Omg, Makes Me Angry!

[redbetta]

Ok our local petstore is like a huuge chain, called pets unlimited and I'm not a fan of them at all because all their pets basically come from mills and blah blah all that.
Either way I went in there today and for the first time ever, they had female bettas, which must have been veiltails. They were all very pretty and I've never really seen female bettas in stores, never in PU anyway. This is what struck me. There were like 25 gals in there, half of them were covered in stress stripes, some were chewed up and what not... Wanna know why? Because they had a male in there! The male was more chewed up than the girls were but helllo, why would you do that? I asked them, and they said yeah he's supposed to be in there, and I'm like "doesnt he bother the girls? and they are like "no, the girls will pick on him". Either way it was aweful... Way to go, little kids probably think that's soooo cool and everyone will breed everything together, around here anyway. Help me god but I think I'm going to have a fit. It was sick... And for a petstore of that size, you'd think they would know, and it's funny cause those workers actually know what they are talking about when it comes to fish, so why this? What is the point in having this male in there? So they can sell "stripey", chewed up girls? ... Makes me wonder sometimes...

 

[Synirr]

...and they are like "no, the girls will pick on him"

...and that's not a problem?
Sometimes I wonder why so many people seem to completely lack observational skills.

 

[Andie]

The thing about Pets Unlimited, too, is that they're a franchise store so you can have a great one and you can have an awful one. The fish room in the Pets Unlimited here is excellent because they've got a guy who really knows his stuff, but I know the one in Bayers Lake is foul- they had a macaw they would let out of its cage. It climbed onto my shoulder and tried to bite my face. I don't know if they ever got rid of it or not. Which one did you go to?

 

[Black Sabbath]

Pets at Home in the UK are like that (at least the ones i've been to are) they always have male bettas in with all sorts of fish, i even saw one dead in a tank full of cichlids (last time i ever went in).

The woman working there was going to sell a Senegal Bichir at 3" that she told this couple wouldn't grow much bigger I told them that i had one at home that was 12" and that their neons wouldn't last very long once they put him in their tank.

 

[Ethos]

Some people are intresting.
Whenever I go into a petstore and I see something wrong, I can't really say anything because even if what I said makes sense, whos going to want to listen to a 13 yr. old?

 

[redbetta]

Isn't it ridiculous? Andie yes it was the one in Bayers Lake, but the people know their stuff, when they tell people about all these other fish, they know what they are talking about it seems( I know nothing about other fish besides bettas) but I couldn't understand this at all. I agree Synirr, it's aweful but the even more horrible thing is that people will be buying these chewed up girls, will have no clue and they will die or something. Man that makes me want to cry, the girls were so adorable. I didn't say anything more after that and left. Just sick

 

[Mr.September15]

I wouldnt know. I know this is ridiculous, but I remember hearing one of the mods closing these kinds of threads because people are always complaining and getting mad at the Pet Stores, because the real bad guys are us because were not complaining at the pet stores but instead making threads on here expressing our anger.

-Arrowhead

 

[Squid]

just remember... they are like car salesman at the end of the day, but sell fish instead.. they would sell you a ferrari as being great in the snow if they thought you would buy it...

Of course this a vast generalisation, but worth keeping in mind..

Squid

 

[redbetta]

I didn't want to start anything, and it is maybe our fault, but I think it's rude how they take advantage of people that know nothing. I guess that's business these days. I don't really support PU at all. I like our small local petstore down home much better, they take great care of their animals. I just feel bad for these fish, but there is nothing anyone can do because most people don't have a clue about fish. There aren't enough of us real betta people around here.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

If Pets Unlimited is a franchise they have a corporate head office that they have to answer to. Head office dictates how stores are supposed to be run. A good franchise support centre/head office will do regular check ups on their franchisees and if they consistently "break the rules" they can and should be shut down.

The great thing about franchises is that head office tells you how to build your store, what you can stock, who you order from, etc... They often hold the head lease on the building you are operating your business in. They ultimately control whether or not you can stay in business. If they don't like the way your business is run they will not renew your lease. Often contracts will have clauses that say the head office can "seize" your store if you do not run your business properly. These rules help ensure that businesses are run uniformly.

If you have a problem with a franchise, complain to head office. Keep complaining until something changes. No head office would want their name ruined because of one store. And no franchisee wants to lose their business due to mismanagement.

Just for reference, I work in a franchise support centre. Complaining works. We have seized stores in the past. We have also refused to renew a lease, and forced the franchisee to sell their store. All of our franchisees are inspected on a regular basis. If they continually fail their operations review they lose their store. If they get continual complaints they lose their store.

I would lodge a formal complaint. A good support centre will respond to your complaint and they will try to find a solution.

Of course if their head office doesn't care....

 

[Andie]

Of course if their head office doesn't care....

Sadly, the head office that had their Moncton store stop promoting the local SPCA adoptables in favour of selling overpriced puppies bred in northern New Brunswick "commercial kennels" is likely not the best place to start when complaining about humane treatment of animals. It is also incredibly hard to contact a head office that has no website and seemingly no contact information at all (I went through an exhaustive and futile search when I wanted to complain about staff training procedures; an employee had actually tried to convince me that "Terri-Poos" were a real breed of dog and officially recognised as such by the Canadian Kennel Club).

That said, though, the information about franchises you've provided is very useful to have on hand because, as you yourself indicated, no self-respecting franchise is going to want its reptuation to suffer based on the merits of one store. You've given some great information that would be applicable any time someone was dealing with a store whose head office actually appeared to care about the treatment its animals were receiving.

I really admire anybody who can follow through with making formal complaints in general; not just at the level of the store employees, but higher up. As somebody who lacks the nerve to confront people when I'm no longer caught up in the heat of the moment, I especially admire in other people the strengths I know I lack(!)