How To Handle Employees

[CKutz]

hi all,

last weekend i went to lowes (a home improvement/hardware store) to get sand for my tank. debating between the two colors they had me and my sidekicks finally agreed on one. i tried to get a bag down, only to find that it had a hole in it. threw it back up on the shelf..asked a nearby (taller) associate to help since i didn't want to rip open the paper bag..they came over..started to get one down and asked what it was for. i told them (two came) an aquarium. the one guy suggested the play sand instead of the one we had picked "they wash it and treat, it's probably safer for your fish, don't they sell sand at the pet stores for fish? that's probably what you should get it's probably safer for them". i explained sand is sand, except live sand, which is only for saltwater. he continued to suggest the play sand..so we gave in and went with that...now this was a guy at Lowes, giving suggestions about fishkeeping...why must employees always put their 2 cents in haha. i appreciate them being helpful..but sometimes you just want to tell them to shup up, you know what you are doing!

and theirs countless stories of being at petstores and hearing a conversation between employees and customers, "you have algae? oh you should get an algae eater, try this guy (common plec)", and i just think...oohhh nooo...but i never have the guts to step in and be like..uhhh noooo, that thing will get to like 2 feet, you do not want that in your 10 gallon tank, instead test your water, maybe increase your filtration, and decrease your lighting.

so let's hear some funny stories, and some opinions on how to kindly, let people know that you know what you are doing and they can keep their unfounded opinions to themselves, without being a complete jerk.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Hey Ckutz!

One time this employee at my LFS told me to just run my tank for 2 weeks before adding any fish. She said nothing about ammonia or anything. I just, ah...right...okay then and went on with my business...lol.

Another time was when I was doing a fish-in cycle, and the Manager of Petsco told me not to do any water changes, yikes! A fish-in cycle and no water changes = only bad things.

Both of these cases I never said anything back since this was when I was starting out.

But now, if the advice that they give is way off, I just might have to step in and say, ah no, this is....

This is a neat thread, there should be some neat posts on here!

-FHM

 

[bagu]

a tank should really cycle for 8 weeks with no ammonia, just tap water.

and clean the tank every 2-3 months. lol

 

[fatheadminnow]

a tank should really cycle for 8 weeks with no ammonia, just tap water.

and clean the tank every 2-3 months. lol

-FHM

 

[orange shark]

Hey Ckutz!

One time this employee at my LFS told me to just run my tank for 2 weeks before adding any fish. She said nothing about ammonia or anything. I just, ah...right...okay then and went on with my business...lol.

Another time was when I was doing a fish-in cycle, and the Manager of Petsco told me not to do any water changes, yikes! A fish-in cycle and no water changes = only bad things.

Both of these cases I never said anything back since this was when I was starting out.

But now, if the advice that they give is way off, I just might have to step in and say, ah no, this is....

This is a neat thread, there should be some neat posts on here!

-FHM

LFS workers are told not to say anything about cycling because most people who and buy a fish tank really dont care and dont enjoy being told what to do, so then they choose not too come back and therefore the LFS will lose out on custom.

I'm all too happy to answer questions about cycling if they had read up about it but if they dont say anything i dont say anything about ammonia

 

[hensonc4098]

The other day I went into Acorn which is a big pet supplies store place where they don't have a clue about fish to see if they had aquarium silicone because I couldn't find it anywhere. So I had a breif look around but couldn't be bothered searching the shop so I asked one of the "assistants" if they had any aquarium silicone, to which they replied "what's that?" I couldn't help myself. "it's silicone for aquariums!" I replied.
Needless to say, I probably wasn't their favourite person after that since one of the other assistants had overheard the conversation and found it extremely amusing. And after all that, they didn't have any

 

[CKutz]

The other day I went into Acorn which is a big pet supplies store place where they don't have a clue about fish to see if they had aquarium silicone because I couldn't find it anywhere. So I had a breif look around but couldn't be bothered searching the shop so I asked one of the "assistants" if they had any aquarium silicone, to which they replied "what's that?" I couldn't help myself. "it's silicone for aquariums!" I replied.
Needless to say, I probably wasn't their favourite person after that since one of the other assistants had overheard the conversation and found it extremely amusing. And after all that, they didn't have any

hahaha, yea i've had some really clueless employees also...it'd be nice if they employed people that actually knew a thing or two