So I just left my local Petco...... Yeah you know where this is going already!
I was visiting and getting prices on some bulbs today. I had Spike with me on my shoulder and a pair of older ladies asked me about him. They pet him and told me how pretty he was and all that jazz. Then one of them asked me what kind of light, hood and such she would need for her Russian tortoise. I told her to go big, with a 100 watt bulb in a housing with a dimmer. That way she could dial it down if needed and have a large temp range to work with. Her turtle was in a 55gal btw.
My local petco recently hired a new general manager and I have heard nothing but complaints about her from day 1. She was the manager of our local bath and bodyworks which she only took 2 years to run into the ground.
She walks up behind me and in a mean tone says "If you're not on my payroll you can't give anyone advice in my store". Well surely I turned around and said "who are you to tell these ladies who they can talk to? Its not my fault you have 18 employees and only 2 of them know anything about reptiles".
She got pretty hot from that I must say. Then I said, "its bad enough you give bad advice to customers, but you not knowing squat about pets as well just puts the topping on the cake. Maybe if you learned to treat your customers better and trained your employees with 'real' information on pets, then the customers wouldn't feel the need to ask other customers for help in your store"
Then I was asked to leave. The two ladies who were talking to me had about 700 bucks worth of stuff to start an aquarium in their cart and they left the cart there and left at the same time.
She walks up behind me and in a mean tone says "If you're not on my payroll you can't give anyone advice in my store".
Then I was asked to leave. The two ladies who were talking to me had about 700 bucks worth of stuff to start an aquarium in their cart and they left the cart there and left at the same time.
Freedom of speech amazingly extends inside of retail stores. Customers are indeed allowed to greet each other and even speak to each other in this day in age if they so wish.
I would write a letter directly to corporate stating something along the lines on how you were happily shopping with your pet as you always do being a regular customer,minding your own business. Another customer asked you a question about your pet and their care, you recommended some products the store carried and she put a bunch of stuff in her cart and you both went on your way. Then out of nowhere a manager told you not speak to anyone in the store and made you leave. Keep it short, but let them know on record leaving a paper trail that rude and pushy behavior was not appreciated and you will no longer being doing business with them and that is why. Also be sure to state the manager's outrageous actions resulted in other customers abandoning their carts and leaving.
She walks up behind me and in a mean tone says "If you're not on my payroll you can't give anyone advice in my store".
Then I was asked to leave. The two ladies who were talking to me had about 700 bucks worth of stuff to start an aquarium in their cart and they left the cart there and left at the same time.
Freedom of speech amazingly extends inside of retail stores. Customers are indeed allowed to greet each other and even speak to each other in this day in age if they so wish.
I would write a letter directly to corporate stating something along the lines on how you were happily shopping with your pet as you always do being a regular customer,minding your own business. Another customer asked you a question about your pet and their care, you recommended some products the store carried and she put a bunch of stuff in her cart and you both went on your way. Then out of nowhere a manager told you not speak to anyone in the store and made you leave. Keep it short, but let them know on record leaving a paper trail that rude and pushy behavior was not appreciated and you will no longer being doing business with them and that is why. Also be sure to state the manager's outrageous actions resulted in other customers abandoning their carts and leaving.
I'm doing the next best thing. I have a meeting on Tuesday with the district manager of Petco for this area. In that meeting I plan on expressing this situation at its fullest. On top of that, I will be sending a letter directly to Petco corporate as well.
I have a few reasons for my meeting with that regional manager.
1. Our local store, in an attempt for them to save on their labor budget, they have hired about 10 new people, all of whom have ZERO experience. That is fine in the business sense, but when they are overlooking applications from experienced people on purpose, for the main reason that they can train an inexperienced person to just peddle products, not give advice that will make their customers trust them and frequent their store more often. Maybe this GM doesn't realize that the President just had a law passed baring discrimination during the application and hiring process. I will be sure to bring that up.
2. I am friends with half a dozen of their employees. Each and every one of those employees that I know, have a severely bad opinion of this new GM and she hasn't even been there 2 months yet. All of those employees love when I walk into their store, because even when they can't answer a customer's reptile question, they know that I can answer it and welcome it because by learning from someone experienced, they can better the job they do later on with other customers.
3. I don't take anyone's B.S. Plain and simple. When someone like her, with ZERO experience in a pet store at all, comes up to me and tells me to stop giving someone advice that was "requested from me", I will turn around and give them what they deserve and I am sure to point out their fault on it and how wrong they are.
4. I just added this...
I also plan on bringing up the conditions they allow their animals to live in. Meaning feeding, housing, lighting, and the fact that certain animals should not be housed together for reasons pertaining to their natural behaviors.
I plan on making a mess and making Petco corporate clean it up. My biggest problem with this is the fact that I have spent thousands in that store, every employee that I know there welcomes me and my beardies each time I come in, and they all come visit my beardies in the store, and this royal !@#(% decides to be rude to her customers. That is a HUGE NO NO in the retail world. She being a manager should be able to comprehend that 1 person who has a bad experience can tell 12 of their friends not to go there, then those 12 people each tell 12 of their friends, and the chain grows rapidly.
Eek!! I know all about that! The place where I got Petey quit selling the reptisun 10.0 because it's discontinued in the store. Only exoterra coil bulbs are sold. I took that up with the fella working there and he's goin to take it up with the manager. I'll buy crickets there but i will buy my bulbs elsewhere!
petco is a big chain store so the most you can do is try and get her fired,to get the store to go under good luck.12 customers is nothing to a big chain company what's so ever these days
petco is a big chain store so the most you can do is try and get her fired,to get the store to go under good luck.12 customers is nothing to a big chain company what's so ever these days