I Love Petsmart!

[Esfa]

"but forcefully and unwaveringly telling them what they should and shouldn't do, above the law of the land, is a bit judgmental."

^ BIBLE ^ haha

Yeah, I agree.

It was the banks fault, they should have checked their balance sheets and accounts. If they had checked, I'm sure they would have noticed.

 

[kribensis12]

Im a little ocnfused.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Well you started it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Betta5]

I'm gonna play a little devil's advocate here, because I think what you did here was wrong. Since you knew better, you should have told the guy which ones were the males and the females and how to tell them apart. First and foremost, this is the kind of knowledge a new employee needs. You could and should have done this guy a great service by teaching him what proper fishkeeping is. You could have told him how important keeping the correct sex ratios are. You could have told him so that next time when he sells fish to people, he could them tell them, and then those customers can keep their fish healthier and happier. Your knowledge could have gone a long way towards helping a lot of his future customers keep healthier fish.

But, secondly, because you knew better, you basically have stolen goods from a store. You knew what the fish really were, you knew what the prices were supposed to be. You may not have done this physically, but basically what you did here was take the price tag off of a cheaper item and place it over the price tag of a costlier item, so that you get the costlier item at a cheaper price. In a word, this is stealing. People make mistakes, and if you didn't know any better, and then got home and found this out, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But, from your story, you knew exactly what was happening, and I think it was dishonest of you to pay the wrong price. If you couldn't afford the fish you wanted, either don't buy them or buy something else. Preying on the ignorance of an employee is the same as stealing.

Finally, Petsmart isn't just going to take this loss, small though it is. They will just raise prices on their other fish or products to make up for this loss. That loss will be accounted for somewhere else. So, everyone, next time you think to yourself "why are fish and equipment so expensive?", you just have to remember this little story by krib. You should have paid what was a fair price.

I don't think that this is something to be proud of krib. I think that it is something to be ashamed of. I hope you don't think of this as a lecture, because that is not how I intend this to sound; but I'd hope that this has inspired you to look at this from a different point of view than just your own personal gain. If you had found a good fish that was on sale, or Petsmart had it listed at a price cheaper than their competitors, that would be a good find, in my book. But, like I said above, in my opinion, because you knew exactly what the employee was doing and didn't tell him, it amounts to theft.

I am very interested to read what other people think.

its just a damn guppie, what about the hundereds they kill themselves? You telling me if someone priced something up wrong you would tell them? Its the shops falt they should make sure staff know something before putting them to a job.

Cool story BTW

 

[Piltdownpaul]

In the grand scheme of things the guppy was here before and will be after the demise of petsmart anyway!

 

[Jules H-T]

Im a little ocnfused.

I'm sorry if I've contributed to that.

I think it's safe to say that I thought some people's treatment of you was a bit judgmental and wanted to defend you as I didn't think what you had done was that bad. Dishonest perhaps, but nothing that would make the sky fall in.

I think what all of us would probably agree on is that it never does any harm to consider the possible effects of your actions on others, and that it is good policy to treat others as you would want them to treat you.

 

[kribensis12]

You didnt, but theese legal arguments cunfuse me, and thanks for defending me!

 

[andywg]

You didnt, but theese legal arguments cunfuse me, and thanks for defending me!

The legal arguments were not about your actions, but rather the incorrect advice being given that one has a legal right to purchase at whatever the displayed price is.

 

[stiffler69]

Its like getting a extra piece of chicken from kfc (result) you wouldnt walk in kfc and say excuse i got a extra piece will you take it back

I must be a dishonest person and criminal for eating that chicken?

Alot of people giving this guy a hard time cause hes knows the difference of a fish its not on really

Another example here i purchased some plattys out of a store local to me and he charged me the same for a female platty as the male £2.50 each i didnt go back and complain i payed it cause that is what it said on the tank (and she was loaded with babies)

 

[andywg]

Its like getting a extra piece of chicken from kfc (result) you wouldnt walk in kfc and say excuse i got a extra piece will you take it back

I must be a dishonest person and criminal for eating that chicken?

It would depend on when you noticed the error. They probably couldn't take it back. No one has ever stated that any act has been illegal, just that law does not state you can enforce a right to pay the lower price.

Alot of people giving this guy a hard time cause hes knows the difference of a fish its not on really

Do you not think that perhaps if so many people think he did the wrong thing it could be an indicator that many people do not think that is the best way to interact with our society?

Another example here i purchased some plattys out of a store local to me and he charged me the same for a female platty as the male £2.50 each i didnt go back and complain i payed it cause that is what it said on the tank (and she was loaded with babies)

Well that depends. You don't state in your example whether anything should have been priced differently.

 

[jourdy288]

PETA had a vid up on animal cruelty at Petsmart, and unfortunately, their youtube account was suspended. But, the vid showed how more than half the mammals arrive DEAD. I'm not shopping at Petsmart. Ever. They cut back on their training programs.
And guys, no need to become veterans of WWIII.

 

[Bignose]

Jules and others, I don't have much more to say. My point of view has been very clear. I do want to say, however, that I never intended to be seen as being on a soapbox and lecturing someone. In fact, I tried to point this out in my very first post. I also do not think that my posts have been driven by ego.

I just wanted the OP and everyone else who read the thread to think about it from the other point of view.

And, to wit, no one has really defended the opposite situation, yet. Specifically, that is that if it is okay to willfully take advantage of a store's employee's ignorance, than it should be just as okay for the store to take advantage of its customer's ignorance by trying to overcharge for products if it think it can get away with it.

Or, to put it another way, treat others the way you'd want to be treated. An awful lot of morality really boils down to that. In this case, if you owned a store and you wouldn't want to be taken advantage of, don't take advantage of other store's employees.

And, again, just to be clear. I don't think that I trying to preach from a soapbox, or judge people, or lecture, or anything like that. I primarily wanted and still do want people to look at the original situation from both points of view.

 

[Lynden]

PETA had a vid up on animal cruelty at Petsmart, and unfortunately, their youtube account was suspended. But, the vid showed how more than half the mammals arrive DEAD. I'm not shopping at Petsmart. Ever. They cut back on their training programs.
And guys, no need to become veterans of WWIII.

Firstly, PETA is hardly in a position to be slagging any company about animal losses, as PETA probably kills far more, and at least in PetSmart's case it was accidental.

Secondly, the pet trade on exotic land-living vertebrates does tend to be fairly wasteful; there is a high degree of mortality. PetSmart is far from being alone in receiving mammals that have died en route.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Firstly, PETA is hardly in a position to be slagging any company about animal losses, as PETA probably kills far more, and at least in PetSmart's case it was accidental.

No offense, or sarcasm intended here...but wouldn't that 'info' be expected on a website created and ran by the Center for Consumer Freedom.? I also noticed that they don't really explain why the animals are put down...which could shed some light on the 'big picture'.

Don't get me wrong, I am not an advocate for or against PETA and I am sorry for butting in, but I couldn't resist myself since that website is considered by many as being nothing more than a marketing campaign and of course, doesn't really supply a whole lot of information other than what was killed. Obviously, knowing who or what is behind any supposed info can help us determine what can be trusted, and what might lead to skepticism.

 

[SouthernCross]

Or, to put it another way, treat others the way you'd want to be treated. An awful lot of morality really boils down to that. In this case, if you owned a store and you wouldn't want to be taken advantage of, don't take advantage of other store's employees.

This is where I'm with you, Bignose. And maybe I'm just extra sympathetic being a retail worker myself. The blatant attempted manipulation, rudeness and dishonesty of many people I see at work everyday astounds me. For example, scammers deliberately attempt to target the younger, inexperienced register operators. All we can do is train them what to watch out for, but the only way new employees learn to handle more difficult situations is experience over time. And until employees gain that experience, they often have to deal with the crap from managers higher up. I've seen to many new employees get extremely upset and distressed when they realise they have been taken advantage of. I doubt it in this case being only a guppy, but there may even have been consequences for the Petsmart employee had anyone realised what he'd done. You can bet that if an employee sold a zebra plec (someone brought them up earlier) at a wrong price, management would certainly realise and someone would be getting their ass kicked! Just because its a guppy and a smaller loss it doesn't make it any less wrong to take advantage than a more expensive fish.

The Petsmart employee may well have been relatively new. We could hardly expect him to be able to differentiate between all the fish they sell - but I'm sure he will learn to over time. Case in point - when I was trained to work behind the cigarette kiosk at my work, it took me awhile (and a lot of customer impatience) for me to learn the dozens and dozens of different kind of cigarette brands, mgs, pack sizes, where they are on the display etc. I can locate and grab any kind in less than a second now.

I'd like to come back to the point I made in a previous post about the kind of posts we see on here about poor employees at fish stores - frequently bemoaning their inexperience. Rarely do we see a post where people endeavour to help them (although there's a few), however it would be nice to see more. It just seems a bit hypocritical to me that these kinds of posts (taking advantage of anothers ignorance about fish) are on this board, when I think most of us would like to think our primary concern is promoting the health and welfare of fish, our own and others.
I'm sure if anyone helped the clearly inexperienced employee out, I'm sure they'd have been grateful. In this scenario, all it would have taken would be a 'Just so you know, the female guppies are the larger, plainer looking ones. The smaller ones with the fancy tails are the males'. That employee could have used what he learnt for the rest of his time at Petsmart. A little bit of information can go a long way.

I agree with Bignose, it boils down to treat others as you would like to be treated. I'm sure none of us would like to be ripped off if we were selling fish.