So Annoyed With Lfs....

[Lyra0727]

I noticed a few people complaining about petsmart.. sorry to hear the one near you hired bad employers.. But I want to point out not all are bad.

I have 2 new me in complete oppisite directions. One south and one north. The south I started going to because it was in a safer location, but one day my guppy had started getting a hole in her head, so I took her hoping to find the person who helped last time (she knew what she was talking about!) but she quit because their manager wouldnt let her cure their fish for ich and were still selling the fish...

So the new employer just took a quick glance at my guppy and handed malfix to me saying that would cure her.. NOT! At the time I couldnt figure out what to do to help my guppy i researched for a week just to figure out what it was! (sadly didnt find out until after she passed)

So I decided to go to the one on the North side to get my water tested. The girl that did it admited she didnt know much and asked a different employer to come down so he could help me. He had aquariums the same size as mine showed pictures and everything so I would know he had at least some expirence with fish. He pointed out I had high nitrates and I told him my tank. he did say that getting bottom feeders would be best but considering the fish I have they would get eaten.

Point in that was that he was honest! He told me to do a 75% water change and come back next week to test my water, and to turn my undergravel filter off. (was told to do that by mother.. a bit realived I dont need it anymore!) Now I come to that one every week and he makes sure to help me.


So not all Lfs are that bad In fact as soon as I graduate high school (in three months!) I'm applying for a job there myself so I can learn more about other fish they have! They educate eachother and help their customers!

 

[char la]

You cant judge how good they are if you dont know if the information they're telling you is correct.
From what you have just wrote Lyra i'd say that fella needs to learn a lot more!

Getting bottom feeders wouldnt do a single thing for your nitrates. Im guessing he said that so they would eat any excess food but number 1, you should never get bottom feeders to eat excess food, they need their own food. Number 2, if theres excess food your probably feeding to much (hence the high nitrates!). And number 3, the food is still in the tank, eaten or not, its being converted into ammonia then nitrite then nitrate.
Next... you should try to never change more than 50% of your tank water in one go. Its better to do a few smaller changes in a week.
And finally...Please tell me you had another filter in the tank because telling you to turn off the only filter in a tank because of high nitrates is idiotic.

 

[MBOU]

I have to agree with a lot of what Char La says...

I also work in a for certain large aquatic retailer (wonder if its the same company LOL!?) and I joined about 3.5 years ago knowing NOTHING about fish except the nitrogen cycle off by heart because my housemate (and soon to be boss!!) made me learn it!!

Now, with a lot less experience in fishkeeping and less qualifications than most, i'm esily rivalling my colleagues in knowlege and outdoing some!

The difference in staff quality is very very simple.. You either:

-Have the job because you WANT to do it, you WANT to learn, it is a passion and a hobby. That passion for the hobby is hugely appreciated by customers and your enthusiasm spreads to the customers, encourages them to get more into the hobbby.

-Have the job because you NEED it. You NEED the money. Your parents NEED you out of the house before they go mad LOL.

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My passion is dealing with the fish, cleaning, buying, labelling, housing, selling, treating, display tanks etc... NOT dealing with people, i often really struggle dealing with people because i suffer with quite bad social anxiety (though thats much better now). But i can honestly say, working with people like you guys on this forum has changed my life. It isnt just the fish that make my job worth it... its the 1 in 10 customers that turn out to be hugely passionate about their fish and tanks, the ones that are not only keen to learn and listen but are happy to share opinions with me. Its how i learn, not just from books, forums and experience but from my customers.

I am proud of so many of my customers! It makes not just my job worth it but life as well to have a very happy customer come back to see me just to let me know how their fish are doing! Many times i have had photos brought back to show me! I have customers call up to let me know how specific fish are doing! I sold a gorgeous Chagoi koi 3 years ago who id trained to come sit in my hand, hand feed etc and she made all our other koi friendly, i was sad to see her go and she is now huge! I still get updates on her!!

Customers come back to see me because I care, because I am passionate. I can guarantee I have the lowest volumes of sales because i dont feel the need to sell unecessary products or fish to unsuitable tanks or ponds! I will NOT sell for the sake of selling, but what i can do is share my enthusiasm. So my daily sales will always be lower... but i bet you, i'm the one who has customers come back another day when more ready! Im the complete oposite to my colleagues.

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That said, you wont believe what we have to put up with! I keep swearing im going to dunk the next child that says the curse word 'nemo' face first in the tank with the clowns for a closer view.

I hate that film and i wish it had never been made, it has singlehandedly killed a LOT of poor fish...

I had a customer with 4 clowns and 5 baby regal tanks in a 30L biOrb conversion!!! But then again... I also had a customer with 4 clown loach, 2 malawis and 2 pangasius in a 30L biOrb...

I havbe had customers threaten to hit me and kill me and ask me if i "wanna take this fight outside" because i have refused to sell them goldfish to a bowl with a very carefull explanation of why i couldnt (against company poliicy) and wouldnt (size, filtration etc) sell them a fish.

What kind of person threatens to hit a girl because she wont sell them a goldfish!!??

 

[char la]

Bloody ell, you sound just like me! Ive got a strong feeling we may work for the same company.

 

[Ronananator]

personally i dont blame them if u think about it no fish seller is going to wait for someone with a 100gallon tank to come in and buy 2 goldfish when they can sell a good 20 a day to people with smaller thanks/bowls personally i dont think they really care much for the fish but i dont blame them im sure there on comission but i tend to find the nicest staff there and ask them for there personal experiance and then combind it with what i read online

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Back when I was a new fishkeeper, I bought a tank and popped along to pets@home for advice on what to do next.. I was told by a very nice lady who worked there that I'd need to get a heater and filter in it, turn them on and leave it for 2 months, then to come back and get some fish! Needless to say, I lost my first lot of fish!!

Then I found this forum, and learnt the actual way to do it!

I went back to buy a fish there some time later, after setting up my 3rd tank. I had previously placed the filter I was going to use in the 3rd in one of me other tanks to shorten the cycling of the new tank.. a couple of weeks the new tank was nice and stable.. but pets@home point blank refused to sell me a fish as I had not had my tank running for 2 months.. even after Id explained the nitrogen cycle to the employee and told them how I'd speeded up this process in my new tank!

 

[Lyra0727]

You cant judge how good they are if you dont know if the information they're telling you is correct.
From what you have just wrote Lyra i'd say that fella needs to learn a lot more!

Getting bottom feeders wouldnt do a single thing for your nitrates. Im guessing he said that so they would eat any excess food but number 1, you should never get bottom feeders to eat excess food, they need their own food. Number 2, if theres excess food your probably feeding to much (hence the high nitrates!). And number 3, the food is still in the tank, eaten or not, its being converted into ammonia then nitrite then nitrate.
Next... you should try to never change more than 50% of your tank water in one go. Its better to do a few smaller changes in a week.
And finally...Please tell me you had another filter in the tank because telling you to turn off the only filter in a tank because of high nitrates is idiotic.

He said theyd be best to fix the problem quickly. He explained how to care for them afterwards once I got the tank right again. Also he never told me to buy it, all he said was that it will help, but he told me theyd get eaten.(isnt that basically saying dont buy!) The problem was the undergravel filter sucking it all down and doing nothing with it. Then when I cleaned the tank I wasnt getting all the stuff I needed to get. Just like he told me. I'm sorry but you say he needs to learn a lot more but ever since he has started helping me my tanks have been doing much better (except for recently but that was mostly my fault for accidently putting a old filter back in.. mother trys to recycle them and trick me to use them oie..) I needed to do more than a 50% though and quick I had many other opinions from experts say the same thing. I have 2 other filters of course I'm not crazy. The undergravel filter was suppose to be a backup that my mother thought worked.

I admit though I was overfeeder and I fixed that problem. But like I said my tanks have been doing excelent since he started helping me I believe he knows plenty. He's still learning more from other expirenced people that work there but he knew exactly what was wrong and when I did what he said everything started getting better.

 

[char la]

He said theyd be best to fix the problem quickly. He explained how to care for them afterwards once I got the tank right again. Also he never told me to buy it, all he said was that it will help, but he told me theyd get eaten.(isnt that basically saying dont buy!)

AGAIN... bottom feeders wouldn't do ANYTHING for high nitrates so how would it help? Yes he definatly does need to learn a lot more. Also what do you have in your tank that would eat bottom feeders

 

[MBOU]

personally i dont blame them if u think about it no fish seller is going to wait for someone with a 100gallon tank to come in and buy 2 goldfish when they can sell a good 20 a day to people with smaller thanks/bowls personally i dont think they really care much for the fish but i dont blame them im sure there on comission

Personally I think thats a bit of a mean comment, if you ever worked in the pet trade, you would know that there are VERY few high earning jobs working with animals, the obvious good earner being a Vet but you need serious training with high grades for that. Working in a basic retail shop be it a clothes shop or an aquatic shop, you will almost certainly be looking at a member of staff on minimum wage or very close too it! And hardly any retail companies in the pet sector are likely to have any staff working on commsion in the current climate.

If people do a good job selling you fish etc (or not if thats necessary) then its because they WANT to do the job, not because they are making a fortune. If they dont care then they are obviously just out for an easy ride and some easy money.

But lumping people into a "oh shops dont care, they will sell you anything just to make money" is awful and is only going to encourage people to wonder why on earth they bother trying to work so hard when they hear comments like that.

If more people actually bothered getting off their backsides and doing something about the things they dont like about their LFS, things would be much better. It isnt going to take long to write a letter saying how you think the shop could be improved or what shocked/upset/hacked you off so that the managers know what it is the public want! No one is perfect. All shops have to give you either a phone number or more than likely an address to write to for complaints. Doesnt mean you cant write praising people either.

I had one customer write to our head office saying how happy they were with their new fish tank and all the help and advise i gave them and I had the big boss come in and show me the letter and he was really pleased and it meant the world to me!!

Why slate your LFS if you cant be bothered to do anything about it?