It must be Pets-mart and not Pet-smart...

[nursie]

yea...it's always a women..

I would not go there if I was you, boys!!! :devil:
I've seen plenty of inept male clerks at pet shops too.

 

[nomadofthehills]

...because I wasted a half-hour in one trying to get some rare (around here) harlequin rasboras. First off, they only had one person working in the fish section and she freely admitted that she knew nothing about fish when I asked why teensy rasboras were being sold for $2.49 and labelled as extra large.

Because we (Petsmart) order XL rasboras, and we get what we get.

Her response was that since they CAN get up to 2", they're sold at a higher price since they can "become extra large." :duh:

She said she doesn't know anything about fish, and was probably covering for the fish person. Why ask her when it clearly wasn't her department?

I pointed out that they had small, medium, and extra large bala sharks being sold at different prices and asked why the rasboras weren't being sold at a price that reflected their size. Her response was that the bala sharks must be different species.

She said she doesn't know anything about fish, and was probably covering for the fish person. Why ask her when it clearly wasn't her department?


It was at that point that I went off looking for a manager or someone who actually knew something about the fish. I found a guy and he also wondered why the rasboras were being sold as extra large even though they weren't and went to go ask his manager if there was a lower price. The manager said they had to sell them at the price on the tanks and I left the store having lost 30 minutes of my life and fishless.

This isn't a mom and pop store, a manager can't lower corporate prices. They grow quickly, mine were bought as .5" babies, and were full grown in under 6 months.

Please think before you bash a petstore...

 

[moby goby]

Luke:
Let me see if I've got this straight. You went into Petsmart (generally not a smart move), saw a fish you say is rare in your area, refused to pay a reasonable price for this "rare" fish, argued about fish with a clerk who readily admitted she knew little about fish, and wasted 30 minutes in the store before leaving with no fish...and you want us to think that they're not smart?! And if that's not bad enough, you then tell us you found this "rare" fish iin Walmart! Do you think it's smart to tell us how easily available this "rare" fish is in your area. But, hey, I'm glad you found some at a price you're willing to pay!

 

[nomadofthehills]

wow.
too bad there isn't a national headquarters who cares to complain to...ppl wonder why there is so much rage in the world. There is way too much ignorance and no way to for people who realize it to make a difference!! How frustrating.

There IS a national headquarters that you can complain too, but there was nothing to complain about imo...

 

[Luke Jaywalker]

Please think before you bash a petstore...

1 - You may order extra large rasboras, but that is not what you get, so don't try and pass the buck onto the consumer. Actually get rasboras that are extra large or charge people for what they're getting.

2 - Why ask her? Oh, I don't know, maybe because I thought she'd have some sort of common sense. First off, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the fish were being priced based on size and they were nowhere near "extra large" according to the maximum size label on the tank. Second, I didn't expect her to know everything about the prices, but she could have directed me to a manager or asked for assistance. That's just common sense if you're working in retail.

3 - Regarding the prices, you're saying that there are absolutely no prices for anything under extra large rasboras when you're clearly not receiving extra large rasboras to sell? I wasn't expecting the manager to cut me a deal, I was expecting him/her to be able to look up their prices for small or medium rasboras and charge me that. It's not that I didn't think before bashing the store, it's that I assumed you could buy small or medium rasboras there instead of buying "extra large" ones at a whopping 3cm. Now, go sic mobygoby for insulting your store...

mobygoby

1 - The fish is rare in my area because I now live in the middle of nowhere and the one petstore in the area specializes in cichlids in nasty tanks and Walmart has never had them in stock (when I've checked) until this week. They have been rare in the past two months that I've been living here.

2 - I "argued" with her to point out that what she was talking about made no sense and tried to get her to get me a manager or someone who would know something about the pricing.

3 - It took me 30 minutes because it took so long to find someone in the store who knew something about the fish and then hear back from the manager.

4 - I don't appreciate your insinuations that I'm not smart and they come across to me as both trolling for my reaction and subtle flaming. If you want to think I'm dumb for posting a little rant though, be my guest chief.

 

[Candycat21]

Okay first off, I work at a Petsmart, so let me enlighten you.
When ordering fish we go through and scan all the top 70 sellers and order the anmount we need, then we go back and scan the rest of the lables and order those.
We are not able to order SM, MD, LG Rasboras
. They have a set price and that is what we HAVE to sell them as. Even if the "XL Rasboras" come in and look like they should be MD that's too bad. That is what the breeder has sent to us so we have to sell them as that. They are in our system as "XL Rasboras" so there is no way on earth that we can suddenly sell them to you as a MD just because they don't fit your size requirements because we don't have any in our system under "MD Rasboras". The labels saying "sm, md, lg, xl" have nothing to do with the maximum size that the fish gets. It's all based on what the breeders have available. We can't all of a sudden make up a fish and plug it into our system just to please you.
Another thing...when it comes to animals, fish, reptiles, crickets, feeders....any live animal for that matter, their prices are as is. We have no power whatsoever to change that and if we do there would be serious consequences!!!
Changing prices and giving discounts on merchandise is allowed but live animals have a set price that is given to us based on the aggreements between corporate and the breeders we deal with.
If you don't see a label for the fish you're looking for other than the XL then that's all we have....for one they wouldn't be in the same tank.
Don't assume that because a store has a fish in one size that they'll have it in bigger or smaller sizes as well. Read the labels and that will tell you.
Another thing, when we order fish we don't have the ability to preview them before we order them...it's ignorance on your part by thinking that we can somehow see the fish first and saying

1 - You may order extra large rasboras, but that is not what you get, so don't try and pass the buck onto the consumer. Actually get rasboras that are extra large or charge people for what they're getting.

 

[Luke Jaywalker]

Another thing, when we order fish we don't have the ability to preview them before we order them...it's ignorance on your part by thinking that we can somehow see the fish first and saying

It's ignorance for me to think that you can see the fish after you've received them, realize the breeder's screwing you on the price, and improve quality control? Going back to the food service analogy...McDonald's isn't going to charge a customer the price of quarter pounder for a regular cheeseburger because their distributors sent them those instead of bigger patties, they'll tell the customer they don't have any and sell him or her a regular cheeseburger and then make the distributor pay for the mistake.

I was ignorant of Petsmart in regards to selling smaller than extra large rasboras, I'll admit that, but I don't see it as a good policy either for the customer or the store to accept stock that is supposed to be much larger than it is from breeders.

EDIT - I do wonder if you've read the thread, because I've addressed the issue about them changing the prices already. Short version - I wasn't expecting anyone to cut me a deal, but I was expecting someone who was actually competent (something the girl I was talking to was not) to look up the price for rasboras smaller than extra large.

 

[redwing191]

Since you met I employee who doesn't know a whole lot about fish you immediately start bashing the whole company? I also work at a Petsmart and you have to realize that the Specialty department isnt just fish, it includes reptiles, birds, and small animals as well. When I first started working there I just new fish but eventually learned alot about the other parts. The one person working probably wasnt hired for her fish intelligence. And the reason only one person was working was probably because the other was on their break. During the week at my store only 2 people work at the same time in the department. With the rasboras like someone said earlier, we get in what we get in. We cant send stuff back because we dont like it. If you had difficulty with customer service than thats specific to that store, not a corporate problem. You can call someone in corporate to help with that issue if its a constant problem, otherwise cut people some slack.

 

[Luke Jaywalker]

Since you met I employee who doesn't know a whole lot about fish you immediately start bashing the whole company?

God, you employees are really crawling out of the woodwork about this, aren't you? I find it really amusing since I recall reading many posts bashing Petsmart, Petco, Walmart, and anything that's not a LFS without this kind of reaction.

It was a funny little thread title, get over it, remove sticks from anuses and continue using the forums.

I wonder if there'd be all these Petsmart employee/defenders if I were ranting about how every tank except the one with just plants had one or more dead or dying fish...I saw that at that Petsmart the other night too, and out of the 3 Petsmarts I've been to in the NC/VA area in the past month, there were very few of what I'd call "healthy" tanks.

I'm also kind of curious if you guys have been pming each other or work at the same store to coordinate this concentration of upset Petsmart employees in this thread. 25% of the people participating in this thread are Petsmart employees and I'm willing to bet they're either having knee-jerk reactions to the first post (and especially thread title) and haven't read the remarks made against Petsmart by other posters, or are choosing to not comment on them because they're made by more...established members of the forums. In other words, is this because I have a low post count/am usually a lurker/etc?

 

[mattskims]

All the backlash has nothing to do with your low post count, and everything to do with that youre an idiot.

Other posts that spoke of Petsmart or other LFS dealt with an employee trying to act like they knew more than they actually did. Most iof those posts I have read included someone saying something to the effect of "I wish when people didn't know something, they would just admit it." Well in this case, the employee did. But of course that wasn't good enough for you. You felt the need to continue to pressure this girl knowing you knew more than she did and probaly sent her into panic mode and she was probaly just trying her best to get out of the situation because she knew she was in over her head. To me, it sounded like nothing more than you being a bully and being a the typical customer I see everyday in my retail job that thakes the phrase, "the customer is always right" over the line.

These Petsmart employees (I am not one BTW) are simply providing you with what you seemed to be looking for all along, an explanation of the pricing. Now you have it. If you don't like it, take your business elsewhere, thats the beauty of competition in the marketplace.

Oh yah, I forgot one of the most comon fish in the freshwater hobby are rare in your area. Well you obviously get online plenty to visit this forum, so while you are online next time visit an online fish vendor. I'm sure you can find as many of the rare harlequin rasboras as you want.