Bad experiences in a LFS

[typicalalex1]

I was looking for a thread like this but i couldnt find one so forgive me if there already is one.

I have heard some stupid things from the staff in my LFS's in the past and i want to see who has the worst one.

Il start. The other day i was in my LFS and there was someone asking about what they can put in their tank. The parents have a young child and it pointed out 1 or 2 fish to the member of staff.
The tank they owned already contained small tetras so when they asked for a small clarius catfish, he said they will be fine together and that they only reach 4 inches :\
And to make it worse, they also bought a tropical red crab to go in their with it.

Drives me up the wall.

 

[Kanta]

It happens. Most lfs don't really care about customer care. They are doing it for the money trying to compete with the larger chains. Pet stores don't make as much money as you think, it is a very hard business. You just have to suck it up and accept it no matter how it sucks.

 

[Calihawk]

I dont know if this is bad but one time: I took my pair of Red Devils to the LFS in a 5g pail. I got the credit and looked around and left, OH crap I forgot my bucket so I drove back (only got to the street) to get it. It was up on the shelf so I grabbed it and was still full of the water. So I carried it over to a worker and said, "Should I dump this outside, its cool I can dump it by the trees." And when I looked down in the bucket there were like 10 fishes, ended up being a bunch of Geophagus like 6" or so. Someone dropped it off for credits and that same worker dumped it all in MY bucket. So he was thinking "what the Hell", this dude wants to dump all these newly acquired Geophaguses. IDK, I thought it was still my bucket water

 

[ogmoses]

the Quick sale thats what its all about for some people.

 

[MonsterMinis]

As a LFS worker.. I hear all the time still... " Well it'll only grow to the size of my tank" when I try and tell customers a fish will out-grow their tank. I also get alot of people with 5 gallon set-ups that want 6-10 med sized community fish for a tank, and they just set it up that morning.... unfortunately you can't talk peopel out of a sale sometimes!... I leave them with the warning and send the fish off to a short life. I simply keep telling the truth/ my best advise. And 9/10 the same customer returns to either buy a bigger tank, or ask what does work in their set-ups.

unfortunately fish have to die, but simply refuseing the sale, and the customer going down the street to petsmart. in the long run isn't in the best interest of fish in general or the store I work at. I make alot of higher dollar sales on simple "Honesty" with my customers.

I advised a customer this past week their tank was over-stocked and ill-stocked... and to either add another tank to their household, or re-home some fish. They where haveing major water quality issues on a very overstocked tank. They where shocked with my answer, as no-one had remotely told them they where "over-stocked" or took the time to explain how the nirogen cycle works and Why the water was so poor. They had just been told it was bad and to do more water changes.

Not all LFS's are going to feed you crap.. and you can usually find them by simply seeing/asking how many customers will have good things to say about them.

I HATE haveing to send a fish off to it's doom.

 

[dempsey420]

i went to a lfs to buy a banded lepornius. the kid says no prob and brimgs the net over. after he catches it he throws it in the little plastic container. after he drops it in i start to say watch out they like to jump, but the fish flies about 2 ft up and drops onto tile face 1st. he says sorry and goes after a diff one. catches it and i tell em i hope u learned your lesson. he kind of gives me this look like hey bro i know what im doin and doesnt cover it again. the second one goes flying. after he scoops it up he asks if i still want one of the 2 he dropped. i laughed didnt reply and walked away. same guy sold me some kind of african cichlid telling me it was SA. after i brought it back and told him he was wrong he still put it in the same tank. so my story is the cust being smarter than the lfs.