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What king of fish warranty is in your area. Here at some of the most reputable fish/pet stores 14 days with a water sample. I have bought fish at Walmart and they have always died on me... their warranty is 48 hours. This is not long enough by my standards...

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

I agree, its a completely laughable guarantee. Unless your fish has been literally beaten about the head, most things including water quality issues and shock, and most certainly diseases take longer than 48 hours to kill.

All this guarantee is , is a piece of marketing to make the stupid public think that they care. Its a guarantee of absolutely nothing. Coincidentally it also is a rather devious attempt to pass blame onto the fish owner, and to avoid looking at quarantine issues, water quality issues and stock selection issues in their own livestock. They dont have to offer any guarantee to be honest, but the fact that they have , and that it is of such a short duration cunningly gives them a way to absolve themselves of corporate negligence in fishkeeping , and to appear caring at the same time. Its bad culture.

I guess only vast numbers of people complaining about it directly to them will help them to adopt a more sensible policy. especially since their is a financial impetus for them to continue doing what theyre already doing.

Its laughable, truly laughable.Except that its not funny.

My wal-mart has a 90 day warranty.

Yes, three months!

Are you absolutely sure your walmart has a 90
day warranty? I highly doubt that.
Walmarts are all franchises and have to follow specific rules. Here its 48 hours for replacement too.

Most of the chain fish stores offer 14 or 30 days.

Ive rarely found any small fish stores that offer guarantees. Most smaller shops have no guarantees or only 48 hours and a water sample must be brought in.

I agree its laughable too. Most illnesses can take weeks to even months to appear.
I think guarantees should be at least 2 weeks. If they wont give ya 2 weeks, take your business elsewhere.


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I am absolutely sure our guarantee is for 90 days Sneaky. It's even printed on the fish bag along with instructions on how to care for fish. If I had the equipment I would post it on this site for you.

I know, I couldn't believe it either. I even asked the guy that got me some fish one day if if it was really true. He said it was.

I have a bag right here if you want me to mail it to you.

Sorry.......... I couldn't resist.

Finally, there's something good about this small town I live in!

Seriously......... you can have the bag. Just PM me your address.

The Wal-Mart's around here have 90 days written all over the bags and a nice sign posted that says 90 days.
Best warranty in town

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."

Here in Canada there is no writing on the bag, therefore no warranty. I wonder if our fish here are cheaper to buy.
An example is angel fish, here they are $2.44. This is a really good price but not if they die with no gaurantee... If the fish are cheaper here I guess you have to take your chances and you will need a seperate tank to put the fish in before placing them in your good tank.Sounds like extra work to me...

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

I don't know of a store that offers more than a 48hour warranty. None of the saltwater fish even have warranties. Maybe at Petco which I haven't bought anything but some water conditioner from but the saltwater only store has no gurantee and the 2 stores with saltwater sections offer 24-48hour gurantees only on freshwater fish or inverts. I didn't think the Walmart here even had a return policy for fish.

I've only returned fish twice for replacement. They got in a bad batch of emperor tetras and although I only took in 2 bodies the owner gave me the same number I bought the first time from the next shipment. Then a ram I got from Petland(only place within 100miles that has females) that died within 24hours with no obvious reason.

Most stores I go to offer 7 days but since they are 70+ miles away(each way), I don't bother to drive back if they happen to die. The gas alone ($2.80 gal now) would cost more than the fish!

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

2.80 a gallon I wish! Its 3.77 here right now, and its low compared to last week!

Yep Walmart bags have no writing on them here.
Our walmart here has the worst fish period. A couple people I know have been actively trying to get walmart put out of the fish business permanently.
Geez the amount of chemicals they dump in their tanks alone doesnt make me wanna go anywhere near the water.


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there's not a single LFS here that has a warranty of more than 48 hours...
it sucks to be me...
still, at least the stores around here are mostly good enough it doesn't matter.
I always find it encouraging to ask someone to bag a fish and be told I need to wait cause it just came in the day before.

proud father of a bunch of baby haps. http://picasaweb.google.com/Sktchy/BABIES

Tina- An angelfish at my wal-mart is $6.77!

In Aus, there is usually no guarantee for the sale of fish. Whilst I haven't looked it up in the Consumer Affairs Act to verify, several LFS have told me that the Australian consumer laws do not require them to offer guarantees on the sale of fish livestock - and therefore, they don't.

I haven't found any that do. I convinced one LFS to give me a refund when the fish died before I even took it out of the bag - but the best they would give is a store gift voucher with a timed expiry date. I convinced another to do the same when all 8 of their fish died in less than a week & they could not find anything wrong with my water conditions. Neither LFS were happy about it, reminded me they weren't obliged under consumer laws to offer any guarantee, but did it as I was a regular customer. They made me aware they were doing a favour by giving the gift voucher.

Cheers
TW

Angels aren't that much. I don't think I spent over $2 for mine. You can generally get small ones of mixed color dirt cheap because everybody seems to have a breeding pair. Most stores near me have 2-3 tanks of around 55g devoted to just baby angelfish because they get in so many. The largest store has 5 4'tanks with dozens of angels in them. The only expensive ones are rare colors or of specific show quality type breeding.

Yeah here you can get angels for that cheap too.
However, youre getting mass chemical treated, poorly or inbred fish.
I paid 15.00 each for my Angels through a local breeder,
and they were worth every penny.


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

Most angels here are locally bred not from fish farms but I won't say they are of great quality. It's whatever 2 angels somebody ended up with or threw together because they had them. Rarely does any thought go into it beyond let's see if we can make baby angelfish. Rams are another story which is why I can hardly find any females. Nearly all of them sold here are hormone treated from mass producing fish farms. Nearly all of them die within a few days of bringing them home too.

My nearby LFS have 5 - 7 days warranty. I never buy new batch of fish - at least wait 2 weeks and make sure all fish are healthy in the tank. Then I'll choose the fish I want, and reserve them (keep them in a separated tank in the store for 2 weeks before picking up). This is like an extended warranty . It's been working well for me so far .

Coo a ninety day guarantee? Lol lets hope they stock sea monkeys, then I can get free brineshrimp all year

The petsmats in the uk offer a week long guarantee now, which is better than they were in fact, i have to say that for once, the petsmart in cheltenham has improved so much im actually happy to buy fish from them. Never thought i'd hear myself say that!

My favourite LFS (voted no2 in the country) pretty much does guarantees on a who you are basis really. If youre a beginner then they insist on the old water test malarkey, and youve got a week, for the the regulars and more serious collectors like me they tend not to quibble, and are more likely to talk it through with you, respecting your opinion. I like that approach. The personal care/trust/ interest thing is more my style of guarantee. They know their customers, and theyve even given me fish for nothing before now, if they had an injured or sick one, or one of slightly sub-standard quality, because they know i will look after it to the best of my ability .Even months later they will ask me how it might be doing.

Petsmart here has a 14 day warranty.
The local Petland has a 2 day 100%, 5 days 50% warranty, but this also applies to saltwater as well.
Plants seem to be covered by no one, atleast no where I go.

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."

Down in Costa Rica, NO fish store will offer any guarantee on the fish, it's basically, walk out that door and the responsability is yours. No returns, no money back and no store credit. This off course applies to taking back your fish as well if tanks are overstocked and fish need placements.

Mind you, some small LFS's, in the spirit of good business will replace your fish if they die on you during transport or under specific circumstances. It's just plain smart to replace a $2 fish if that means keeping a $100 a month customer.

It is also very hard to find an LFS's that you walk in and not see dead fish or overcrowded and unmaintained tanks, specially in big chain stores, they simply dont mind for their fish.

Instead of giving my business to these big chains I much rather incentivate local small businesses which normally get more involved in the well being of their specimens and thus have healthier non-diseasebearing fish.

It is a difficult topic, balance is a must.

Good luck out there

J.