Omg...Petco

[Backlash]

Petco.....must i say more?

I will, to mad not to vent lol.

So today i ran out of reptiworms....luckily a shipment of another 1000 is coming in tomorrow. However since i am at work until 6pm tomorrow, Ollie wouldn't have any worms until then since the mail comes at 3pm. So i decided to call Petco to see if they had any calciworms in stock. I should be slapped for even thinking about it. Anyway the girl on the phone said that they had just received a shipment of calciworms today. I rush over, since the store was closing in an hour, and arrive to see 6 containers of reptiworms on the shelf. I thought i had been saved. I open up the first container and all i see are pieces of shed skin. Opening up the second container revealed a bunch of motionless worms. Now all of you that have used reptiworms, phoenix worms, etc know that these little buggers move around alot when not cooled down. So one container of dead worms. After opening up the others i found the same thing. Six containers of dead worms. Now i started to get upset. Just for the heck of it, i opened up a container of superworms that was on the same shelf. The smell that hit me was repulsive, and once again motionless worms. And once again, without suprise, all the containers of superworms were the same way. Now i am really upset, and yet curious. I head over to the fridge and look at the containers of wax worms. Pretty much half of them were filled with mold. Disgusting.

Now i begin to wonder what in the world they are feeding the reptiles. I head over to the cages and see thin, lethargic animals. No Surprise, what animal would want to eat dead rotting moldy food. For me, this put petco at an all time low. Not only do they fail at keeping healthy animals, they fail as a business. What respectable business doesnt even make sure they have sellable merchandise in stock.

Ok rant over, now i feel better. Do any of you experience this level of disregard at the petco's near your? or is it just me.

 

[quigleysmom]

I have only bought feeder insects one time from Petco. I bought a cup of 70 superworms which ended up only having about 10 in the cup. They had been there so long that they had eatin one another. I really dont go there for anything unless I absolutely have to. I would rather pay overnight shipping than walk into a petco. Mine doesnt even carry bearded dragons anymore. I feel sorry for the other types of animals they still sell.

 

[jeritta]

I hate to do it but I must defend the Petco near us. NOT the petSMART but the petCO is decent. The reptile manager there is really good about taking care of her reptiles and even brings her dragons to work with her sometimes. She has some beautiful HUGE dragons and makes sure that her tanks are as clean as they can be. The only complaint I have is they have sand but that is a National thing that comes down and they have to do. So there you have it I defended petco. But only 1 store.

 

[Backlash]

I have only bought feeder insects one time from Petco. I bought a cup of 70 superworms which ended up only having about 10 in the cup. They had been there so long that they had eatin one another. I really dont go there for anything unless I absolutely have to. I would rather pay overnight shipping than walk into a petco. Mine doesnt even carry bearded dragons anymore. I feel sorry for the other types of animals they still sell.

Yea, i normally never go near petco but i thought id give it a try this time. itll be my last.

I hate to do it but I must defend the Petco near us. NOT the petSMART but the petCO is decent. The reptile manager there is really good about taking care of her reptiles and even brings her dragons to work with her sometimes. She has some beautiful HUGE dragons and makes sure that her tanks are as clean as they can be. The only complaint I have is they have sand but that is a National thing that comes down and they have to do. So there you have it I defended petco. But only 1 store.

From what i hear, the one by my girlfriends house is decent as well. For me its the opposite. The Petsmart is the better one, and usually have LIVE feeders. But unfortunatly they dont have reptiworms.

 

[ocrage]

pretty much the same thing happened to me. i went to see if they had any reptiworms or waxworms i could get for my guy and every container was full of dead worms. every container of mealworms were full of dead ones too. i bought a container of 50 supers and it only ended up having like 10-15. so lame.

 

[LaPrice]

yea it depends on the store and whether their managers care to see if the animals and feeders are healthy. though it is corporates fault sometimes, in the case of water dragons in both stores they have to have substrate with a bowl of water instead of water on the bottom of their cage. the people i talked to did not agree with the change and some try to soak the water dragons in the back so they dont get dehydrated as much.

 

[Cinder9]

I wish my petco carried reptiworms and waxworms. They only have dead crickets, dead supers, and dead mealworms. All the reptiles look horrible too, especially the leopard geckos.

 

[Backlash]

I wish my petco carried reptiworms and waxworms. They only have dead crickets, dead supers, and dead mealworms. All the reptiles look horrible too, especially the leopard geckos.

I always wondered why petco kept all their crickets in tied plastic bags, do they really expect them to survive for a long time in those? The ones i always see are dead.

 

[Bradleyv1714]

There are 2 petcos and 2 petsmarts that are close to me and they are all the same basically! The petsmarts dont sell any live feeder except for crickets which are pretty crappy and expensive ($0.38ea) the reptiles look crappy, skinny and deprived! at petco the animals are basically the same thing! Petco does carry live feeders but as everyone else has mentioned on previous bad experience I had one of those and I was ENRAGED and went right back!

I ran out of supers and I needed for one day of feeding so I called pet supermarket/petsmart/petco... Petco was the only one with supers so I went bought the 50ct cup when I got home I opened it, took them out to put into the bucket in which I keep my supers and I found a bunch dead with the awful smell and like 10-15 supers I went right back and showed them what came in the cup, the manager actually told me that how does he know if I didn't leave and change out the stuff!!! WTH! well, he said fine go get another cup and as others have said almost all cups were either dead, dying, or rotting. lol! in which I took to the manager and he said oh wow! I apologize for that I actually dumped all the cups out and fished for supers because I desperately needed them. I ended getting the cup for free!

 

[Backlash]

When i got back from my frustrating trip to petco, i had sent an email to the corporate office to rant and vent a little. The next day i recieved this email:

Thank you for contacting PETCO regarding your concern with our store at 2230 MARLTON PIKE W STE 3. We are sorry to hear about your recent experience.

I was shocked by this email. I will forward this situation at reptile food section to the upper management team at the store and will ensure that we take the necessary steps to ensure that all our mechandise is a quality items. Again, please accept our apologies.
Please know that we care about our customers and what they think of us. By letting us know when we fall short of your expectations, we have the opportunity to address your concerns and to be better prepared to meet your expectations in the future. If we can be of any further assistance, please feel free to reply to this communication or call PETCO Customer Relations directly at 1-888-824-PALS (7257). Thank you again for contacting PETCO.

Now pretty much the whole email seems like a generic copy/paste kind of thing and i expected that to be the end of it. But today as i was heading out to work, i received a call from the store manager of the petco i went to. He actually seemed sincere in his apology. I think he said that he was a new to that location and just recently started. He also said that hes implementing a system that requires employees to check the live feeders every thursday and have a sign off sheet to make sure people are. I was pretty surprised by this, i was not expecting a phone call or anything. Hopefully things will start to change in that store. Doubt i will ever be back though, its too far of a drive to risk the same situation.

 

[ocrage]

i went to petco today to see if they got any small superworms in good condition as a clutch feeder for today because i dont like crickets and every cup was full of terrible looking/dead worms. every container of wax worms was full of dead ones too. didn't even bother looking at anything else. then i went by the bearded dragons because i like to check them out every time i go in and i noticed today they dont even have a basking bulb. there was only one really stressed out dragon in there and he/she seemed to be 3ish months and in a 5ish gallon tank. felt really really bad for it. im sure if i had the money i probably would have gotten it just to save it from living in those ****ty conditions.

not to mention it was on sand and being fed supers...

 

[Cinder9]

I think everyone should email petco about the animals conditions and such. If enough people do this we could probably see a change soon. I know ill be contacting them soon about it.

 

[imaginarium]

I've only bought supers from Petco once and yeah, it was supposed to be 50 but about 15 were dead. I work at Petsmart and within 24 hours of them sending us feeders our petcare manager switches all insects from sawdust substrate to oatmeal so they don't die/eat each other. When I get them home I throw some cricket feed in the oatmeal and my supers shed and grow and live forever. If Petco would switch to oatmeal instead of leaving their feeders on inedibly sawdust it would help tremendously...

 

[Bradleyv1714]

If Petco would switch to oatmeal instead of leaving their feeders on inedibly sawdust it would help tremendously...

That would definitely make them wayyyyyy better!

 

[LaPrice]

usually if you bother the managers they do something about the conditions of the animals and the feeders. i've dragged employees over to the tanks before asking what was up with their animals and why do they look so lethargic and such. it was fixed and we usually dont see any problems with them. waxys however even with the oatmeal have a short shelf life, but if you chat up people who know what there talking about they'll dump extras in for you (especially if you bring your beardie in with you )