PetSmart or PetsNot so Smart

Stupid dumb hoe. U are exact on what u said. We love animals not
people. Main damn reason why the hell we work at PETSMART. Idiot..
Not to mention ur no knowledge of pets urslef makes me wonder wtf u
doin buyin a hamster
Why r u trying to blaim PETSMART associates for u being a fish
killer. For what petcare associates get paid we should only have to
bag ur damn fish n smile . Do ur own research. Buy a book n read
before u go off buyin n killing pets. It's ur own fault dumbaszz u
must b really good on the comp. Ur over here talkin shit yet u
couldn't google how to care for a hamster and there needs. Lazy fuck
stay out of PETSMART!

I am currently working at PetSmart, while I have learned that there
are a few of our stores in the entire country that actually aren't
that good except when they find out they have the higher ups there,
thankfully there are only very few of those. But there is always at
least one for every franchise. I work in the Pet Care dept. and I make
your concern mine. I am always researching more information about
products and definitely the animals we sell/adopt out. I feel that
answering/helping pet parents helps the pets to be happy/happier. We
do have free care guides for every pet parent to take and there are
always a supply list on the back of the guide. We constantly try to
better ourselves for the customers and pets. The associate who pointed
you to the general area was in the wrong, and was most likely let go
if that was a constant. The all associates in the store I work at
would have handled that differently and taken the time to thoroughly
help you through it. Even the cashiers at the store I work at are
learning more about the animals we sell/adopt out in case the 1-3 Pet
Care associates in the store at any one time are already tending to
customers. I apologize deeply on behalf of PetSmart for your bad
experience(s) at the Warner Robins store. Please when you are even
just thinking about getting a new companion, do at least the minimum
online research before going to any pet store, then the associates of
the store are to take it from there and help you decide honestly if
that pet is the right one for you. We now have something each pet
parent signs when purchasing any live animal {besides fish} that
explains the warranty and it is required to sign it. And if you have
not purchased anything for that pet yet, it is not required of the
associate, but many Pet Care associates prefer that they helped you
choose the proper housing that not only fit your new companion but you
as well and to help you choose the proper food and toys. And the Pet
Care dept at the store I work at has made it required that we walk the
store looking for pet parents to assist in any way possible every 15
minutes at the very most. Personally I have made it a rule for me to
look every 5 minutes if not more often. I sincerely apologize once
again for your experience. Hopefully that store has changed since 2006
for the better.

Oh for Gods sake woman don't be so whiny. Do you have any idea how
many idot customers the employees at petsmart have to deal with on a
daily basis? Just the fact that you are complaining about your fish
dieing tells me that you don't know a rats behind keeping fish. You
probably come into the store with your ill mannered St Bernard and
your snot nosed kids,screaming and messing up the place and thinking
that the world should stop turning for you. Get a life. The people
that work at PetSmart work their butts off and have to deal with
whiney customers all day long. Get a clue! If your fish keep dieing,
your doing something wrong. It's no PetSmarts problem. It's yours.

groomer gal.
im proud to be a petsmart employee. in the past i have worked for
small groomer shops that misstreated the dogs very badly. i have never
seen any dogs treated bad by any groomers at petsmart. the groomers
are very caring about the dogs health and try to help the petparent
know more information on how to take better care of their pet. we have
lots of meetings for all the employees where we talk about how to make
the customers feel happy and at home. if you think petstmart sold you
sick fish then you need to know that they put all the sick animals in
a room and spend lots of money on medicine to help them. when you
bought the fish you must have done something wrong that killed them.
im not saying you are a fish killer , im sure it was an accident, but
you should learn as much information as you can about an animal before
you buy it so these accidents dont happen. i have even been in the
room where they keep the sick animals and nurse them back to help when
most petstores would just throw a sick animal in the garbage. petsmart
employees care about the animals in the store. i love the fact that
they try to get customers to donate to the homeless animals and the
pet adoption we have every weekend is good proof of how much we care
about animals. petsmart is a very busy job for all the employees so if
it takes a while for you to get assistance its not because we dont
care to help you, you should understand that we stay so busy assisting
many other customers that sometimes it might take us a while to get to
you. like all busy businesses it takes time to get assistance. we try
to our best to help everyone because we do care about our customers.
if you want assistance as soon as you walk in the door i recommend
trying a smaller store with less customers, but if you think about it
- if theres not many customers in the smaller store its most likely
because that store isnt very good. people want the best and thats why
petsmart is always full of people. i have learned so much about
animals just listening to the other employees talk. we are all trained
to know as much as we can to be able to assist you in the best way. i
am a dog groomer and when i notice something wrong with a dogs health-
whether its ear mites or ring worms or something else i always make
sure to let the petparent know and what they can do to cure the
problem, every person i work with does the same because we care about
the animals. i have also been sent out of the salon on to the floor to
help customers. i know alot about dogs and cats other than just
grooming, like whats the best collar for a pet or dog bones that are
good for teeth and healthy food for dogs with allergies and skin
problems. all the employees have a great amount of knowledge when it
comes to animals. if someone asked me about lizards i would tell them
i couldnt be very helpfull because i dont know anything about lizards
but i will find someone who does. i dont know how good other petsmarts
are but i love the one i work at. not only do they care about their
animals and customers and donations for the adoptions, they treat
their employees good too, which is very rare for a job. i hope you
keep going to petsmart and know how much petsmart does caring and good
things for the animals.

Only a particular department in the store is trained to handle small
pets and fish. While I do think the employee who simply pointed out
the direction of the hamster products was in the wrong, there is some
responsibility you need to take as a good pet owner.

For example, doing your own research. While PetSmart does have a
commitment and a certain amount of responsibility to give you the
right information about the animal(s) you are adopting, it is
ultimately up to you to be sure that that animal is a suitable
addition to your home and that YOU can provide the best care possible
for it.

As many have stated, hamsters do not make the best small pets for
young children due to the general disposition of most individuals.
Setting up a fish tank requires a lot more planning and patience than
one may think. The tank needs to build up enough nitrifying bacteria
to break down your fish's waste. Without it, your fish will quickly
become ill living in a dirty environment and will soon perish.

Adopting any animal without any prior knowledge of it's care is
highly irresponsible on your part. Please do yourself and the animals
a favor next time and READ. Search the internet or pick up a book
about an animal your interested in adopting. I assure you, it will
make a world of difference and change your experience(s)
significantly.

its called a care guide...just ask for one it has all the info you
need for the small animal you are buying. also only the people in
petcare are trained in helping and answering questions with pets... so
on any given day there will only be 1-3 people in the store that can
meet your needs when it comes to living pet issues... unless it is
food then you will want to speak to a pets products employee. also the
dead fish prolly your fault.... again get a care guide... and most of
all its not pesmarts fault your kids cant handle the death of a
fish... that blame is on you!

Amy,

I do apologize for the trouble that you have had to deal with, it is
unfortunate. However, Petsmart employees are trained to help customers
and are also trained to know everything they can about the animals in
their store. Sometimes there are things being done for the store that
may distract a member of the team from helping you in the way you
would like, but we try our best.

Further more, yes even though we are supposed to help you with your
animal needs, perhaps if it has caused you so many problems, you
should take time out of your day to research the animals that you and
your children are wanting to bring home. Even though we are trained to
know about the animals in the store we may not know everything,
besides what if we tell you everything we know, you take home an
animal and you don't like something it does? If you would have
researched it, instead of making a snap decision to buy it with out
knowing anything about it, you wouldn't have so many issues. You are
able to find things about animals online such as:

*Cage size
*What food to feed
*What toys to buy
*How long the animal will live
*And more


So, next time you want to buy an animal, be responsible, research the
animal, and then when you come in to buy it if you still need help
with certain things someone will be there to help you out.

Thank You

Okay, #1, Petsmart does train their employees. They have to read all
these books on pet care and how to handle people who can't keep
animals alive. The thing is is that it's not that the employees hate
people or anything, but we often wonder, why do people come in the
store wanting to buy a pet with NO prior knowledge on the pet. I'm
sure when you decided to have your kids, you didn't go into it totally
blind. "I want to have a baby, what do I do? What do I feed it? How
do I care for it? What do I do when it gets sick?"...I'm sure you did
some kind of research or read some books or something before such a
big decision. So, why not do that if you are interested in getting an
animal? And, a hamster is a bad choice for such young kids. They all
bite (sorry, but true). And about your fish tanks, again, doing some
research on best developed practices on caring for fish probably would
have avoided the whole "returning them to Petsmart and putting my kids
through such anguish". Also, if you knew what filtering requirements
you need, why are you pinning the lack of knowledge on the associates?
The hardest thing about working at Petsmart is trying to help people
who come in with attitudes and don't want to listen when we give good
advice. Or if we tell you something you don't want to hear, you
insist on it anyway. I would safely say that leads to 90% of pet
deaths. Example: "why do my fish keep dying?", "well, what size is
your tank, how many fish do you have, how long has the tank been set
up?" "it's a 10 gallon, we have 20 goldfish in it, and I set it up
yesterday and I got the fish on the same day"....That's the kind of
stuff we hear, day in and day out. So before you are so critical of
us, try to put yourself in our shoes too. I know it's frustrating to
go to "experts" and get less than "expert" advice. But maybe you
shouldn't solely rely on other people. Really, is there anyone who
knows everything about everything? Yeah, thought so. Oh and one last
thing. We actually have a JOB to do when we go there. It's not like
we are there for 8 hours, knees shaking waiting for customers to come
in and bug us...we are so busy trying to keep things clean and nice
the way customers want it to be when they walk in, that yeah,
sometimes we get busy...but no, I lied. We really just work there and
ignore customers for the hell of it.

First of all, 2 and 5 year olds should not have a hamster as a pet.
These small animals are too nippy and antsy for children that young.

Second, if you keep buying fish and they keep dying--maybe, just
maybe, you are doing something wrong. How many gallons? How many
fish per gallon? How often are water changes? How many fish are you
adding at once? Did you bring water samples? How often are you (or
your children)feeding the fish...too much food possibly?

I agree that you should of researched these things yourself especially
if you didn't get any info from the store.

Never go and buy a live animal on an impulse buy. You should always
investigate and research for a pet. You are not making a commitment
for your life; it's or the animal's lives. If you don't know what you
are doing and you keep doing it wrong..you are the one killing the
animals. Think smarter, not harder.

I use to work for Petsmart, and they simply don't train their
employees. They tell them to be a "Pet Detective" and be able to
answer any question, blah, blah, blah, but they don't want to actually
pay for the hours it takes to train you in the different departments.
And since they don't tend to promote within very much, you'll often
run across managers that know LESS about animals and product than the
employees do, truly sad.

They also don't allow them to test products so that they can recomend
them with honesty (unless they want to purchase them with their
whopping 15% discount), they don't have meetings to go over new
products and info on those so they can pass it along to the customer.
They're more interested in the mighty dollar than in actual service.
The fact that they never have enough employees on hand to help the
customers is proof of this. Managers get bonuses if they keep hours
down and the hours they're given the in the first place are too few to
work with. The company itself offers little incentive for the
employees to learn or bother really.

All in all, Petsmart is just not worth your time or energy. Someone
just bought out Petco and is sinking money into it to try and up it's
standards, with any luck they'll be better in the next couple of years
and we can all give them our hard earned cash.

I have to agree. I was recently conducting a science experiment for
school which required me to purchase and have extensive knowledge
about the type of crickets I was using. I called the store to try and
get the information I need and I asked to speek with the person who
knew anything about the crickets sold at the store. I was given some
girl who couldn't tell me what type they were, what type of mantaince
was requried for them, nothing. She just talked about them being
pretty big and that the repitle like to eat them. "Pet experts" I
think not! More like "Pet NO NOTHINGS"!!!!

I have to disagree with the PetsMart employee who claims that the
staff are trained. They often don't seem to know much of anything,
not about the products, if they are in stock, or the animals they
sell.

I shop in the fish department, as well as for my cats and dogs. My
advice:

Learn about keeping fish online. The internet is a wonderful tool to
learn about how to keep fish healthy. PetsMart employees are not a
good source of this information - and not what I would consider pet
experts of any sort. The fish at PetsMart are also highly
questionable. I do occasionally see and get good fish there, but the
ratio is about 50/50 and I have to explain to the employee how to tell
the difference in the fish. You are better off going to a reputable
store that deals only in aquatics and read online to learn more about
water Ph, tank cycling and compatibility. Don't rely on Petsmart to
tell you these things.

Don't buy anything at PetsMart without checking the price online
first. They have started to sell some of the nicer, better quality
filters for large aquariums, but at prices often more than 2 X higher
than their own online price, or anyone else's online price. Managers
will do a price match in the store against the petsmart.com price.
Print it out and take it in.

The fact that you can't be bothered to do research about basic hamster
needs on your OWN is quite appalling. It is going to be your pet and
your responsibility for the next 3-5 years, it's not PetSmart's fault
that they can't cater to your every whim or that you come in looking
for animals you know nothing about. Hell, you might've been speaking
with a stock associate and not a petcare associate, hence the reason
why they told you where it was and couldn't help you any further.

Come on now, if your fish are dying constantly, something in your
brain SHOULD be going off saying "hey, maybe there's something wrong
with my tank, not the fish I put in it!" Have you cycled your tank for
at least 2 weeks intiially? Do you do regular water changes and feed
your fish a varied diet of flakes and frozen food? Do you have a
heater/filter/air pump? Are you mixing goldfish and tropical fish
together? Are you heeding the directions for tank size labeled RIGHT
UNDER the fish tanks at PetSmart? These are all very good reasons why
your fish could be dying. You've proved that you know how to use the
internet to OMGZ COMPLAIN!!! so why is it that you can't look up the
basic needs of the LIVING THINGS you constantly buy over the internet
as well?

I understand your aggravation as a customer because I have been in
that position myself.

But I do work for Petsmart, and work in the specialty/aquatics area.
The 'specialty' area is usually an inside promotion and most employees
that are in that specific area don't know much more than what our
employee handbook states. I was hired directly into the position
because of previous experiance.

Be persistant, ask for personal help, then be patient.. and if you
don't see anybody, ask a cashier to page one. There have been
numerous times where we're swamped and I still get asked to help
someone with setting up a cage. I always let them know that there's
a few people ahead of them and I'll be with them as quickly as
possible. A lot of the time it does take a good 15-20 minutes, but
when your patient, it makes the employee want to spend more time with
you and you'll get much better advice.

I just ask for you to look at it through the eyes of the employee the
next time you feel upest. We don't like helping customers that are
rude or bossy, or expect special treatment because they have a kid on
one hand and a excited dog on the other.

Amy, I can sympathize with your problem, but I have come to realize
that if you are going to do business with any large reatil chain these
days,there are some new rules for shopping.
Most stores are minimally staffed, which means that you will
probably need to get an associate's attention, and then wait untill
they are able to help. If they are as busy as they all seem to be
these days, you will also need to be extra careful to smile and
practice your very best customer manners - they are stressed and will
tend to do their jobs better if not made to feel like they are there
to only serve your needs.
When shopping for "specialty" items, like pets,or stoves if you are
in Home Depot, it is probably best to do some basic homework first.
The associates are should not be expected to be experts in everything
they sell.
If you do purchase something, make sure that before you do, the
return policy has been reviewed - ask for a written copy that you can
sign. And for Gosh sakes, save your receipt!
If you are ultimatly unhappy with your shopping experience, contact
the manager, get his or her name, and make you concerns known in a
careful and clear manner. Do not raise your voice or become upset.
This will only serve to make the situation worse. Managers are also
very stressed from managing all those associates.
Of course the best thing to do is to find yourself a nice collection
of mom & pop stores that will cost you a little more in time and
money, but will truly appreciate your presense, remember your name,
and be ready willing and able to answer your questions.

PetSmart & Petco are the WalMarts of the pet industry. If you want
knowledgeable people who can actually HELP you withj your purchase I
would suggest finding a mom & pop type place.

A good way to judge a pet store is to look for 2 things. Do they sell
cat and dogs? If yes, stay away. You really dont want to give your
business to place the supports puppy & kitty mills. The second thing
to look for is the cleanliness of the cages if they have samll animals
(rabbits, ginea pis, hamsters, ect). If the animals have food, water
and clean bedding its probably a pretty decent place.

Good luck.

If you think that a company is going to compensate you for your "time,
energy, and gas", then you need to wake up join the real world.

You seem to be upset about having to wait for service. So you should
change your shopping hours. One thing I have learned about Pet Smart
is not to go during peak hours. There are too many customers for the
staff to handle. This is not the fault of the staff; I have always
found them to be courteous and knowledgeable.

I suspect you are so intent upon your needs you never even noticed you
may have been interrupting the transactions between a salesperson and
another customer. Look around you to see if that is the case and wait
your turn it it is.

Also try not bringing your kids to the store. Besides the fact that
you are setting a bad example of adult behavior, the constant
references you make about having them there sound like you believe you
should receive special treatment because they are with you.

For heaven's sake, woman, show some sense and check out your water and
fish tank to see why the fish are dying. How on Earth can you say it
is the store's fault when so many have died?

Are you totally helpless? Can you look up how to take care of fish and
hamsters online?

So many times people complain about others not doing things for which
they themselves should be responsible.

Is this what you are teaching your children, to be unreasonable, to
charge for the gas, time and energy. If the you already know the tank
is too small buy a bigger one. If you know it needs more supplies buy
them. Grow up yourself and set a good example to your kids.

This letter doesnt suprise me at all. I HATE Petsmart and can NEVER
get anyone to help me. Unfortunately its the closest place to me..if
not the only place..where I can get my son's gecko's worms and
crickets.

I sent them a letter about a month or two ago because me and my son
were in there trying to get the worms and crickets and a few other
things. There were no crickets out and you have to ask for the worms.
Every time we got close to any employee they would turn and walk away.
My son had to actually RUN to get the attention of an employee and
then he spoke over my son to another employee and walked away. At the
same time another employee walked out the place where the worms are
and my son tried to get her attention and she too walked off. I had my
sister's baby with me so I couldnt move as fast as my son. And he is
NOT shy so he didnt have any trouble trying to ask for help.

By this point we gave up and left the stuff we had picked out and
left.

I never did hear back from Petsmart.

So good luck...I hope you get more satisfaction from them than I did.

Why should they compensate you?

And why do you keep buying fish there if they keep dying?!

Hi Amy,

I worked at this Petsmart for almost five years, from the time the
store opened until December of last year. In fact, I worked in the
department that you are complaining about. You have probably even
spoken with me if you shopped there prior to 2006. I would like to
make a few comments about the letter that you wrote.

First off, I believe this issue can best be addressed and even
resolved at the store level, by speaking with the management of the
store. The manager that you need to speak with is named Scotty
Wilson. You can also speak to Amy Arrowsmith about this issue. Just
call the store, 478-971-3700 and ask for either one of those people
and you should be able to resolve the issue there as opposed to
posting it here. If you feel it is not resolved at that level, ask
the store manage for the number of the District Manager Al Williams or
Joe Magralia.

The situations that you describe in your letter sound all too familiar
to me; I heard these complaints at least once a week. The associate
that pointed in the "general direction" of the hamster stuff was
probably busy with other customers at the time and was unable to
abandon them to show you where the hamster stuff is. While I was
working there, almost all the time I had several customers waiting for
me to bag fish for them while other customers would come up to me
asking me where other items were. I would always tell them or point
in the general area where these items are located since I could not
abandon my current customer. I don't know what else I could do other
than to tell them where to find the item. If you had a question about
a product all you had to do was to ask me about a specific product
while I was bagging fish and I would have been more than happy to
answer it for you while helping someone else.

When you are in the aquatic department, waiting for service is
expected. Chances are, there is only one Pet Care associate working
at the time and he or she will have at least three customers waiting
on them. You might get lucky and see two associates working during
peak hours. Going to the cashier and having the cashier page someone
over to aquatics will generally accomplish nothing since the only
person that will respond to the page is the person that is over there
working. Other associates who work in the store are not going to
respond to an aquatics page. In fact, you will probably have to wait
longer if you go to the cashier to page someone since someone else
will then take your place in queue of being served.

I would highly recommend brining a sample of your water to Petsmart
for analysis. Your fish will keep dying if you do not find out what
the root cause for your fish tank failing. Doing some research on
your part will also help. There is a plethora of information
available on the net on how to care for fish tanks. It is not fair to
blame Petsmart for the death of your fish until you find out why your
fish are dying, and a water test is imperative to finding this out.
You need to talk to Carla or Phyllis regarding your fish tank. They
are very knowledgeable and can help you resolve this issue.

Your accusations of the Petsmart associates not being trained with
animals and people is a false statement, for the most part. When a
new associate is hired, they are trained with basic customer service
skills. For those who are working in the Pet Care department, there
are several modules that each new hire must complete before they can
begin working with the animals. Some of these modules include fish
care, reptile care, bird care, small animal care, and other modules.
The new hire must also pass a test to make sure that what they have
learned is retained.

I don't mean to be harsh in my response to my letter; however it
appears to me that you are looking for freebies. Just like I said,
you are better off resolving this with the store manager as opposed to
this website. In the past, the store has forked over $50 gift cards
for customers complaining about the most ridiculous things. A lot of
the issues you experience in the store are not the associate's fault,
but rather stem from the management and up to the corporate level.
The stores are only allotted a certain amount of hours to distribute
among all associates in the store, and there aren't many hours to work
with. It is hard for the management to render a schedule that
accommodates the number of customers in the store.

The bottom line, you should resolve this issue with the store
management.

478-971-3700

Why don't you save yourself some trouble and figure out what you need
for the hamster habitat before you go into the store? It's going to be
your pet after all, not the stores. You are the one who needs to know
what sort of bedding it will need, its dietary requirements, etc. Be a
good pet owner and learn what your new pet will need to live a long
and happy life with your family.

There's this wonderful invention called the internet. If you have any
questions about fish, hamsters, st. bernards, heck even child-rearing,
you can find it online. There's an even more marvelous invention
called a book. In my experience, just about anything you want to know
can be found in a book.

Being an educated pet owner will save you lots of grief from the
start. It probably would have prevented you from buying a too-small
tank or the wrong filtration system.

If your fish are dying on a regular basis, you might ask around and
see what other fish owners are doing to keep their fish alive and
happy.

If you can find someone to help you (lol), bring in a sample of the
water in your tank so they can help you figure out why your fish die.
They are supposed to test your water for free if you ask them (or find
a reputable fish store who will).

I used to call my aquarium the "tank of death" until we figured out
what was wrong with it - the old fish were fine but the new fish
always died until the water was balanced.