Just went to Petsmart

[scubasteve06]

Well I went to Petsmart today to get some new media for my 90. I normally don't go there because I have a great LFS 1 mile down the road, but they are closed on sundays. Well I went in and got my bio max, water polishing pads, clearmax, and some new trays for my penguin. While I was there I decided to check out their cichlids...BAD DECISION! I started looking it the parachromis tank that had green algae just covering the bottom. While I'm looking in dismay I notice that more than half of the exhaust tubing for the water returns are not working and nor are the intakes. I ask the man working in the department how long have the pumps been off and he said that it had been down for more than 5 hours!!!! I then preceded to shake my head and walk out when the other level of pumps shut off too. The attendant ran to the back to find out went wrong. Apparently each level is run by one HUGE sump, and the 2nd level sump pump had gone out. Well I am also standing in front of a red devil tank and notice this very good looking healthy male at 2.5" with the start of a nuchal hump already. I notice all his tankmates are not looking too good either. So even knowing I would be overstocking my tank at THIS point, I saved the little guy from certain illness or death, because the sump pump was not this guys priority, he was more worried about bagging more fish for his commission check. It just makes me so mad that these people do not care at all about their live animals and would let them cit in a cess pool full of ich and god knows what else for more than 5 hours is beyond me. I am sure supplying all those filters and such they would have an emergency back up sump or at least air pumps. Guess not. So I have vowed to myself not to return to that Petsmart again. I know not all stores are this way but I guess I happened to catch the worst at the worst time. Still disgusts me.

Well at least one good thing came out of this I saved a fish from his illness that would probably have led to his demise, and I also speed up the process of getting my 72 bow that I am going to be needing very soon to move the RD and some future tankmates too.

 

[voss345]

yea petsmart and petco never cease to disapoint me

 

[Z Trip]

I too was at Pet Smart today. I can't believe some people...

Some girl and her BF(20's) was buying goldfish for their oscar that they called an Orchid Fish... and asked the person working their(total moron) about what tankmates would work. She showed them two small angel fish! And they bought them! Then the girl asked how big they got and she said 4"!!!!!!! I couldn't keep it in anymore. Me(sarcastic) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. And they looked at me like WTF? And I told them that they can get a foot tall and the worker said, "I know" like whats wrong with these people?

Z

 

[scubasteve06]

As they do me, I mean I don't go to those stores for that reason alone, and seeing fish kept like that makes me wanna go to the manager and zap him into a fish and throw his butt in that tank and see how he likes it.

 

[scubasteve06]

And this little girl her grandmother and her mother where in there and bought not one but two syno cats for a 10 gallon. I told them I had one too in a 90 gallon and they said oooooo thats nice she has a 10 and my jaw dropped, I told them good luck and kept my mouth shut, because the girl seemed to be a brat and usually that follows from the parents and didn't want to cause a scene.

 

[Z Trip]

"Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to walk through town with a shot gun, but this isn't the wild west anymore..."

Not sure if that the exact quote and I can't remember who said it off what movie, but the point is maid.

Z

 

[scubasteve06]

I dont wanna kill ne one, especially not a child or a mother or a grandmother. But I get your point...

 

[Spiritwind]

I just want to say my local Petsmart is great, only speaking about the fish section, I dont go through the rest of the store. Only the feeder tanks were questionable, but all the rest of the 60 or so odd tanks had clean glass, clear water, and fish seemed happy. They had a couple of plants that had algae growing on the leaves, but it wasnt much. The girl who was there most of the times I visited in the last 2 months gave good advice from what I heard. There was also a young kid asking her all sorts of questions for a good while, while he and he father were looking and picking out fishes. She was very helpful with them, and answered all the questions, and I felt went way out of her way to basically entertain the kid. Not every single Petsmart is bad hehe.

But if we want to complain I can do that too! One of the two local Petcos(well they both are bad but this one...), I was looking for plants, what they had was just plant mush. There is a separate tank that holds most of their plants, just imagine if you left the lights on 24 hours a day for a month and didnt change the water, thats what was in this tank, all dead and algae thick all over everything, some of the plants structures were even broken down and obviously no one even removed them. I cant see how you would want to buy fish here, dead fish in most of the tanks, algae and some other things on the display side glass you can hardly see in some. First time I have ever seen a place that bad, and if that is the norm for these places, I understand all the complaints.

 

[FSM]

My GT is from petsmart...the store is actually very clean, at least compared to Petco. Bad info on fish though; luckily I do my research.

 

[pdbrady]

Before I get to deep, Petsmart employees aren't on commission, they're hourly. Z Trip, I've seen TONS of angels with oscars. And what gets a foot tall? An angel? As spiritwind and fsm have shown, not all stores are the same. You can hold a grudge against that store, but don't "take shotguns" at the whole company. I totally agree things need fixed here and there. I think one problem with ALL chains like this is that somewhere along the chain of command, there are a few in the middle that just don't care to check in on all stores like they're SUPPOSE to be doing, so some stores go astray. Our Petsmart here is BY FAR the best petstore in the area. One that consists of 6stores from a local chain, and a petland.

ps. If you are that upset with one of the stores, you can walk in and ask for their corporate number. They cannot refuse it. You can then call and voice your opinion, instead of bashing without even giving their offices any insight first.