FishProfiles.com Message Forums

One of the greatest moments at the LFS is when I get to reject the sale of a fish, especially when the customer brings in a water sample. Fish like arrowanas (sp?) and discus require a water sample and must test okay for pH ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. One guy came in one day with a nitrite of more than 10 ppm and I forced him out of the store.

thats good with water sample... but man... 36 fancy tails... i dont know about the price around the world, but here, they sell 4 dollars per pair, so 36 would cost him 72 dollars!!!! while he couldve gotten some feeder guppies for like 1 dozen for a dollar.:%)

I was at a big chain pet store the other day where the employee knew nothing about fish, and just tried to get the customer to buy the most expensive set up he had in stock. The employee told him that he needed to wait 24 hours before adding fish, and that the fish he could add to this 10 gallon were lots of goldfish. Well I got very angry at this employee, so afterwards when the customer was on the checkout line I approached him and got into a deep convo about cycling, and about how goldfish are messy fish that need A LOT of room, and I advised him to get a bigger tank and buy things seperately b/c most of the things in the kit he got weren't going to get him too far. I also recomended him to this site, I hope he remembers. I'm not a fish expert but I'm def. more reliant than some of the ppl they hire at these places. Its not very easy to get a job at a pet store for teens bc of the age requirement, I think at most stores around here including PetCo you have to be 18 years old...or else I would have had a job a looooong time ago.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

After the customer left, I exhaulted my rage. First a lecture. Then a quiz. Then another lecture about the answers to the quiz. This employee was pathetic. He knew nothing. I am sure he just BSed the resume]:|.

You can stay on the doorstep & everytime there's a stupid answer to a question, just step in & tell them the truth........ ]]]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

sounds like my LFS the other day. as i walk by an employee i over heard the conversation she was having with a customer. she said that any semi-aggresive fish from [here to here] could be in a 29usg but in between the range she said there were: blue gourami's, bala sharks, red belly pacus, red tails, and even a kuhli loach. and the lady bought one of each kind! i told her why it wouldnt work and this is crazy to attempt but she it was her money and her fish so she can do what ever she wants. i did all i could but she didnt listen! the employee said that any fish can go into any size aquarium just as long as you like it. i was shocked i couldnt believe she said this. it sounds like every LFS has employees like this and need to be informed!

i think a lot of employees are dumb. you can rarely find any good info from them

Yes, but there are people who know what they are doing. I have been lucky enough to talk to one such individual at a chain pet store that knew what he was doing. Of course these people are vastly outnumbered. It just goes to show you how important it is to research whatever you plan on putting in your tank before buying it.

A feeder plant lol. I dont understand the reasoning though. They sell feeders, so why try to make up some BS about using a small sword to feed the oscar.

It was troubling.

Ughh... Yesterday I had to sell three good-sized fantails to a woman with a 6 gallon. I tried my hardest to talk her out of it, even showing her many different types of fish that could go in the tank, but she didn't listen.

Some people...]

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

aren't you allowed to refuse the sale of fish in a situation like that, Cory Addict? I always thought LFS workers were?!

I would compare it to some guy coming in and saying he wants three Great Dane puppys for his closet, surely the management wouldn't condone selling the moron the puppies?

Damn, that must make your job really suck at times.

At a department store the other day, I heard an employee giving bad advice on bettas. He told the people that if you put it in a vase, you can put a plant in with it and it will live off the roots...you don't have to feed it anything else. I had to step in. That one actually made me a bit mad.

I could give about 800 more examples, but it'd just make me madder. ]

I don't think we are allowed to refuse selling somone fish (unless maybe someone was buying our 2' arowana for a 15 gallon or something). "The customer's always right" as the saying goes...

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Okay so im just browsing a small lfs that i rarely go to and some people walk in the door and say they need a feeder disk to feed the fish while they are on vacation for a month. The sales person decided that she should get a "feeder plant." Now that kinda worried me. So I stepped in and asked what plant species it was that he called a "feeder plant." He didn't know, but he pointed to some amazon swords. Now I was trying to be nice, but that skimpy little 5 inch plant wasn't going to cover this ladie's 55 gallon with an oscar. I stepped in and had her buy an auto feeder to feed it once a day for 4 weeks. Now I am wondering if I should ever go back, or stay away. I just must help these misguided aquarists.

At my LFS they dont refuse to sell the customer a fish, but what they will do is write VOID all over the receipt. I would HOPE though that if it is such a horrible purchase such as an arrowona for a 10g or a red-tailed cat for a 10g or a .......... (you get the picture) that the store would simply refuse.

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-12 21:18][/span]

Good on ya, RoboFish!

I would have gone a step further though, and brought the situation to a manager's attention. Whether he would care or not, *I* don't know. But atleast I would feel that my wrath had not gone un-noticed!

At my LFS they dont refuse to sell the customer a fish, but what they will do is right VOID all over the receipt.

Now there's a good idea! Perhaps I will suggest that to my manager when people make such ridiculous purchases and don't listen to any advice that's given to them.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

We don't flat-out refuse, either (although generally when we really really insist the fish in question will die, they come around), but we can write a "code" on the bags that means their guarantee is void. That way we don't have to confront them about it, and if they come in with dead fish and a receipt, they can't get replacements (my poor manager has to deal with these people, but better her than us lowly powerless employees!). Usually they never come in, but we had a woman the other day with *unbelievably* terrible water (water sample testing is a requirement for the replacement) which of course turned out to be from a bowl with two fancy goldfish. Gee, wonder why they died. When we explained this, she went absolutely nuts and started yelling that if that was the case, we shouldn't be selling goldfish at all. Yeah ... and maybe no one should be allowed to sell food, since some people abuse it. Argh. On the good side, that was the driving force behind placing a "goldfish are not bowl fish" sign on every goldfish tank, not just the big one in the middle of the aisle. Not that people seem to read or even see the signs ....

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

I've learned not to listen to anything that the lfs (the one I go to anyway) employee's tell me - I come here instead. When I got my first tank I was told by the lfs that I should stock it with 1 baby oscar, 1 african cichlid, 1 JD, and 1 Red Devil, and keep in mind this was a 10 gallon tank. Needless to say I don't listen to them anymore.

Stella

Now there's a good idea! Perhaps I will suggest that to my manager when people make such ridiculous purchases and don't listen to any advice that's given to them.

Too bad it doesnt help the fish, but what it does help against is when a customer comes back upset and angry because the oscar he was advised against buying was stuffed in a 20 gal with a bunch of neon tetras and ate them all.

The manager heard my wrath all the way in the back room. She poked her head out and stared at me until I left. She kinda looked like this with a tinge of envy: ]:|

Iam the manager of my LFS and there a gentelman that comes and always buys a few angels. Once I asked him where he put all these little guys, Iam alwys conserned when peole by our angels(there mine). So for the people buying the fish its like adopting a kid. With this man I never questioned him becasue he had come in for a while. Anyway I asked him where he put them and he said in a bowl!!!!!
I then asked him if he keeps coming in because the previous ones he buys dies, he said nope I have 12 bowls and 9 filled with 2 angels each, and not one has died.I didnt think it was possible, but when he said he has plants it made it a little more belivable. But, Iam still very mad about my little angles in a 2 gallon bowl . But I quess it could be worse.

A friend of mine went to a LFS and got 2 RTBS (after I told her not to) because one of the employees told her it would work. Needless to say, there is now only one survivor. She also uses some kind of chemical in her tank (suggested by the same LFS) so she only has to "change the water every couple of months". I have finally given up talking to her about fish at all because I get so ticked off. (and have never steped foot in that LFS)

Steph

[span class="edited"][Edited by doedogg 2004-07-13 07:55][/span]

---

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

BeastKeeper, that lady who bought the Pacu is gonna be freaking out in about 3 months. A 29g tank......that IS like putting a Great Dane in a closet. The horror, the horror...

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-13 20:52][/span]