Pleasantly Surprised By Pets@home

[Forestpisces]

I know this is not true for every pets@home branch. But i would personally like to mention and congradulate the halifax branch, they really are cleaning up their act! I went out today to buy supplies and equiptment and arrived at about 10:30am to find the shop had just opened. I of course immidiately went to the fish section and saw fish acclimatising in thier bags with all the store lights off, all the fish looked alert and active. The bettas were housed in barracks with misted dividers so they wernt constantly flaring and the females were all housed together in a seperate tank (bargin at £1.35). As i was browsing picking up my bits and pieces a woman politley mentioned to me " i hope your not here for fish dear, they need to settle and wont be on sale untill 3 o clock" she then proceeded to put signs on all the tanks saying the same thing!! And through out the entire shop there was only one dead fish and it was a guppy male still in the bag. I also liked that on all the tanks of fish they had cards stating how big the fish will get, what they eat and how easy they are to care for.

All this and i got everything i needed bar one thing for under £7!!

i'm stunned and pleased
So all in all there not too bad in my opinion

 

[Dogson]

Agreed and same for the store in York which has just been refurbed and appears to be well run!

 

[thefaxmachine]

I agree, I wouldn't totally write off P@H as each store is totally different. If I do have to use one of their stores then I normally opt for the one in Walsall Bescot. There is a woman who works there who really knows her fish. I have often overheard her talking to customers and her advice is spot on and even witnessed her refusing to sell Tiger Barbs to a customer who had fancy tail guppies - obviously the customer was none-to-pleased and said she'll go elsewhere even though being told the guppies would not last the night if she brought the barbs!

But on the other hand P&H in Oldbury is quite bad. Every time I go in that store to have a nose around I see dead fish!

Its a very hit and miss company and like many on here I will always stick with my LFS.

 

[razer121]

just to add to this i recently bought 2 mollys and a ballon molly from my local pets at home (banbury) the stores fish area is really bad, but that was 2 weeks ago, ive had one of my mollys die so i phoned them today and turns out they have changed abit, there now replacing my molly and also giving me yes GIVING me the treatment i need for my tank and my other 2 mollys as one now has fin rot and the other has the brown mark which seems to be some sort of infection by the way its now getting bigger....also all my other fish are starting to rub everything, so ye i pretty impressed with the way they have delt with it but i do wonder what condition the new fish will be in...

 

[BigC]

Northern Ireland store (Belfast) has also had a referb, they do seem to be getting their act together regarding aquatics. I haven't had a chance to grille any of the staff as yet.
Regards
C

 

[craig855s]

I was in the cleethorpes branch last week and im not sure if it has just been redone as its not my local but i was pleasantly surprised (not a fan of P@H and ACORN)

The tanks were spotless,not one dead fish,care cards on all tanks saying what each fish needs etc and the staff asked questions to a customer like "is your tank cycled" and so on....however,she then recomended to the above customers that they could have 3 or 4 fancy goldfish in a 60 litre tank

 

[razer121]

just to add to this i recently bought 2 mollys and a ballon molly from my local pets at home (banbury) the stores fish area is really bad, but that was 2 weeks ago, ive had one of my mollys die so i phoned them today and turns out they have changed abit, there now replacing my molly and also giving me yes GIVING me the treatment i need for my tank and my other 2 mollys as one now has fin rot and the other has the brown mark which seems to be some sort of infection by the way its now getting bigger....also all my other fish are starting to rub everything, so ye i pretty impressed with the way they have delt with it but i do wonder what condition the new fish will be in...

even though the women on the phone was nice and all i decided to go down there today to get the treatment, a fish i saw last wednesday which had died (well he was just about dead) anyway the very same fish was still in the tank......nearly a week later!! i told the lady and she did remove it mind, theres a guy who works there who i told last time who doesnt know a thing...drives me nuts

 

[treefella83]

i have two within a reasonable distance from me and i am not really impressed with either.
ive been looking for the so called mini java fern for ages and one of the stores had planted bog wood just covered in the stuff , ok a bit expensive but i asked for a good sized piece but when the wood was lifted i was shocked to see a cloud of dead corydorus and bits of mouldy fish and back bones fill the tank i have never seen nothing like it in my life.

 

[Boony]

I was in the cleethorpes branch last week and im not sure if it has just been redone as its not my local but i was pleasantly surprised (not a fan of P@H and ACORN)

The tanks were spotless,not one dead fish,care cards on all tanks saying what each fish needs etc and the staff asked questions to a customer like "is your tank cycled" and so on....however,she then recomended to the above customers that they could have 3 or 4 fancy goldfish in a 60 litre tank

I often go in the Cleethorpes branch to have a nosey when Im back home. Ive found it is generally a good store, and the head of aquatis seems pretty well informed with what fish can go with others.
Obviously most P@H are hit and miss, but I would never recommend the Lincoln branch. Everytime Ive been in there, there have been dead fish all over. In on tank there were more dead than alive.
I also pointed out to one employee that a fish had died and was being torn apart by some of the larger plecs in the tank and he just shrugged and went off.

Overall I think I prefer going to the main aquatics shop in Grimsby, much better service and healthier fish all round.

 

[Goodygumdrops]

Never,ever,ever again
I always tell folks not to buy fish from them,I buy all my plants there but the tanks are always full of dead fish.Anyways,saw an angel in there that was the exact colouration I was after (gold,no other colours),looked ok,granted,there were NO lights on in any tanks.
Cut a long story short,bought it Mon afternoon and it was dead by Wed morning,fin rot and some sort of fungus,my other fish thankfully managed to avoid it as I can only imagine they are healthy and boisterous and I change lots of water!!It did manage to infect my little rescue angel though,which was still recoverig from losing half its fins and being starved half to death.I've got really fond of this little guy and spent a heart stopping couple of weeks watching cloudy patches appear on his fins,holding one pectoral into his side,changing water daily.
Thankfully everyone is fine but I will NEVER buy a fish there again,don't kow WHAT I was thinking in the first place,counted 5 dead cories in ONE tank and numerous others in other tanks,told a sales assistant only to be informed that they would have been removed on the next hourly check,is this how many fish they lose every hour???!!!!
They are RIDICULOUSLY bad.

 

[xweeqtx]

Have to agree with goodygumdrops. Any fish we've bought from P@H have died within a few days as well. Were in picking up some things last Thursday(delivery day) and they had all the bags floating etc.. OH spotted a big clown loach that was hanging over the side of the tank in the bag, no water, nothing. Even though there were workers wandering about - how on earth did that go unnoticed when we spotted it right away? Pushed him back in and grabbed someone to say because we didn't know how long he'd been like that. She gave the bag a shake and said he was fine Wasn't as if it was a baby clown, it was massive! Not something easily missed..

 

[Goodygumdrops]

Nightmare,you know what shop I'm talking about weeg,I don't care how many forms you have to fill out to buy a fish off them and how many questions they ask,fact is unless you want to put the rest of your tank at risk,just don't.

 

[Hawkins]

My local P@H fish area is being refurbed, can't wait for it to open. Just hope they have new staff!

 

[bagu]

My local P@H fish area is being refurbed, can't wait for it to open. Just hope they have new staff!

mine had a refurb a few weeks back!

ITS FANTASTIC! so clean! new staff aswell! and new rules, they have a pad at mine and take down tank size, filters, fishes etc and will tell you conflicts or tank problems!

 

[Forestpisces]

I think it all depends on staff. The ones in Halifax that i was praising are rather good, not great but good.

I have to say it isnt everywhere though and i often go into a different branch and see some awful things. But there not all bad as quite a few of these comments show.