Are you kidding me?

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Have over heard cichlids pronounced chick-letts :ROFL:, and the other person was trying to ask for was most likely a picostamos, - maybe a :WHOA:platypus??
 
Working in a LFS, I am exposed to this full tilt sometimes. It is crazy what some people will come up with sometimes, and it can be confusing as well, especially when you are trying to help them or find out their current stocklist.

It definitely is a better practice to try to inform them and help them out though, because a lot of people DON'T know a lot about fish. Some of them are actually quite eager to suck up any information you can give them too, so let it the information flow out.

There are some people though that are set in their ways and could care less about your advice. Even then, you should still offer it to them, as some of it might still sink in. :)
 
what GruffMaster said x 2! Ya never know. Maybe a few years down the line, we'll find an extremely easy way of fish keeping, say - due to a new filter, different kind of substrate, a certain type of plant. You and I may be considered 'air headed' in the future, :confused: * Like "this is so easy, how can they not have thought of doing it this way". Hopefully we keep learning new things about our favorite hobby.:D
 
I used to work at a pet shop for a few years. I heard all sorts of crazies:

iguana->"salamander"
dragon goby->"water snake"
etc
etc
until your brain hurts

but I did always correct people (they just always sort of blew it off like they were right and I didnt know what I was talking about). The same thing happens on campus when I see girls with their cute goldfishes in a 2 ltr vase. I tell them it wont survive in there and they giggle.
 
When I'm at a LFS, I normally don't give up info unless asked.. by a stranger or whatever.. It's the employees.. that hear all my frusterations.. I tell/ask them stuff like, " I could never work here" , " I'm surprised you didn't look at them like a retard", " Don't you get frusterated?".
Recently I saw 2 ladies at my LFS with a whole new setup, seemed to be a 10g.. What I did notice was the 20+ fish they had bought... talk about being irked... and I guess I hear so much of it at one time (visit) because I will literally look at every tank... thoroughly..
 
Funny.
In a direct translation, "Hammerhead shark" is (also) the common name in Portugal for the "Pangasius sutchi", so when I first read the inicial post that a guy was asking for a hammerhead I was thinking "...and ... where´s the joke?"
 
It's easy to call people dumb or idiots when you are the "expert". Imagine yourself walking into a mechanics, computer store or any industry you have only a passing interest (or none) in and think of the stupid things you'd say.

I did have a customer who made it hard to keep a straight face as he asked me about "enemas" and described his...took me a minute to realize he wanted anemones.
 
Gruff Master;4939203; said:
Ditto. I'm sure many people walk the isles of LFS just to look, with no intent on buying anything. They may be happier just to yank the chain of the workers with silly questions. Everyone that keeps fish are not serious hobbyist. Some people just like to have a few colorful fish in a tank. Then there are some that are simply new to keeping fish. In any case, these people will not always know the correct terms and pronunciations that come with referring and researching fish. I've been keeping fish for a while and I still butcher plenty of scientific names. I admit that sometimes the things they say can be funny when you know better. I hear my fair share of comical notions on this site and I'm sure that I have contributed some myself. A good laugh is wonderful, even more so when it is at yourself. But to insult people by calling them idiots and dummies is counter productive. It actually says a lot more about the experienced keeper's character than it does about the ridiculed novice. No matter how smart we think we are, there is always another person that is more versed on a another topic that can make us look like plain fools if he or she chose to do so.
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ITA, Gruff-- I would never call someone dumb or an idiot. I referred to cichlids as "chicklets" probably until I was about 15, and I laugh about it now. One time I went to a fish store and asked the owner about "Sa-jee-cuh". I wanted one more than anything and had been reading up about them on the internet for months. The guy was pretty rude and said, "It's Sa-hee-cuh" then pretty much walked away. It still stings to this day. So while I may get tickled when people mispronounce things, I know their intentions are in the right place. Being mean is just mean.
 
What bothers me most at big chain stores, some employees don't know even a LITTLE about the things they're selling. Don't understand why they got hired? Wouldn't you hire ppl that KNOW your product, and that can HELP someone purchase the correct things for their hobby? Otherwise the customer is uninformed, maybe make poor decisions, and get a bad taste in their mouth, from a bad first experience in trying to keep their pets healthy and alive. You can give advice without sounding like a 'know it all'. Just by asking a person a few polite 'on target' questions. You can give them some useful tips, after you know what that person is trying to achieve at the time.
 
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