I am rather sad tonight. My favorite LFS, (with great educated staff, lowest prices, and best selection of fish) has let me down. I bought fish from them and 2/3 of them died over night. I took them in to get a refund with a sample of my water and was treated like a little kid who doesn’t know anything.
He tested my water and found nothing wrong. Nothing wrong!!! He said we could have 50% credit. Haha… I was not going for that, so we stood around talking for at least 15 minutes, trying to figure out what went wrong. (keep in mind, the whole time, he kept inputting that he did not really know what went wrong because the water I gave him was ok.)
He gave me a few reasons that it was my fault:
1.) Fish adapt to water, so my original fish in my tank would be fine (my clown loaches slowly got use to the change, whatever “the change” might be) but it was a shock for the new fish and that is why all of them died. (Repeatedly said they all died, when in fact 3 remained!) …I tried talking to him about stress when going to a new tank, but he said in a round about way it was more than normal stress.
So he went on about the city water, acting like we would not understand what he was talking about because normal people do not understand what is in water. I am not one to act like I knew it all, so I listened, secretly wishing to interrupt him and explain the rest of it to him so that he would believe me that I understood.) We switched topics before I really was able to tell him that we have a water softener, and a built in water purifier that takes the metals and such out, so our water was more like theirs that the city’s, but I doubt that would have mattered.
2.) He had the fish for 6 weeks and were doing fine there so it had to be something on my end. However, the water was really yellow when I got them, like they put too much meds in the tank, but I do not know for sure. If anything, the other fish in that tank where not there the full 6 weeks, nor the tanks connected by the filter…. So I did not think the idea had merit.
3.) He also told me part of the problem was that I let the fish acclimate to long , so that actually hurt them, instead of helped them. Now I have never heard anything like that before, so I went with it and asked questions, but never got a satisfying answer. So, maybe you guys can help… is it bad to let a fish set in the bag for 30 min in the tank, add ½ cup of the tank water, wait 30 min, repeat the process, and then add them after another 30 min? Yeah, a bit much, but if you have the time... i have never lost a fish doing it before. I guess if the store’s water was bad in the first place…
4.) Then he implied that I did not bring that original tank water… the nerve. He did it many times, every time we got to talking about water quality, my filter or whatever, he always said that my stats where good after I did those water changes… It was good my mom raised me to be polite, because after the 4th time, I was praying for God to keep me calm, instead getting upset (well, outwardly at him.)
Now, many of the things he brought up may have had something to do with it, after all he is a smart guy. But the fact that he was seemingly polite and yet talked down to me, and implied I was lying, made me doubt was he was saying. Of course the whole time I assumed the warrantee was like any other store, bring back the fish in X days with water and if your stats are ok, then we will give you new fish. I thought I was getting cheated. I spent hundred of dollars there, they get 95% of my business, and they are cheating me out of $5.
I had plans of going home after that, calling the owner of the store and telling him the whole thing. (my parents actually bought our house from him, so we have his home #) Sure the $5 in fish would be nice, but by the end of the convo I just wanted someone in that store to tell me that I was not a liar and that they believed me! So, instead of calling the owner, we called the store and asked what their warrantee was, figuring that was a good place to start, and then call the boss in the morning. (I hate confrontation, so I put it off.)
Well, it all boils down to the fact that we found out that they actually do not have any warrantee.
That is why it is a very sad day, not a ticked off day. I felt better knowing they were not ripping me off, in fact they were being generous. But I also felt sad, because I will not feel comfortable buying fish from them again. And after belittling me I almost want to boycott the whole store… though I am sure the next time I was to buy a tank and I can save $30 to $50 I will find myself back there again.
Thanks for reading and letting me vent. Only those addicted to fish like us would understand the deep disappointment of finding the one store that does not sell pacus, or painted glass fish, that tell customers that africa cichlids have different water requirements than other fish and that you should wait to get fish until you cycle the tank (suggest getting a gift certificate, so that all your fish needs are budgeted into one purchase… and so you come back to them to get the fish… smart people!) and then find that this same store you may not do business with anymore.
Yes, it is a sad day...
He tested my water and found nothing wrong. Nothing wrong!!! He said we could have 50% credit. Haha… I was not going for that, so we stood around talking for at least 15 minutes, trying to figure out what went wrong. (keep in mind, the whole time, he kept inputting that he did not really know what went wrong because the water I gave him was ok.)
He gave me a few reasons that it was my fault:
1.) Fish adapt to water, so my original fish in my tank would be fine (my clown loaches slowly got use to the change, whatever “the change” might be) but it was a shock for the new fish and that is why all of them died. (Repeatedly said they all died, when in fact 3 remained!) …I tried talking to him about stress when going to a new tank, but he said in a round about way it was more than normal stress.
So he went on about the city water, acting like we would not understand what he was talking about because normal people do not understand what is in water. I am not one to act like I knew it all, so I listened, secretly wishing to interrupt him and explain the rest of it to him so that he would believe me that I understood.) We switched topics before I really was able to tell him that we have a water softener, and a built in water purifier that takes the metals and such out, so our water was more like theirs that the city’s, but I doubt that would have mattered.
2.) He had the fish for 6 weeks and were doing fine there so it had to be something on my end. However, the water was really yellow when I got them, like they put too much meds in the tank, but I do not know for sure. If anything, the other fish in that tank where not there the full 6 weeks, nor the tanks connected by the filter…. So I did not think the idea had merit.
3.) He also told me part of the problem was that I let the fish acclimate to long , so that actually hurt them, instead of helped them. Now I have never heard anything like that before, so I went with it and asked questions, but never got a satisfying answer. So, maybe you guys can help… is it bad to let a fish set in the bag for 30 min in the tank, add ½ cup of the tank water, wait 30 min, repeat the process, and then add them after another 30 min? Yeah, a bit much, but if you have the time... i have never lost a fish doing it before. I guess if the store’s water was bad in the first place…
4.) Then he implied that I did not bring that original tank water… the nerve. He did it many times, every time we got to talking about water quality, my filter or whatever, he always said that my stats where good after I did those water changes… It was good my mom raised me to be polite, because after the 4th time, I was praying for God to keep me calm, instead getting upset (well, outwardly at him.)
Now, many of the things he brought up may have had something to do with it, after all he is a smart guy. But the fact that he was seemingly polite and yet talked down to me, and implied I was lying, made me doubt was he was saying. Of course the whole time I assumed the warrantee was like any other store, bring back the fish in X days with water and if your stats are ok, then we will give you new fish. I thought I was getting cheated. I spent hundred of dollars there, they get 95% of my business, and they are cheating me out of $5.
I had plans of going home after that, calling the owner of the store and telling him the whole thing. (my parents actually bought our house from him, so we have his home #) Sure the $5 in fish would be nice, but by the end of the convo I just wanted someone in that store to tell me that I was not a liar and that they believed me! So, instead of calling the owner, we called the store and asked what their warrantee was, figuring that was a good place to start, and then call the boss in the morning. (I hate confrontation, so I put it off.)
Well, it all boils down to the fact that we found out that they actually do not have any warrantee.
That is why it is a very sad day, not a ticked off day. I felt better knowing they were not ripping me off, in fact they were being generous. But I also felt sad, because I will not feel comfortable buying fish from them again. And after belittling me I almost want to boycott the whole store… though I am sure the next time I was to buy a tank and I can save $30 to $50 I will find myself back there again.Thanks for reading and letting me vent. Only those addicted to fish like us would understand the deep disappointment of finding the one store that does not sell pacus, or painted glass fish, that tell customers that africa cichlids have different water requirements than other fish and that you should wait to get fish until you cycle the tank (suggest getting a gift certificate, so that all your fish needs are budgeted into one purchase… and so you come back to them to get the fish… smart people!) and then find that this same store you may not do business with anymore.
Yes, it is a sad day...
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