Dumb things you've overheard customers say at the LFS

Wow... great thread... I've got a story...

This woman and her kid come in:

W: I need a marine sponge for my daughters tank, its for a school project.

Me: We generally don't carry sponges, they are tricky to keep and will die if they are exposed to air.

W: Well where can I get one?

Me: Well mam'm my best suggestion to you is to get some snorkel gear and go diving in the intercoastal to get one (I live in South Florida, Sponges are under every rock out there, very easy to get)

W: (turns around and starts walking out)

Me: Whats wrong mam'm?

W: I don't appreciate being made fun of, i'm never comming in here again!

Me: (stunned)

And you know I was being totally serious thats the sad part, she didn't even give me a chance to explain myself, she just bolted for the door. Whats up with that? I don't know of ANY LFS around here that carrys sponges, maybe on a rare occasion but hardly ever.
 
i was inn my lfs a while back they sell reptiles also.

well this women came in looking to return a heat lamp for her sons lizard it's around $80. Now on the box it says to return it to the manufacturer for a replacement if it doesn't work. She asked why the bulbs were so expensive and was complaining about the whole thing in general demanding a free bulb because she didn't want the lizard to die. The employee said that she can't give her a free bulb but she can buy one because the manufacturer only accepts returns from the end user.
The lady is still bent on getting that return. The employee gets a bulb off the shelf and reads there warranty to her and it's specifically says DO NOT RETURN TO THE STORE YOU PURCHASED FROM

She bought some cickets and left.
 
Hey CitCat... almost that EXACT thing happend to me yesterday. Except it was with a Nano Cube pump.

This guy calls the store and of course tells me how much money he spends here (everyone always thinks they are your best customer). He tells me that his nano cube pump exploded and doesn't work anymore and that he wants us to give him a new pump cause it should be under warranty. I tell him that we can't "give" him a new pump, thats the job of the manufacturer. But in the mean time he can come in and "buy" a new pump until he can get a hold of JBJ because they have a 6 month warranty on the pumps in their tanks.

So he again proceeds to tell me how much money he spends in our store and how many people hes referred to our store and that he deserves a free pump because OUR LFS should honor the warranty on a JBJ product.

At any rate he sends his wife in later that day (never seen her in our store before in my life). And of course she expects a free pump. I pulled up the manufacturers warranty on the computer and show her and she gets all pi**y. But does end up buying the pump.

You know... some people just don't get it ya know. Don't people realize that we are only a "distributor" of the nano cube or any other product. We shoulden't be responsible for honoring the warranty. If we replaced every faulty pump we'd go out of business.
 
Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve heard a guy talk about how badass his tank was at a lfs once. This guy said he has a 1500gal reef with every coral out there. When he left the owner told me this guy comes in every now and then and BS about what he has all the time. They would just amuse him by saying how great and awesome his tank was and would just go along with it. The guy would also ask for prices on just about everything and would never buy anything.
 
Here is another one, I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t work at a lfs but I do spend a lot of time there and the owners know me pretty well so I help their customer all the time. So this one guy comes in and the owner points him to me. He comes over and said

C: I canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t seem to keep any of my fish alive.
M: how big is your tank and what kind of equipment do you have?
C: 100gal with 30lb of live rock and a set/dry filter and a skimmer.
M: How any fish and what kind do you have?
C: man I love tangs I have tons of them every kind, I buy one every week.

So I start to explain to him all about tangs and how they are and such. After which he tells me

C: ohh I really donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t have that many only about 15 of them.
M: thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s way too much.

Then I start telling him to get rid of some and stop buying fish. I also give him the whole nine-yard on how to improve his tank: more rocks, fuge, sump, flow, lights everything. So he did buy all the upgrade I advised him about and take off.

Two weeks later he comes back and said

C: my tank is doing much better only 3 dead fish this week.
M: did you buy any more fish?
C: only 5 tangs.
M: I told you not to buy any more fishââ"šÂ¬Ã‚!!!!ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚

I straight out yelled at the guy.

C: I love tangs; Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll just buy new ones every time a fish dies.
M: you canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t do that pretty soon your entire tank will crash and everything will die.
C: no the tank is doing good now.
M: ok, itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s your money. (Its not my store so Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m very blunt with the customers)

Well I walked in to the store about a month later and the owner told me the guy left a bunch of saltwater stuff for me, tones of Kent additives and a few other equipment; free stuff cool. A week after that I run in to him again and thank him for all the free stuff and asked him what happened.

C: You were right my tank died, Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m doing FW now.
M: how is that going
C: good

When he left he owner told me he gave away all his marine stuff and bought a $6,000 Asian arowana.
 
Because places that sell dogs do so for hundreds or thousands of dollars. If they are AKC animals you have to do it to get your AKC certificate. You can't afford that kind of time for a small sale. If it's a store that's doing it on behalf of an animal shelter, such as Petsmart does, then the paperwork is actually by and for the shelter.
 
I learned my lesson when it comes to the big talker types that come in. I called one guy on it, since he supposedly had a 2000 Gallon reef in his basement. He gave me his address and told me to come by whenever, so I did. He had a very nice 2000 Gallon reef in his basement just as he said. I never really question those people now, I just let it all slide.
 
yeah this guy I use to work with was telling this girl he had a lagoon in his back yard..Of course overhearing this I called bull*. He did me the same way, I was eating crow on that one. He really did. He had a sunroom built on the back of his house with an actual lagoon in the middle. VERY NICE...the only reason I called him on it was cause he had already lied about having a porche. It turned out to be his dads.
 
Ontaran said:
Worked in a petsmart for a summer and some... I think I was more frustrated at the company's policies than the customers, but I have a few experiences of the latter worth sharing:


Customer: "*short pause* um, I'd say about four feet."
"Nah, it won't freeze solid. They'll be fine."
And the next thing out of his mouth blew my mind:
Customer: "What happens when it freezes solid?"


Customer: "Well...won't birds and reptiles eat each other?"
I pause a moment to prevent myself from hanging up on this guy.
"Not if you don't keep them in the same cage."

Customer: "Well, then, how would you know if I told you something wrong?"
"Like what?"
Customer: "Like the number of lizards." (I swear to god this is what he said)
"What?"
Customer: "Like the number of lizards."
"Like the number of lizards where? Look, sir, I've got customers waiting, so unless you have any more questions..."
Click to expand...

LMAO!! omg im in tears... "like the number of lizards"... hahahahahaha thats not even a complete sentence. OMG thats great.
 
zfunk007 said:
Hey CitCat... almost that EXACT thing happend to me yesterday. Except it was with a Nano Cube pump.

.........OUR LFS should honor the warranty on a JBJ product.
Click to expand...
I actually had a pump fail on a JBJ Nano myself, I asked the LFS owner about it and he called JBJ.

JBJ Replied:
"No problem, open a new nano cube and pull the pump, and give it to the customer. We will ship you a new nanocube to replace the one you had to open. We will also pay freight on the open cube later if other parts are not needed from that one for any other customer"

Sold me for sure and am glad I spent the extra $25 buying the thing local and not offline.

This was at the "Pet Warehouse" in Fort Wayne IN. if you need to reference for your future customers :D JBJ is really good about warranty even if they are not the manufacturer themselves.
 
Well I am part of the newbie outreach program at Petsmart in Wausau... You wouldn't believe some people. Some lady calls on the phone, asks why her gerbil chews so much.
Me: Well their teeth are constantly growing
Her: We'll he's chewed through 3 paper rolls this morning.
Me: Yeah, they do that *chuckles
Pause
Her: He ate his food dish too.
Me: In that case I would buy a metal dish, they will last much longer.
Her: His cage is also chewed up, all the plastic is destroyed
Me: How long ago did you get him?
Her: 2 Months ago
Me: We have a 14 day "try out" period for every pet we sell ma'm if it is such a problem why didn't you bring him back then?
Her: Well I wish I would of been informed earlier of how much they chew
Me: Every gerbil is different ma'm, there is no guarentee that they will chew through everything or wont chew. My suggestion is you buy everything metal next time. If you don't want her, you can put her up for adoption.
Her: But I wasn't informed!
Me: Every animal we sell is sent with a care sheet and we try to tell you everything we know to the best of our knowledge. Most of it is just the individual personality of your pet ma'm. I'm sorry I can't help you more.

She ended up arguing with me for about ten minutes more before she hung up. She wanted her money back for 4 dishes she got him, a plastic wheel and a 40 dollar cage that still worked for her pet.

Also it is REALLY REALLY hard to tell a newbie in fish not to add fish and to cycle their tank... I don't know how many times I've been shot down for suggesting that with evil looks. And when I recommend that they only take home one fish today and another after a few weeks I get the same look. I just wish we had a pamphlet on the nitrogen cycle solely for that purpose. People think I'm crazy. (although they also think I'm crazy when I say that the goldfish they want to get for the little half gallon bowl is going to get to be 8 inches in size and as wide as a softball and needs at least 20 gallons for itself!)
 
Thanks Randall.... I didn't realize that about the Nano Cube. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.
 
What ever made someone think a fish bowl was made for a goldfish. At a very early age I killed like 3 goldfish in a row trying to keep them(one at a time) in a fish bowl. My grandfather finally relized that a goldfish needed a bigger tank and maintinance. So we started raising mollies in a 29g.
 
The weird thing is... we have a few 5 inchers in the store right next to the smaller ones. They have the same species name, same common name, same fish stats and everything and people STILL don't believe me.
 
My new response to people coming back complaining about things dying is: "Mmm hmm.. What does your book say about that?"

*blank stare*

*mild irritation*

*lost sale, but I feel better*
 
I think we're arguing over what the question is.. I'm talking stunningly thoughtful and insightful questions like "I put 50 guppies in my new tank and they all died in a week. What happened?"
 
m.hudzinski said:
Peter, I think you are barking up the wrong tree with your posts on this thread.
Click to expand...

i was thinking the EXACT same thing... he is getting too personal and defensive over anonymous/generic situations.
 
yesterday i went to check out this LFS i hadnt been to before... and to my dismay read "TUESDAYS - CLOSED" and then under that, "WEDNESDAY - 12 to 7".. so today (wednesday) i went down there at about 11:50.. only to find a man with his son also waiting outside..

the man opened the door, and in just timing because this kid was driving me insane after 5-10 minutes of standing there.. to make matters worse, after i tried to 'saparate myself' from them.. (i didnt want the owner to think i was associated with them) and everytime i made some distance the kid came up and started asking all these questions and putting his hands in the tanks... he went in the backroom (employees only) and the dad was just doing nothing. finally, the kid knocked over a display of products and they got ejected from the store.

i then went back later after i got out of school and bought some stuff to further imply i was in no way associated with those people. dear lord.
 
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