Is my PetCo telling me lies?????

OOPS.. THOSE links...

 

agreed 100%

 

Any LFS (Local Fish Store), if the manager at Petco offers you store credit and you feel them worthy of your business, there too. API is a good and easy brand to use. You should also get a high range pH test kit.

 

It definately happens though. My story is almost identical to his. I got totally suckered by another chain store (not Petco).

I bought me a Saltwater for Dummies book and while trying to make sense of it (apparently I needed a Dummies for Dummies book) I went into the chain fish store to ask questions about what I was reading. Met a guy who impressed me with his knowledge and his 15 years of experience. He had a 10g tank that had cycled for 6 weeks...with SEVEN fish and two large feather dusters. I paid him $300 and went home with it. Followed all his instructions perfectly and within a week all but 3 had died.

Upon learning more I went back pissed...all I got told was that I must have poisoned the tank by using cleaner on it and they would give me a "deal" on new fish.

It just sucks that they get away with doing that stuff. You can't really put that on a newbie for not researching it enough. There is just so much information and Im still struggling to learn it all. One well rehearsed fish store employee can sucker you quite easily.

 

P.S. I recommend skipping the hydrometer and getting a refractometor. I kept thinking my salinity was all over the place because air bubbles kept raising the needle on the hydrometer.

And if you get the API test kit (what I got) make sure to follow the directions exactly. I found TWO of my local fish stores measuring the Nitrates wrong. They kept telling me my water was fine and I was getting Nitrates over 80. Finally took my kit in to do it side by side with the guy....they werent shaking the bottles the required time. :

I have no trust for fish stores now.

 

Based on factors that happen in the store, you really can. Unless you were there, though, there's no accurate account of the way the conversation went. The attitude of the customer can be from "give me this now!" to "tell me everything", or anywhere in between, but nobody would give an unbiased perspective of the attitudes of the people in that conversation unless you had a third party who didn't know either of the people at all and were there. The same goes for the sales guy at the store; they could be like the people at my local PC, hesitant unless pushed, or very aggressively selling livestock and equipment.

So, now that the social and behavioral dynamics of fish store sales have been discussed...lol

 

Me personally i dont deal with the bigger name petstores

 

I'm just letting you know my own experience. I didnt go in the store planning to buy anything, just to ask questions about what I was reading.

I dont think they were necessarily trying to rip me off. I just think they are clueless. This is a hard hobby to be in because you never know who to trust (like the water testing at 2 stores). I have to check multiple sources everytime I have a problem to be sure Im getting the right answer.

So far, for me...it's been a whole lot of trial and error and wasting money on items I didnt need or cant use.

 

This sounds to me like an individual employee going overboard and pretending to be an expert on the subject. Those kind of employees can often be found in large chain stores.

I'm sure PetCo wants their customers to succeed, but there isn't much they can do to prevent employees from spreading misinformation, unless they start hiring really experienced aquarists (which won't happen at $8/hour).

As a side note, I was also told at a small local fish store that those bacterial additives make tanks fish-ready instantly, so this doesn't happen only at chain stores. Fortunatly, I knew that was BS.

 

call corporate and raise hell.