I read a thread about PETCO and PETSMART and how the workers in these 2 stores are not too knowledgable about the animals they sell. Well today I experienced just that at a PETCO in Morrow, GA. I noticed the store was carrying some peppermint shrimps for $5.00 a couple of weeks ago so today I decided to go get one for my 75gal reef tank. While waiting for help I bumped into a customer who asked me if I had a saltwater tank and I replied with a smile and a yes. The gentleman said that he had a 55 gal setup and was thinking about diving into the world of keeping saltwater fish so of course he had a few questions for me about how it's done. I gave him a pretty short run down about the hobby and how I've been in it for about 3yrs now with no complaints. I offered to assist him when ever he decided to go for it but he lived a little too far for me so I gave him the website for RAG and told him that he will learn just about all he needs to know here. Anyway back to the PETCO thing. After that conversation with the gentleman the clerk finally came to assist me. I asked for the last peppermint shrimp in the tank and she thanked me for helping out the customer in the process. I took my semi-happy shrimp to the cash register and the clerk rang it up as a cleaner shrimp for $22.00. I told the guy that there must be a mistake b/c what I had was not a cleaner shrimp (even though I know peppermints occassionaly take on the task in the tank). Also the picture on the screen at the cash register was a white-banded cleaner shrimp not the peppermint shrimp in my bag. So I politely went back to the fish department to let the fish lady know that a mistake had been made and that the shrimp should only be $5.00. To my surprise she stated that what I had was a cleaner shrimp and not a peppermint shrimp. I told her she was wrong and that I know for a fact that what she was trying to sell me was in fact a peppermint shrimp. I had her get out her fish guide and compare the 2 and when we did that she still said it was the white-banded cleaner shrimp even after I pointed out the obvious features that separate the two. My shrimp didn't have the long white antennaes or the white band running the length of the shrimp with 2 red stripes running right along the white band. Now I know I'm not an expert but I think I've been in the hobby long enough to know the apparent differences in the 2 shrimp. She also stated that she ordered cleaner shrimp so I took that as even though it isn't what was ordered, it's going to be sold as if it was. So I gave her the shrimp back and politely told her that they were ripping people off and as I walked off I told another customer who was looking around in the fish section to be careful. I went to the cashier to ask who was in charge but to my surprise that person was clueless also so I told him what happened and that who ever the manager is, he/she should check the suppliers because somebody is being cheated. The morale of this story is that research is the key to this hobby. If you don't do enough of it you will definitely get taken to the cleaners.

>you will definitely get taken to the cleaners.

:lol: Cleaner shrimp, cleaners :lol:

Yeah, Chris, it was hard to resist that one.

Steve

It may be hard to resist the temptation to lump all people who work in generalized pet retail as fairly ignorant of what they sell, but some of us in the petco company do know what we are doing. the key is to find someone that actualy keeps tanks as a hobby as opposed to someone thats just doing it for a paycheck.

anyone in the lawrenceville area, feel free to stop by and visit the petco there, look for moose in the aquatics department. im always trying to learn a little bit more and any insight that you may have will be welcome

just be careful when when you go into any store, because i have been guilty of making stupid mistakes, but i always go to any length to correct them.

just thought that i would empathize with you all. i'm actually a dog groomer that got into the reef hobby years ago when i was in middle school. anyways at the moment i'm actually a dog groomer working out of the pet's mart in buckhead off of peachtree. i've too notice that noone knows much about reef keeping at these stores especially pet's mart. this is simply due to the fact that pet's mart does not sell marine inhabitants. even still our employees don't know much about the fish that we do sell. often at time's i'll be waking through the department and a customer will be asking a question that has a simple answer and they have to stop the customer to go and ask someone else. now... not all are like this. i do know of one pet's mart in marietta off of johnson's ferry where one woman works who is extremely knowledgeable about fresh and reef systems. what makes me laugh is the fact that i work for pet'smart in buckhead but do all of my shopping for things that i know i can get a discount on in marietta... just in case i have any questions i need answered. to end the rant... JUST TO TO CB OFF OF 120!!! THEY'RE GRRRRREEEAAAT!!!

I've worked at many different retailers with fish and have had to deal with customers all of the time. It is always funny to me when customers demand things of us retialers and retail employees. I mean yes there are some very special people working for some of us out there such as the lady who was working the fish dept above. However that being said lumping it into a generalized group of individuals is even worse. You can't judge a chain of stores entirely on one store nor can you judge a individual independant LFS by visiting one of it's competitors. The humble approach is always the better approach. When I myself purchase fish form other LFS's I will never confront the individual and try and school them unless tehy are interested in being taught or informed. You will never get a deal by trashing or intimidating an individual and when they recognize you from such incidents it's even worse.

Consider it like the food industry you don't yell and scream at someone while they're making your dinner as you may not like what you bite into...

:wink: