Help- How should I complain about a UK shop?

[melcrawshaw]

Hi,

I wondered what peoples opinion would be about whether I should complain about a local branch of Pets At Home (UK).

We went in the store today and were looking at the fish tanks, we counted at least 8 dead fish in various tanks in various states of decay. A Betta had been caught up in a net and was struggling to get free, in another tank a goldfish had a huge open sore (although on this tank a sign was put up to say the fish was being treated, which although fair enough did not make me happy to see yet another dead fish beside it).

I went over to one of the salesmen, and said about what we had seen, we were told that the fish were inspected every half hour. Another salesperson told us that they were shortstaffed so maybe they hadn't been inspected that day (it was 1pm), also that they had had a delivery of fish the previous day, so it was expected to have dead fish. But these dead fish had been there more than a day, the decay was absolutely dreadful. As for the Betta -" the net must have accidently fallen in."

What can I do? I am absolutely furious but don't know who to complain to, can anyone advise?

 

[greathat]

complain to their head office maybe. stress how u spend lots of money there and u no LOADS of other people that do too, but if they upset ur ethics u and ur friends will take ur business elsewhere

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I agree, take it to the top!! Maybe go in and ask to speak to the mangager, if they don't tell you what you want, ask for the address of their head office. If you do hear what you want, go in another time to see if the situation's better. If it's not ask for the address of head office.

When writing to head office, make sure you do it snail mail, it is known that more attention is paid to non-electronic mail. Make sure everything is well spelt and polite but ensure they know you are not happy.

Await their reply.

 

[White Whale]

Be a very annoying customer. I've never seen anyone arrested for seeking of knowledge through the use of questions.

 

[greathat]

i started asking loudly once why there was a dead fish in a tank. the idiot salesperson replied that they were dead on arrival and had been used as a diet supplement! so then i started asking about the possible spread of disease from this.

I was stood at the front of a long queue being very annoying i only went for catfish pellets im sure they were extremely annoyed :

 

[cometcattle]

How does a PET STORE open its doors for business without inspecting thier tanks? I love pointing out dead fish in tanks in front of customers who are contemplating buying fish from those tanks. I then tell them the address of the 3 LFS that I frequent. Added bonus if you can do this with a store manager present.

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

complain to the top!!
and very loudly too!!

 

[plecoperson]

why didnt you ask to speak to a manager while you were in the shop?

Write a letter to Head Office - they should take it very seriously. Next time, insist on them taking the fish out of the tanks while you were watching.

I work in a LFS. Its true, you get some fish deaths after a delivery due to the stress but we always remove fatalities before we open and every hour during the day. 8 fish is very bad.

 

[gadazobe]

Try the RSPCA - I've done it before and the owner was heavily fined.

 

[Tin_foil]

hey newbie here, read thru the whole of this post and even tho i work in Pets at Home myself, u do get some employees who dont care, as i work full time and with 3 other people we check our fish once an hour for dead ones, then take them out. fair enough if we have delivery then sometimes it doesnt get checked but we strive to make every check done on time. i keep fish along with almost every one of our staff that work there, we all know alot about fish and myself and two other people are experts there. but if u do have a complaint please remember that it can just be that store and not the whole company.
thanks

 

[millym]

id do as everyones suggesting - write a letter & complain. i remember ages ago 'watchdog' or similar tv show did an inquiry into some of the large pet store chains in the uk so theres always people out there who are interested in unhappy customers, mistreated animals- finned,furred & winged & bad publicity.

tinfoil - we go to our local pets at home in west london & always found the staff, even though some of them are young kids, very good & quite knowlegable & if you point out a problem (dead fish etc) they will remedy the situation. we've also initially bought a lot of our fish from them & really have had no problems. it must depend on the shop & if a problem is found then complaining can only help.

 

[BIGMAC]

Hi,

I wondered what peoples opinion would be about whether I should complain about a local branch of Pets At Home (UK).

We went in the store today and were looking at the fish tanks, we counted at least 8 dead fish in various tanks in various states of decay. A Betta had been caught up in a net and was struggling to get free, in another tank a goldfish had a huge open sore (although on this tank a sign was put up to say the fish was being treated, which although fair enough did not make me happy to see yet another dead fish beside it).

I went over to one of the salesmen, and said about what we had seen, we were told that the fish were inspected every half hour. Another salesperson told us that they were shortstaffed so maybe they hadn't been inspected that day (it was 1pm), also that they had had a delivery of fish the previous day, so it was expected to have dead fish. But these dead fish had been there more than a day, the decay was absolutely dreadful. As for the Betta -" the net must have accidently fallen in."

What can I do? I am absolutely furious but don't know who to complain to, can anyone advise?

Our pets at home is just as bad i was in there yesterday and the tanks were awfull the amount of dead and rotting fish was disgusting.The guy was gonna sell a woman some fish out of a tank that had reall sick fish that half of them were floating about upside down,i told her infront of the guy not to buy them and that it was disgusting the way the fish were looked after and then i told the guy that they should get their act to gether and sort the tanks and the fish and it was a disgrase selling fish in such bad condition.The poor fish i was furious.

 

[bunjiweb]

Take it to trading Standards (possibly via Citizens Advice Beurau).

As said, pet shops shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. When i was first in search of fish i went to petsathome and saw 3 dead fish and decided to go else where for the fish and just purchased my 5gal there.

I asked to speak to the manager and explained the situation and told him I would never be buying from them in the future as I thought this was very disrespectful as you don't see them leaving dead rabbits in the cages do you.

He tried to offer me a gift voucher but I refused telling him I was taking my future business elsewhere and advising my friends to do so.

The local fish shop that i now always use is great (The Aquatics Habitat - Brockworth, Gloucestershire). The people are really nice And i have not seen ONE dead fish yet. They inform me they have over 20 quanantine tanks and they are deffinatly treated properly and with respect the way it should be!

I'd suggest visiting one of the following shops in Dorset rather than Petsathome...

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...etailer&start=0

The only one from them i know is Maidenhead aquatics, and they are VERY good from the one i've been to in Hereford which is amazing

Hope this helps!

Ben

 

[Opcn]

Two words: Eco-terorism

Okay I guess its hyphanated but you get my point! Everytime you go past a dead fish ask VERY LOUDLY wheter or not the fish is supposed to be dead. Up here we get dead fish all the time unfortunatly. The plane ride is a bit long.

Opcn

 

[melcrawshaw]

Well just to let you know that a letter (by snail mail as suggested on here) is on it's way to the head office as well as a copy to the particular store. The more I thought about what I had seen the more angry I became.

I just can't stress enough just how badly decayed the dead fish were, they certainly hadn't just died as what was suggested to me by the stores staff.

I was never buying livestock in there but I did use them for equipment and food etc, but no longer, it will be worth paying more for my items at my LFS where I know the livestock are kept in better conditions.

Please don't think that I believe that all Pets At Home stores are like this, I just think this one was particularly bad. Anyways, I'll keep you posted on any outcome.