Pets @ Home - Unfiltered Tank Swap Offer

[backtotropical]

This is this month's poll on the PFK website and i think it's very interesting that a chain with such a bad reputation amongst aquarists are being so generous. Is it for the fish, or to line their pockets?

I personally cant see anything other than £££££££££££ behind it but commend them on it anyway as it will save the lives of many goldies.

What will we see next? Good advice? Staff who have had some training? or am i getting a bit carried away?

Please vote / discuss.

 

[littlest]

To be fair to Pets at Home they have always recommended using filters with goldfish. The old website and leaflets in the store said that goldfish always need a filter, however, they also said that one goldfish can live in a (filtered) bowl.

They do seem to be making efforts to improve at the moment. I've heard other members saying there are some stores with a fish specialist stores now and they are much better than before and stock marines.

I think this is a publicity stunt, and as they always recommended filters, it isn't really a step in the right direction, because they have always been there (if you know what I mean).

I think they are doing much more than this offer though, so that might be more of a step in the right direction.

 

[shroob]

Even if its just a publicity stunt, its still a step in the right direction. The more fish with filters the better, though P@H will is still not my favourite shop, atleast it shows they are willing to do something (even if it is just to get more people though the door).

 

[Azaezl]

I was slightly confused by the publicity stunt, I thought you could take your bowl in and get X amount off a filtered tank there and then(I have a bowl from years ago I was gonna take to get money off an arc tank ). What the deal is, is that you take a bowl in, buy a filtered tank and get a coupon for money off your NEXT purchase, little bit deceptive I thought. So I've voted publicity stunt, it's still a good thing though, a step in the right direction. They've also changed the slips you write out to get fish, you used to just put your name & address then sign. Now you have to fill out details about your tank, which they don't check(well mine didn't anyway) they also have check boxes to say if they've given a care sheet, advised about dietary requirements, water testing, checked to make sure they are disease free and that your over 16. They just checked all the boxes without saying anything, although I think they know I don't need advising as I'm breeding frogs(that's all I buy from there) and actually tell them info about them such as how to sex them and what they are called(they had them labelled as 'underwater frog'). All in all they are trying to change and you can't fault them for that, hopefully in the next few months they might start training the staff to a suitable level as well, or at least have decent care sheets to hand out with the fish, as well as info on cycling / water quality etc.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Of course it's a publicity stunt. Question- how many tanks don't come with filters? All I can really come up with are the Clearseal tanks (which are being wrongly victimised, we're already being ripped off by most all-in-one kits) and a few scattered 'goldfish bowls'. But who actually buys them (the bowls, I mean- plenty of people buy Clearseal tanks but I don't think I've ever seen an unfiltered one)? Practically nobody- instead people buy the fairly cheap all-in-one 'goldfish' kits (like Hagen Elite, assorted novelty children's tanks, even verging to the more pricy Biorbs, small Aquaone tanks, etc). Which are all filtered. And exactly what P@H are encouraging people to buy. For goldfish. A filter is definately a handy bit of kit, but not nessecarily essential, and doesn't make a blind bit of difference when the tank is far too small and overstocked anyway.