Another Disappointment from PETCO

[Jonathan P]

(Hope this isn't a repeat thread)

I thought I had finally found a Petco that cared about their herps. The cages were cleaned often, kept moist, had a sufficient sized water dish, and at the correct temperatures. Their employee even seemed to have knowledge about not only herps but the fish area also.

Then I see it: the sign said "Cornsnakes are very docile animals, they can be cohabitated with no problems. Just make sure to seperate for feeding."

It wasn't a sign that matched up with other corporate styling. Seems that the store chose to add the advice of either an employee or customer. In speaking with the manager, she humored me and said she would look into it and take it down if it was incorrect. As of 2 days later it was still there. I lodged a 2nd complaint with a different manager that was on duty - got the same response, 2 days later the sign was still there. At that time I even took it down and they put a new one up.

My last effort was to send a complaint to "corporate big brother" needless to say 1 week later no response.

I know we need stupid people to make the world go round and make the rest of us look good, but why do so many of them have to work in the mass commercial area of the pet trade?

Just my 2 cents - needed to vent the frustration - I guess at least at this store they are well treated and appear to have no trouble shedding or with bugs. That's something. :shrugs:

 

[DaemoNox]

Its hard to expect even the best petstores to follow one persons guidelines. While I agree on the cohab with you, I feel what your fighting is a loosing battle. The big chain stores will often choose the path of profit before perfecting the husbandry of the animals as long as the animals are maintained adaquitely (which for some stores is still a lot to ask). You could always try bringing up the point that they could potentially sell more if they encouraged seperate housing, however I think they know the chances of them making more of a profit lies in multiple animal sales more often.

 

[sfaoldguy]

Hmmm... Not sure if this would break any rules or laws, but I am pretty sure some of us on this forum wouldn't mind giving the store a call on the snakes' behalf if you post the phone number. :shrugs:

 

[Plissken]

Just print off a cannibal picture and take it in to show them...

 

[Daeraelle]

I've seen pictures of snakes that have eaten other snakes, but none caught in the act. I wonder if anyone has any? I'd post the picture next to the sign everyday, lol.

 

[Paradox]

Print a new sign warning that co-habitation isn't advisable and gaffer tape it over the old one...it's worked many a time for me over here in England. Not for co-habitation or indeed a pet store, but still...just make sure nobody sees you doing it :sidestep:

 

[scalesnthings]

I see you live on the East Coast.. Sadly, Corporate is located in California, and the further east you get, the worse the stores usually get.. I do like the idea about the picture.. all GM's are in Orlando right now for the yearly trade show.. some are getting back tonight, and some tomorrow.. I'd post the pic asap

 

[attackturtle]

If you post the number and manager name(s), I will call.

 

[Lennycorn]

Just a thought but see if they sell any books on corn snakes (maybe Kathy's), see what it said on cohabited and show to them if it differs from their point of view.

Good Luck :cheers:

 

[Penman6668]

The problem is Petco does not care. They just want to make money.

 

[JasonGranger]

The problem is Petco does not care. They just want to make money.

Actually, I asked the reptile guy at PETCO if cohab was okay (this was like a year ago when I was a newb to corn snakes ), and he said he wouldn't recommend it. It's not all about the money, is it? :shrugs:

 

[RyanR]

speaking of bad things... i was very happy with the local superpet for the longest time.. but what i seen yesterday was just terrible.. they had.. in a 1ft long by 6inch wide Cage... a countable TWENTY FIVE hatchling corns.. couldnt have had more then 1 meal even....

there was so many in there.. you could barely see subtrate.. there was 2 in the water dish! and atleast 9 heads sticking out of the tiny coconut hide...

this is OUTRAGOUS..

And they wanted 159.99 PER snake when they were Amels and Snows.. Nothing more... OUTRAGOUS!

 

[scalesnthings]

You'll find that there are a few GM's that really honestly care.. then they have managers working for corporate that are in charge of animal care and ordering for a whole district. Those guys usually care a lot, considering that's a major part of their job. A person I know nearly got fired for allowing an associate to take a sick drop-off home to the freezer (Dehydrated w/ severe mouth rot and upper respitory infection, never the less cureable - if I would have known about it's fate I would have taken it in a flash..), and under any other circumstance, they would have definatly gotten fired. And that was just a drop-off.. anyway, they have walks from corporate and get marked off on the smallest things.. the mark-off's, if I'm correct, directly affect their quarterly bonuses.. even if I'm mistaken and they don't, it does go in their file.. A lot of times it's hard to find qualified people to work for Petco's pay rate, and then you have burn out from all the ignorant customers coming in all the time and not listening to you because all the other unqualified people in your position have set the standard for pet store employee knowledge.. it's tough.. anyway, if you keep bugging corporate, maybe get your local herp orgs. in on it I'm sure they'll fix it. Try and find out who suggested the sign, and see their logic.. it'll be much easier to fight something you know more about. Good luck hun!

 

[Paradox]

speaking of bad things... i was very happy with the local superpet for the longest time.. but what i seen yesterday was just terrible.. they had.. in a 1ft long by 6inch wide Cage... a countable TWENTY FIVE hatchling corns.. couldnt have had more then 1 meal even....

there was so many in there.. you could barely see subtrate.. there was 2 in the water dish! and atleast 9 heads sticking out of the tiny coconut hide...

this is OUTRAGOUS..

And they wanted 159.99 PER snake when they were Amels and Snows.. Nothing more... OUTRAGOUS!

:eek1: I would have complained streight off about that...and if that didn't work I would have contacted one of the animal trusts, we have loads round our area. That really is outragous though.

 

[Jonathan P]

Interesting news

Don't know what the reason is but when the store received it's most recent shipment of new animals, they decided to take the sign down. I'm shocked, and waiting to see if they put it back up. But at least it's gone for now :cheers:

I wonder if going there frequently and having my 5 year old daughter ask loudly why she couldn't keep her snakes together. I'd answer loud enough for anyone around to hear. :crazy02:

Thanks for all the support on this.

 

[Raiden The Almighty]

I would just like to say that a ****ing PETCO just opened in my town and I have been thrown out on more than one occasion due to my profain verbal objections toward the incompetance of the staff. PETCO is one of the reasons PETA exsist and why there are becoming more and more laws making it harder to own reptiles. Stores like PETCO make me sick. uke01: It is for the most part about the money and not the welfare of the animal.

 

[Rorryy]

I recently purchased a BP from my local Petco, impulse buy, my bad. The poor little thing I just discovered the other day was mite infested. I called the store just to let them know they had a mite problem so that they could treat and the manager seemed annoyed but offered a discount on mite treatment. I wasn't asking for it but just wanted to let them know so they could treat their inventory. So I go in to get new aspen for all four snake cages (I treated all snakes and cleaned out all cages eventhough the new one was quarantined in another room). The cornsnakes had crickets in the cage so I asked, What do you feed the corns? Reply, Pinkies. So why are there crickets in there? Reply, Oh, I dunno. GRRRR. Anyway the upside was the employee at the check out, I told her why I was buying so much aspen and she grabbed a couple bottles of Reptile Relief mite treatment and just threw it in my bag saying "I'm so sorry, I hope your snakes are o.k." unsolicited.

 

[dionythicus]

I would just like to say that a ****ing PETCO just opened in my town and I have been thrown out on more than one occasion due to my profain verbal objections toward the incompetance of the staff. PETCO is one of the reasons PETA exsist and why there are becoming more and more laws making it harder to own reptiles. Stores like PETCO make me sick. uke01: It is for the most part about the money and not the welfare of the animal.

Generalising like this isn't right. Not all Petco stores are horrible.

If you have been loud, rude, argumentative and/or verbally abusive in any way, they have every right to kick you out. They are running a business and don't have to allow you or anyone else into their store if that person causes a disruption and verbally assaults their staff. That is not how to make positive changes. More likely, they see you coming and think you're a trouble maker. They won't listen to anything you have to say now, so if I were you, I just wouldn't go back. Depending on how out of control a customer is (especially a repeat offender), the management can have a restraining order issued to keep that person out. I've seen it done.

And from what I understand, Petsmart is the one with PETA ties, not Petco.

Try to be more patient, well spoken and less intolerant of other people when dealing with issues like the welfare of animals. You'll get more accomplished.

 

[xXMetalsAngelXx]

Generalising like this isn't right. Not all Petco stores are horrible.

If you have been loud, rude, argumentative and/or verbally abusive in any way, they have every right to kick you out. They are running a business and don't have to allow you or anyone else into their store if that person causes a disruption and verbally assaults their staff. That is not how to make positive changes. More likely, they see you coming and think you're a trouble maker. They won't listen to anything you have to say now, so if I were you, I just wouldn't go back. Depending on how out of control a customer is (especially a repeat offender), the management can have a restraining order issued to keep that person out. I've seen it done.

And from what I understand, Petsmart is the one with PETA ties, not Petco.

Try to be more patient, well spoken and less intolerant of other people when dealing with issues like the welfare of animals. You'll get more accomplished.

I used to work at petco for a while and sadly even I voiced my opinion to a corprite member to his face while in my store about housing the snakes together and what he basically said is it was policy to keep them together because it is a temp. home, but even then I've seen some stores who would house a 1 yr old snake with a full grown adult.

Sadly it's the way the company is, they have policies and the big guys in their offices don't know what it's like working in one of the stores and not knowing how the animal must live to be happy. I've seen corprite members in my store ask why bettas are kept in separate cups, so what makes me think they know anything about the reptiles?

And PETA does have it out for petco, they had a huge banner on their site saying to ban Petco, but when Petco found out they sued...needless to say that the compromise was not to sell large birds any more and the company agreed. Before that PETA sued petco over feeding ANY animal live food such as mice to snakes and fish to turtles, and once again Petco agreed to stop.

It's a complicated company I'm glad I got out of needless to say haha.

 

[TandJ]

Raiden mentioned the following :

PETCO is one of the reasons PETA exsist and why there are becoming more and more laws making it harder to own reptiles.

You are right to some extent on that, but is owners that are targetted heavily too.. The laws come into effect for dumb reasons, and generally comes down to ignorance in a lot of ways.. I havr cursed at a few morons working in pet stores, but I generally keep the comments to myself, and rarely go back to that store, if you catch my drift..

Regards.. Tim of T and J