fish that shouldn't be mixed. when people look at oscars, which they always do, the staff always asks about tank size and occupants and tells them how big oscars grow. on the tank labels they put the common ans scientific name, maximum size (good for the plecos and clown loahces), and food suggestions. they do this with plants too, which is really great. they don't stock saltwater at this one either, and when i asked why they said its too difficult to find people to hire who can properly manage and care for salt water and be knowledgable enough to help people, plus a lot of newbies shop there and tehy don't want to sell to people who don't knwo what they are doing. they also have a 14 day return guarantee if your fish die, and take them back no questions asked. i'm sorry yours is so bad (for some reason it seems that management of petsmarts europe is just terrible.............), be sure you complain to the stores managemetn and owner.

 

[rsz]

my petsmart isn't great - i usually only go there for supplies cos they don't have a ton of fish (and i have better places with tons of them ) . the staff (or at least, most of the staff) know about fish. once, a woman was hopeless at catching some fish for soe kid, so i walked up and offered to do it for her!! she looked kinda cross that a 13 year old was doin her job, but she stood back anyway B) . anyway, it's nothing like yours. definately write a letter of complaint

 

[rsz]

just thoght about it and remembered something... my petsmart sold me a male and a female guinea pig, instead of 2 females .

anyway, what you've described is terrible.

 

[ginamoore]

went to my local petsmart this weekend looking for lighting and they actually have very nice tanks not to over crouded that goodness. but i only go there for suppulys. heard to may bad things about petsmart.

 

[philja]

i went to PetCo. yesteday and the i am very displeased with how things went. for starters they dumped the fish from the container that they put the fish in into the bag, thus swirling the Heck out of the fish. the sales person actually grabed one of the fish with her hand. they miss labeled the sales slip, and upon closer observation once i got home, 2 of the 3 fish that i got were very nibbled, and are not swiming too well to the nibbleage. i don't think i'm going to buy fish from their again, my local walmart handles, cares for, and has better fish than this PetCo.

 

[Abernathy]

Fortunately, the local petsmart seems pretty good with knowledgeable staff. I've had bad experiences with petco, though.

 

[FanOFish]

I think for the most part it's a roll of the dice with these stores. I have a Petsmart and 2 Petcos within 5 miles from my house. The closest Petco is terrible, like the Walmart nearby. The second Petco is much better, I've even seen tanks with tags on them saying the fish are quarantined and not for sale. The Petsmart is pretty good as well, but I did buy three corys there and they didn't last a week.

 

[Lithril]

We've got a petsmart near us and I won't even shop there for supplies, I'd rather either shop online or pay a little more and support my LFS than them.

 

[KimmyFishy89]

I refuse to buy fish from large chains. In my expierence, fish are usually kepy in terrible conditions with little space cloudy water and disease. They have a "fish expert" who is only in on certain days. Man, its sickening.

 

[Curtiss]

I think it all depends on the management of the store. The Petsmart closest to me is great. They have a good selection, the tanks are clean and not overstocked and the staff is somewhat knowledgable. They recently started stocking tire track eels and they use the generic company provided tags for the tanks. The slip said maximum size 8 inches...of course anyone who knows about eels realizes that a tire track can grow to 3 times that. I pointed it out to the clerk who said they would tell their manager and when I went in later that week the label had been changed to 24 inches.

So, just like with the small lfs down the street, its the person running the show that makes the difference. I refuse to buy from my lfs because their tank conditions are so bad. I either buy from the Petsmart down the street or drive 15 miles to a good lfs that has a nice selection and good tank condtions.

-Curtiss

 

[MAM]

curtiss, maybe its an arizona thing, as i have yet to see appalling tanks in petsmart. okay, occassionally some have a slightly questionable mix or a few too many, but more often i see more empty than overstocked tanks, even on mondays when the one by me gets a new shipment in. they only order what they need. the tanks always look clean, besides the occassional snail, and i have yet to bring home a fish with disease (all my start up fish came from a petmart, before i knew of other lfs). theres another lfs i frequent,and i can't always say the same about their tanks or staff (and sometimes the equipment they sell is really dusty and looks like its been in back for years.... though this IS arizona, so that could be from just a few weeks.... ).
what other lfs do you use? i'm down in chandler, but always looking for other options.............