No, You're Not Always Right

[Greyscale_Geckos]

Why do some people have it in their head that they are always right?

Yesterday at work a man came in and asked what he could keep with his four bala sharks, one leporinus fasciatus, and one pink kissing gourami. I asked what size of tank all of these fish were in... He responds that they are all in a 15 gallon tank.

Anyone who knows fish knows that his tank is overstocked massively. I politely tell him that I would suggest he not get anymore fish, and again politely suggest he consider upgrading the size of his tank as all of these fish are known for becoming large.

Our conversation goes as follows:

Man: You keep 25 of these *bleep*ing in your tanks!!

Me: Sir, this is temporary housing. We also have a massive filtration system.

Man: So do I, I have an undergravel filter and an overhead filter.

Me: Sir, please... I'm not trying to have an argument with you. I'm suggesting against this for the benefit of your fish in your current tank.

Man: I know more about fish than you do. I know the tank is understocked. Besides, all I asked you was what is compatible. You can't tell me that I can't buy more fish. You can't stop me.

((I have the right to refuse any customer a sale.))

Me: Sir, I am suggesting against it so you don't suffer any loss in your tank. That's all I'm trying to do.

Man: You're wrong.

I walked away after that and went into the backroom before I could explode at the guy. My coworker went out to deal with him and noted he left quite promptly when he noticed I had "backup".

I just don't get it... I was trying to be helpful. What is with some people? This is the third person I've had in the past two days tell me that I'm utterly wrong and that I have no experience when it comes to anything. I had a teenager call me out when I suggested against calcium sand as a substrate for leopard geckos. He told me that he was specially informed that you could keep even hatchlings on sand and not have to give them supplementation of any kind.

I've reached my wits end.

 

[Halley]

Some people care more about their personal prefers when it comes to look of tank or set-up than they do for the animals. Stupid people aren’t worth arguing with, so all you can do is inform them and if they don’t listen just quite trying. You’re not going to get through to them. You always have the option to quite your job as well…

 

[Greyscale_Geckos]

I'm heavily considering it...

 

[whkrazyk]

id say ignore and move on, if they dont want to listen, let them find out the hard way, i wouldnt suggest quiting your job especially in the economy we have right now

 

[2bacop]

I'm heavily considering it...

Sounds like my day, do you happen to work at one of the major chains?

 

[Nigel4less]

People, people... I`ll stick with my geckos

 

[GeckoStud]

People, people... I`ll stick with my geckos

I agree quite so quite so :main_yes:

 

[Greyscale_Geckos]

Sounds like my day, do you happen to work at one of the major chains?

Yes, I do.
---
I'd love to just quit, but it's incredibly hard to find a job in my area right now.
---

Heh, I'd take the geckos over some of those crazy customers any day.

 

[2bacop]

Yes, I do.
---
I'd love to just quit, but it's incredibly hard to find a job in my area right now.
---

Heh, I'd take the geckos over some of those crazy customers any day.

Do you work at the same chain as the gift card I sent you? If so we have a lot in common!

 

[Spooki]

it's even worse with "feeder" goldfish "OMG NO WAY THAT 15 CENT FISH CAN'T GROW TO BE A FOOT LONG LOL YOU LIEEEEEE!!!!!! IMMA STICK IT IN A BOWL!"

while you can refuse a sale, these people are just going to go elsewhere. next time they'll probably lie about their set ups.

case in point...
one morning i had people come in with a 29 gallon tank that was run for TWO DAYS and was "totally cycled" and they know this not by testing the water but because "some guy" their brother or cousin or uncle told them what to do. they insisted on buying 16 fish right away. 4 bala sharks, 4 kissing gouramis, 2 leporinus, 1 african feather fin... don't remember the rest but they wanted to seriously over stock it. i talked them down to just 5 fish, some assorted gouramis.

later that day they came back and went straight to my unsuspecting coworker and told them they had a 55 gallon that had been running for a month... and bought the rest of the fish they wanted.

i told them that if their fish died we would not honor our return policy and left a note about it. they weren't happy about it, but at that point i do not care. my job is to take care of the animals and be an advocate for responsible pet ownership. i can't force people to do anything, as hard as i try i can't make people care about their pets. in the end i just sell it to them, it keeps me in a job and at least i gave them the info. if i don't, they just go find someone who will sell it to them and there is no shortage of pet stores around here.

when i first started working in a pet store the dark side of pet ownership shocked me. but really, what can you do about it? people come in all the time and ask me about UV lighting for iguanas but say "omfg that's too expensive and my iguana is fine with out it" and leave with out buying anything, then come back a month or so later whining about a dead iguana and wanting to buy a beardie. it's endless frustration. i have refused more sales than i can count when it comes to reptiles. but i know most of them just go to the competitor afterwards.

all you can do is try to educate people. talk to you're blue in the face... many, many, many people come in with preconceived notions about pet store workers being as qualified to care for pets as john wayne gacy is for leading a boy scout troop but just keep talking, someone will hear you eventually.

 

[2bacop]

it's even worse with "feeder" goldfish "OMG NO WAY THAT 15 CENT FISH CAN'T GROW TO BE A FOOT LONG LOL YOU LIEEEEEE!!!!!! IMMA STICK IT IN A BOWL!"

while you can refuse a sale, these people are just going to go elsewhere. next time they'll probably lie about their set ups.

case in point...
one morning i had people come in with a 29 gallon tank that was run for TWO DAYS and was "totally cycled" and they know this not by testing the water but because "some guy" their brother or cousin or uncle told them what to do. they insisted on buying 16 fish right away. 4 bala sharks, 4 kissing gouramis, 2 leporinus, 1 african feather fin... don't remember the rest but they wanted to seriously over stock it. i talked them down to just 5 fish, some assorted gouramis.

later that day they came back and went straight to my unsuspecting coworker and told them they had a 55 gallon that had been running for a month... and bought the rest of the fish they wanted.

i told them that if their fish died we would not honor our return policy and left a note about it. they weren't happy about it, but at that point i do not care. my job is to take care of the animals and be an advocate for responsible pet ownership. i can't force people to do anything, as hard as i try i can't make people care about their pets. in the end i just sell it to them, it keeps me in a job and at least i gave them the info. if i don't, they just go find someone who will sell it to them and there is no shortage of pet stores around here.

when i first started working in a pet store the dark side of pet ownership shocked me. but really, what can you do about it? people come in all the time and ask me about UV lighting for iguanas but say "omfg that's too expensive and my iguana is fine with out it" and leave with out buying anything, then come back a month or so later whining about a dead iguana and wanting to buy a beardie. it's endless frustration. i have refused more sales than i can count when it comes to reptiles. but i know most of them just go to the competitor afterwards.

all you can do is try to educate people. talk to you're blue in the face... many, many, many people come in with preconceived notions about pet store workers being as qualified to care for pets as john wayne gacy is for leading a boy scout troop but just keep talking, someone will hear you eventually.

I wish our managers would let us refuse sale like you do, they wont even take away the 14 day guarentee. Our DM has been cracking down on pet loss most of which comes from returns. Did I mention that we will not be selling syrian hamsters anymore because of pet loss. While your on here is this going on in your store too?

 

[Spooki]

our pet loss hasn't been bad... but the managers always whine because it all effects their bonus checks.

we stopped carrying long haired hamsters because almost all were dying due to wet tail, but corporate cracked down and our DM ordered them for us. we're now forced to carry them.

my managers are more than happy to let us refuse a sale if we know the pet will just come back dead. they end up "paying" for the returned dead pets. i'm not sure if we're technically allowed to take away the return policy but we tell people this any way. sometimes it stops people from buying that one extra fish for their over loaded tank. if not it at least stops it from effecting our pet loss.

 

[Kitsune]

I work at the same store that you both do.

I know 100% how you feel.

Luckily, our store here (possibly the other stores in FL) do not carry syrian hamsters at all. We only carry dwarf which helps pet loss A LOT.
My old store in NJ carried syrian and it was an absolute nightmare.

My managers are...ehhh.. about refusing a sale. They will refuse the guarantee though. No second thoughts.
My old store.. We wouldn't refuse the guarantee but we WOULD refuse the sale.

 

[Haligren]

Most people I talked to about reptiles when I was working in my store were thankfully more open minded about the whole thing. I've only had to refuse sale once and that was because the people didn't want to buy a decent starter setup for their snake. They wanted to keep it in a 'tub'. I tried to tell them that if you want your reptile to live then it needs the proper setup. It wasn't too hard to persuade her from there not to buy a snake especially after I told her that ours - as far as I knew - ate live food.

I don't understand how people can treat animals like objects. I just...have never been able to wrap my head around it. That's one reason why I hated working at the pet store I was at. The reptiles were treated as though they were less than furniture. I tried my best to care for them but it was very hard when you only had time for one or two days a week after university.

Needless to say, I often feel I have more in common with my animals than I do other people. They're my solace from a stupid, crazy, human world.

 

[Spooki]

I work at the same store that you both do.

I know 100% how you feel.

Luckily, our store here (possibly the other stores in FL) do not carry syrian hamsters at all. We only carry dwarf which helps pet loss A LOT.
My old store in NJ carried syrian and it was an absolute nightmare.

My managers are...ehhh.. about refusing a sale. They will refuse the guarantee though. No second thoughts.
My old store.. We wouldn't refuse the guarantee but we WOULD refuse the sale.

we almost never have hamsters die, except from wet tail. luckily the last one we had with that has made a full recovery.

i wish the dwarf hamsters were nicer... we have more of them returned for biting the crap out of some kid than anything else. :main_no: (we always warn people that owning a hamster means you'll more than likely get bit but they never listen)

 

[Alusdra]

It sucks that you guys are being good keepers and are feeling like you need to quit because of these idiots who come in. I consider it the mark of a good pet store when I get told not to buy something. Especially if it is an animal. The only store around here I would consider "good" flat out refused to sell me fish before I cycled the tank. And then they were nice enough to explain what in the world they were talking about so I could do so- I was totally clueless as the betta that started my tank was a rescue that had been living in a beer tankard. Well, maybe not totally clueless as I realized the tankard was no good.

On a positive note- I was wandering through one of the chain stores the other week and saw that they had a leopard gecko start-up pack with repticarpet instead of sand! Still not great, but it's getting there.

 

[Next Level Geckos]

With people like this, You have to wrestle them, put em in a head lock. :main_laugh:

 

[Spooki]

With people like this, You have to wrestle them, put em in a head lock. :main_laugh:

i'd love to just whack 'em upside the head with a sack of aquarium gravel... but that would get me fired for sure. but i can do it in my mind- repeatedly! :main_laugh:

on a side note, reminding people that fish breathe their own toilet water helps people keep on top of water quality. just saying bad water simply kills fish doesn't bring it home. i hate to be a jerk, but with some people you do have to make them feel like a bad person. :| we make a lot of analogies, like a bunch of friends peeing in your pool vs in the ocean and the fact that you couldn't live with even your best friend in a closet for a week. you think fish don't need personal space? lulz... still, there are always people who aren't going to listen because you are a stupid dumb-dumb retail slave.

 

[Next Level Geckos]

or a bag of dog food

 

[Spooki]

yeah, but dog food is all the way across the store