OP
OP
guppymonkey
Fish Herder
it must be so annoying providing advice that people don't take any notice of! i think that people are sometimes sceptical about the fact that the shop assistants are there to sell products, and possibly people don't understand the importance of certain things such as filters, and that sort of stuff!
but i have to disagree with you on the colour issue! i like to have colourful fish (most of ours a silver or a slight variation of.. silver dollars, bala sharks etc) so sometimes i say that i fancy something with a little more colour.. hence we got our torpedo barbs (and we researched the fish extensively, on here, google and talking to lfs who stock the fish, checking compatability, and care). just because people want a little more colour in their aquarium does not mean that they want painted catfish and things like that.. it just means they want something a little different to waht they already have!! its very narrow minded to assume that all customers do not care about thier fish when they say they are looking for a little more colour or something a little different!
kat
You generally get a feeling for good and bad customers in whatever job you are working, especially in a pet store. When someone starts complaining that they want more color generally they just want a colorful fish and don't care what it is. There are some exceptions but those exceptions usually ask for specific species, like "Do you have dwarf gouramis?" or "I am looking for some Apistogrammas to add some color". Those are definately different then the people who point out the african cichlids cuz they are "pretty" and then get offended when I ask what size tank they have and tell them they can't add africans to a ten gallon community tank with guppies and tetras.
I had a woman in my store yesterday that had a ten gallon tank with two mollies in it. She wanted "some color" and immediately went to the fish that grow too large for her tank. She pointed at some silver dollars and said "Give me those things" (not even bothering to remember the common name let alone asking anything about the species). When I told her that it got way too big for her tank she proceeded to tell me "Its my tank and I will do whatever I want with it. They will just die anyways". So I told her she could get them but if they died then she couldn't get replacement fish from us because I wouldn't guarantee them. After complaining about that she said that she also wanted an albino oscar because they were "cute". Then I just refused to sell her anything and she stomped out of the store after I explained that she needed a LOT bigger tank for these big fish.
These customers are very very very common. I would probably estimate that your uninformed customers outweigh the good ones by at least a scale of 1 to 10 if not more. Most people just want a tank full of "pretty fish" for their tank they got either for themselves or for their little children. They don't get a book to help them, they just set up a tank and expect the fish to take care of themselves except for feeding. And most of them don't want help, they have had tanks since they were children, or its so "easy" that they don't need help. The worst is that a LOT of pet stores give really bad information because they are lazy or uninformed and that makes it even worse.
