Pets At Home

[stubert]

So whats your experiences with pets at home? or any other multi chain pet stores?

Mine are:

Brought some harlequins impulse buy when i was stocking my tank, after getting home and looking at them for a bit realised how disgustinly poor they where, looked like they hadnt been fed for a year, dunno why i didnt notice this so much at the shop.

Was moving the plants i wanted to buy into one part of the plant tank they have, and one of the staff came over and first got on cos i was moving plants, even though id said they where the ones i was going to buy, then got on because i wasnt putting them back in the water properly or something cos people have broken the pots they are in...didnt really know what she was in a mood about but pretty poor service IMO if she wanted to know what i was doing/tell me to do something differently theres no need to be like she was.

Went in the other day to check prices on the cabinet for my tank (50 quid so didnt buy ) then noticed they had some female fighters, which didnt look too bad (the males are disgusting) so i asked the woman stood there 'are they the only female fighters you have?' she says pretty arrogently ' no those are males we dont have females' so i said nah the ones in this tank, shes like....oh...
so brought these 2 bluey females, get them home and didnt see them for a while, barely see them now normally on the bottom somewhere while my other females swim around full of energy, hoping they liven up when theyve been on my food for a bit.

Saw about 3 plecos ravaging a dead angel fish in one of the tanks, told staff they didn't seem too bothered.

And along with the amount of dead/dying fish in the tanks thats about all mine.

well one not to do with fish or the service in pets at home, me and a friend saw a degu...erm...deep throating...itself...had a giggle...then as we left the shop...somebody was buying it. Funny stuff.

Also find it funny how they ask you all these questions about your tank etc when they themselves can't look after fish.

Sorry if there are any pets at home workers here

 

[Dinky Stig]

My opinion:

You asked for it!

Too many people bash pets at home...period.

There are good stores and bad, but never should anyone tar something with the same brush, my local (Giltbrook) is a fantastic store, all of the tanks are well looked after and the reptile section is fantastic, the staff are well knowledgeable and there is a plant expert there as well which is a bonus when quoted latin names!

There are some bad stores too, some poorly looked after stock, but obviously, what happens in each store is dependent on the manager, if he's an ignorant clot that knows nothing, then you can presume that the store will be poorly looked after, whereas if there is a manager that knowledgeable, the store is generally well kept, so therefore, pets at home is not a bad company, the people that run each individual store are the bad people, I think it's about time some people opened their minds, they fail to realise that there are hundreds of stores nationwide and their local isn't representative of the population.

 

[ian]

i'm gonna take over Trucks old role here...

the shops are a franchise, so you cannot make sweeping statement about P@H, some are excellent, some are poor. As are MA and others. Just cos P@H are the biggest you cannot tar them all with the same brush.

now move on.

 

[jpeterson]

Well i have had good and bad with pets at home. I once bough a guinea pig from the store which was meant to be male. However, i know a lot about guinea pigs and could clearly see it was a female. I bought it because it was only 6 weeks old and was in a cage with about 10 other males. It was pregnant and did die. The babies luckily were ok. When i bought my fish from pets at home they never give me enough info about cycling so my first lot of fish died. The fish are always healthy when i buy them. There may be some dead ones in the tank but you expect that with all the stress. Our pets at home lets the fish rest for around 2 days after a delivery which i think is great. They are also very good with stocking and never let you over stock. The last few week i have been going and just asking easy questions which you expect them to not know. But they now have an aquatics expert who is very good and i get on well with.

 

[stubert]

Well yeh kinda why i asked for other peoples experiences.

I've been to a few different ones and they are all the same.

Also if pets at home didn't want their name tarred they should go check their stores. Regardless if they are franchises.

'Now move on'

 

[stubert]

Well i have had good and bad with pets at home. I once bough a guinea pig from the store which was meant to be male. However, i know a lot about guinea pigs and could clearly see it was a female. I bought it because it was only 6 weeks old and was in a cage with about 10 other males. It was pregnant and did die. The babies luckily were ok. When i bought my fish from pets at home they never give me enough info about cycling so my first lot of fish died. The fish are always healthy when i buy them. There may be some dead ones in the tank but you expect that with all the stress. Our pets at home lets the fish rest for around 2 days after a delivery which i think is great. They are also very good with stocking and never let you over stock. The last few week i have been going and just asking easy questions which you expect them to not know. But they now have an aquatics expert who is very good and i get on well with.

Good to see there are some half decent pets at home's around when it comes to fish wheres your shop located?

 

[ian]

Well yeh kinda why i asked for other peoples experiences.

I've been to a few different ones and they are all the same.

Also if pets at home didn't want their name tarred they should go check their stores. Regardless if they are franchises.

'Now move on'

the thing is these thread pop up all the time on here and end up getting closed as people start to have disagrements.

Regardless of franchise??? This means they are privatly owned, as are McDonalds and other massive chains, why would the people who own the name want to check?

If you don't want to use them, them try another LFS...Simples.

 

[stubert]

Well yeh kinda why i asked for other peoples experiences.

I've been to a few different ones and they are all the same.

Also if pets at home didn't want their name tarred they should go check their stores. Regardless if they are franchises.

'Now move on'

the thing is these thread pop up all the time on here and end up getting closed as people start to have disagrements.

Regardless of franchise??? This means they are privatly owned, as are McDonalds and other massive chains, why would the people who own the name want to check?

If you don't want to use them, them try another LFS...Simples.

Errrm, my friend got fired from burger king because one of the higher ups was walking round checking the shop and he didnt realise and gave away free food infront of him.

They are using thier name so they should care about what people are doing with it

And the only fish i have from p@h atm are these 2 females, i go to a smaller shop further away normally with verrrry nice fish.

Well yeh kinda why i asked for other peoples experiences.

I've been to a few different ones and they are all the same.

Also if pets at home didn't want their name tarred they should go check their stores. Regardless if they are franchises.

'Now move on'

the thing is these thread pop up all the time on here and end up getting closed as people start to have disagrements.

Regardless of franchise??? This means they are privatly owned, as are McDonalds and other massive chains, why would the people who own the name want to check?

If you don't want to use them, them try another LFS...Simples.

Errrm, my friend got fired from burger king because one of the higher ups was walking round checking the shop and he didnt realise and gave away free food infront of him.

They are using thier name so they should care about what people are doing with it

And the only fish i have from p@h atm are these 2 females, i go to a smaller shop further away normally with verrrry nice fish.

edit dunno what i did to my post but i cba to sort it

 

[Dinky Stig]

You simply can't call a company bad because of one store, that isn't how it goes, as Ianho has stated 'if you're not happy, find somewhere else' because there are many of us with great local branches of Pets at Home, I for one think they're a great company, they sell many products, some at good prices, and some of the staff are very knowledgeable.

 

[stubert]

You simply can't call a company bad because of one store, that isn't how it goes, as Ianho has stated 'if you're not happy, find somewhere else' because there are many of us with great local branches of Pets at Home, I for one think they're a great company, they sell many products, some at good prices, and some of the staff are very knowledgeable.

mate ive asked for peoples experiences and told mine, mine just happen to all be bad from the 4 or so pets at homes ive been too. And i personally think if the main owners don't want bad talk about their shops they should go check them

Chill out. Wish i never started this topic lol...

 

[jpeterson]

My store is the hylton cast store at sunderland. P@H beats some of the LFS who have apparently kept fish for years~!

 

[stubert]

My store is the hylton cast store at sunderland. P@H beats some of the LFS who have apparently kept fish for years~!

WTB your pets at home please


wtb = want to buy

 

[MewMew42]

i'm gonna take over Trucks old role here...

truck left?

well on the subject i found that my pets at home is hit and miss, just like most lfs' i guess, they all have their bad days

 

[KAISER]

So whats your experiences with pets at home? or any other multi chain pet stores?

I think maybe some people never read the opening statement?

As for the "now move on" comment, thats a little harsh, is it not? Maybe a lot of people do start a thread like this, but its only because as some of us are new to the hobby, we would like to gather as much info as possible, including good places to buy our fish from. Obviously they cant all be tarred with the same brush, hence the opening question. But if you live near a bad one, maybe someone not to far from you can give a recommendation for somewhere good to try.

As for my local P@H, (which is Ayr, Scotland) its utter crap!! Always dead decaying fish in the tanks, as well as cases of white spot, pop eye, flashing etc. The staff have no clue about the plants they sell and it really gets on my nerves everytime I hear them tell a new customer they have to wait seven days after the tank is set up, then just add fish.

So Stubert, you can cross that branch off your list of stores to try

 

[stubert]

So whats your experiences with pets at home? or any other multi chain pet stores?

I think maybe some people never read the opening statement?

As for the "now move on" comment, thats a little harsh, is it not?

Your pets at home sounds like the ones round here