Pets at Home and my poor fish

[MrsBauer]

I have had 5 neon Tetras for a few months and about a month ago I increased my tank size so I could add to them.
So last weekend I went to Pets at Home and bought 5 glowlight tetras. On the Monday 1 of the glowlights died and thats when I noticed the other glowlights had white spot. I went to pets at home, looked in the tank and sure enough their glowlights had white spot too. I bought some treatment and told them one had already died and more looked dodgy. They told me they wouldn't refund or replace till the tank was clear of disease.
5 days down the line I have lost 3 glowlights and 3 Neons and I'm absolutley livid and at this stage I'm fully expecting to lose the rest.

Is it my fault for not noticing and for being stupid enough to buy at Pets at home? Or should I go in there and give them hell and insist they give me the money to restock my tank (from elsewhere of course).

Don't they give a refund within a certain amount of time, our local garden centre sells fish and has a sign up saying if the fish dies within a certain amount of time you have to bring back the dead fish and a smaple of the water it was kept in and they will refund or replace I think.

how sad - i would complain. it's not fair.

Please, please nobody EVER buy from Pets At Home. Although obviously that's tempered by a desire to rescue the poor things from being there, or bought by numpties (not meaning you of course OP).

I was disgusted when I found them selling single lovebirds. That is disgraceful and cruel. Lovebirds pair for life, and if they're selling them they should blardy well know that. God knows what kind of advice they're giving. They're probably selling single gerbils as well and advising people keep them in Rotastacks or some other god forsaken housing.

I'd avoid them like the plague.

They give a refund if the fish dies within I think it's five days, I took the receipt in with me on Monday and she wrote on replacement needed.
I have not saved the bodies as I'm sure the smell would be a bit much now!

Agree with twinklemegan, never buy anything living from pets at home. We bought a bio orb fish tank and 3 fish and they survived 3 days.

I was really worried that I had done something wrong so we set up the tank, let it settle again, but this time we went to the local pet shop and he told us to keep well away from PAH, as all he had heard was the same story.

I had similar a couple of years ago. My friend gave me a tank with fish in and i wanted to add to them, within a week I had none left I did get a refund (I refused replacement) but it didn't change the fact I lost all my friends fish too.

I won't be getting replacement either, I will be after a refund and more!

this is the reason why i dont "do" petshops at all

even my new hamster (rescued just this week) is a rescue.... i have been searching for a hamster to rescue since May when my old (rescue) hamster died, and it has taken me nearly to November but i have to rescue because i REFUSE to give any money profit at all to shops who cant look after their live creatures properly.

Also feel sick at the extreamly small hutches they sell, and the poor SINGLE rabbits they will happily sell to live in them

Well I'm now down to one of each and they are going to get it in the neck!

as the wife of a manager of a pets at home store i ask you to please be aware that not all stores are bad.
my husband works very hard to ensure the welfare of the animals he has in his store. He does advise people rabbits like to be kept in pairs but unfortunately some people only want one so they cannot force people to buy 2 can they? My husband has no control over the livestock he gets sent and gets completely annoyed himself at the state of some stock he gets. He insists on 10 days quarentine for all fish before he sells them and tries to be vigilent , he would never knowingly sell fish or animals in poor health as he knows how a poorly animal would affect our own children! PEts at home do operate a system where they take the animals back if you are unhappy and they offer these animals up for adoption after they have been treated by a vet, this is all done for free and the animals are adopted free or at a voluntary donation rate.

If you explain the situation to the store manager im sure they will help you to correct the balance in your tank and refund for all the fish. pets at home also have a policy to do everything to ensure you as a customer is happy.

MrsBauer... Email head office, we had the exact same thing happen to us but ours were cold water fish, we had quite a large amount of fish , bought a couple from pets at home and the whole tank were wiped out VERY slowly, it was awful, they hemmorraged to death one by one, in the end we had to euthanise humanly of course, the rest of the tank.

I wrote an email to head office, and they sent us a cheque for £120 (to cover what we had lost) and £50 in vouchers too. Of course it wasn't about the money, i know i sound soppy but some of our original fish had grown so big and i was attached to them, it was awful.

This company i hope will be out of business soon because of this, infact i read some where that this company was originally called something else prior and went out of business due to neglect to animals and restarted as pets at home.

We go there to get guinea pig food/hay etc and i always go and look at the fish, you can guarantee there is ALWAYS dead fish floating around and white spot on the fish, it is disgusting.

Don't give up, email them and go to town complaining.

bonkinthenighterz...

well no you cant make people by 2 rabbits but surely you could refuse to sell them 1... (unless its clear that they alread have another friend for the rabbit of course)

also why do they even stock such small hutches that people think is ok to house a rabbit in?

This is off their website....

In the unlikely event that an issue has not be resolved to your satisfaction, please let us know by calling our Customer Service team on 0845 602 5630 between 8am and 10pm, seven days a week, or by sending us an email using our online form. Should you remain dissatisfied please write to the Customer Services, Pets at Home Ltd, Epsom Ave, Stanley Green Trading Estate, Cheshire, SK93RN

Or you can email them here....

here

Thanks for that I will get onto them now, I have only had my neons a few months but I'm gutted that I only have one left because of their unhealthy stock.

Don't tar all PAH stores with the same brush. Ours is brilliant, very helpful staff and I have rehomed a number of rescue animals from their rescue section within the store and all the animals have been fine.

NannyL - precisely.

BONKinthenightERZ - would your husband be in trouble for refusing to serve customers who ignore advice? Because to sell to such customers is a complete failure of duty and irresponsible. The priority should be animal welfare first, profit second. I suspect it's the other way round though, at head office?

Also, could you ask your husband about the lovebird thing, because it is still bugging me to this day. To be frank, a store like PetsAtHome shouldn't even be selling birds like that IMO. They belong in aviaries, not small cages, and no bird enthusiast would be buying from PAH!

twinklemegan, my husband has no control over what the customer does with that animal after they leave the store, no customer would say NO WE DONT WANT TO LISTEN TO YOR ADVICE! Most customers sign the forms and listen to the advice but thats all DH can do. This is usual in all pet shops not PAH, i dont know any livestock seller who follow the customer home and keep regular contact! YES i would agree that profit is a big thing at head office and the store managers are under amazing pressure from head office! My husband spent 4 months on intensive training courses and still does courses now. At DHs store they do not sell birds but i will ask him later about the lovebird thing.

well of course their would be the option of a home check like the RSPCA and rescue centres etc do... but pet shops choose not too.... the only reason i think this would be because it would be to expensive OR they dont really care...
rescue centres on the other hand DO care about the animals welfare and will ONLY release animals into the care of people who have large enough hutches, (minimum 6ft X4ftX2ft, and i dont think PAH even SELL a hutch that size ) and enough 'friends' for an animal (if it needs friends)

and there is still the issue of PAH (and most other petshops) selling those TINY hutches and those teeny tiny rabbit runs that a rabbit can barely do 2 hops in

Ultimately if these hutches and "runs" werent widely sold, people wouldnt buy them and wouldnt think they were ok as petshops (who you would assume care about the animals ) sell them as 'rabbit hutches' / runs

My (rescue )hamster has almost as much space as some of the smaller hutches....

a rabbit from PAH (probably sold singley) in one of the smaller cheaper hutches and triangle runs will probably never in its WHOLE LIFE be able to stand up on its hind legs (like rabbits love to do) and will NEVER be able to actually run
It will also be extreamly lonley and unhappy...

but who cares? afterall they (the patshop) have sold a rabbit, a hutch and a run and advised correctly

I spent many years working for the RSPCA. The minimum requirement for a hutch is now 4ft NOT 6ft. And yes, PAH do sell hutches that big. They also sell the combo hutches with runs included. But, having learnt from my own experiences with individuals who choose to rehome/buy an animal, they see it is a cute bundle of fluff initially. They often buy it for a child. That animal grows and the child/owner loses interest. Many, many times we had cases of hutches left at the top of the garden forgotten about. Inspector would go out and find a rotting carcass or an animal so near to death the kindest thing to do is to PTS.

I don't think it is a case that PAH choose not to do pre-home checks because they really don't care. It is more down to time and money.

I agree PAH should, along with every other organisation that rehomes/sells animals should do pre-home checks but it won't solve all the cruelty that exists out there with animals. Having spent so long dealing with cruelty cases...whether it be down to inadequate housing or cruelty by hand - a pre-home check will not solve the cruelty and nor does the size of a hutch. The size of a hutch does not mean that animal will be well looked after or not. It still needs water, food and regular cleaning out regardless of the size of its hutch.

I had two female guinea pigs from poets at home and one actually turned out to be male. It was actually pretty obvious when i looked myself

They now squeak to each other in seperate cages

whispywhisp, people are so cruel

Yes people are very cruel but I think its wrong to blame places such as PAH. I personally think they're great and have never had a problem with them. They've always been very helpful to me having homed quite a few rescue guineas from them where people have handed them back and they're too well developed to be put back in with those for sale.

The Manager at our local store is very nice and only the other day he agreed to buy back a rabbit that I found being sold on eBay by a girl who was keeping it in a metal cage indoors, that she bought from PAH initially (yes, I agree, she should've had it in an adequate hutch, not a cage) - I rang the store manager to see if he would contact her (I had her name) to see if all was ok with the rabbit etc....he went one step further and suggested I went and bought it, return it to the store (which she refused to do) and he refunded the cost to me, plus my time and fuel. The rabbit was absolutely gorgeous and will no doubt find a much better home soon. She had had this rabbit for about 2 months - therefore proving there is no time limit as to when you can return an animal. He actually said he would always try to help anyone.

I loved working for the RSPCA but the cruelty side of it never EVER went down. It got worse. Hutched animals in particular were often neglected. Neighbours never wanted to get involved so the poor animals were left. Unfortunately hutched animals are the quickest to be 'forgotten about'..being stuck outside in the garden....out of sight, out of mind.

to be fair, our pets at home (not poets as I said earlier) has actually got a rehoming section. They list why the animal has been returned etc and then a small donation is made to charity...

I thought poets at home sounded quite nice actually!

I think its standard across most of the stores now to have a rehoming/rescue section. Its only a recent addition from what I can gather...and every time I go in for food etc...I'm always drawn to it! I currently have Peggy and Olive in a beautiful big cage indoors - they are Mum and Daughter pigs - the Mum was bought by someone from PAH, she got caught with another pig at her new home, owner could see she was pregnant so took her back. And outside in their hutches I have Hugo (rescue...no one liked his colouring), Henry and Cyril (both rescues - no one wanted them cos they weren't young enough or cuddly enough). Peggy and Olive, I have to admit, are particularly gorgeous. They squeak all the time I'm in the kitchen (which is where they are) - they've become so tame and even when I'm chopping up and apple they go crazy!

whispy whisp... "My" local rabbit rescue centre requires 6ftX4ftX2ft "see chichester cat and rabbit rescue rehome policy here "

of course animals need more than a decent size cage and need all the care and attention as well as a decent size hutch / run, but the fact remains that many of the cages sold are far to small for a rabbit (or pair of rabbits) to live a quality life in regardless of how often they are fed and looked after etc.
and as for "not having enough money" to do home checks... im sure they have a LOT more money than the rescue centres / charities run by volunteers and they manage to find enough resources to do home checks so i really dont think its a good enough excuse at all...
the problem is it eats into their profit having to pay someone, and then pay mileage etc (OR provide a car) to do the homechecks

and all of those people who are cruel to their animals ... i cant even describe how i feel about them.

But I would NEVER treat any animal like that, and I would NEVER buy from a petshop either

I have to say that out of the petshop chains i do prefer PAH slightly as they do seem to have bigger enclosures for their 'for sale' anumals and will also rescue them back...

BUT i still wouldnt buy an animal from there and it still makes me very cross that they sell such tiny hutches (as you can probably tell )