dead baby in petsmart :(

[bdalton]

So I went to petsmart today to get stockings for my dogs and can never help to peak in at those adorable little babies and see if they're up to par on their care, which it seems they never are. I can't tell if they have UVB or not, unless they are using mvb's since they have one tiny bulb in there. They say they do have uvb, but they say a lot. When I walked up the the cage there were 3 teeny tiny babies, no more than a week or 2. Two were basking and one laying with its head flat on the ground with eyes closed. I asked to speak with the person in charge of reptiles. There was noone. So I asked to speak with the manager, who first told me it was just sleeping. I told him it needed immediate medical attention, and offered to adopt him and take it to the vet and nurse it back to health. But when he picked him up the little guy was stiff. real nice, right? He clearly had been in there that way for awhile because when I opened his eyes you couldn't even see eyeballs. They were gone. The cage was covered in poop and they had juvenile pellets that weren't soaked so they were hard as a rock. So what can I do? Is there anything? It makes me sick just thinking about it. I'm sure I'm not the first one who witnessed this so is it worth taking further actions? I wad thinking about calling corporate, but don't know how far id get. There's 2 more babies in there that might end up the same way. Has anyone else tried to do something about the way they care for their reptiles?

 

[RandyMarsh]

if you have the time and willpower you can really REALLY use it to annoy silly corporate middle-management who will then become so sick and tired of hearing from you 5-10 times a week that if it's a simple fix they might do something.

I haven't employed this practice at Petsmart or Petco, but I DO know that any store like that has a Regional Manager who's given up much of their life to whichever company it is, and HAS to deal with consumers who are smart enough to take issues to their attention repeatedly and in insistent fashion.

There are even Macro programs you can use like http://www.spacetornado.com/DoItAgain/ that will automatically send emails to them from different addresses until it's possible to simply overwhelm them with your stubborn-ness. It takes some doing but the Regional Managers are the ones who can really effect any change and bend/break rules as it suits them, at least in my experience with other types of retail "heavy-supposedly-customer-service-friendly" chains.

You just have to be polite, FIRM, make them feel as though they've WRONGED YOU AS THE CONSUMER. Let them know that you speak with many people on social network sites and will start a serious negative marketing campaign in your area. Again, this type of thing works best when they see how many times a week you are willing to actually email them, ect. They can even write tons of that stuff off so they don't even care it's just such a low % of people actually maintain the follow through which is why nothing ever happens. I have no problem manipulating people like that when I have the time :mrgreen:

 

[ashley4u2u]

This makes me sad. the day I got mine before I got her and even looked at her (I always have looked at the water dragons then gone about my shopping) I walked by the bird. Im so in love with bird just cant take their loud mouths no more so rehomed mine. it was bad when u could be 2 blocks away and hear her LOL so anyways I went over and there was a dead bird hanging from the food dish in between it and the wire circle part that it slips into. Actually I took pics and ill upload you one. in case u do call u can say it happened at another store and i took far back pics too and u can see the tags for petsmart and what not. I was pissed and went to get someone and told them they are luckily I don't go all PETA on them. that same manager let me hold the BD and WD(water dragon) that day. Any other day i had asked to hold a WD they had told me no they don't let u see them unless you ARE buying one. She had knowledge on reptiles but not a whole bunch at telling me what all i needed for the setup then when i made my second or third trip after coming here she was like yeah you kinda need all that... Like you couldn't tell me this when I bought her!!!! but she did tell me that they were calmer and i held her and fell in love. I charged my fiances CC up and got her and supplies.
Sorry I rattle on a lot!!!

anywho here is the pic

 

[aussiefreak101]

You could try filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

 

[Linziehonn]

I had the same exact thing happen to me at my local Petco. The guy told me he was just sleeping, I told him he was not sleeping but looked to have been dead for a few days. So the guys was like no, no we take care of our reptiles and reached in and picked him up, sure enough, dead..it broke my heart to know he suffered until death. Not to mention there was filthy sand in the tank along with crickets big enough to beat the mess out of the wee tiny babies. It made me so sick, I dropped the stuff that I was going to buy from there and told the guy he should be ashamed of himself that even if the store doesn't care about caring for their reptiles he as a human being should at least have the heart to treat them better. He just looked at me like I had completely gone off my rocker, which I did a bit, but I was thinking about Mem and if someone had treated him that way so I lost it lol. I went straight home and emailed their GM. I got some generic reply apologizing for what I witnessed in the store and "ensured" me it would be addressed. I went back a few weeks later and not a single thing had changed about their enclosure. Luckily they no longer carry bearded dragons now, but I still won't spend my money there. I go to our local petsmart who atleast always has tiny crickets in the cage with no sand and no more than 3 beardies at a time.

 

[RandyMarsh]

He just looked at me like I had completely gone off my rocker, which I did a bit, but I was thinking about Mem and if someone had treated him that way so I lost it lol. I went straight home and emailed their GM. I got some generic reply apologizing for what I witnessed in the store and "ensured" me it would be addressed. I went back a few weeks later and not a single thing had changed about their enclosure. Luckily they no longer carry bearded dragons now, but I still won't spend my money there. I go to our local petsmart who atleast always has tiny crickets in the cage with no sand and no more than 3 beardies at a time.

Now as I said above, the first furious email you did send should have been followed up with both daily emails about the unchanged status of their terrible store, but ALSO you should have started calling him and leaving him messages. Go out of your way to call him from his store- send him some picture texts or something, from his terrible store. Talk DOWN to him, but politely, you have to throw him off his balance before he can gather the presence of mind to GIVE you that generic response. Like I said the ONLY way to effectively manipulate them into doing anything is to use the public information system and find the correct person in the chain of command to bother daily, until they take care of it simply because they hate you so much for flooding their various inboxes and messaging systems with your polite insistent complaints. It's a ridiculous amount of time, and not many people have it. Also a lot of companies have obscure customer service rules they'd love to never share with you. I've used this technique at other retail stores to get things accomplished.

 

[LittleRepieye]

The same thing happened to me at Petco, but it was with a gecko. I walked by a Crested Gecko tank and there was one upside down, stiff, sooo skinny and was crusty so I know it had been there more then a few days, it was disgusting! It broke my heart I really wish they could properly train people on reptiles because they have more specific needs then any other animal and it's neglect what some of these places are doing If it was a dog or a cat the place would be closed down, I just don't get what makes Reptiles or any other animal different?

 

[Monkey]

When dealing with any of the bigger retails, go higher up... the store manager or DM will not surface, get HIGHER... Usually then they get a torch under their tushes... I work in one of them and I do my best to keep the animals up to par with as much as they let me but we are somewhat limited also from what I have seen on animals coming in we are likely not getting them from the "better" breeding facilities.. A lot of reptiles come in malnourished and in stressed shape.. Its frustrating, but I am hoping one day to be able to make a difference.

 

[RandyMarsh]

When dealing with any of the bigger retails, go higher up... the store manager or DM will not surface, get HIGHER... Usually then they get a torch under their tushes... I work in one of them and I do my best to keep the animals up to par with as much as they let me but we are somewhat limited also from what I have seen on animals coming in we are likely not getting them from the "better" breeding facilities.. A lot of reptiles come in malnourished and in stressed shape.. Its frustrating, but I am hoping one day to be able to make a difference.

100%
I myself prefer Regional Managers/Directors, but I will always try a District Manager first because they can influence store managers so they're worth a try.

 

[bdalton]

Thanks guys! Im going to start making phone calls and emails NOW! and I will follow up every day until I see some sort of change. IF i see a change "/ but if i dont, they are going to have a crazy beardie owner up their you know what.