Petco employee's...amazing

[Montipora]

Just stopped in to get some frozen food and this Petco Employee with three years of salt water experience was talking to an customer about doing water changes. He told the guy to go to the 7/11 and buy spring water and use that in his tank...he claimed it's the same as R/O water! I don't know about you...but by the time I bought enough spring water once I could have bought a real nice R/O unit!
So I didn't say anything...as much as I had to bite my lip....

Then he explained to this guy that he should have Hermit crabs in his tank....fine....then he explained how when a fish dies, the crab takes the scales off the fish and uses them for their own scales! WOW....what planet are you from....

Then the customer said the local fish store he just came from charges much more for livestock and petco guy said they specialize in salt water....
I wish I could have said; Things cost more because they have to pay qualified people to be there....

[anathema]

I quit going to my local petco after my last episode.

I wanted to buy a fish. A centropyge argi to be exact.

I went to the person and said I wold like to buy the pygmy angel.

"what pygmy angel? We don't have one of those."

Yes that one right there.

"Oh, I don't know what that is"

It's a cherubfish, pygmy angel or to be exact, a centropyge argi.

"I can't sell it, I don't have it listed so I don't know the price."

I went home, printed up pictures, and a description from the web. I shouldn't have bothered, but I was kind of doing it just to see what would happen.

"Yes, that's the right fish... but I still can't sell it because we don't carry those so there is no sku#"

I finally got them to sell me the fish as a blue damsel, but still, talk about clueless!



I think I already posted this story actually, but oh well.

[ReefEze]

I know! I hear the so-called "experts" talking to customers, and wish I could butt in sooo much. Think about all the sw aquarists who have gone out of the hobby becouse of those morons.

I dont buy anything from my LFS, since they cant keep a Sinularia alive, and even there groupers die! I mean, you have to go through a heck of a lot of trouble to kill a grouper!

RE

[Mike Chapman]

The last time I was at Petco I saw a Flame Angel for 56.99 + tax. Nuff said....

[turtlespd]

Im sure Petco employess dont sit on RC looking for new info. Im pretty sure they go by what other customers or employees told them. Usually they are students trying to earn a living. How many times have you been to a Homedepot and the employee told you some BS story? Just because we are on RC all day learning and becoming well informed reefers doesnt give us the right to bash the employees or petco. I have to agree they are not as informed or give a damb but thats corporate. I can walk into a HD and ask for a certain light or so info on such wood, lol i get some pretty funny responses also, HD does hire specially trained employees to do the job but sometimes having a guy in that area just inst cost effective . To keep low prices low sometimes one emplyee will become alittle more scarce. Every week i see a Petco bashing event. Put your feet in their shoes and try to make things as efficient. Kinda lucky the employees can identify what teh species is. Again, go any story you are well informed in and evey emplyee will give you some off the wall responses. What's new?

Paul

[anathema]

I always butt in... What have you got to lose? The turnover rate is so high making an employee mad has almost no repercussions.

If you are worried about it though, approach the person afterwards.

[Montipora]

Two years ago I started with freshwater and some sun fish I caught at a local fishing hole, six months later I bought my first saltwater fish...within a year I have a 300 gallon sps tank, propagating corals. Now I'm building quality Beckett skimmers, became an acomplished Acrylic fabricator and now I build acrylic sumps for a living.
This guy at Petco 5 years from now will still be telling people that Hermit crabs use the scale of dead fish to use on their own skins....Man...go sell shoe's or something!!!!!

[Ben CC]

I have been cursed out by LFS employees for pointing out the error of their ways. Sometimes trying to help the poor customer who is getting the ridiculous advice can be difficult.
The thing that gets me is you have the ill-informed Petco kid posing as the manager of the fish-room and the customer is at their mercy from the beginning. If the potential patrons were told that the information they were getting was coming from a less-than-informed source, they would at least have the option of ignoring the bad advice and seeking a more experienced opinion.

[Montipora]

When I started i got more wrong infomation from places like PETCO and local fish stores...all they care about is selling you stuff and when it dies they sell you more.

Thank god for REEF CENTRAL!!!! Yes we do argue alot....but for the beginner everyone is happy to help...and it's great advice no matter what level you are.

[pantera4203]

Hello All,
It seems like we all have a PETCO story.
There is one me and a friend have gone to try to save fish.
This store was the biggest discrace I have ever seen. My trip there brought us for feeder fish. I had not gone to the usual LFS and had to go by force.
They had s display tank with two cowfish both cover soo bad with ICH that they would be dead soon, also they had about 8 or 9 tangs in the same tank three of them were coverd with it. We talked one of the guys into giving us a hippo tang to try to save it, we could not. Come to find out most of the tanks were connected to gether not way to set up a H Tank.
We discussed the matter to a manager stating that they need to do something or there fish would die, she replied "how do you know we don't treat our fish." Well, when they ar coverd in spots
and resting on the bottom of the tank it is ease.

They got so mad they gave me good advise.
THey gave me the name of another fish store and said good luck there. They should give that advise to everyone.

[SaltwaterSensei]

I have few stories of petco encounters.

But I must say that hermit crabs using old fish scales for thier own skin is one of the most hilarius things I've ever heard of.

If I was there I would have literally laughed out loud. I laughed out loud. I'm sorry if that sounds crude but man thats saltwater comedy at its best....

[getinjr]

I am so tired of these so called aquarium pet stores with thousands of fish and no one in sight can tell patrons how to care for any certain animal. My story is one with jacks aquarium in dayton,oh. I had started a new job with some good cash rolling in and I had always wanted a saltwater fishtank and with cash in hand and stars in my eyes I went and came home with my first tank, three months later I had two hundred dollars in dead fish and a tank full of beautiful algae!!! needless to say I was done!! two years later and with the help of the internet I now have two successful tanks. anyone who backs the wods up by saying there going to school or whatever is not looking at the big picture. I go back to jacks on occasions when I need special things and they are the same people,the same dying fish, and the same bad advice I had gotten 5 years ago! I am glad to see the people of these chain stores doing so well it kinda explains why business is so good anymore.

[Montipora]

I would have stood there and listed for more but I wouldn't have been able to hold myself back...I was going to speak to the manager...I kind of know him, but he was busy with a customer...and I would have wanted to talk to him in private. I also saw a few dead fish in their tanks, but no-one was taking care of them.
To me they should stop selling fish all together, and I once thought they were ok, now I think they stink...

[SaltwaterSensei]

I think petco should just sell drygoods.

That way they don't have to spend the money to set the fish sections up. Then they could spend that money on quality drygoods.

hahahah, what a joke. I'm still laughing about that hermit crab scale antic.

[shawnz28]

We don't have a petco out here but i still loved they guy at a local petland that the flatworms that cover one tanks rocks were algae. Then when i pointed out again what i was refering to he said they were not a problem and were easy to get rid of and all you would need is a fish that stayed close to the rocks to eat them off(that must be why they have been in there for over a year now eh?). But he told me bristleworms are what you have to watch for cause they are bad and have eaten a few of his fish.

[dragonet]

Guess I am very lucky. The fish manager at the Petco near me keeps a 300 gallon reef at home. Her advice is very good. She works within the limitations Petco puts on her. She treats ills fish to the best she is able within the store set up and pleads with the store to make changes. Neat lady and lots of help, lets me know when the have good sales on dry goods.
She works there because she needs a job.

[this_reefer]

I think it depends from Petco to Petco....the fish maintenance I mean. Here in the local Petco I agree they have good fish....meaning helthy ones...the fish dept. manager does know what he's doing but bad thing is that he's mostly never there...and employees....well i dont know where the heck they get their info but anyways...My local Pecto have fishes in better health than some of the LPS! Yes! Im serious! They get rid of ick fast...as soon as they see it coming on....they quarantine fishes if they have an illness. They do water changes often. etc etc. I once went to my LPS and I saw this poor yellow tang...ful of ick...poor thing was on the edge of dieing...I told they lady...he is full of ick and she just told me "yeah they a prone to ick more than others" So my point is it depends on the store manager/fish manager.

[Montipora]

This store does have a girl who is very knowlegable but can't be there all the time, as in on day I came in and there were no fish in the tanks. She explained how an employee did a water change ....Hmmmm didn't know salt is used to make saltwater and used regular water instead....bye bye fish....

[SaltwaterSensei]

hehehe,

Petco threads = Reef Central's comic relief

....regular water....hahahha

[icebear]

Pet peeve alert
One of the things that gets to me about those nice glossy advertisements you see in magazines of 10 gallon tanks with 20 big fish in them, yanno.... i know its only for photos and all, but lots of people very new to the hobby don't think that. working at LFS we get a lot of people who want their tiny tanks to have that many fish in them. We get frantic phone calls telling us that the fish we sold them are dead and all their other fish are dying, we ask about their water quality they tell us either they don't know or they have off the chart ammonia. then we ask how many fish they have and how many gallons- some think they have a 20 and its really a 10 and they have 30 some odd fish in there!
its wild, and we tell them that they have too many fish in there, and they tell us that we sold them those fish and we have to remind them that we were told, by them, that the tank was much bigger than what they actually had.

Not being snippy or anything (and i am FAR from perfect myself) but half of what you get from your LFS is what you put in. I have people telling me they have a 55 gallon tank "they think" and i say "well if youre not sure, here's our display tanks- which size looks like your tank?" then i find out they have a 39 or something. People get mad at us when they come in saying they just set up a new tank this weekend and want some fish NOW. We ask how long it has been put together and do you have your filter running and your heater stable, we find out they just did it this morning, don't have a heater and then we caution putting fish in there right off...they get mad and go to walmart, buy 20 fish, kill them and try to return the dead bodies to us- and get ticked cause they can't produce receipts and so we do not replace the fish.
They buy a fish in the afternoon in the middle of summer, go shopping with the fish in the bag on the front seat of the car and come back 2 hours later with boiled-in-bag fish (i can feel the hot water in that bag when they almost throw it at me- i'm not stupid)...
We explain the need for test kits and they think they are being hit for an unnecessary sale.

they don't know what happend to their Betta when they put it in the tank with their oscar... "I put it in last night, shut the lights off and now i can't find it" (i'm serious, this HAS happened)

They have a freshwater tank and look at the salt fish and get mad when i check to make sure they DO have a salt tank (which they don't and i have the unmittigated gall to ask) like its my fault that my orchid dottybacks cannot be acclimated to freshwater just for them. then they try to tell me that we should have signs that that section is salt water and inform the public so they don't get their hopes up, so i say "we do" and point to the 6 foot sign that says "Salt Water Fish", but of course its my fault they didn't see it.
then the guy that has his salt tank all set up and i ask if his cycle has run its course and he has no idea what i am talking about, dosen't want to get any LR (what the fark is live rock?!?) or test kits but insists i sell him some clowns.
LOL

Its almost funny...

Basically, at the end of the day it is so wearing that its hard to see straight, much less keep patience (i havn't yelled at anyone yet )


Yes, i know i got off subject and there is some real ignorance out there, but the LFS employee is always being second-guessed by the customer who is 100% sure they are being told a lie... so even if we do know a little about what we are trying to explain... *sigh*

Oh, wait, forgot to mention the land hermit crabs people put in their fish tanks. the poor things. they buy them healthy and plop them into their guppy tank and call us all PO'd the next day that its dead and stinks. Oh it moved around a lot when they put it in, but its dead now so we must have sold them a sick hermit crab!

Ok, if anyone wants more stories, let me know
I'll stop here.....

[wizardgus®]

I am in the process of setting up a bigger tank. Been shopping, whew! I could fill a thread or two with this experience! Petco was actually the best of them...and it wasn't very good. I mean I even called out of state. Besides all the bad info the thing that amazed me the most was the attitude! Now, granted, I can be a @ss, but I was trying to find a good deal so I was at my charming best. I end this quest with two very clear thoughts:

1. If you are wondering what to do with your battered dot-com portfolio, cash it out and put your money into aquarium supply stock...business must be great because they sure as hell don't seem to want any more.

2. I'll be ordering on-line all the way! Even the big ones like Foster& Smith ALWAYS treat me like a customer. Neat concept.

[SaltwaterSensei]

Indeed the attitudes you get from some of the people are crazy and very frustrating.

Icebear, your anecdote was very interesting/frustrating/funny/sad lets hear some more!

Very fun to read.

[icebear]

I have learned to be careful of discussing crazy stories, cause some people have taken offence...they have read too far into it or read hostility on my part that just simply isn't there...
Here's one that happened around August:

At the Pet Store
Sunday morning... 10:45
We don't open untill 12:00
I get a phone call while in the middle of morning kennel chores.
A guy that wants to set up a fish tank.
He already has the tank.
He thinks its a 20 gallon.
He wants to know what it will cost to setup and what things will he need.
I tell him that he needs a few good things and its good to start with the filtration.
He says how much will it cost.
I said: For a 20 gallon tank i would recommend a filter *BrandName, lowest priced, acceptable quality* such-and-such a minimum size and the price is $28.99 and then you will nee-

$28.99?!?!?!?!?

I said: For the filter yes, and then you will nee-.....

And that's everything?

No, because you need stuff other than the filter to-

No way, you gotta do better than that, thats too much...just for the filter...you gotta help me out more than that. Come on, gimmie a deal.

Sorry sir, but thats actually a pretty good price, fish tanks aren't cheap if they are set up right the first time and they cost even more if its not done right any you just end up frustrated.

I need rocks and stuff....and stuff...and fish.... What kinda fish you got. I want an oscar.

We have all kinds of fishes. If you're going to want an oscar, you'll need to start thinking about getting a bigger tank in about 6 months. An oscar won't fit in a 20 gallon tank for lo-

Oh, i know, i've had them before, i'll just get a little one.

Well, if you're having a hard time setting up a small tank, you will want to be thinking if you want to even try for a large tank, you'll need about a 55 gall-

But $28.99...thats too much, i can't do that.... i have about $30 and thats it.

Ok, well...there's probably not much you will be able to do with just that. I just set up a salt tank that ended up costing about $1200.00 It ain't cheap LOL My best advice to you is to hang on to that $30 and start saving up a little each week and in about a month or two you'll have enou-

No, i want some fish. I want some fish to see swimming around. And i want to have some fish, you know... what kind of fish can i have without a filter...?

Honestly, none that i can comfortably recommend, you could have goldfish, but without a filter you'll be changing the water a lot, and with a tank that size it won't be eas-

Well i need to get some air in the water...
A filter will do that

$28.99!

Ok, well we do have some internal filters (those plastic ones that suction to the side of the tank) that work with an air pump, they're not too bad in price, but you will need more than one for a thank that siz-

How much?
Well, the air pump is $12.89 and the filters are-

Okay... he says...

Sir, if you want, you can come to the store and have a look around so you can see what i'm talking about and you can get a better idea of what you need and what the prices are, maybe there is something we can work out so we can get you started on the basic stuff you need, i mean cause you have to let the tank cycle and all- (mind you, we havn't even discussed substrate or water quality or lighting yet)

Oh, i've had the water in it already, its ready to go

How long have you had it with the water in it? Do you have any gravel in it or a hood, lights?...

NO, i don't have anything in it, thats why i need to get some fish!

Well, you're gonna need something for the bottom of the tank...why don't you just come in and i can show you what i mean...

Ok.

We open at Noon.

Noon?

Yes, 12 o'clock. So come on in and we'll see if we can at least get you started....

Okay, so around 1:30 the guy comes in with his wife or girlfriend (obscenley drunk- that explained the communication difficulty, i wasn't sure if he was drunk untill i smelled it on him)...i don't know... and i start trying to show him the stuff he needs and explaining what it does, why its needed and what the prices are. He just wasn't getting it. He kept saying it was too expensive and "you gotta help me out here" and "i have to have that too?" and telling me that i "gotta make him a deal".
I showed him the starter setups we have, they have all the stuff in them (filter,gravel, test kit, booklet, you know) and i thought if he saw the price on a setup it would make more sense. It didn't help. It was all just too much money.
Then he says, where are those filters you were talking about?
So i went over and showed him the filters, he said ok, and how do they work. I told him that they work on an air pump and some tubing. He asked how much the pumps were, and i said that it was the thing i had told him on the phone at $12.89
He was shocked that he needed both the filter and the pump. And i also freaked him out by recommending 2 of them, because its a 20 gallon, and what really did it was that i recommended either a splitter so he could run both filters on one pump, or get a pump with two ports. He didn't need any tubing, he said. I erroneously assumed that he thought he had some- this is what i would expect in a normal situation... (at this point i was so confuzzled i was scrambling for the cheapest way to finagle something, ANYTHING that would work. I've got a hostile drunk guy here...)
Well, he interrupted me so much, i sorta gave up, he took the small air pump and headed toward the fish tanks to get fish. Said he wasn't leaving today without fish.
*sigh*
Ok, what do you want? i asked, and he had me bag up 4 zebra danios, 3 platies and a calico goldfish (the whole while i'm cautioning him that its too many to start) meanwhile his wife/GF/whatever was walking around holding a little bag of rocks, this is a small bag for goldfish or betta bowls, no way is this gonna work for a 20 gallon, so when i was done bagging the doomed fish , i mentioned gravel again, convinced her to put the small bag down. The price was too much...i had recommended 3-4 bags, one was enough for them, they thought....so they took one bag.

So, now they have one bag of gravel, one air pump, 8 fishes and fish food. No airline tubing, no filter, no test kit, no ammonia remover, startright, i had simply given up. All that i have writen on this is only 1/3 of what i said to try to patiently reason with them, they just kept interrupting before i could finish.

Well, they pay for their stuff and it comes to $26 or so....

On the way out, he tells me he's glad he got the tank for so cheap cause he got it from a lady who kept a guinea pig in it....
I said, did you clean it out REALLY good?
he said he did and said he didn't use any soap when i asked about that, i said good cause the urine residue could kill your fish as quickly as soap. I also said if the guinea pig has chewed the silicone, its probably gonna leak on you....
But, of course, the tank has had water in it for 3 hours and since its not leaking yet, he's sure it won't ever.....i conceded, what could i do?

About an hour later i get another call.

Hey, that filter you sold me dosen't work.

I said, are you sure?

Yeah, we put it in and its not doing nothin.

You put it IN the tank?!?!?!

Yeah and its not workin!

Did you hook up any tubing?

Toobin?

Yes, tubing. You remember that stuff i said you needed to hook the pump to those filters that you didn't want? IF YOU HAVN'T ALREADY, GET IT OUT

Oh we already took it out

I was still trying to figure out how they were still alive after submerging an air pump into a fishtank full of water and plugging i in!

I told him that he'd possibly ruined the pump because they soaked it. And thinking to myself i was suprised that they hadn't shocked themselves into the next hemisphere, and for crying out loud, didn't he read the instructions that say on the top line in big BOLD letters "Do not immerse in water!"

He said he was an electrician (he also had said he was also a carpenter at one point) and he knows that the pump isn't ruined cause all it needs is to dry out.....

at that point, i wasn't listening cause the Shop owner's wife who had heard me on the first phonecall, watched (helping other customers) while i was trying to help them in the store, and now she was watching my face during this call...well she almost lost it. Hand over her mouth trying not to bellylaugh. I couldn't wait to get off the phone and fill her in on why my face was doing what it was doing, she knew it was something wacko, but not exactly how much.

I asked the guy how the fish were doing, he said 2 were already dead....

I said, well i tried.....

He said, yeah... i should have listened.

I said sorry, but i bet, if you just take a deep breath and start saving up a few dollars a week, you can come right in and i can help you get everything to do it right...

to that he quietly agreed, said thanks and that was it.

I felt really bad for him.
He just wasn't sober enough to *get it* ..... talk about learning the hard way. Thank God he has the chance to learn after dunking an electrical appliance into water....

I told C_ (the owner's wife and co-worker) all that she had missed and she was also amazed that he didn't kill himself.
I did get commendation on my patience and ability to not be rude or harsh...
All the other employees have heard about it now, and what can we do but laugh.... the whole thing was just so absurd! We have had many weird customer things like that happen before, but this one was a little extra special!

Moral of the story:

1. DO NOT put an air pump inside your tank and plug it in and expect to live
2. Please be nice to pet store employees, its not as easy as you'd think!

Please, no one get mad, i'm making fun of the circumstances, NOT the person.

[SaltwaterSensei]

oh man, my side hurts from all the funny.

Drunk at noon-ish, man thats harsh.

Thats probly the dumbest thing I've heard someone do regarding something sooooo simple. The sad part though, I definatly can imagin someone that inane!

[icebear]

but i really can't help but grin at the people who come over to us, all concerned that we have a big dead fish in one of the tanks...at least they think its dead...so i grab a net to go get it out before they think we run a sloppy business, only to see them pointing to one of the resin decorative fake fish that tipped over in the tank, all glassy-eyed and face down in the gravel.
They feel foolish and we both have a good chuckle....

i think the one that really hurts is those poor land crabs that get drowned, i really feel so bad for them. i have kept one for 3+ years and they get really friendly, i couldn't imagine mine getting drowned