why do pet stores always try to rip you off?!?

They won't listen.

Getting there employees to give good info would mean training them, training them means more cost and less profit for petsmart. Their there for profit, plain and simple.

they work for money. You can ask them why is my fish have itch they might say feed them more food and they will expect you to buy the food and when you do they get more money

they give totally wrong information.
Once i asked them what is a good tank size for i.d. sharks they said 29gls and the same for balas . They work without knowing any thing

I made my first ever trip to Petsmart on Monday. I loved it, and the girl helping me seemed to know her stuff. Its a brand new store. However I did end up helping a lady pick out fish for her tank. Well she asked about breeding guppies and I helped. lol Love my guppies. Honestly... I don't ask the fish store employees for help. I get that here, then I go all armed with info and make my own choices. My walmart here is bad, but that Petsmart was good. I think it just depends on the people.

Depends on the Petsmart/Petco, but they're a business, they're there to sell stuff....not much ya can do.....Try buying anything, I'm sure you'll get dodgey info....

I realize you may have had some bad experiences, but not all petsmart employees are uninformed. I have done a lot of background research off the clock so that I'll have more accurate answers for people, because I personally don't do it for the money, I do it to be helpful. Yes, I get paid, and as I should, I put in a lot of effort there, but its really not about how much I get paid, and I definitely don't look at people as "potential sales." I look at people who have questions as an opportunity to share valuable information which I have gained with them, so as to help their pets life healthier and happier lives. I've owned more pets throughout my life than most pet stores carry, and every single time I get a new pet, I spend 6-12 hours of solid research time making sure I know about their specific needs, be it dietary needs, substrate/housing/heating/humidity, behavioral patterns, problems others have experienced, etc. I pride myself in being a very knowledgeable employee for petsmart, and I have seen a lot of very happy people improve the quality of their pets lives by taking my advice. If I don't know the answer, I will admit that I don't and offer a suggestion as to where to find out. I don't make up facts. I don't just sell unsuspecting customers anything they think looks nice to boost sales. I make sure people are informed, and if they can't provide an adequate home for a pet, I recommend that they consider another alternative, perhaps not getting anything at all. On a side note, Bala Shark, I don't mean to be rude here, but you've got far too small of an aquarium for the fish you have stocked as well, specifically the bala sharks. You were upset that you were told a 29 gallon tank is inadequate for a bala shark, yet you keep two in a 25 gallon tank, so is it really fair of you to be so judgemental?

I agree with gatotsu77, that is very judgemental.


There are people at every pet store who have no idea what their talking about, and then there are some who know everything they need to know.



So, don't be hatin'.

gatotsu77 - a couple of my local Petsmart people are well informed like you, the rest are of the: "How about a common pleco to live with your betta in a 2 gallon tank?" variety. People tend to generalize all big chain pet store workers as morons (and as humans we tend to linger on the bad rather than good anyway), but we all know there are folks out there like you taking the initiative to spread good advice.

I figure it's best to generally do my own research in most cases anyway.