truth about pet-stores

[seanjbkorbett]

i bought a pak of 6 frozen mice for 20 dollers at pet barn......hey iam a steel roofer but i have been trying to get out of that lin of work and get into working with animals and all i can say is I HATE THESE BIG MAJOR PETSTORES and ill happyily name ones that have disgusted me....let u guys on a lil secret i applied for a job at PET-HYPERMARKET at homeworld helensvale on the goldcoast!..i'll state one question of many BS qeustionss they asked us during the trial there and it was "whats our main concern?"...i said " the care of the animal and making sure the animals husbandy of the animal is right"..she said "no! our customers!"..then i replied "but what if the animals cage is dirty or the animals have not been fed or have water"..the woman goes "no,see to our customers first them attend to the animals if you have time"..okay now that made my jaw drop,since i had neevr applied at a pet shop,and in the reptile section wich i whanted to work in they got some new zeland chick who just moved here,who had never kept a snake in her life trying to tell me how to keep reptiles(we ended up nealry getting into a arguement)... i know the customers are important,but doesnt anyone think if anyone is selling or keeping animals,the animals care should come first no matter what!?? so i never even bothered to call back the next day,that really annoyed me what they said....3 weeks ago i applied at PET BARN NERANG!-desperate to get into a line of work that involves reptiles... i whent for the interview,it was going well with what i had on my resume until they whipped out the wak questions,ill give you one of the many BS scenerios he put me in.... this idiot goes to me! "okay if i come into the store with only a certain amount of money and i approach you and say,okay well i have a 5ft costal carpet at home and i need a enclosure for it,but i ONLY have enough money for this enclosure wich is 4ft long and 2ft high...what do u tell them!..i said "firstly iam going to tell them this a aboreal species mainly and they going to need a bigger enclosure"..then he goes,"but they only have enough money this one small enclosure"...so i said " well id suggest them to come back and get a bigger one when they have the right money!and we'll hold it for them or i would tell them to make their own enclosure and give them some tips of how to do that"..."WRONG!" he says.." YOU have just lost me a sale!..you should of said to them that the 4ft enclosure was fine and still sell it to them! and if you whant inform them they might need a bigger cage l8er!!..that made me soo angry!..THIS IS THE SAME PET-SHOP I BOUGHT MY 2 MURRY TURTLES OFF! AND THE ONLY REASON I BOUGHT THEM IS BECUASE THE WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM HAD FUNGUS SPREAD ALL OVER THE FEET AND LEGS,AND THEY HAD LOST ALL THEIR LITTLE CLAWS BECUASE OF THIS...I LAY A COMPLAINT and i bought the 2 turtles..he must of remebered me and thats why i did not get the job..i dunno,wich iam kind of glad! i dont think i whant to work in some pet-stores now! cos itll jsut anger me the way they treat their animals...there is never any water either in their enclosures ( and im talking majority reptiles) their lack of information and care for reptiles is appauling!! and i have learnt that pet shops do not care REALLY about their reptiles and know nothing...How many of yous have walked into a pet shop for a reptile or for your reptile and u end up telling the SELLER at the pet-shop what you need,..i have walked into so many and i have had to be the one telling the pet-shop whant i need..i also think its wrong that i have over heard & seen pet-stores selling 5yr old kids turtles(wich is def not a kids pet),snakes,lizards just bcos their parents got a lisence for them ( oh but the parents dont know n e thing about reptiles,but its okay..they have a lisence)..sorry about the long story...but if any of you have had a pet shop story like these,please share!..iam interested to hear..if not! this is whats i have learnt from some major pet stores,all they care about is the MONEY!!

 

[Renagade]

The woman at pet whatever-it's-called at marrickville metro tried to charge me $15.70 for ONE medium frozen rat yesterday. needless to say i just laughed in her face and strolled out.

 

[reptilefan95]

Yeah its appaling at how the owners of shops think first about money then about the welfare of animals. I work at an aquarium and recently we had a middle aged man come in with 1000 dollars cash to buy an arowana we had for sale, so i engaged in converstation about his other fish and how many years he had kept them he then let slip that the three foot fish was going into his 6 foot tank i told him that i wouldnt sell him the fish untill he got a bigger tank, he was pretty angry.
I hope you find a good shop to work at where you will encourage customers to buy whats good instead of whats expensive.

 

[azn4114]

not surprising!everyone knows its all about money first,the amount of times i have heard of them suggesting a full size oscar can live in a 2 foot tank for its entire life

 

[Khagan]

Wall of text... Tldr.

 

[discomat]

hmm maybe it's a qld thing I was in one recenlty and a customer was interested in the snakes they had, he had no licence and new nothing but thought they were cool. they wanted to sell him a spotted python (regular not blonde) for about 450 by itself no click clack. the salesperson was rambling on about how these pets are expensive but are really worth it, and even gave him a website to get his rep licence. they spotted was tiny for his age and didnt look like it was from any impressive bloodlines etc. as soon as the salesperson walked away to get the man a piece of paper with details of the rep licence website I told him to the salesperson is full of **** spotteds are cheap as, walk away and go to APS and get HEALTHY FAIR PRICED SNAKES from, actual breeders who know what they are talking about. and he did. the salesperson didnt like me much after that


Having said that though there is a pet shop at the HYPERDOME which sells reptiles, I was speaking to the guy there he seems to really care about them and know some stuff about them and kept his reptiles in good nick.

 

[reptilefan95]

azn114 thats a valid point as well, a few years ago i was setting up my first fish tank, a small tropical when i saw some tiger oscars they were cheap and looked cool so my dad asked the guy if they could go with my serpae tetras and small rainbow and red tail sharks, he said definately, i went home and looked around on the internet and found out how large they get and they really arnt community fish. When i went back and questioned him he said all tropical fish can live together because they do in the wild!!

 

[azn4114]

pet country has healthy snakes,i know the dude that takes care of them and he is one of us(animal lover)he actually does look after the snakes and birds(there his specialties)spotted go for $290 there,so a bit up there but better than $450

 

[discomat]

yeah once I losted 3 out of 4 oscars because one of the feeder fish I bought was diseased. could only save one. and another time we were sold a breed of sucker fish that only lives on algae as a juvinile, but when they get older (they will try) and suck the mucus off the other fish's skin like a parasite. Unfortunately the slowest fish in the tank died from it. looked it up on the net and sure enough there it is. but the fish shop said they are fine.

 

[seanjbkorbett]

Having said that though there is a pet shop at the HYPERDOME which sells reptiles, I was speaking to the guy there he seems to really care about them and know some stuff about them and kept his reptiles in good nick.

yeah dont get me wrong there are those pet-shops who sell reptiles who know all about their requirments and love them and wouldnt sell them to just any-one!! but those r the smaller private owned pet-stores..im talking about these big undustry major pet-stores..they r corrupt n use-less,alos they double the rpice of everything they sell....also there isnt enough aktual reptile pet -stores in QLD, like they have in VIC or in ADEL and SYD..i think it is mainly a QLD thing! and its sad...

 

[azn4114]

azn114 thats a valid point as well, a few years ago i was setting up my first fish tank, a small tropical when i saw some tiger oscars they were cheap and looked cool so my dad asked the guy if they could go with my serpae tetras and small rainbow and red tail sharks, he said definately, i went home and looked around on the internet and found out how large they get and they really arnt community fish. When i went back and questioned him he said all tropical fish can live together because they do in the wild!!

that why its good to research instead of impulse buys,im not sure if there liers or just dumb but i couldnt give someone bullshit info,

 

[discomat]

pet country has healthy snakes,i know the dude that takes care of them and he is one of us(animal lover)he actually does look after the snakes and birds(there his specialties)spotted go for $290 there,so a bit up there but better than $450

at logan central? My mum loves that place gets her fish from there.

 

[azn4114]

at logan central? My mum loves that place gets her fish from there.

yep thats the one

 

[reptilefan95]

that why its good to research instead of impulse buys,im not sure if there liers or just dumb but i couldnt give someone bullshit info,

Yeah I for one have been known to reaserch well i advance but we get some people that randomly decide that we want to buy the pretty one even though it might out grow some people.

 

[Cheyne_Jones]

The only pet stores I will even walk inside on the Gold Coast are Pet Crazy at Robina or Gold Coast Pet Centre in Burleigh.

Both of these places have staff that have a bit to do with reptiles (which should be a must), you still get the odd fool that has no idea and only wants to upsell you with stuff you dont want or need, but on the whole IMO they are great.

Most pet shops only have dollars on their mind (I have worked at a few, including the one your talking about), so I personally wont go near any shop that has low standards for care or shops that employ minimum wage twits that are forced to annoy customers until they buy stuff that is unsiutable.

 

[Colin]

none of this surprises me.. shops have to make money and have overheads etc.. but when dealing with live animals they should offer more accurate advice and look after them correctly.

why would anyone ever deal with a pet shop in the first place for live animals when superior quality can always be sourced from private breeders? pet shops would also be a russian roulette for things like OPMV, disease, mites, worms etc

and as far as rodents go.. pet shops are rip offs.. rodents can be sourced from private breeders much cheaper and superior quality and freshness in my opinion.

and moving on to accessories, enclosures etc.. these can also be obtained from specialist online stores like URS and Herpshop etc and delivered usually within a few days.. enclosures can be custom made by blokes like dickyknee from this website and are fantastic quality, excellent value and professionally made.. and Im sure theres others in other states too for enclosures. hatchie tubs and hides (inverted plant water dishes etc) can be sourced from K-mart, nurseries, bunnings, $2 shops etc.

why would anyone want to be ripped off by pet shops that basically dont care about their animals, dont really care about their customers, dont give accurate advice and just want to fleece you of your hard earned money as quick as possible? :lol:

 

[ShaunMorelia]

what he said....

 

[reptilefan95]

Yep

 

[miss2]

yes a lot of owners are dollar hungry but some of the staff generally care.
i used to manage 2 big chain stores, now our main source of income was our puppy sales, my boss got them from a " breeder" (puppy farm), one day we had a very sick bunch come in. they ended up having parvo virus - those of u who know about pups would know how deadly this is. anyway parvo virus lives in the ground for up to 10 years. long story short 3 of the 6 pups died after extensive vet treatment, but yet my boss still insisted on buying from this " breeder" over the next 2 years i had up to 200 pups get ill with the virus and another stomach issue- giardia. the boss wouldnt pay for the approiate saintiser from the vet that would remove this disease, he also started refusing to let me get the nimals vet care.
i put nurmous complaints into the RSPCA and i ended up making a deal with The vet and paying for the animals treatment out of my own pocket.
he also wasent paying me my wages on time nor was he paying tax or super.he wasent paying the suppliers or his rent.everyone used to say to me " y dont u leave" i could though, if it wasent for me and some of my staff so many animals would suffer.
eventually i got work place relations to listen to my plea and it all came to a stop - hes now serving a jail sentence.
oh, i also used to get in trouble if i denied people a sale but i sure as hell wasent going to sell themt he wrong product or sell them an animal they were not caipable of looking after.

 

[Lewy]

none of this surprises me.. shops have to make money and have overheads etc.. but when dealing with live animals they should offer more accurate advice and look after them correctly.

why would anyone ever deal with a pet shop in the first place for live animals when superior quality can always be sourced from private breeders? pet shops would also be a russian roulette for things like OPMV, disease, mites, worms etc

and as far as rodents go.. pet shops are rip offs.. rodents can be sourced from private breeders much cheaper and superior quality and freshness in my opinion.

and moving on to accessories, enclosures etc.. these can also be obtained from specialist online stores like URS and Herpshop etc and delivered usually within a few days.. enclosures can be custom made by blokes like dickyknee from this website and are fantastic quality, excellent value and professionally made.. and Im sure theres others in other states too for enclosures. hatchie tubs and hides (inverted plant water dishes etc) can be sourced from K-mart, nurseries, bunnings, $2 shops etc.

why would anyone want to be ripped off by pet shops that basically dont care about their animals, dont really care about their customers, dont give accurate advice and just want to fleece you of your hard earned money as quick as possible? :lol:

Couldn't agree more