Don't go to Pets at home/Petsmart!!

[Phase2]

Well I went back to Pets at Home this Friday and things are a lot better.....still not as good as they could be but a great improvement. There was a young lad there who seemed to actually care about his job so it seems as if a bit of moaning has improved things for Pets at Home,The customers and more importantly The fish....so well done for listening and doing something about it. Keep it up.

 

[denbob]

I went to my local dealer just have a look around and the staff there could not have more helpful, the old phrase you could eat your dinner of the floor certainly applies to this dealer, all the tanks were alive with beautiful and healthy looking fish, it makes one wonder how can to dealers be so opposite
to each other.

 

[denbob]

in a follow up to my last post I was so pleased with the way the staff were so helpful,how healthy and lively the fish looked that I sent the manager an e-mail thanking him and his staff on the condition of his store and the helpfulness of the staff

 

[Phase2]

Well I went back to Pets at Home Kettering this Friday and things are a lot better.....still not as good as they could be, but a great improvement. There was a young lad there who seemed to actually care about his job so it seems as if a bit of moaning has improved things for Pets at Home,The customers and more importantly The fish....so well done for listening and doing something about it. Keep it up.

 

[Jo]

I know that I started this rant, but now I want to say something good about them....I went in last night to buy some bits and bobs for my new tank and amongst other things I bought some bogwood....the lady that served me actually asked me if I knew what to do with bogwood to prepare it, i replied that I did, but she still explained it to me....!

I mentioned to her the state that I thought that some of the fish in her tanks were in and she was very apollogetic and cam up with some story about being short staffed (not good news) but she promised to get it cleaned up, she told me she was new there and was starting to change the shops reputation....!

Will be going back in a couple of weeks to see, but the fact that there was someone there that didn't go HUH? when I mentioned something about fish was a definate start!!

 

[Cali]

Will be going back in a couple of weeks to see, but the fact that there was someone there that didn't go HUH? when I mentioned something about fish was a definate start!!

That's wonderful! She needs to move on over to MY local PetsMart. They are clueless. Everytime I go, there is this same girl who, when I ask for something fish related, always says she's not supposed to be in this department and she's only there because they are short staffed. It's been a month that she's been saying this to me. I guess she has no clue I'm the same person. It seems to me that she would have boned up on her fish knowledge by now. Oh well!


Also, I remember someone mentioning how they were turned down for employment by PetsMart or Petco and I just wanted to share that I TOO was turned down for employment about 3 months ago. I was looking for part-time employement to assist me financially and becuase I have a Lhasa Apso, I thought PetsMart would be a good place to work. I interviewed with a person no older than 18. No prob...I can deal with that. But, they never called me back! Okay, not saying I'm the ideal person for the job, as at that time I only had experience in dogs, but, to hear that other folks have been rejected too...when they are apparantly SOOOOO understaffed is ludicrous, IMO.

*sigh* Don't get me stared on Petco...they are worse!

 

[Cate]

I too have had issues with our local PetSmart. I was sick to see the condition of some of the tanks and the number of dead fish. But I've learned that with this store, it depends on the day you are there. They get their fish shipments in on Tuesdays, so by the weekend, the tanks are more likely to have non-survivors, which unfortunately, is when I shop. I did stop in on a Wednesday and the conditions were very good, so I'll be picking up new fish on Wednesdays from now on. We also have a Pet Supplies Plus near by and I'll never shop there again. Many, MANY dead fish and I had to tell an employee that the guinea pigs were begging for water. It was sad. The poor little pigs probably ruined their teeth trying to get water out of an empty bottle. I do wish we had a good local family-owned fish store...

 

[Fish_Lover0117]

My local petsmart is O.K.The people there are helpful, but I like my local Jacks Aquarium.I buy all of my fish from there.None of my that I have bought from there have died except for 1, but that was because my male attacked it(he was trying t breed with her)

P.S. Sorry i cant type right now.My dog bit me, so its hard to type!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I have only had a brief look in my local pets at home and to be honest the tanks looked pretty well maintained and the fish looked healthy (Pets at home in Canterbury) .

Couple of things I do want to comment on. Every fish store will have dead fish, when you see one dead fish though to tend then to just scan through the tanks looking for the next one. If they have just got a new shipment or they are really busy then expect to see more dead fish. Its a fact of the hobby that you have to accept. If take a typical sized store they might have 200 tanks with maybe around 15,000-20,000 fish and maybe 2-3 staff. Also consider that most of these fish may have just spent the last 2 days in small shipping boxes being ferried half way around the world.

The other thing is "overcrowding" Yes it may appear to be a 10g tank with a 10" pleco in there but most likely that tank is linked up to a 300-500g filtration system and that pleco will only be in there for a couple of weeks max.

Staff as well can not be expected to know everything. Just because you know everything there is to know about puffers for example doesnt mean that because the staff at the LFS doesnt know as much that they dont know anything. Again if there are 200 tanks in a store there are not many people that will be able to tell you everything about every fish in evey tank. Especially if they have not been there for very long.

All that being said I tend to judge a shop by its staff. If I ask a question and they dont know the answer and tell me as such this is a good thing. If they give me some vague or wrong information this is much worse. Also if I go into a shop where the staff are sitting around reading magazines while they have dead fish in every tank I dont go back.

The main thing though is if you dont agree with the way these places keep there fish do not give them any business at all. Yes you might have to pay a bit more at a "better" store but you are then helping to keep that store in business.

 

[Amunet]

We learned a while ago to never get fish from Petsmart ever again except for bettas since they're kept seperate, but even they're iffy sometimes.

Except for my bettas... every fish we've gotten from Petsmart have died. The one close to us is getting better though. Of course it could be better, and there are still some times when we go in and things look bleak, but overall they've gotten better. Can only hope they keep at it.. maybe then one day I'd consider getting some guppies from them again since they do have a really large variety that are very pretty.

 

[oddball_lover]

Presumably you're talking about Pets at Home rather than Petsmart, because you're in the UK

Technically, it's on par with titling your thread 'Don't go to Pets at home/Maidenhead Aquatics' They aren't the same place.

I have to agree with xxBarneyxx - the number of fish in a shop tank is never usually a problem because of the intense filtration - effectively, a tank in a shop system will actually have many tme the visible volume of water - you just can't see it. So all the 'typical' overstocking problems like ammonia/nitrite etc. are actually usually not present, like you'd expect in a 'home' tank.

If it WAS a day when their fish had just been delivered, then i'm not surprised they weren't looking too chipper. It's one of the sad things of fishkeeping, when you consider the proportion of fish that die even before they arrived in the shop.

 

[jourdy288]

Unfortunately, Superstore LFS go for quantity, not quality, and that's the only reason fishkeeping is so popular. Sad. But, keep up letter writing!