Pets At Home Visit

[Smells a bit fishy]

P@h is very hit among miss, just like any specialised shop, not just in fish keeping but in any shop you go to, wether its a restaurant, kitchens bathrooms electricals. Some are just after your money, the short term sale, and some would rather the long sale, where you keep on coming back. I think certain P@H are geared up for different animals, I suppose depending on what the managers favourite animal is maybe. But it is also down to the staff aswell like anywhere, some people are lazy and just after the money, and some people are really passionate about what they do.

You can't possibly expect every member of staff to know everything about fish, but they know the basics which is better than nothing, and you occasionally get a bad one just like any LFS. My experiences in P@H has been pretty good, go in there for my plants as they are better than my LFS I always look at their tanks when I'm in there, ive only ever seen one dead fish, which was being eaten, apart from that I can't complain. I'm not sure if I agree about the fighting fish though, being put next to each other in a small divider, they can still see each other.

I also had a long conversation about small tanks with one lady and she agreed most of the tanks they sell there are not suitable for goldfish, despite on the packaging saying that they can keep 2 goldfish.

So conclusion is P@H is a bit like any other retail outlet, hit and miss

 

[willowstwin]

Wow, Tasha... Reread the statements and realise that people are exressing opinions based on THEIR experiences. They're not saying all P@H are bad, but I agree that if you're working in a place like that, or currys or anywhere for that matter, you should strive to know all you can about the products you're selling.

For example, I know a lot about small mammals, but I'm only just learning about fish, so if I was asked a question, I wouldn't blag it (as I'VE experienced in 2 different P@H) I'd pass them on to someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

As for my experiences with P@H, the Rotherham store had a tank with 2 dead fish in it, one was fresh dead, the other was in a later stage of decay, and 2 other fish were struggling (from reading here I'm guessing spikes from the decying material?). Now, I told a woman who was only stacking shelves, she looked, went and got a net and as me and my friend pretended to leave, she pretended to fish them out, put them in a rubbish bag and bin them... 2 minutes later we went and looked and there they were, still rotting away.

Doncaster P@H I was looking trying to look at a certan tank of trops, and couldnt due to a woman giving a customer an absolute grilling about how her tank which had been set up 4 days was not good enough (even though they gave her a voucher for money off fish, valid 3 days after she bought her tank - I got one of these too), this customer was almost in tears being made to feel like a fish abuser, and then when the P@H worker finally moved, 1 of the tanks ad a dead fish in which was so decayed you could see the bones and another had a Pleco on the OUTSIDE of the tank, all shrivelled and dried... I was almost sick.

So from my personal experience, I wouldn't buy fish from them. I know, as with all lfs's, each store is different, but please don't YOU be so quick to judge on people choosing to boycott a company from their own personal experiences. I've had 11 years experience with rats, and one guy (at P@H) told me I could mix and match rats of the same sex from different tanks, even though they were different litters and ages... errm, no you can't... So it's all down to how bad a personas experience is, with ANYTHING, that will put them for or against shopping somewhere.

 

[Didge007]

I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect the staff to know everything. We don't have pets at home here but we do have a few equivalent franchises. Generally I am impressed with the fish health, all except the bettas. And the staff have always been very friendly. I even had one staff member not able to tell me where the airstones were kept as she didn't know what they were - and honestly I was impressed she let me know straight away she didnt know much about fish. I dare say if I was interested in birds (as an example) however she could've helped me.

It's not just pet shops though, even in my job I'm not able to always inform customers (in which case I can find someone who can). Really, if your wanting information it's probably better to go to a good fish shop. That's why they are there

 

[ian]

sorry guys, the thread is going to be closed. I'm unsure why this was dredged up from 2007.