A few months ago, my wife bought a 5 gallon fish tank from Petco with a few guppies. When we returned a few days later, a salesperson named Linda informed us she could not sell us any fish, because the tank was too small and the fish sold to us did not belong together and could eat the guppies. It turned out the salesperson did not know what type of tank or fish went with one another. The end result was that I was told to bring everything back and buy the correct tank.
I ended up getting a 20 gallon tank, and a few days later a 10 gallon tank for the guppies and mollies that were pregnant. The sales girl who helped us was good and knew her stuff.
A week later at home, the tank went cloudy, and my wife called the San Bruno Petco, who put her through to the Colma Petco because there was no aquatics specialist in at the time. Unfortunately, the person at Colma had no experience and talked my wife through a half water change incorrectly, which immediately killed all the fish. The manager confirmed this and replaced the fish. Up to here, things were so-so, but now things take a turn for the worse.
When we went to get the replacement fish, the salesperson who helped us told the manager what to get. Unfortunately, the manager, Esmeralda, got the wrong algae eaters. This was not discovered for a few weeks.
Fish started dying every day, first in the 10 gallon, then in the 20 gallon once I transferred the remaining guppy and the algae eater they call a platco. I returned half the dead fish and flushed the rest, as I got tired of returning to the store. After buying all sorts of chemicals Petco suggested, I talked with their fish specialist, who was finally in. When I showed her the tank the algae eater came from, it was discovered that the manager had taken out the wrong fish and that the platcos were eating the coating off the other fish, causing them to die. Since then I brought the 4 platcos back (ALIVE) and the fish stopped dying. We were told we should wait a month before adding any fish. We did so.
In the meantime, we ended up buying 2 rats and 3 cages that stack on one another. When we went back to look at the fish, my wife found another small rat and decided to buy that rat instead. Esmeralda, who is one of the managers and also the one who messed up the algae eating fish, told my wife and me that she would sell us the rat, but it would not come with any warranty, which corporate tells me is against their policy. She picked the rat up by its tail and dropped it into the box without even letting us inspect it. When we were outside, I opened the box and saw that the rat was sick. I contacted corporate immediately, and they informed me that Esmeralda was in fact not allowed to do what she did and that I should bring the rat back to be seen by a vet.
This was not needed, as the rat was suffering from being fed the wrong food and perked up fine by the next day. Now, let me say that other than this, I have not returned any of the rats, and I have bought fish with no problems from this store.
This complaint made it back to Esmeralda, who retaliated by telling everyone at the store not to sell anything to us. I called corporate, who said that despite the manager being wrong, it is their decision and I have to wait for a general manager to get back, as corporate has no say in telling anyone they have to sell anything. The other associates know Esmeralda is wrong and that she retaliated, but since she is their boss, they must listen. If Petco is for the animals, why are they letting someone like this, who treats pets badly, work for them? But if they can treat customers like this, I guess pets come last too.
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