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WayneSallee":footsle5 said:
ROTFL!!!
Holy crap that's hilarious!!!
Nothing I've experienced could be that funny, so I'm not even going to try.
Peace,
Chip
ROTFL!!!
Holy crap that's hilarious!!!
Nothing I've experienced could be that funny, so I'm not even going to try.
Peace,
Chip
A long time ago I owned an on line fish store. We would ship the fish with ice in the boxes in the summer. I would just freeze water in bags instead of buying gel packs. I kept getting calls about the bag without a fish in it and why did I send it..................We had to get a marker and write ICE on the plastic bags. I think that there were even some post's here about it.
When we switched to gel packs I got a call from some idiot that he had opened the gel pack and put it in his tank and what should he do?
When we switched to gel packs I got a call from some idiot that he had opened the gel pack and put it in his tank and what should he do?
bobimport":2qvpyys0 said:
8O
Between that and the Raid... I don't think I can beat that.
Although today I had a woman come in who'd bought and used copper-based ich treatment in her FOWLR, even though the package said NOT to use it with live rock... :roll: They *always* find me *after* the're FUBAR....
I'd bet it never occurs to her that the the coffee is very hot in her McDonald's cup, even though there's a warning label on it...
I used to work for a couple who owned an LFS. One day the wife was dusting, using furniture polish. She was careful to take the dust cloth outside to spray the stuff on it. When she was dusting the cabinet and canopy of a tank, she noticed some algae on the inside glass. Without even thinking about it she opened the lid and used her dust cloth with Pledge on it, to wipe the algae. That wasn't all she 'wiped'....
The full-line pet store a few miles from here that shouldn't even be selling fish, has advised people to bleach their live rock, it's a great way to rid those pesky bristle worms (and everything else, including your fish!) :roll:
The same store - some years ago I broke my hydrometer and rather than drive across town to get one from work, I went to that store - since they sell marines, I assumed (wrongly) I could buy another one there. While I was there I saw a woman choosing her livestock - LTA doing the jelly-roll of death in a copper-treated tank, a nice butterfly that would likely eat the anemone... The sales clerk was called away on a phone call so I struck up a conversation with the customer and asked her about her tank. She pointed to a 55 on the sale floor - that was going to be her new tank. "You're buying all those fish right now?"... She explained that she was going to set the tank up that night and return the next day for all her fish. 8O 8O I asked her if she'd heard of the 'nitrogen cycle' and that it was a bad idea to do all that at once - rather cycle her tank with the few stark pieces of (bleached?) "live rock" she'd chosen, and wait a few weeks... then the sales clerk returned so I bowed out of the discussion. I overheard the customer ask the clerk about 'cycling' and the clerk said, "Oh some people do that but I didn't bother and all my fish lived." $5 says that tank ended up in the Thrifty Nickel within a few months...
The store had no hydrometers in stock - so I wonder how the customer was supposed to check her salinity before sending all those critters to their deaths?!
When I left that store, I think the vein in my forehead was close to rupturing. Places like that are bad for my health. It's still in business but it's had about 4 owners in the last 5 or 6 years.... I guess the puppy-mill dogs they sell keep them going.
Oh and recently I had a manufacturer's rep tell me about some other store she was in in south GA, and she saw a man asking to buy "guffies". She chuckled as the sales clerk kept saying, "guppies" but the man kept repeating, "guffies". After 20 minutes, the clerk bagged up the fish, rang up the customer and as he left, she told him to have a nice day and hoped he'd enjoy his "guffies!" They both nearly died laughing...
Yesterday I had a one-tooth-wonder come in and tell me about her fancy guffies... perhaps they're related....
Today I had a reading/pronunciation-challenged sort come in. In his defense he's been doing some research on the Internet, but sometimes a little knowledge can be dangerous. He wanted to know if he should buy an Imperior (Emperor) filter, to go with his Seaclone, or would he be better with 2 Imperiors on his 55? (I showed him a CPR BakPak, and told him the 'clone was junk). Then he told me he bought ergranite sand (aragonite). He also told me he wants to keep anememas (with friends like this, who needs enemas?) and polipolis (polyps). I finally got him straight on pronunciation of 'polyps' but I gave up on the imperior thing... even though I repeated the name of the filter a number of times, as well as "anemones"... Unfortunately most of his 'research' was done on that etailer's website - the one that's 'racing' to be the biggest... so God knows what he's going to end up buying - but it's always good to ask somebody who knows what they're doing before buying elsewhere :roll:
Every day we get at least one customer who just makes us shake our heads.
A friend of mine who has worked with the public for many years, once told me, "The masses are asses." She's right. Honestly there are so many just plain stupid people out there, it makes one wonder just how they manage to get through life? Definitely a lot of Darwin Award candidates out there.
Jenn
JennM":285zqzxs said:
Yea it amazes me how many people buy their lights there thinking that they are getting a good deal, and then come in to buy some corals, and ask "Should I put that coral up high, or down low" :roll:
I just ask them if they know how many wats of light they have, and usualy they have no idea. I just tell them that they need to do that math and figur out what their wats per gallon is, and then I can give them the needed advice.
Now if they would just buy good lights to begine with, then they would not have to ask such stupid questions.
But they usualy just keep buying corals, and don't figure out how much light they have.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets
[email protected]
OMG I had one on Thursday.
She was crying - I mean hysterically crying REAL HARD because she was bad and got banned from a different reef forum community.
She kept me on the phone for well over an hour absolutely hysterical. Like I'm an admin or something and could do something about it.
Customers crying - there is a new one I don't want to have repeated AT ALL.
She was crying - I mean hysterically crying REAL HARD because she was bad and got banned from a different reef forum community.
She kept me on the phone for well over an hour absolutely hysterical. Like I'm an admin or something and could do something about it.
Customers crying - there is a new one I don't want to have repeated AT ALL.
WayneSallee":1fflyr6b said:
Well watts-per-gallon is a poor way to determine light anyway. It's about spectrum, intensity and PAR rating. If the tank is shallow, there's more chance of sufficient light making it to the bottom than in a deeper tank, so in 2 tanks the same size with the same amount of watts that formula would be flawed.
I've heard of people keeping SPS under NO Fluorescents - if there's enough of them, in a shallow enough tank. Lighting is such a controversial topic - ask 5 people, get 7 opinions.
I do agree that a hobbyists should have knowledge of the kind of lighting he/she has and the wattage - because then we can give them an educated opinion about whether a given specimen will thrive.
I find it amazing how many people don't know what kind of lighting they have, period.
Jenn
fishinchick":2on5qsy6 said:
I have my credit card terminal on the same phone line. Helps reduce long phone talkers.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets
[email protected]
::::Raises hand:::::
I've got another one!!!!
I have this customer, older fellow - pleasant to deal with but very, umm, well, unsophisticated would be a good description.
He has a 5 1/2 gallon tank and honestly I'm surprised he hasn't killed everyting (or at least I don't think he has...)
He came in the other day stating that his lionfish had recently died and he wanted to replace it with something else. Lionfish? Well he didn't buy that from me but I remember him mentioning it over the last few months so he did have it a while - perhaps a dwarf specimen in the small tank (I hope...)
Anyway, as he perused my tanks, he stopped at the tomato clowns and asked, "Are those lionfish?" 8O
God only knows what he really had. He bought a damsel. And for those who know me - I hate damsels. I don't order them, but occasionally somebody will 'donate' a damsel to my cause when they realize what little terrors they are - so I had a domino that had been duly donated and that's what he took home.
OH and he also bought a new "Fan Filter" too (translation: Feather Duster). I've had the "Fan Filter" conversation with him on no fewer than 3 occasions, and he just refuses to call them by their usual common names.
So, Fan Filter it is.... :roll:
I've got another one!!!!
I have this customer, older fellow - pleasant to deal with but very, umm, well, unsophisticated would be a good description.
He has a 5 1/2 gallon tank and honestly I'm surprised he hasn't killed everyting (or at least I don't think he has...)
He came in the other day stating that his lionfish had recently died and he wanted to replace it with something else. Lionfish? Well he didn't buy that from me but I remember him mentioning it over the last few months so he did have it a while - perhaps a dwarf specimen in the small tank (I hope...)
Anyway, as he perused my tanks, he stopped at the tomato clowns and asked, "Are those lionfish?" 8O
God only knows what he really had. He bought a damsel. And for those who know me - I hate damsels. I don't order them, but occasionally somebody will 'donate' a damsel to my cause when they realize what little terrors they are - so I had a domino that had been duly donated and that's what he took home.
OH and he also bought a new "Fan Filter" too (translation: Feather Duster). I've had the "Fan Filter" conversation with him on no fewer than 3 occasions, and he just refuses to call them by their usual common names.
So, Fan Filter it is.... :roll:
And speaking of Fan Filters... I get tons of people mispronouncing names....
I had a dude who moved here from CA explain to me that when he was in CA he had a great tank blah blah...
It had:
A Spotted Sutliffe. After repeating that quietly to myself for a minute trying to find the literal translation, I asked if it was a spotted sweetlips, but he informed me that on the West Coast they call it a sutliffe... Pardonnez-moi! I nearly laughed out loud when he told me that... I'm thinking perhaps the gentleman needed a hearing test because he didn't name anything properly.
A Nassau tang (no doubt from the Bahamas, not Hawaii *snicker* - or perhaps I misunderstood and it's a NASA tang - been on the Space Shuttle - you never know!!!)
And my personal favourite... a Volatile Lionfish!
It was very very hard to keep a straight face during that encounter.
Jenn
I had a dude who moved here from CA explain to me that when he was in CA he had a great tank blah blah...
It had:
A Spotted Sutliffe. After repeating that quietly to myself for a minute trying to find the literal translation, I asked if it was a spotted sweetlips, but he informed me that on the West Coast they call it a sutliffe... Pardonnez-moi! I nearly laughed out loud when he told me that... I'm thinking perhaps the gentleman needed a hearing test because he didn't name anything properly.
A Nassau tang (no doubt from the Bahamas, not Hawaii *snicker* - or perhaps I misunderstood and it's a NASA tang - been on the Space Shuttle - you never know!!!)
And my personal favourite... a Volatile Lionfish!
It was very very hard to keep a straight face during that encounter.
Jenn
It's an even sadder case when the owners of a shop pronounce the names like that. Or, God forbid, you slip in a scientific name and they're thrown off for the whole week. :roll:
Informed peeps on here know of whom I speak. Hopefully they'll go bankrupt soon and get jobs at WalMart.
Peace,
Chip
Informed peeps on here know of whom I speak. Hopefully they'll go bankrupt soon and get jobs at WalMart.
Peace,
Chip
DBM":2qgbakon said:
Around here that word is much too big and complicated. They just call them "sucker fish". They are often confused with "Allergy Eaters". I had a guy asking me for allergy eaters so I showed him the Chinese Algae eaters and that wasn't at all what he wanted. Then a pleco swam out from under a rock and he pointed to that as the allergy eater he wanted. Of course I corrected him and told him it was a sucker-fish! Bwahahahaha I kill me... I swear if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I had a lady come in and tell me about the 'minners' she got out of the 'crick' in her tank too... oh my!
Jenn
What I love is the guys that always come in wanting a special deal because they are your best friend (who knows what they are saying once they leave the store). I personally love when they come in on the day we get our new shipment before we get a chance to post the prices of the new fish. I know it is wrong but I just can't help myself because it isn't the price they have a problem with they just always want a discount. So of course I start out about 30% higher than what I really want and let them talk me down after 15 or 20 mins. They are just as happy as they can be and I don't have to compromise on my already rediculously low prices.
It just amazes me the people out there that don't want to listen to you when you try to inform them about the fish they are trying to purchase. I don't carry Oscars or Pacus because 99% of the people that want them aren't going to house them properly. That and I get tired of all of the phone calls from people that are trying to get rid of them because they are getting to big for their 10 gallon tank. At least then I can tell them that I don't carry them. The best ones that think because they paid like $9 for them when they were small that they should be able to sell them to me for $30.
I sell on e-bay also and you just wouldn't believe the people that shop on there. I sold someone a couple of seio 620s and when they got them they wanted to send them back to me because they weren't absolutely silent. Or another person that bought them and when they got them and put them in their tank they complained because they didn't put off enough flow for their 210 gallon tank. Or the people that buy livestock I ship it. It arrives in perfect shape and then they start asking me what they need to do to take care of it. Ohh and my tank has been set up for a week but I thought I really needed that acro frag.
It really is no wonder that suppliers can never manage to send you what you order because when you think of the volume of stupid people they have to have jobs somewhere. That is why this week I got 6 packs of frozen dog food that were supposed to be Hikari Mysis Shrimp and they forgot to put half the stuff on my pallet that they billed me for.
Ok I feel better now. Bad subject to get into for local fish store owners. I am sure we could go on for months with stories.
It just amazes me the people out there that don't want to listen to you when you try to inform them about the fish they are trying to purchase. I don't carry Oscars or Pacus because 99% of the people that want them aren't going to house them properly. That and I get tired of all of the phone calls from people that are trying to get rid of them because they are getting to big for their 10 gallon tank. At least then I can tell them that I don't carry them. The best ones that think because they paid like $9 for them when they were small that they should be able to sell them to me for $30.
I sell on e-bay also and you just wouldn't believe the people that shop on there. I sold someone a couple of seio 620s and when they got them they wanted to send them back to me because they weren't absolutely silent. Or another person that bought them and when they got them and put them in their tank they complained because they didn't put off enough flow for their 210 gallon tank. Or the people that buy livestock I ship it. It arrives in perfect shape and then they start asking me what they need to do to take care of it. Ohh and my tank has been set up for a week but I thought I really needed that acro frag.
It really is no wonder that suppliers can never manage to send you what you order because when you think of the volume of stupid people they have to have jobs somewhere. That is why this week I got 6 packs of frozen dog food that were supposed to be Hikari Mysis Shrimp and they forgot to put half the stuff on my pallet that they billed me for.
Ok I feel better now. Bad subject to get into for local fish store owners. I am sure we could go on for months with stories.
Well today I had a guy come in - he'd bought a 37g from me around May 24 (I looked it up...). When he finished cycling I sold him some cleanup critters and a fish or two - then advised him to wait a while before adding more. I explained that in a smaller system - or any system - it's a good idea to go slowly, add fish one or two at a time and wait between additions so as not to overwhelm the biological.
So what did he do? Went to another store and loaded up. Next thing you know he's got ich in his system. Of course now he's blaming the other store for selling him sick fish - never mind that he decided to overload his 37 with stuff like a Hepatus tang and a Flame angel, long before it was ready, along with who knows what else? But he knew I wouldn't sell him that much, that fast, and he was impatient.
So now the other store, rightly or wrongly, takes the rap for HIS stupidity. It wasn't ignorance because I explained why he should wait and why he shouldn't overstock - but he was stupid enough to go against my advice.
Now he's at the point where he lost everything except his cleanup critters and he's going fishless for a minimum of 30 days to get rid of the ich.
I explained that going too fast again, or bringing in an infected fish without quarantining first could start this all over again. *Hopefully* he'll listen this time... :roll: but somehow I doubt it.
I don't bring in Oscars or Pacu either but I've got a few that were 'donated' (read: abandoned) with me. Dummies sometimes dangle their fingers over the tank teasing the fish, who jump out and flop onto the floor, trying to eat said fingers... I've had people as me to get small ones and they go blank when I ask them what they are going to do when they get to be big "like this"? Then they ask about whether the fish would grow to the size of the tank (I hate that myth) and I show them the ~4 lb Oscar who is snug in a 75, (and eating me out of house and home) and explain that he came out of a 30 - NO they don't stop growing.
I guess a lot of people kill them before they get to that size... ugh.
Jenn
So what did he do? Went to another store and loaded up. Next thing you know he's got ich in his system. Of course now he's blaming the other store for selling him sick fish - never mind that he decided to overload his 37 with stuff like a Hepatus tang and a Flame angel, long before it was ready, along with who knows what else? But he knew I wouldn't sell him that much, that fast, and he was impatient.
So now the other store, rightly or wrongly, takes the rap for HIS stupidity. It wasn't ignorance because I explained why he should wait and why he shouldn't overstock - but he was stupid enough to go against my advice.
Now he's at the point where he lost everything except his cleanup critters and he's going fishless for a minimum of 30 days to get rid of the ich.
I explained that going too fast again, or bringing in an infected fish without quarantining first could start this all over again. *Hopefully* he'll listen this time... :roll: but somehow I doubt it.
I don't bring in Oscars or Pacu either but I've got a few that were 'donated' (read: abandoned) with me. Dummies sometimes dangle their fingers over the tank teasing the fish, who jump out and flop onto the floor, trying to eat said fingers... I've had people as me to get small ones and they go blank when I ask them what they are going to do when they get to be big "like this"? Then they ask about whether the fish would grow to the size of the tank (I hate that myth) and I show them the ~4 lb Oscar who is snug in a 75, (and eating me out of house and home) and explain that he came out of a 30 - NO they don't stop growing.
I guess a lot of people kill them before they get to that size... ugh.
Jenn
Yeah I've heard of that happening too. Perhaps that's why it's not legal to sell Pirhana in Georgia. Last thing you want is to take a dip in the mud bogs known as "Lake" Allatoona or "Lake" Lanier (cough) or the Hooch (Chattahoochie River) and have a pedicure from an Oscar or Pirhana 8O
Most people are astonished when I tell them that it's not only ecologically irresponsible to do this, but it's also quite illegal.
Some folks just don't think...
Jenn
Most people are astonished when I tell them that it's not only ecologically irresponsible to do this, but it's also quite illegal.
Some folks just don't think...
Jenn
Jenn -
Not to sound critical, but you tell that story like it's the first time it has happened to you. I can certainly relate, but for me it seems to happen a few times a week. I had one of my best customers tell me just yesterday that I'm too nice a guy, and that's why I don't have the sales figures that my competition does. I can't tell you how many times I've discouraged a sale because the customers aquarium was new, yada yada yada, only to find out days later that they went straight to my competition to drop hundreds of dollars on fish that they weren't ready for. And on top of that, they were too embarrased to come back to me for advice, so I only lose more sales. It's tough to be honest with people when you realize that the odds are against you and you're just shooting yourself in the foot.
Butch
Not to sound critical, but you tell that story like it's the first time it has happened to you. I can certainly relate, but for me it seems to happen a few times a week. I had one of my best customers tell me just yesterday that I'm too nice a guy, and that's why I don't have the sales figures that my competition does. I can't tell you how many times I've discouraged a sale because the customers aquarium was new, yada yada yada, only to find out days later that they went straight to my competition to drop hundreds of dollars on fish that they weren't ready for. And on top of that, they were too embarrased to come back to me for advice, so I only lose more sales. It's tough to be honest with people when you realize that the odds are against you and you're just shooting yourself in the foot.
Butch
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