why do pet stores always try to rip you off?!?
- Thread starter ftf1101
- Start date
a lot of people hear wrong info from other people and then they tell more people. i think a lot of the time it isnt they are trying to lie just to get the sale its just they do not know better. i am sure they dont know that the sharks can get a foot big. a lot of time it seems not in just petstores but every where its better to say something even though it maybe not true then tell someone they dont know. when ever i am in any store and i hear someone ask a ? i but in and tell them the answer if i know.
A certain oft-coined turn of phrase is always brought to my mind by these big box pet store topics, and it goes something like this: "Buyer beware." Yes, employees should be more conscientious about the so-called advice they dole out so readily, but I think the ignorant consumer is just as guilty in those situations for making impulse purchases of living creatures. If I may be excused for using yet another adage, remember that it takes two to tango.
I have to say the PetSmart by me has a broad spectrum of knowledge in the fish dept employees. The mor I learn here the better I am getting at figuring out which employees I will talk to and which I won't. The have one young girl about 18-19 or so I would guess, who gets a deer in the headlights look for every question that we have ever asked. But at least she doesn't offer information she doesn't know. I have had a few others tell me bad information I have come to find out later, particularly about which fish can live with which others, and they say things with such authority I believe them. I have also found there are one or two people at my PetSmart that really do seem to know what they are talking about, so if I have questions now I try to deal only with them.
I am rapidly learning that the best way, as said before, is to do your research and get to know the stores in your area to figure out who to listen to and who not to. I am still a total newbie and am still probably going to listen to bad advice again somewhere along the way, but this site is helping me a lot!
I am rapidly learning that the best way, as said before, is to do your research and get to know the stores in your area to figure out who to listen to and who not to. I am still a total newbie and am still probably going to listen to bad advice again somewhere along the way, but this site is helping me a lot!
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fishieperson321 said:
That's it exactly!!! I have two big box stores in my town, but i only shop of them if what i'm looking for is NOT available at my LFS. I may have to pay an extra buck or two but it's worth it. I almost never recieve diseased fish. Heck it's probably cheaper in the long run because i'm not getting fish and having a bunch die off.
It used to really bug me, back when i was a kid and didn't know what i do now, that my LFS return policy was no refunds for dead fish. But now that i've matured i've come to realize why, it makes people take better care of there fish, and keeps people from buying fish they shouldn't own from buying them. It's also the only store where i've never seen discus for sale...it's not that they don't carry them..it's that they keep them in the back so people who shouldn't own them don't see them.
My wal-mart is truly disgusting..so bad that they had to put a 90 day warranty on the fish.
Wow, I must be different.
LOL
actually the folks at the local petsmart in my neck o de woods..are very knowledgable..but they also don't try to argue with customers..after all..most stores live and die with their sales..and 'the customer is never wrong' is a motto they survive by.
that being said..I think a little of what happens, happens becuase we chose to not be informed..or more accurately..are too lazy to do the research so we depend on "opinions"
so if we look at the broad picture...who is really to blame? it's easy to blame a clerk at a store for telling us (somtimes what we want to hear) what to do.
or should we look to ourselves a bit?
LOL
actually the folks at the local petsmart in my neck o de woods..are very knowledgable..but they also don't try to argue with customers..after all..most stores live and die with their sales..and 'the customer is never wrong' is a motto they survive by.
that being said..I think a little of what happens, happens becuase we chose to not be informed..or more accurately..are too lazy to do the research so we depend on "opinions"
so if we look at the broad picture...who is really to blame? it's easy to blame a clerk at a store for telling us (somtimes what we want to hear) what to do.
or should we look to ourselves a bit?
Actually, I have been totally ripped off by one of my local independent stores. They charge $30 for a bag of pool filter sand (wich isn't the best thing to use for a salty tank). You can get the same thing at pool places for $3. They also sold me many marine fish wich weren't even aclimated to thier tanks (found this out later, not aclimating marine fish is just asking for them to die).
One of my neighbors has also been ripped off by them as well. Apperantly he got the owner a whole bunch of fish and was never paid for it (he's been keeping fish for 45 years and breeds many species, mainly cichlids).
One of my neighbors has also been ripped off by them as well. Apperantly he got the owner a whole bunch of fish and was never paid for it (he's been keeping fish for 45 years and breeds many species, mainly cichlids).
It is easy to badmouth Petsmart employees, but you have to hand it to the chain as a whole. If you look up their pet care guides online they are pretty good (a little too brief in my opinion, but still). I take everything from the website with a grain of salt (for instance, bettas should be kept in a tank of at least 1qt), and I take everything I hear from the employees with a small mountain of salt. If you think you could do better, then prove it. Work there on the weekends yourself (not seriously suggesting that) or hang out there (a bunch at my local store know me on sight) and help people out if the employees are struggling.
As a side note (and to defend the much maligned - by me sometimes
- employees of the big boxes), just imagine this scenario: a mom comes into the store, buys a bowl and a betta which cost a total of 10 bucks. Are you really going to have the nerve to walk up to this woman and say, "No ma'am, what you really need is a 5 gallon tank (10), this gravel (5), this filter (12), this heater (8), and this test kit (15)." You try telling someone who wants to spend as little as possible that the only way they can keep fish is if they make an initial investment of at least 50 bucks. It doesn't work. Trust me. I sold Christmas trees for two winters. People HATE blue spruce. They're pointy and they drop needles like crazy, but they're 7 bucks less than the nice fraser fir which last a lot longer and wouldn't hurt a fly. Which kind do you think people buy?
As a side note (and to defend the much maligned - by me sometimes
- employees of the big boxes), just imagine this scenario: a mom comes into the store, buys a bowl and a betta which cost a total of 10 bucks. Are you really going to have the nerve to walk up to this woman and say, "No ma'am, what you really need is a 5 gallon tank (10), this gravel (5), this filter (12), this heater (8), and this test kit (15)." You try telling someone who wants to spend as little as possible that the only way they can keep fish is if they make an initial investment of at least 50 bucks. It doesn't work. Trust me. I sold Christmas trees for two winters. People HATE blue spruce. They're pointy and they drop needles like crazy, but they're 7 bucks less than the nice fraser fir which last a lot longer and wouldn't hurt a fly. Which kind do you think people buy?
I might be a teenager, but some are just stupid when it comes to fish!!! I want to work at a fish store so my knowledge can be passed down to other people (especially young people). I know only one store, and that it Pet Care Warehouse, that has the most knowledgeable young people ever. Their website is www.petcarewarehouse.net. The only one that gets on my nerves is Jeremy, and he is a huge smart@$$. Tracy may not look too young, but she is the friendliest person and she has the knowledge :dive: :clap: !!! She knows me because everytime I walk in there, she is the only one that helps me, otherwise, I will net the fish I want by myself because all of the others don't know how!!! Lol!! My boyfriend who used to work there is very knowledgable, and he always would talk to me!!! That is where I met him!!! Anyways, most of the time, I just go to the independant stores because you may pay a higher price, but the old lady that works there knows EVERYTHING!!!!
