shotty pet store service

Well I was in one of the main multi chain pet strores yesterday picking up a few supplys and I over heard a worker talking to another customer about the customers tank and theprobs he was having. I couldn't help but notice all the wrong information the worker was giving the customer. The customer said his pH was low so the worker told him "since your pH is low you need to add tap water to bring it back up since tap water has a pH of 8.8 I was thinking in my head you for to be kidding me because we all know tap water has a pH of about 7.4. Then he points the customer in the direction on pH up chemicals. Then the customer says his water is cloudy so the worker points him in the direction of all these water clarifying chemicals. There was some other things he told the customer with in my opinion was wrong. But I don't feel like typing all day. After all was said and done he had a cart full of chemicals and other junk. The worker walked away and I approached the customer and told him that worker had no idea what he was talking about and went over what I knew about pH and pointed him into the direction of fluval polishing pads for water clarity and told him he shouldn't add chemicals to his tank unless he absolutely needs to. He thanked me and ended uomwalkimg out if the store withn2 items and not the half cart full he started with. It pisses me off that instead of telling the customer that they don't know the answer to their questions they give them the wrong information and point them To a bunch of chemicals which aren't needed at all. I don't get that they will hire people that have no clue what their talking about but when someone like myself with a decent amount of knowledge tries to get a job they won't hire me. Makes me want to open up my own pet store in the future to actually help people with this hobby and not to just make a bunch of money off their mistakes...

 

Yeah, remember most are there to sell you stuff, one of my local petcos has this guy at the fish section who's super smart and nice, he also knew a lot about CO2 and other planted tank ferts, which most people working there wouldn't know.

 

I've had to do the same thing for a few people in the same day. One still ended up going with what the worker said, though Shouldn't they be trained to know this stuff?

 

Semi OT, but not all tap water pH is mid 7. Mine is around 9. Depends on the treatment used.

 

Guess we learn something new everyday. I just figured he lived in the same Ares as me and got his water from the same water dept as myself. I tested my water just for the hell of it and it was in the 7.4 area.

 

My biggest pet peeve is that a worker would rather give wrong information than just telling the customer they aren't sure if the right answer. I'd be happier with "sorry but I'm not sure what the correct answer is to your question" rather than the worker guess at what the correct answer is. Honesty is the best policy.

 

I agree about the honesty but I think sometimes people "learn on the fly" by working in the store, they begin to think they do know the right answer.

 

I'm never wrong.

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

;-)

 

most lfs' i think hire with too low of pays for someone to actually care about what they do....the other day i went to my local lfs to get Alk test kit, and they didn't have...so the guy tells me we got PH test kits that you can use to know how alkaline your water is....:-O i walked right out lol

 

Well, you actually can check alkalinity by testing change in pH. Very simply, that is what alkalinity measures, how resistant the water is to changes in pH.