Petsmart Rant!

[fishwatcher]

I went in to Petsmart last night to get some von rios for my 10-gal. They had flame and orange (which I'm sure is just a color morph). So, I got 3 of each, figuring they'd all school like normal. Well, stupid me walked off to get some things for my dog while he was bagging them up. I took the bag, saw they were all pale from the stress and went home. This morning I've discovered that 3 are von rios (only one looks orange on the body instead of silver with black bars and the other 2 are typical von rios). And the other 3... well they appear to be rosy tetras! They are beautiful fish, and I'm actually happy I got them in a way, but I wanted the smaller von rios! That ^*&@*^@! They seem to be perfectly happy, colored up and swimming nicely, etc. I'm just irritated that he did that. I wonder if he got them from a different tank or if there were actually some rosy tetras in with the von rios? Atleast if they were together he could just say he didn't know they weren't that fish, but if they weren't....!
Anyway, just wanted to rant... thanks for listening!

 

[pennjones]

sorry to hear about your mishap, but it just gives me one more reason to not buy fish from petco.

 

[fishwatcher]

yeah, I really should have known better, but it was going to be atleast 2 weeks before the lfs here had any in. I do like to get fish from there, as long as I research them first. I guess next time I'll know to stay with the bagger!

 

[fish_fetish65]

heh, i work at petsmart... but i do agree that some of the employees there can be rather stupid.

 

[heather]

i would never shop at petsmart half of the staff have no knolege at all ,,,and when i last went there they was alot of dead 1s in a tank and another tank had a bad whitespot outbreak even though they are still selling them

 

[- kT]

two words

Big Al's
^^

 

[fish_fetish65]

i would never shop at petsmart half of the staff have no knolege at all ,,,and when i last went there they was alot of dead 1s in a tank and another tank had a bad whitespot outbreak even though they are still selling them

the dead fish are a result of idiot managers ordering way too many fish to survive in a single tank. our petsmart has very knowledgeable staff, but i do know that many of the stores have idiots running the place. i just went through yesterday and collected all diseased fish (we recently got another shipment) and put them in the hospital tanks in the back. they seem to be doing alright... but i never sell a diseased fish. if i see signs of tail rot or white spot, i tell the customer to pick another one. i would feel terrible if i were to sell a fish who later wiped out a customer's entire tank due to disease. it's happened to me, and it isn't someone i would wish on ANYONE.

 

[fishwatcher]

Didn't mean any offense to anyone that works there that actually tries to do a good job. This fellow obviously didn't know much about fish though and they didn't train him to know his job. I really should have known to stick by him though bc a couple of months ago I went in to get my DPs and I had to tell him how to sex them. He was nice and courteous, he just doesn't have the knowledge that's needed. I blame the manager(s) for that.

 

[heather]

i did say half the staff not all ,, i have met some great staff there too but its not good to have so many ppl who work for these companys to have no idea about them ,, no offence to you as you keep fish youreself witch means you know what youre tALKING ABOUT BUT YOU MUST KNOW OTHER STORES THAT HAVE PEOPLE WORKING THERE THAT HAVE NO IDEA AT ALL .. 1 GUY TRIED TO SELL THIS OLD COUPLE A COMMON PLEC SHE SAID WILL THESE GROW FAST AND IF SO HOW BIG THE GUY SAID NO HE WILL BE OK IN YOURE 1 FT TANK SO I SAID TO THE COUPLE I SAID THESE WILL GROW LARGE AND YOU WILL EVENTUALLY NEED A VERY LARGE TANK ,, GOOD JOB I DID SAY SOMETHING THEY WOULD OF ENDED UP WITH A LARGE PLEC IN A VERY SMALL TANK AND THEN THEY WOULD HAVE TO RE HOME IT ,, HOW UNFAIR IS THAT ,,

 

[Kame-San]

Some of the staff actually know quite a bit. As for the people who dont, it isn't all their fault. It's up to the managers to train their employees. The staff at my local petsmart know a lot, and seem to be trained well.

 

[chameleongeekgrl]

heh, i work at petsmart... but i do agree that some of the employees there can be rather stupid.

Well i's good to see a knowledgable peson working there.

I made my rant about petsmart on the planted forum in one of my posts. But i'll give you the privaledge here to hear it.

So i went inthere because I have a exteremlt tall and deep aquarium so I asked an Employee
"This is my tank, it's deep whats the best kind of lighting to use"
"oh the one that came with it will work great" She said
" The one that came with it is only a 20 watt single bulb" I asked looking confused. "Besides it's like 35" deep, light can't penetrate that deep"
so she sat there looked concerned and finally said " That's okay plants DON"T NEED tHAT MUCH LIGHT they only need OXEGON to survive"

WHaaaaaa so when did plants need oxgen, Sheesh I'll tell you she wasn't that bright. I've had good experience at PEtCo though the guy there was a flippin' genius. Although there was two people who were really smart guys
Guy #1 preferred to use chemicals and antibiotics to keep his tank healthy
Guy#2 preferred to let his tank heal and "live on" naturally
So yeah you had to make sure to stick with one or the other or else they confused ya.

 

[fishwatcher]

I definitely blame the managers there. Of course, I don't expect anyone to know everything, but a bit of knowledge about the product you're selling is always a good thing.
Hooray to those who work there that know what they're doing!! Hopefully it'll rub off on others!

 

[drango91]

petsmart is the best we have petco is a piece of sh!t, i have fish living longer than the combined time of my 10 fish from petco(they all died)

 

[geezer]

I must say that I have had a similar experience at petsmart. We went in to buy a zebra loach. When he fished it out, I asked, are you sure it's a zebra loach? (it didnt look like any zebra loached I had ever seen) A few weeks later, I went back to buy psycho paul a buddy. So went to the tank, it's labelled zebra loach. Asked the guy again. (same man- apparently he is the head of the fish dept) got another one. Looked just like phycho paul. They now play and are very hilliarious to watch. I went to Big Al's and I see our zebra loaches only they aren't actually zebra loaches they are yoyo loaches. I knew they werent but I guess the expectation is that someone who has worked in the fish dept and who runs it would know the difference. And being a newbie to the fish scene I thought it was just me! Guess not.

 

[Tropical Fish Breeder]

Most of the Pet Smart employees are kids who work there part-time and dot have a clue about fish. My friend bought six neons and some glow lite tetras and the kid used a code on the bag for white clouds. He got all his fish for less than half price. Way to go Pet Smart.