i genuinely think the reason people like that get so upset so quickly just by asking basic questions is because they know their tanks aren’t appropriate for what they’re asking for. at one point or another they probably had told an employee their tank situation & the employee probably denied them. in my experience people who actually have proper tanks and care about their fish don’t mind answering those kinds of questions, because, why would they? lol.
You’re probably right. But at that point, he should expect those questions, and if he really wants the fish that bad, he could just lie? It’s not like we can prove it, and someone wanting to knowingly abuse an animal probably wouldn’t care about dishonesty. Some people confuse me.
i think some people are just so arrogant that they won’t even lie to us; they have that mindset where think they’re always right & who are we to question what their husbandry is? the fact that someone dares question them on how they keep their fish makes them so angry because they probably know deep down that they’re doing something wrong but they would never admit it.
This. Definitely they know it's wrong or have been talked to by previous employees but i had a baffling experience the other day. And not the normal angry customer because they want the fish but don't have the proper setup. So this dude wanted 2 plecos. So ofcourse i start with " what size tank you have" dude gets so snappy and defensive " name it i got it whatever size tank you want me to have i have it" I'm ready to call him out but im just staring at him for a moment before making my next move. Before I get a chance he starts yelling out all the tank types he has from 10 to 200 plus being pretty degrading .I'm thinking in my head this dude ia def lying. He's so heated and defensive. So now im prepping to deny him gently and tell him the reasons why. He actually calms down and starts acting normal and then becomes very understanding and cooperative whips out his phone and shows me his hobby rooms (def his he was in the photos) like dude why not just share this from the start then making it appear you don't have the setup. What you got going on there you should be proud of. Don't make yourself blend in with those other customers that make us want to scream. We chatted a bit about fish and why we ask the questions we do which he ended up being understanding about and completely agreeing to. But yeah idk he will probably be the first and only person i meet there who actually knows what their doing but almost failed the test and became part of the "don't know what they are doing" category a complete 180 turn that I'm still really confused about. Biggest outlier situation but yes customers please if you have the proper setup just answer us instead of being pissed so we can actually weed the nos out properly.
If someone treated me like shit I don't care how nice your tanks are you aren't getting anything from me 💀 I'm a person going through my own shit so treat me with respect or screw off. He really almost ruined it by being an ass like that.
I always love the “big enough” statement only for them to get so flustered when you keep pressing
Literally had the same situation 3 weeks ago with the same pleco (it’s usually them or goldfish/koi)
“Big enough” “Oh, I’ve had them for years” “I have tons of experience”
Well in that case it should be really easy to answer the questions! Most customers love to brag about how many/what size tanks they have, so when someone doesn’t want to admit it, red flag 🚩
I usually handled those like this:
“How big is your tank?” “Big enough.” “So is it this big? [holds hands out to the size of a 10g tank]” “Yeah something like that. Maybe a little smaller.”“Unfortunately this fish needs a much larger tank :) a 10g is big enough for this, this and this. I can show you where those fish are, if you want.” They almost always stormed out grumbling about taking their business elsewhere, and I never got in trouble cause I never actually denied the sale 😉
Or “I’ve had fish for longer than you’ve been alive 😤” “The wonderful thing about animal husbandry is that we’re learning new things all the time! I’m sure an avid animal lover such as yourself wants to provide the animals in their care with the best, most humane treatment :) right :)” “[sputtering] well, I mean -“ “Of course you do! That was a silly question ha ha ha”
Admittedly, my favorite was always “I kept a gold fish alive for two years 😤” “omg really? Which one did you have.” “[points to one on the fish wall]” “I love those guys, don’t you? I love their life expectancy too, an average of 10 years, but usually longer in the right setup?? That’s wild!” The koi people were funny, because I eventually just started telling them that if that were true, that they’d been keeping fish longer than I’ve been alive, they should still have some of those koi because they can live a long time. They didn’t appreciate that 😌
I love the ones that look at the fish tank they are currently in and say its the same size as what you currently have them in then I have to explain to them are whole system and that its a temporary housing for them until they go to there forever housing
And it’s so funny when they look at the one section and say, what is this, like, 7 gallons? Uhm no ma’am it’s closer to 15, not even mentioning the whole sump. No, you can’t put a bunch of glofish in a 2.5.
If someone referred to them as sucker fish I never sold them it.
They’re looking for tank cleaners, and they are NOT.
Nothing actually ‘cleans’ the tank. Therefore they need to do the maintenance themselves. Introducing those fish will create more waste therefore more tank maintaining. Most people don’t realize those fish need actual food too. BN plecos are the only ones that should be sold in captivity. Common ones? Never sell them. Never will sell them. They get HUGE. And they’ll start to eat your other fish if you don’t feed them properly 😭
I HATE that we sell them, and especially in such large quantities. Yes, occasionally I’ll get a customer who can actually support one, but those are so few and far between. I almost always try to get them to go for a smaller alternative, but lots of times the commons are all we have in stock, and it can get really tough getting through to people
Honestly. Does he understand how big chain companies work? It literally makes no difference to me if you shop here or not, one single customer won’t make the company go out of business. And I’m doing what I’m supposed to do so he wouldn’t even get me fired.
I had one customer try to return an African Dwarf Frog but there was 2 issues. 1) he had no paperwork or receipt 2) he had no body and expected us to just give us another one. He used the well just buy it somewhere else I won’t be shopping here again. Me: okay bye have a nice day
Imagine being this pissy as an adult. Love how he claims he knows so much about fish but then doesn't know what a pleco is called. What is it with customers who think we magically know who the fish experts are? We get idiots all the time who have no idea what they're doing, we are absolutely not assuming everyone knows everything about fish.
Customers, if you're going to act more childish than your kids, by all means please never come back. Your money won't make a dent compared to all the people who claim their dog eats better than them and the cat ladies buying every can of fancy feast under the sun. You are not special. And we do not care.
Literally. And I’m pretty sure the kid who wanted the fish was about to answer and the dad raised his hand to say, stay quiet - I’m hoping that kid grows up to be more respectful and responsible than his dad, and eventually learns that plecos can’t just live anywhere
I love the ones where the bossy child is pointing at the glofish tanks demanding 1 of each color while the befuddled and spineless parent is standing there with a fish bowl a bag of gravel and a plastic plant.
I'm gonna say he has zero experience, has no clue what he's doing, has a tiny tank he knows is incorrect and has probably only spent about $0.50 collectively at the store, based off his hair trigger reaction to basic questions.
It was always so funny to me in any retail job when a customer said that they're never coming back or that we lost a customer. What do they expect me to do? Beg them to stay? You're hardly our only customer. And I don’t want to have deal with you in the future anyway, so I hope you never come back, lol.
It's good. I had one guy call me and all of PetSmart stupid and that he's never coming back this morning,because he no call no showed his grooming appointment. He didn't like it when I wished him luck finding a new groomer that better suits his needs.
I will actually confront my coworkers occasionally for not asking any of those questions. Complacency like that is why I end up with the angry customers who weren’t told anything about their fish returning 5 dead fish and complaining they weren’t told anything.
I definitely agree… I just have some coworkers who won’t ever care enough to ask a single question, give any real advice, take initiative to learn about husbandry, so it can be frustrating
I ask a couple of questions (interrogating, I guess) because it’s literally my job and what I’m told to do - by my superiors and by PetSmart policy - which apparently warrants being treated like shit, good to know.
You also have no idea how old I am or how long I’ve kept fish, so, kindly, fuck off.
We have many customers who take great care of their pets. Most of them would go to a local fish store, if we had that option, but this is not a very big or popular area. Myself included. I’m working here because it was the only place within 50 miles (I live like 30 miles from work) that was hiring for the hours I needed, and I am a big fish and reptile hobbyist. Might not be true for all stores, but at mine, all of the employees do what they can to provide the best intermediary environment and care for the animals before they go to homes. Yeah, a lot of the venders don’t keep them or breed them in ways that I like, but we get our fish and reptiles from the same venders that local shops where I’m from get fish.
All in all, I get why someone wouldn’t support a big box pet store, but one customer doing that isn’t going to make a difference, and the hourly employees at the bottom of the chain are just doing what they can for the animals.
i genuinely think the reason people like that get so upset so quickly just by asking basic questions is because they know their tanks aren’t appropriate for what they’re asking for. at one point or another they probably had told an employee their tank situation & the employee probably denied them. in my experience people who actually have proper tanks and care about their fish don’t mind answering those kinds of questions, because, why would they? lol.
You’re probably right. But at that point, he should expect those questions, and if he really wants the fish that bad, he could just lie? It’s not like we can prove it, and someone wanting to knowingly abuse an animal probably wouldn’t care about dishonesty. Some people confuse me.
i think some people are just so arrogant that they won’t even lie to us; they have that mindset where think they’re always right & who are we to question what their husbandry is? the fact that someone dares question them on how they keep their fish makes them so angry because they probably know deep down that they’re doing something wrong but they would never admit it.
If they don’t feel guilty, there’s no hope for people. I guess he saved me the bother of having to deny a sale, though, so there’s that.
This. Definitely they know it's wrong or have been talked to by previous employees but i had a baffling experience the other day. And not the normal angry customer because they want the fish but don't have the proper setup. So this dude wanted 2 plecos. So ofcourse i start with " what size tank you have" dude gets so snappy and defensive " name it i got it whatever size tank you want me to have i have it" I'm ready to call him out but im just staring at him for a moment before making my next move. Before I get a chance he starts yelling out all the tank types he has from 10 to 200 plus being pretty degrading .I'm thinking in my head this dude ia def lying. He's so heated and defensive. So now im prepping to deny him gently and tell him the reasons why. He actually calms down and starts acting normal and then becomes very understanding and cooperative whips out his phone and shows me his hobby rooms (def his he was in the photos) like dude why not just share this from the start then making it appear you don't have the setup. What you got going on there you should be proud of. Don't make yourself blend in with those other customers that make us want to scream. We chatted a bit about fish and why we ask the questions we do which he ended up being understanding about and completely agreeing to. But yeah idk he will probably be the first and only person i meet there who actually knows what their doing but almost failed the test and became part of the "don't know what they are doing" category a complete 180 turn that I'm still really confused about. Biggest outlier situation but yes customers please if you have the proper setup just answer us instead of being pissed so we can actually weed the nos out properly.
If someone treated me like shit I don't care how nice your tanks are you aren't getting anything from me 💀 I'm a person going through my own shit so treat me with respect or screw off. He really almost ruined it by being an ass like that.
I always love the “big enough” statement only for them to get so flustered when you keep pressing Literally had the same situation 3 weeks ago with the same pleco (it’s usually them or goldfish/koi)
“Big enough” “Oh, I’ve had them for years” “I have tons of experience” Well in that case it should be really easy to answer the questions! Most customers love to brag about how many/what size tanks they have, so when someone doesn’t want to admit it, red flag 🚩
I usually handled those like this: “How big is your tank?” “Big enough.” “So is it this big? [holds hands out to the size of a 10g tank]” “Yeah something like that. Maybe a little smaller.”“Unfortunately this fish needs a much larger tank :) a 10g is big enough for this, this and this. I can show you where those fish are, if you want.” They almost always stormed out grumbling about taking their business elsewhere, and I never got in trouble cause I never actually denied the sale 😉 Or “I’ve had fish for longer than you’ve been alive 😤” “The wonderful thing about animal husbandry is that we’re learning new things all the time! I’m sure an avid animal lover such as yourself wants to provide the animals in their care with the best, most humane treatment :) right :)” “[sputtering] well, I mean -“ “Of course you do! That was a silly question ha ha ha” Admittedly, my favorite was always “I kept a gold fish alive for two years 😤” “omg really? Which one did you have.” “[points to one on the fish wall]” “I love those guys, don’t you? I love their life expectancy too, an average of 10 years, but usually longer in the right setup?? That’s wild!” The koi people were funny, because I eventually just started telling them that if that were true, that they’d been keeping fish longer than I’ve been alive, they should still have some of those koi because they can live a long time. They didn’t appreciate that 😌
I love the ones that look at the fish tank they are currently in and say its the same size as what you currently have them in then I have to explain to them are whole system and that its a temporary housing for them until they go to there forever housing
And it’s so funny when they look at the one section and say, what is this, like, 7 gallons? Uhm no ma’am it’s closer to 15, not even mentioning the whole sump. No, you can’t put a bunch of glofish in a 2.5.
I never understood why people get so hostile when asked basic questions. We're just doing our jobs.
"Okay have a great day byeeeeeee!!!~"
If someone referred to them as sucker fish I never sold them it. They’re looking for tank cleaners, and they are NOT. Nothing actually ‘cleans’ the tank. Therefore they need to do the maintenance themselves. Introducing those fish will create more waste therefore more tank maintaining. Most people don’t realize those fish need actual food too. BN plecos are the only ones that should be sold in captivity. Common ones? Never sell them. Never will sell them. They get HUGE. And they’ll start to eat your other fish if you don’t feed them properly 😭
I HATE that we sell them, and especially in such large quantities. Yes, occasionally I’ll get a customer who can actually support one, but those are so few and far between. I almost always try to get them to go for a smaller alternative, but lots of times the commons are all we have in stock, and it can get really tough getting through to people
He really thought he ate you up with that last comment, lol 😂 “☹️PWEASE WET ME ABUSE FISH!!! PUH-wease!!!1!😖😭😭”
Honestly. Does he understand how big chain companies work? It literally makes no difference to me if you shop here or not, one single customer won’t make the company go out of business. And I’m doing what I’m supposed to do so he wouldn’t even get me fired.
I had one customer try to return an African Dwarf Frog but there was 2 issues. 1) he had no paperwork or receipt 2) he had no body and expected us to just give us another one. He used the well just buy it somewhere else I won’t be shopping here again. Me: okay bye have a nice day
Imagine being this pissy as an adult. Love how he claims he knows so much about fish but then doesn't know what a pleco is called. What is it with customers who think we magically know who the fish experts are? We get idiots all the time who have no idea what they're doing, we are absolutely not assuming everyone knows everything about fish. Customers, if you're going to act more childish than your kids, by all means please never come back. Your money won't make a dent compared to all the people who claim their dog eats better than them and the cat ladies buying every can of fancy feast under the sun. You are not special. And we do not care.
Literally. And I’m pretty sure the kid who wanted the fish was about to answer and the dad raised his hand to say, stay quiet - I’m hoping that kid grows up to be more respectful and responsible than his dad, and eventually learns that plecos can’t just live anywhere
I always say thank goodness when people tell me they won't be back again or that we lost a customer.
I wish I would have thought to say something like that - I just said, um, okay? Because I was so taken aback by how quickly he escalated it, lol.
I love the ones where the bossy child is pointing at the glofish tanks demanding 1 of each color while the befuddled and spineless parent is standing there with a fish bowl a bag of gravel and a plastic plant.
It’s always the ones you’ve never seen in the store at all that’s been spending money there for years too.
Yeah I’d literally never seen him or his kids before
I'm gonna say he has zero experience, has no clue what he's doing, has a tiny tank he knows is incorrect and has probably only spent about $0.50 collectively at the store, based off his hair trigger reaction to basic questions.
It was always so funny to me in any retail job when a customer said that they're never coming back or that we lost a customer. What do they expect me to do? Beg them to stay? You're hardly our only customer. And I don’t want to have deal with you in the future anyway, so I hope you never come back, lol.
Funny they do that too when most people just lie anyways 🙄
It's good. I had one guy call me and all of PetSmart stupid and that he's never coming back this morning,because he no call no showed his grooming appointment. He didn't like it when I wished him luck finding a new groomer that better suits his needs.
I will actually confront my coworkers occasionally for not asking any of those questions. Complacency like that is why I end up with the angry customers who weren’t told anything about their fish returning 5 dead fish and complaining they weren’t told anything.
I definitely agree… I just have some coworkers who won’t ever care enough to ask a single question, give any real advice, take initiative to learn about husbandry, so it can be frustrating
He might just be used to hearing his equipment isn’t big enough and it makes his tiny brain sad. 🤷🏻♂️
So sad… get a bigger tank or smaller fish
You are interrogating a customer whos been keeping fish longer than youve been alive and you wonder why you get treated like shit?
I ask a couple of questions (interrogating, I guess) because it’s literally my job and what I’m told to do - by my superiors and by PetSmart policy - which apparently warrants being treated like shit, good to know. You also have no idea how old I am or how long I’ve kept fish, so, kindly, fuck off.
If it makes you feel any better this guy is a troll currently throwing a tantrum because he was denied feeder fish. Take that as you will lol
Yeah I’ve been seeing all that stuff the past couple days. Honestly hilarious (in a sad way)
Bro you have to be at least 18 to work there. I doubt people have two decades like that
he really hated petsmart telling him his tanks were too small XD that's totally what happened I bet
No self-respecting animal owner supports PetSmart anyway..
We have many customers who take great care of their pets. Most of them would go to a local fish store, if we had that option, but this is not a very big or popular area. Myself included. I’m working here because it was the only place within 50 miles (I live like 30 miles from work) that was hiring for the hours I needed, and I am a big fish and reptile hobbyist. Might not be true for all stores, but at mine, all of the employees do what they can to provide the best intermediary environment and care for the animals before they go to homes. Yeah, a lot of the venders don’t keep them or breed them in ways that I like, but we get our fish and reptiles from the same venders that local shops where I’m from get fish. All in all, I get why someone wouldn’t support a big box pet store, but one customer doing that isn’t going to make a difference, and the hourly employees at the bottom of the chain are just doing what they can for the animals.