Petco Rescue. Oh the humanity!!!!!!
- Thread starter navychief
- Start date
kzickovich
Member
www.liveaquaria and marinedepotlive are both great and never had a problem with costomer service very willing to help.
dhodorow
New member
Boycot Petco
Boycot Petco
I think that we should all boycot Petco entirely. Don't buy anything from one of their stores. Recently, a new Petco opened up in my area. I received a $30.00 gift certificate from someone for my birthday. Having the gift certificate, I thought that I would check out Petco. Low and behold, they had some marine fish and corals. I check things out, everything looked pretty good, so I purchased. I spent my gift certificate on a Kole Tang. I took the fish home, aclimated him with a two hour drip acclimation, was careful not to transfer any water from the bag, and made the mistake of putting him into the main tank (180 gal.) without quarantining the fish first. The fish was dead in the morning, and I began to notice some of the other fish in the tank with ick. Within two days, my Lemon Peel Angel died (which I had for 2.5 years), my Flame Angel died (which I had for about 3 years), and a maroon clown followed shortly after that. I had about 6 green chromis that didn't seem affected, and a lawn mower blenny that didn't show any signs of stress. I decided to find out what Petco's policy was. The manager said that someone "should" have told me that marine fish did not carry any kind of stay alive warranty. I walked over to the tanks and sure enough almost all of the tanks were showing sever signs of stress. The manager didn't seem to care. I decided to go to the petco website and file a complaint which I did, and to this day have not received any responses (3 months later). My suggestion to anyone is to stay away. Don't risk any of our precious systems to anything from Petco. They just don't care about our hobby!
Boycot Petco
I think that we should all boycot Petco entirely. Don't buy anything from one of their stores. Recently, a new Petco opened up in my area. I received a $30.00 gift certificate from someone for my birthday. Having the gift certificate, I thought that I would check out Petco. Low and behold, they had some marine fish and corals. I check things out, everything looked pretty good, so I purchased. I spent my gift certificate on a Kole Tang. I took the fish home, aclimated him with a two hour drip acclimation, was careful not to transfer any water from the bag, and made the mistake of putting him into the main tank (180 gal.) without quarantining the fish first. The fish was dead in the morning, and I began to notice some of the other fish in the tank with ick. Within two days, my Lemon Peel Angel died (which I had for 2.5 years), my Flame Angel died (which I had for about 3 years), and a maroon clown followed shortly after that. I had about 6 green chromis that didn't seem affected, and a lawn mower blenny that didn't show any signs of stress. I decided to find out what Petco's policy was. The manager said that someone "should" have told me that marine fish did not carry any kind of stay alive warranty. I walked over to the tanks and sure enough almost all of the tanks were showing sever signs of stress. The manager didn't seem to care. I decided to go to the petco website and file a complaint which I did, and to this day have not received any responses (3 months later). My suggestion to anyone is to stay away. Don't risk any of our precious systems to anything from Petco. They just don't care about our hobby!
kzickovich
Member
sorry to hear about your lose I with you
RumLad
New member
It is not Petco's fault that you did not follow standard quarantine procedures and lost a bunch of other fish.
Just to add my two cents worth about Petco.
The local one near me has supplied me with two marine critters that survive to this day. They have been ideal purchases. The marine tanks at this store are always well maintained, and I have even been denied a purchase because the animals had only been in the tanks for two days and the fish guy was not ready to sell them for at least two more days, so that he could fully observe them. I know this is not typical of Petco nationwide, but it does happen and I don't think we should tar and feather every store in ther chain based upon local bad practices. As with any fish purchase, it is up to the buyer to evaluate the specimen prior to purchase and provide the proper care thereafter.
Just to add my two cents worth about Petco.
The local one near me has supplied me with two marine critters that survive to this day. They have been ideal purchases. The marine tanks at this store are always well maintained, and I have even been denied a purchase because the animals had only been in the tanks for two days and the fish guy was not ready to sell them for at least two more days, so that he could fully observe them. I know this is not typical of Petco nationwide, but it does happen and I don't think we should tar and feather every store in ther chain based upon local bad practices. As with any fish purchase, it is up to the buyer to evaluate the specimen prior to purchase and provide the proper care thereafter.
dhodorow
New member
I agree that it is "My BAD" for not quarantining the fish first. However, I examined all of their tanks before purchasing and everything looked fine. It wasn't until days later that I returned to their store and found that most if not all of the marine tanks were suffering losses. I also did not care for the fact that when I showed the manager the current state of their marine tanks and showed him that fish were showing signs of distress and even ick, that he could have cared less. I also, did not like the fact that when I went to the petco website, went to the contact us, and submitted store feedback that I didn't so much as receive one e-mail stating sorry for your loss, but our policy is blah.blah.blah and you should have quarantined the fish first blah.blah.blah. The company website obviously represents how the company operates in general (I'm sure that there are some local exceptions).
Other company websites show their value for the customer. For example. I recently purchased a breakfast meal at McDonalds (Who has to get thousands of complains daily). I pulled up to the drive-thru, got my breakfast and drove away. About 2 miles down the road, I tasted the hot chocolate (It was like hot water - No hot chocolate at all). Everything else was fine. I went online, submitted some feedback, said that everything was basically fine with the exception of the hot chocolate). They e-mailed me back promptly within 24 hours. The sent a coupon regular mail for a replacement meal, and appoligized for the inconvenience. I do not hesitate to go back.
As far as Petco is concerned, I have tried countless times to communicate with them. Never any response. I would have been happy with a sorry! But nothing!
Anyone who deals with them Beware!
Other company websites show their value for the customer. For example. I recently purchased a breakfast meal at McDonalds (Who has to get thousands of complains daily). I pulled up to the drive-thru, got my breakfast and drove away. About 2 miles down the road, I tasted the hot chocolate (It was like hot water - No hot chocolate at all). Everything else was fine. I went online, submitted some feedback, said that everything was basically fine with the exception of the hot chocolate). They e-mailed me back promptly within 24 hours. The sent a coupon regular mail for a replacement meal, and appoligized for the inconvenience. I do not hesitate to go back.
As far as Petco is concerned, I have tried countless times to communicate with them. Never any response. I would have been happy with a sorry! But nothing!
Anyone who deals with them Beware!
kathainbowen
New member
... out of curiosity.... I know there have been independent surveys of water quality among Petcos around reef clubs, but has anyone done any broad range surveys regarding not only the water quality but the knowledge and husbandry skills of staff?
I wonder if there is an animal rights group that could help in organizing a national boycott. It should be a crime the way Petco "cares for" their marine livestock, especially with the natural reefs in the state they are in. If they treated dogs or cats like that the ASPCA would be all over it. What a shame...
dhodorow
New member
I know that I should have quarantined my "new purchase" first, especially for the sake of the others that I have lost. I do care about my tank, it's inhabitants, as well as the state of natural reefs. Over the past 20 years of keeping marine fish/corals, I have never had to quarantine anything. I have been very successful with drip acclimation Maybe I have been lucky, or just that the quality of the people/companies that I have purchased from has been exceptional. Over the years, I have only lost a handful of fish, some died of natural causes I'm sure, as well as some from tank mates that intimidated them, others I believe were not captured properly (i.e. cyanide captured, etc). Everyone knows that this is a difficult/expensive hobby, and no one wants to see livestock suffer. Either via our own hands, or the distributors that sell us our precious livestock. It only seems to me that Petco doesn't care. When I personally showed the manager at my local petco the state of tanks in their store, he simply did not care. I have periodically gone back over the past couple months, just to see. Some tanks have gotten better, and some worse. When I'm asked if I could be helped, I usually just reply "just looking". Maybe my local Petco doesn't meet the norm, but the corporate office is yet to respond. Leaving voice mails, and e-mails don't get anywhere. When I purchased, the store had only been open for a couple weeks. Things looked pretty good, but looks can be deceiving. Hopefully, no one will make the same mistake as me in not quaranting future purchases. Just wish that I could get through to corporate to get the local store to cleaning things up. Who knows. Maybe it is the supplier to them that needs to clean things up. Just trying to head problems for others off at the pass!
NaclH20freak
New member
Navychief, I'm curious, how your rescue doing?
NaclH20freak
New member
so..ooo how's your rescue doing?
NaclH20freak
New member
Sorry I stuttered
