Feel Sorry For Dealers Sometimes

[crazychris]

Dealers often get stick but spare a thought for some idiots they have to serve. My dealer, who's also a personal friend, was telling me some of the daft things that customers ask him.

"I have a coldwater tank, if I put a heater in is it then a tropical tank? Surely it'll always be just coldwater as I didn't buy a heater when I first bought it from Pets At Home"


Having told them they can only put one small common goldfish in a bowl they'll say "not two or three? "Well I'd advise just the one" then "would 4 be okay do you think?"

"My mate says one tiger barb is fine as he has one and it doesn't nip any fins" "What other fish do you have in your tank?" "Oh, a lovely fighter, angels and nice gouramis" "Well a group of tiger barbs reduces the fin-nipping and I wouldn't advise them in your tank with the long-finned fish you have anyway" After a few minutes looking round "Okay just give me one tiger barb then as my mate must be right"

"You fish food is dear, it's 5p cheaper at Pets At Home"

"All those 6 neons I bought yesterday aren't there today and no bodies either" "What other fish do you have? "Oh just 2 large angelfish but you didn't tell me they'd eat them" "Well you never said you had angels" "So are you going to give me 6 more then? "NO" Customer then left hurling a stream of abuse and swear words.


He opens at 9.30. Phone call at 9.31 "hi what time do you close mate"

 

[WILDER]

Best advice he could give is to tell the customer to research the fish before they buy.
Also reading a beginners book on fish keeping.

 

[mixmaster jay]

i like that last line lmao

 

[crazychris]

Yeah that was yesterday. He had all on to resist saying "I've only just fu**ing opened"

 

[mixmaster jay]

lol im crap in the morning so i prob would of

 

[WILDER]

lol im crap in the morning so i prob would of

LOL.
I done it in the past. Phoned the lfs to make sure I don't have a wasted journey.

 

[rabbut]

What really irritates me is "Will Nemo go with my goldfish" ohhh, tricky question, erm, I think NO!

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I have dealt with much worse...

10-15% of the customers I help don't take my advice, it's pretty common, they think they know better then the person working at the store. Makes me angry sometimes but I guess they end up learning the hard way.

 

[Smoothy]

"All those 6 neons I bought yesterday aren't there today and no bodies either" "What other fish do you have? "Oh just 2 large angelfish but you didn't tell me they'd eat them" "Well you never said you had angels" "So are you going to give me 6 more then? "NO" Customer then left hurling a stream of abuse and swear words.

funny post , although this one ^ you could argue that he should have asked what fish he had in the tank before selling him the neons

Even my local P@H ask this now

EDIT: Unless of course he did ask him ... but the customer didn't mention them?

 

[karigupi]

"He opens at 9.30. Phone call at 9.31 "hi what time do you close mate"

Maybe its because I am sleep deprived with a teething baby, but I dont see the problem with this one? When I'm planning my day, if hubby has the car & I need to go somewhere I will often ring to find out their closing time so I can ask hubby to be back in time for me to get there, i'll ring early so hubby can plan his days appointments early.

To be honest, if someone was cross with me for phoning to ask their business hours, I would choose a different lfs.

 

[jonnyf84]

"He opens at 9.30. Phone call at 9.31 "hi what time do you close mate"

Maybe its because I am sleep deprived with a teething baby, but I dont see the problem with this one? When I'm planning my day, if hubby has the car & I need to go somewhere I will often ring to find out their closing time so I can ask hubby to be back in time for me to get there, i'll ring early so hubby can plan his days appointments early.

To be honest, if someone was cross with me for phoning to ask their business hours, I would choose a different lfs.

^^^ i completely agree, i do the same if i've got a busy day and i can't make to a shop until the end of the day i always call up and ask for a closing time, its common sense surely!!!

 

[crazychris]

What really irritates me is "Will Nemo go with my goldfish" ohhh, tricky question, erm, I think NO!

Yeah all dealers were inundated with requests for Nemos when the film first came out. "I want a Nemo and a bowl for my kids"

 

[joecoral]

What annoys me is when customers refuse to believe your advice, even though you do this for a living.
I've had:
- "I've been keeping fish longer than you're been alive, I think I know what I'm doing better than you" - this woman put 6 goldfish in an unfiltered bowl and wanted to know why they all died

- "Nope, I don't believe my water killed my fish, the customer is always right don't you know, I want replacements" - this man had bought 3 discus (telling the member of staff who served him they were going in a 5ft tank which already had discus in), put them in a 2ft tank, had a water sample which showed both ammonia and nitrite through the roof

-"I don't need to bring in a water sample, I've been shopping here for x years and he always replaces my fish when they die"

But what annoys me more than anything is when people ask for your advice, ignore it and do what they want, then come back and complain when their fish have died AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh

 

[crazychris]

Bumping this cos he told me last week about a guy who bought 3 small angels. They were all dead next morning! So Gary replaced them and next day, same again, all three dead. So he said that he wanted a water sample to test before he replaced them again. The guy had brought the dead fish in both times. Gary had checked his small angels and they were fine and no deaths. Then he said " what fish are in the tank already" so the guy said "just two goldfish" and Gary remarked that goldfish aren't really for a tropical tank. The guy said "Tropical, no I don't have a heater" This was in early January when it was freezing here in the UK.

 

[MrPurplePickle]

I have dealt with much worse...

10-15% of the customers I help don't take my advice, it's pretty common, they think they know better then the person working at the store. Makes me angry sometimes but I guess they end up learning the hard way.

Ahhh...its a catch 22. Most of the threads on here will tell people the LFS staff are full of crap most of the time.
Perhaps all staff that do know what they are saying should have dyed green mohawks to make it easier to identify them