ATTN: LFS employees

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've got a few more recent ones.

Kid points to a snail. "Mommy, whats that"

"Oh wow honey. Thats a turtle." Poor kid.

Alright this old couple comes in to have their water tested. He said he had some fish die, his nitrate was off the charts. He said he has not done a water change in the two years the tank has been set up. I said to do a series of large water changes to get the nitrates down, then routine maintinence with water changes every 2 weeks to a month to keep them down. His response: "no"

"uh.. what?"

"no. not on a 125 gallon tank"

"sir, you dont need to take all the water out, just siphon some out and put clean water in"

"no, i'm not doing that"

I was so perplexed I just walked away.

Then there was this other guy who just set up his tank, and had bought an oscar the day before. he wanted to put an angelfish and some small semi agressive fish in. I said they would be fine at first with his baby oscar, but eventually the oscar will outgrow them and eat his other fish. To which he replied: thats okay, i'll just take him out and kill him when he starts to eat my other fish." We were like WHAT. we explained that he had a 14 day guarantee and he could return the oscar if he wanted to get other fish, but he replied "no, I like him". Thankfully that guy actually did come back and returnthe oscar.

Also, you would be amazed how many mispronunciations of plecostomus there are. Plakydactlyus, Pladonstodon, basically anthing over 4 syllables starting with a P that sounds like a dinosaur.

 

[bluetmax]

Your mispronunciations made me think of the time when at The Aquarium of the Americas a women identified an anemone as an (I'm gonna try my best) an-knee-moan.

 

[Maika'i]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10664087#post10664087 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bluetmax
Your mispronunciations made me think of the time when at The Aquarium of the Americas a women identified an anemone as an (I'm gonna try my best) an-knee-moan.

actually for somebody who has never heard of it, that would sound correct based on the spelling

 

[dylanirion]

how about this one:

"excuse me, do you work here."

comes most often when I am helping another customer, either elbow deep in a tank, or at a bagging station with fish in hand.

 

[owenb01]

I [profanity] you not, this really happened. I worked at pet store in Auburn, AL whe I was in college. The manager of the store put on a CD that was the sounds of humpback whale vocalizations. A group of mighty ghetto fabulous guys came in and asked what the sound was. The manager told them it was humpback whales and the next words out of these retards was, "Where are they? Can we see 'em?"

True story

 

[Salamander]

Can I keep a nemo and humpback together in a ten gallon?

 

[yoimb0b]

yeah i get alot of "do you work here" as well. when all the employees were bright red t shirts saying the store name. One time i was scrubbing algae off one of the tanks. Lady walks up, excuse me, you dont work here do you?
...no, i clean the tanks for fun.

one of the most anoying things is when people interupt you when your in the middle of helping someone else, wether its explaining to them what fish they can keep together, or bagging their stuff up. The store i work at has reptiles, so we sell crickets. I will be in the middle of bagging up a fish, and it doesnt matter what it is, but its obvious that im busy. People come up to me like "EXCUSE ME" can i get $1 of crickets?

I dont get why people think if they yell excuse me, it makes it polite and ok to interupt someone when there talking to another customer. And why their need for $1 of crickets takes precidence of the sometimes multi hundred dollar sales im doing when they interupt me. patience is a virtue dammit!

 

[melev]

I've been in and out of LFS for years now, and some days I'm just there to take pictures. Other times I'm shopping, or window shopping. And still other days I'm bagging up stuff for our club meeting. My arm tends to get in tanks from time to time, especially if I see a coral has fallen onto another one -- I hate seeing warfare where it is unnecessary and solvable.

Of course, this leads to people asking me questions, asking for help, or stating that I should be working there.

 

[PrivateJoker64]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10664087#post10664087 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bluetmax
Your mispronunciations made me think of the time when at The Aquarium of the Americas a women identified an anemone as an (I'm gonna try my best) an-knee-moan.

My neighbor always refers to an anemone as "an - enema", which always gets me laughing. He doesn't know why.

 

[owenb01]

I always think it's funny to walk into a store that sells saltwater fish and ask if it matters whether I use iodized or uniodized salt. Obviously, you can't pull that off if you are at a store that knows you, but it's hilarious if you are in another town or just going to a store you don't usually go to. It works pretty well when your lfs gets a new employee that doesn't know you, too.

 

[kathainbowen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10665010#post10665010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I've been in and out of LFS for years now, and some days I'm just there to take pictures. Other times I'm shopping, or window shopping. And still other days I'm bagging up stuff for our club meeting. My arm tends to get in tanks from time to time, especially if I see a coral has fallen onto another one -- I hate seeing warfare where it is unnecessary and solvable.

Of course, this leads to people asking me questions, asking for help, or stating that I should be working there.

I know the feeling, Melev. I don't work in an LFS anymore (sometimes, I really wish I did, despite all the crappy-customer stories), but I still get asked questions. I get it most of the time when I let another client go ahead of me. See, I go on my day's off to the LFS to leave time for me to just putz around and check everything out. I'm not in a rush, but I have the worst habit of telling people...

"Oh, no, you go ahead. Today's my day off, so I'm in no rush."

.... apparently, this translates to "I work here, so I'm not really a real client. You go on.".

*shaking head* Need to stop doing that.

 

[Sarcophyton874]

Alright since I posted a few of my dumb customer stories, it's time for my dumb employee stories. Alright so I went to Pacific Reef in Torrance,Ca and I ask for a SEA URCHIN and the guy points to a nudi. I'm like what the hell? No, seriously you've never seen a SEA URCHIN they're spikey like a pincushion. Nah never seen one...

Okay sorry I took it off topic. Disregard this post .

 

[Rewd]

Didn't happen to me but another coworker...

A few days ago a family walks up with a betta vase. Did they ask for a betta for that vase? Nooo... instead they wanted 1 african cichlid, 1 fantail goldfish and 5 neon tetras. :eek2: :eek2: :eek2:

When they were told they would need to purchase a real tank and cycle it properly they walked back up with a 2.5 gallon minibow and asked again for those fish. Needless to say they left the store with a bigger tank and an info sheet on the nitrogen cycle without any fish.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

Customer wants hermit crab, store sells them, customer looks into tank with hermits, oh those are in water.

 

[JJ21]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10663898#post10663898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LobsterOfJustice


Alright this old couple comes in to have their water tested. He said he had some fish die, his nitrate was off the charts. He said he has not done a water change in the two years the tank has been set up. I said to do a series of large water changes to get the nitrates down, then routine maintinence with water changes every 2 weeks to a month to keep them down. His response: "no"

"uh.. what?"

"no. not on a 125 gallon tank"

"sir, you dont need to take all the water out, just siphon some out and put clean water in"

"no, i'm not doing that"

I was so perplexed I just walked away.

sir, might i show you our stores maintenance program? :lol: JK what you should have said is "well, if you don't want to perform the routine maintenance on your tank that you should be doing and refuse to, i'd be glad to take it off of your hands"

 

[Fishdave]

Guy wants to return his CO2 reactor because it is not working. He states thata his pH has not dropped at all in his tank since he set the CO2 up 2 weeks ago. He also tells me that no bubbles are getting into the reactor....Long trouble shooting....

It turns out the guy only bought a reactor. No CO2 regulator, tank, solenoid, nothing.

His reaction- OHHH, that does explain a lot of things.

all I could do not to laugh at him right then and there.

 

[dreaminmel]

LFS employee loves to call animals by their scientific name to educate the customer. A very honorable intention.

Customer intentionally mispronounces scientific names for months w/ a smirk until LFS employee catches onto her game...

Oh wait, customer was me. I've gotta find a new game to play and you are all helpin' me w/ some ideas... muah, ha, ha, ha

 

[Rewd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10721048#post10721048 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dreaminmel
LFS employee loves to call animals by their scientific name to educate the customer. A very honorable intention.

Customer intentionally mispronounces scientific names for months w/ a smirk until LFS employee catches onto her game...

Oh wait, customer was me. I've gotta find a new game to play and you are all helpin' me w/ some ideas... muah, ha, ha, ha

I wouldn't really hold that against him. If I ever use scientific names I always note after that I'm probably butchering how the latin names are pronounced. :lol:

 

[ILoveLlamas]

Okey dokey. This guy comes in because he notcies that a friend of his is in the shop. He comes in, and tells her that she can not buy fish for her tank yet, because he only just set it up for her a few days ago. But then, they start talking about what they want to put in it. He goes on to talk about them going out fishing to just "grab some calicos (bass)" or catch a leopard shark. (I live by the pacific). Well.. I assume that the man is catching them for his tank at home, with a chiller. WRONG. He is catching fish from the pacific, and dropping them in ROOM TEMPERATURE tanks. Not only is he doing it... he is setting up tanks for other people to do it!!!! I was soooooo angry it was scary. I work at a public coldwater aquarium in addition to the LFS, so I just wanted to scream at him. He did not care that he needed a chiller.

Not really relevant, but he nearly cursed every other word while in the store. "You have any of those bull**** blue fish?" "I just ****ing set it up!".

 

[Sarcophyton874]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10746764#post10746764 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ILoveLlamas
He goes on to talk about them going out fishing to just "grab some calicos (bass)" or catch a leopard shark. (I live by the pacific).

Hah..that's interesting.

I remember talking to you about a store called Aloha in Torrance. About a year ago they were trying to sell me two Horn Sharks for my 100G reef LOLLOLOLOL :lol: LOLOLO:lol:. They kept them in a separate 60G tank that was around 80 degrees :eek2:. I laughed, shook my head and then just walked away. I also noticed that had laid eggs or something. Unfortunately, they probably died there.