You've Read About Bad Lfs

[The-Wolf]

Customer; I'd like 10 black neons please
Me; ok (bags them). anything else?
Customer; yes I'll have 18 neons as well.
Me; are they for a new tank or a matured one?
Customer; matured, been running for 6 months.
Me; great (bags neons). anything else
Customer; yes I have a touch of white spot on my clown loaches, what do you recomend?
Me; is this a different tank?
Customer; No I only have one tank?
Me; I'm sorry, I'm not selling you fish to put into a tank that is diseased, especially not neons.
(with that I unbag the fish in front of him)
Customer; why not?
Mebecause the fish will be stressed from the move into your tank which has a highly contagous diease in it, all that adds upto dead fish.
I have a moral obligation to ensure the livestock I sell will be adaquately housed.
Customer; so you are refusing to sell me fish!
Me; yes. I won't sell fish to anyone that has a diseased tank. you need to clear the disease first then you may have some more fish.
Customer; Well I'll take my business to pets at home.
Me; thank you. see you again ( I know he'll be back )
he left

there is always one customer that won't be educated.

 

[KimA]

Good grief

Glad you ask all the right questions though, nice job

 

[Fate2006]

stupid customers, I had a lady the other day at petsmart tell me she has 5 3" goldfish in a 7 gallon tank... I told her they'll all die soon unless she gets a minimum of 80gallon tank... what did she do? told me I was wrong and that the fish have been alive for over 3 weeks! Idiots... I told her not to buy anyfish and that if she wants them from here I won't get them, everyone in petcare (the fish area which was 3 other ppl) were on my side so she left

 

[oddball_lover]

Oh dear

And I bet he doesn't mention his diseased tank at the next shop along

 

[black angel]

Well done Paul for thinking of the welfare of the fish
No doubt he will be back to see you about how to get rid of the white spot properly when he sees all the fish covered in it.
Expensive mistake.

 

[Ant]

Fair play mate. Talking of pets at home , i have seen them sell fish to a customer even though that they said it was overstocked...

 

[MegTheFish]

Oh can I share my lastest story!

A customer phoned, lucky me got to answer. Wondered why all his fish were dying. I asked what size of tank. 29 gallon, ok not that bad, atleast it wasn't 5 gallons or something. What type/how many fish do you have in it. Oh, some goldfish, angels and guppies *long pause* How long have you had this tank set up? 2 weeks Told him he added too many fish off the bat and to atleast do a water change and bring a water sample into us... Wonder if he'll come? lol

 

[Underwurlde]

Good for you, you stuck by your morals.
And you were polite.

A hard combination to come by - need more of that in the world today (espcially here in the UK it would seem).

Andy

 

[nurglespuss]

Customer; yes I have a touch of white spot on my clown loaches, what do you recomend?
Me; is this a different tank?
Customer; No I only have one tank?
Me; I'm sorry, I'm not selling you fish to put into a tank that is diseased, especially not neons.
(with that I unbag the fish in front of him)


See to be honest this was the cause of the hostilities, if you had been a little politer (everyone makes mistakes, he was asking you about the disease, maybe he didnt know much about it?)

Unbagging fish infront of a customer, after reacting so strongly? no wonder he got the hum. Should have attempted to 'educate' him, rather than been so forward. You are after all the employee, he is the customer.

I personally (had I been so stupid a fish keeper) would have complained to the manager.

--- Sorry, I realise this may sound harsh, but I've had a few bad experiences with my local Pets at Home (trying to tell them that the reson their fish were gasping last summer is because their huge bank of tanks gets full sunn all day...) telling a staff member I wasnt going to buy fish until he had removed the dead fish fom the other tanks etc. [which he couldnt be arsed to do 'thats not on my rota']). So being the customer can be equally annoying.

 

[The-Wolf]

Customer; yes I have a touch of white spot on my clown loaches, what do you recomend?
Me; is this a different tank?
Customer; No I only have one tank?
Me; I'm sorry, I'm not selling you fish to put into a tank that is diseased, especially not neons.
(with that I unbag the fish in front of him)
See to be honest this was the cause of the hostilities, if you had been a little politer

what part of I'm sorry, is impolite?

Unbagging fish infront of a customer, after reacting so strongly? no wonder he got the hum. Should have attempted to 'educate' him, rather than been so forward. You are after all the employee, he is the customer.

I unbagged the fish in front of him because I didn't want the temperature to drop, it was snowing at the time and the less time in the bag the better!
Had the customer given me a chance I would've educated him about ich and how to treat it, however at that point his defences had clearly gone up and anything I had said would've gone in one ear and out the other.

Anyone on this forum that has the pleasure of being served by me at work, will tell you (I hope) how polite and professional I am.

 

[LisaLQ]

Although I agree the customer sounded like a prize pratt, I think you could have handled it better. Perhaps asking the questions before you bagged the fish? Therefore saving them the stress of getting them out, only to be put back in again.

I also think that we should be trying to educate folks, not scare them away. No doubt, as he said, he'll go to PAH and not get any decent advice now, purely because of your hostile reaction. It's one thing being "polite" but if all you can say is "I'm not selling you any fish", rather than how he should go about it - how's he supposed to learn? He'll only go on to make the same mistakes, just with different shops. And you've lost someone who could have become a valuable customer and maybe become a good fishkeeper.

He may not have been a class A idiot. He might just not have known any better. And now he wont, because he was scared off by a (dont be angry with me please) slightly holier than thou attitude

 

[mr williams]

I'm realtively new to fishkeeping (12 months) and I have to say the advice you get at the lfs isn't always helpful. I have found a good local branch of maidenhead aquatics now but one of the first places I tried had me buying everything just for the sake of it. I was being sold air pumps, ph adjuster, nitra zorb, morena ect ect and i've figured out that I don't need most of it now. It's hard to know what to do when one lfs says "you need this" and another says "you don't need that".

I know these people run a business but having brought in my water sample to the first shop it felt a bit like the "free" car check up at a dodgy garage.

 

[CFC]

Good on you wolf, had you carried on with the sale and let him take the fish you can bet your life he would have been back in a week complaining that they had all died.

To me i think the situation was handled perfectly politely, stern but polite, what kind of idiot knowingly wants to add fish to a diseased tank anyway?

 

[LisaLQ]

Maybe one who didn't know it was highly contagious? Maybe one who'd been told he could elsewhere?

I think it's unfair to call someone an idiot when we dont know the full story. I think it's six of one and half a dozen of another. It could easily be said "what kind of idiot gets fish in a bag before checking the tank is suitable". But no-one does, because it isn't fair.

I think it's great Wolf didn't sell them, and that deserves a big pat on the back, but it could have been handled more tactfully, and you could have gained a good customer and maybe converted someone and taught them something. Instead you just told them to sod off and didn't tell them why lol.

 

[jenny6165]

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