Reef Central Online Community

Home Forum Here you can view your subscribed threads, work with private messages and edit your profile and preferences View New Posts View Today's Posts

Find other members Frequently Asked Questions Search Reefkeeping ...an online magazine for marine aquarists Support our sponsors and mention Reef Central

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community Archives > General Interest Forums > Responsible Reefkeeping

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #26  
Old 01/03/2008, 08:13 PM
navychief navychief is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Maryland
Posts: 209
Re: Boycot Petco

Quote:
Originally posted by dhodorow
I think that we should all boycot Petco entirely. Don't buy anything from one of their stores. Recently, a new Petco opened up in my area. I received a $30.00 gift certificate from someone for my birthday. Having the gift certificate, I thought that I would check out Petco. Low and behold, they had some marine fish and corals. I check things out, everything looked pretty good, so I purchased. I spent my gift certificate on a Kole Tang. I took the fish home, aclimated him with a two hour drip acclimation, was careful not to transfer any water from the bag, and made the mistake of putting him into the main tank (180 gal.) without quarantining the fish first. The fish was dead in the morning, and I began to notice some of the other fish in the tank with ick. Within two days, my Lemon Peel Angel died (which I had for 2.5 years), my Flame Angel died (which I had for about 3 years), and a maroon clown followed shortly after that. I had about 6 green chromis that didn't seem affected, and a lawn mower blenny that didn't show any signs of stress. I decided to find out what Petco's policy was. The manager said that someone "should" have told me that marine fish did not carry any kind of stay alive warranty. I walked over to the tanks and sure enough almost all of the tanks were showing sever signs of stress. The manager didn't seem to care. I decided to go to the petco website and file a complaint which I did, and to this day have not received any responses (3 months later). My suggestion to anyone is to stay away. Don't risk any of our precious systems to anything from Petco. They just don't care about our hobby!
I'm onboard. I'll get my dog food at another place...and no more marine purchases there either!
__________________
Can't go back to sea, so I'll bring the sea to me!

72 Gal bowfront
SunPod 2x150W 14K HQI-MH w/ 18 Lunar Lights
Tidepool II w/ Euro-Reef RS-100
Osmolator Universal 3155
2 Hydor Koralia 3 @ 850 gph
  #27  
Old 01/03/2008, 08:32 PM
kzickovich kzickovich is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 138
sorry to hear about your lose I with you
  #28  
Old 01/07/2008, 02:56 PM
RumLad RumLad is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Over here :)
Posts: 240
It is not Petco's fault that you did not follow standard quarantine procedures and lost a bunch of other fish.

Just to add my two cents worth about Petco.

The local one near me has supplied me with two marine critters that survive to this day. They have been ideal purchases. The marine tanks at this store are always well maintained, and I have even been denied a purchase because the animals had only been in the tanks for two days and the fish guy was not ready to sell them for at least two more days, so that he could fully observe them. I know this is not typical of Petco nationwide, but it does happen and I don't think we should tar and feather every store in ther chain based upon local bad practices. As with any fish purchase, it is up to the buyer to evaluate the specimen prior to purchase and provide the proper care thereafter.
__________________
"It is never too late to give up your prejudices" H. D. Thoreau
  #29  
Old 01/07/2008, 03:17 PM
dhodorow dhodorow is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Bellaire, Ohio 43906
Posts: 127
I agree that it is "My BAD" for not quarantining the fish first. However, I examined all of their tanks before purchasing and everything looked fine. It wasn't until days later that I returned to their store and found that most if not all of the marine tanks were suffering losses. I also did not care for the fact that when I showed the manager the current state of their marine tanks and showed him that fish were showing signs of distress and even ick, that he could have cared less. I also, did not like the fact that when I went to the petco website, went to the contact us, and submitted store feedback that I didn't so much as receive one e-mail stating sorry for your loss, but our policy is blah.blah.blah and you should have quarantined the fish first blah.blah.blah. The company website obviously represents how the company operates in general (I'm sure that there are some local exceptions).

Other company websites show their value for the customer. For example. I recently purchased a breakfast meal at McDonalds (Who has to get thousands of complains daily). I pulled up to the drive-thru, got my breakfast and drove away. About 2 miles down the road, I tasted the hot chocolate (It was like hot water - No hot chocolate at all). Everything else was fine. I went online, submitted some feedback, said that everything was basically fine with the exception of the hot chocolate). They e-mailed me back promptly within 24 hours. The sent a coupon regular mail for a replacement meal, and appoligized for the inconvenience. I do not hesitate to go back.

As far as Petco is concerned, I have tried countless times to communicate with them. Never any response. I would have been happy with a sorry! But nothing!

Anyone who deals with them Beware!
  #30  
Old 01/11/2008, 03:40 AM
mrme mrme is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 288
Ordering online is a very successful approach, Check out Liveaquaria.com very cool stuff.
Shipping is a lot, But its overnight and they always will refund your money if your item is dead on arrival. you usually have to ship the item back though for this.
  #31  
Old 01/11/2008, 03:41 AM
mrme mrme is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 288
Ps. I have ordered from them numerous times and only have had a few dead on arrivals, 1 was a very delicate pipefish, and another was a little crab. Very odd for the crab to die.
  #32  
Old 01/11/2008, 06:06 AM
kathainbowen kathainbowen is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Central Jersey
Posts: 605
... out of curiosity.... I know there have been independent surveys of water quality among Petcos around reef clubs, but has anyone done any broad range surveys regarding not only the water quality but the knowledge and husbandry skills of staff?
__________________
"So long and thanks for all the fish!"
  #33  
Old 01/11/2008, 08:42 AM
samtheman samtheman is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 483
Your faliure to quarantine isn't much better then Petco. How many fish have you killed? You just don't care.
  #34  
Old 01/11/2008, 01:15 PM
rwbogard rwbogard is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 41
I wonder if there is an animal rights group that could help in organizing a national boycott. It should be a crime the way Petco "cares for" their marine livestock, especially with the natural reefs in the state they are in. If they treated dogs or cats like that the ASPCA would be all over it. What a shame...
  #35  
Old 01/11/2008, 02:04 PM
dhodorow dhodorow is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Bellaire, Ohio 43906
Posts: 127
I know that I should have quarantined my "new purchase" first, especially for the sake of the others that I have lost. I do care about my tank, it's inhabitants, as well as the state of natural reefs. Over the past 20 years of keeping marine fish/corals, I have never had to quarantine anything. I have been very successful with drip acclimation Maybe I have been lucky, or just that the quality of the people/companies that I have purchased from has been exceptional. Over the years, I have only lost a handful of fish, some died of natural causes I'm sure, as well as some from tank mates that intimidated them, others I believe were not captured properly (i.e. cyanide captured, etc). Everyone knows that this is a difficult/expensive hobby, and no one wants to see livestock suffer. Either via our own hands, or the distributors that sell us our precious livestock. It only seems to me that Petco doesn't care. When I personally showed the manager at my local petco the state of tanks in their store, he simply did not care. I have periodically gone back over the past couple months, just to see. Some tanks have gotten better, and some worse. When I'm asked if I could be helped, I usually just reply "just looking". Maybe my local Petco doesn't meet the norm, but the corporate office is yet to respond. Leaving voice mails, and e-mails don't get anywhere. When I purchased, the store had only been open for a couple weeks. Things looked pretty good, but looks can be deceiving. Hopefully, no one will make the same mistake as me in not quaranting future purchases. Just wish that I could get through to corporate to get the local store to cleaning things up. Who knows. Maybe it is the supplier to them that needs to clean things up. Just trying to head problems for others off at the pass!
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef Central™ Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2009