Pets @ Home In Wrexham

[DiscusKeeper403]

should do what i did get a job there

Lol. Not everyone can just get a job there.

 

[shelaghfishface]

Personally i think that the little piece of paper is a great idea. Surely if you are an experienced fish keeper then you wont want to lie and put unsuitable fish in you tank.... and if your not an experienced fish keeper then you wont know what there looking for and will therefore either look incompetent or write down what you actually have.. either way the fish wouldn't be sold.

I think its better than not being asked anything. If it stops a few people every so often from making a mistake its better than none.

its a great idea.. when they can be bothered to fill it in, and i did complain that they hadnt ( in a nice way),also the fact that wthey were selling silver sharks for a 100 litre tank( not mine i might add).... i was nice about it and spent a long time talking to the new owner of them, and another lad i spoke to in there (employee) is really nice, dosent know much( his girlfreind keeps a goldie in a bowl ), but admitted that, i gave him the forum address and he was going to look at it, but like ace says theyre not an lfs and judging by how busy it is on a sat afternoon with mums,dads n kids demanding a goldfish, they make there money and thats all that matters to them its up to us to stop buying fish from them, if no one buys them then they wont need to keep stocking them, but having said that only yesterday i was reading a thread about how impressed someone was about there local pets at home, so they cant all be tarred with the same brush, maybe it would help if they actually employed people with a knowledge and enjoyment of fish rather than giving them a compulsory training course, no one learns when theyre not interested, and its a job after all

have a word with the manager write to head office,, but if you cant be bothered then why rant?

edited to add the bit i forgot.. a girl that works there is very good with her advice, could have spent all day chatting to her,, when i spoke to her she did infact tell me ( when i questiond there 7 day no fish policy) that thats what they have to say

 

[hollanda88]

Personally i think that the little piece of paper is a great idea. Surely if you are an experienced fish keeper then you wont want to lie and put unsuitable fish in you tank.... and if your not an experienced fish keeper then you wont know what there looking for and will therefore either look incompetent or write down what you actually have.. either way the fish wouldn't be sold.

I think its better than not being asked anything. If it stops a few people every so often from making a mistake its better than none.

its a great idea.. when they can be bothered to fill it in, and i did complain that they hadnt ( in a nice way),also the fact that wthey were selling silver sharks for a 100 litre tank( not mine i might add).... i was nice about it and spent a long time talking to the new owner of them, and another lad i spoke to in there (employee) is really nice, dosent know much( his girlfreind keeps a goldie in a bowl ), but admitted that, i gave him the forum address and he was going to look at it, but like ace says theyre not an lfs and judging by how busy it is on a sat afternoon with mums,dads n kids demanding a goldfish, they make there money and thats all that matters to them its up to us to stop buying fish from them, if no one buys them then they wont need to keep stocking them, but having said that only yesterday i was reading a thread about how impressed someone was about there local pets at home, so they cant all be tarred with the same brush, maybe it would help if they actually employed people with a knowledge and enjoyment of fish rather than giving them a compulsory training course, no one learns when theyre not interested, and its a job after all

have a word with the manager write to head office,, but if you cant be bothered then why rant?

edited to add the bit i forgot.. a girl that works there is very good with her advice, could have spent all day chatting to her,, when i spoke to her she did infact tell me ( when i questiond there 7 day no fish policy) that thats what they have to say

I had no interest in fish until i worked there, and i must be lucky then that i trust all of my collegues to give correct information.

Just tell the manager if things arn't up to cratch.

We can;t put the fish through the till without the scribe (piece of paper)

andrew

 

[Fishfan4lyfe]

the pets @ home in wrexham is a right mess. the set up for the tanks is good but the fish keeping side of it the people dont have a clue. the tanks and well and truely over stocked and nearly very tank has at least 2 dead fish in. i go in just to have abit of a nose and it is shameful. feel sorry for the fish. it is also well known that if people buy fish from there they are 8 times out of 10 have some sort of a decease or when you get them home they die with a day or 2. wish they would look after the place abit better.

I live in wrexham and i agree the place is a state. Chrik Morton garden park is the best place locally for fish

 

[Loops]

Our Pets at Home, fish all look ok, but listening to some of the advise they give out.......not ok

 

[shelaghfishface]

oh they give you the bit of paper.. but there are several check boxes on there and on mine none of these were ticked, nothing was explined to me, just said 4 shrimp @£2.50,
im not bothered what they tick and what they dont holland im really not, i wouldnt have normaly bought any livestock from them, its just that i wanted the shrimp in while the filter was still alive.
but i agree with what you say totally, if no one says anything then how they gonna know

 

[jimmyringo]

We can;t put the fish through the till without the scribe (piece of paper)

andrew

My local P@H isn't toooo bad.One of the guys is really helpful and knowledgeable.......one is the complete opposite....and a few are in-between.

As for the scribe,i'm always given it to take to the till but it has never once been filled out except for the price!!!

 

[hollanda88]

We can;t put the fish through the till without the scribe (piece of paper)

andrew

My local P@H isn't toooo bad.One of the guys is really helpful and knowledgeable.......one is the complete opposite....and a few are in-between.

As for the scribe,i'm always given it to take to the till but it has never once been filled out except for the price!!!

Complain about that! please

there not going to change if there not told, i hope my store is one of the better ones then, we nearly always get 100% on reports

andrew

 

[Emjayne]

I too haven't been overly impressed with either Pets@home Stores that that i've been in (Inverness and Wick), there are always dead fish in tanks just left there to rot and alot of tanks look overcrowded. Most of the staff don't seem to have a clue about fish as they have on many occasions given me and others i know incorrect advise. Each time i have bought fish from them that looked healthy in the store i've had at least half die within 24hrs. If there were any other pet store up in the highlands where i live i would go there but there aren't. It''s just such a shame

 

[keenonfish]

Hi, I'm not getting at you but it does annoy me a little when people just decide to have a go at some LFS without doing something about it.

Most fish shops have the odd dead fish in their tanks which can be excused. Some fish are bound to be stressed out by transportation, especially wild caught specimens.
As far as overstocking is concerned this is acceptable if you understand the situation. As mentioned by previous poster these holding tanks are a temporary habitat. Also the filtration systems for these combined tanks are huge and consist of hundreds (thousands sometimes) gallons of water.

My experience of this chain has, on the most part, been very good. I like to listen to advice given to people that wish to buy fish and it seems to me that they have a check list that they use. The questions are sensible and direct and sound like they could now be company policy (any P@H employee's wish to confirm this?)
If this is so then you need to report your local branch to their head office with your complaint rather than just airing your views here.

Well you want to go to Stockport branch mate, I had really high hopes when they upgraded the store as it looks gorgous BUT the people who work there are clueless. I have been in a handful of times in the last 2 months and every time the neons / danios have had either Columnaris or White spot. What makes this worse is that the tanks are banked so you can bet your bottom dollar at least 4 to 6 tanks will now have that disease.

Do you know their quarantine procedure? Dump fish in tank stick paper to tank saying fish are under quarantine and six hours later paper removed and fish for sale. No separate filtration system so that any sick fish risk spreading disease to other 'healthy' tanks. PS I know this for fact as I whitnessed a member of staff filling a tank with fish then telling someone to come back later lol!

Last time I went up to the lad told him a Danio had columnaris and then proceeded to leave. At the same time, rather loudly expleted 'it's ####ing disgusting in this place'. I was a bit embarrassed with myself and I got quite a few looks from customers but tbh I will be doing it again if I see similar conditions again. I noticed some people walked away!

It's a shame because they have gone to a lot of effort with making sure the place looks good, and have interesting stock with reasonable prices. What lets them down is cutting corners by introducing new stock into already established filter system and also having a lot of clueless employees (not including the poster above) who don't know sh!t!!!

Oh the irony of the employees questioning customers over fish husbandry

 

[[email protected]]

sorry to say but i think i have proved my point on this topic. ok there is the odd good p@h store and ok a few staff here and there will proberbly will be clued up but the is alot of p@h stores dont and alot of stores dont seem to look after there stock.

 

[momo33]

As inconvenient as it would be to sales and customers, I would personaly like to see a form that has a random set of questions that require you to give answers to fish care, like. How long must you cycle a tank before adding fish and how many at a time may be added, or a fish shows this disease( add a pic of diseased fish) what is this disease and what steps should you take.

If you cant answer at least 75% of them right you get shown the door.

 

[hollanda88]

As inconvenient as it would be to sales and customers, I would personaly like to see a form that has a random set of questions that require you to give answers to fish care, like. How long must you cycle a tank before adding fish and how many at a time may be added, or a fish shows this disease( add a pic of diseased fish) what is this disease and what steps should you take.

If you cant answer at least 75% of them right you get shown the door.

In a perfect world then i would love that, but i would say 90% of fish keepers are clueless, have no idea about even the basic principles we take for granted. But will this change, no. I doubt it, there fish after all

 

[doresy]

Well I still reckon P@H are used by many (not all obviously) as a place to complain about just to make themselves sound knowledgeable

I have around 10-12 LFS's within a comfortable drive (lucky me) plus a couple of P@H. My very local P@H (Eastleigh) has the usual range of well priced accessories, plus a great supply of good plants and a range of tanks/fish that are clean/healthy. The staff question anyone wishing to buy fish quite thoroughly which is more than can be said about the other shops. The other shops ASSUME the buyer is knowledgeable which normally is not the case. I can honestly say that ALL the other LFS have at least one or two dead fish which (IME) is commonplace.

Obviously P@H are a pet shop that sells fish so the extent of knowledge in one particular field is understandably limited in some cases. Lets face it, if you go to your local supermarket to buy something like a television it just isn't going to be the same as going to the Sony shop.........is it!

 

[CeeJayy]

My PAH (Chatham) is great! I walked up there in the holidays to get my water tested and the store was empty, i started talking to the manager and i could have stayed there for ever! (If it wasnt for me having to walk through the woods and it was getting dark then i would have stayed there till close, hah!) We was taking about certain tanks, taking about fish and such. There are 3/4 men in there that really know their stuff.

I went in there today before work to get some fish food and i asked the assistant manager about a job, he said i have to be 16 (Couple of weeks) and to take in a CV.

Although they dont fill out the scribes - this could be a downfall.

Sometimes i find myself walking up there through the woods for NO reason at all, just to watch the fish.. i walk around the 3 fish isles for ages just looking at stuff! I love it haha.