Most annoying customers.

[lobsternoob]

So i just posted this exact same story as a response in a thread i have up, but I thought it might not get seen much and maybe some people would enjoy it. I also thought it might be an interesting topic to hear some others experiences with.

So if you are an employee at a pet store, ever have been, or you've just seen one of those real crazy customers I wanna hear your story about the worst/most annoying customer ever. Here's one of mine, maybe not the worst I ever encountered, but close.

At a store i used to work at there was a kid that would come in almost every week, maybe every 2-3 weeks sometimes. He would go sit in front of our feeder tank for like half an hour then try to get me to catch him one single feeder fish while he sat there trying to track it with a laser pointer. He would always be willing to pay the same price for his particular feeder as we charged for fancy goldies, and I was just as happy to charge him that much for a 4 cent feeder. I'm pretty sure half the time he didnt even get the fish he was originally looking for, but he always seemed to be happy with his purchase. I still have never been able to figure out what was up with him, im pretty sure he had a disorder of some sort, that's about the only reason i never told him to just get out of the store. Well, plus the fact that his mom would buy him tanks all the time, they honestly were pretty good customers, just annoying. I forgot on my other post to mention that the mom wore so much of this horrible perfume that i would choke within 5 feet of her, and the macaw we had in the store would go nuts because of it.

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, thats awesome

pretty much all stores here have "no choosing fish" on their feeder tanks

[korith]

lol, thats awesome

pretty much all stores here have "no choosing fish" on their feeder tanks

Ya most of the stores here have the same sign. If you do want to choose a specific one they charge a lot more.

[troy]

Ya most of the stores here have the same sign. If you do want to choose a specific one they charge a lot more.
I think I've been guilty of wanting a particular fish more than once.:hmm3grin2orange:

[MCHRKiller]

I could write a book...

I have this one mother and 2 daughters that come in and theyve been attempting to buy a hamster for the last I swear 3 months. They come in 2-3 times a month atleast, Ill catch the little rodent have it in a box...have a cage on the counter and ready to ring it up and every single GD time they back out of the sale...same routine every time. Mom starts asking kid A and B if theyre shure they want it kid shrugs the other says i dont know and the lady says I think we need some more time to think about it....

Next is my customer I have knicknamed Pinecone....as dealing with him is like having a sparp prickly item inserted into my rear. He likes to come in from time to time, he askes about 300 questions. None of them related to a pet...how to care for one; no...theyre all like personal questions. Then he proceedes to try to argue random points of the hobby. Such as he believes that I need more fish in this tank...or my female bettas cant live together since walmart sells them in cups to or whatever. Hes a very very creepy person, and just hangs around in the store for a couple hours never buys anything and ya look away and hes gone.

The last is a lump summed category I have dubbed, my scrubbin bubble buddies. These are the backwoods people that get their random government check on the first of the month and decide to go buy 5 carts of groceries, some lotto tickets and go annoy the LFS people. These folks dont bathe real often, you can smell them from across the shop and my shop is fairly good sized; forget nasty perfume this is straight out BO, old tobacco and mold. They come say they bought this and that last month...it died, theyre looking for something free...I dont do free. They get a tad irritated, and everything is well "gimme one of dem dar" and then we finally get to the register and its "well ye ain't gonna charge me fer dat now r ye?" "wall dats to much fer dat" "ye shauld gimme a discount fer as much as we a' payin fer dis" and on....and on....and the total is always less than $20, which is paid with a $100 bill i only touch with my nails and dont put into the drawer without washing it(literally) first. Their change is placed onto the counter and after they leave i go into a mad fit with the hand sanitizer and clorox wipes...

[lobsternoob]

MCHRKiller good story! Those scrubbin bubbles buddies sound nasty! I'm in central california, and we used to get some crazy lookin hippies dreadlocks n all, I swear most hadn't washed in their life, but they were too "peaced" out to even bother haggling and too paranoid to stay at the register long enough to argue.

pretty much all stores here have "no choosing fish" on their feeder tanks

We had that same exact sign basically, but people would still try, The kid I'm speaking of I assume had a mental issue, he was a bit slow and odd. But he wasn't the only one that tried this, we would charge them up as fancies for 4.99 anytime someone asked for a particular feeder, and we said so before attempting to catch it.

Most people I would say no to, but this kid was very nice, and my boss felt sorry for him I think, so I had no choice.

Oh, and check those 100$ bills, you may get one from one of those people that is vintage and worth more than it's actual face value! Never know how long they've been hoarded away! Course the stench might still not be worth it.

[MCHRKiller]

Id probably feel sorry for the kid to, definatly some issues goin on there.

I dont know what it is, but really nasty people always must touch you in some way...you can go to all lengths to protect yourself minus wearing a full body condom but alas it still happens alot. I have kind of an OCD about random people touching me anyway and compile that ith an OCD about cleanliness and germs and its a tragedy. :14:

[lobsternoob]

full body condom LOL post a pic of that one! J/K maybe try this [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[MCHRKiller]

LOL! Ill take 5 of those....

I did a google search;
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]


I wonder if they come in the economical 24 pack

[lobsternoob]

WHOA the look on that guys face is way too creepy, scares me. plus the thumbs up, whoa! Then i noticed the sandals, too scary all around, that image should be censored!

[lobsternoob]

Aside from all that, i still wanna hear some more stories!!!

[Lady Hobbs]

I couldn't stand working in a fish store and putting up with the endless questions all day long like .....what kind of fish is that, and that, and that. And can I put this and that together. And how many Oscars can I put in my 20 gallon. I'd either be fired or have to quit after 3 hours.

[lobsternoob]

If you worked at a good store, you'd probably actually like it a lot Lady Hobbs. I used to have a lot of fun, except for the occasional OMG this person is an idiot incidents. Of course i worked at a real small store, and we pretty much only had fish, tanks, and accesories. So it was a lot different than your usual chain store. Unfortunately once the big guys came into town we were done for in under a year, and even before that i moved on to a better paying job ironically at a sushi and sports bar!

[Mvjnz]

He would always be willing to pay the same price for his particular feeder as we charged for fancy goldies, and I was just as happy to charge him that much for a 4 cent feeder.

So you were perfectly happy to rip off some kid with a disorder? And also, I don't see how that is annoying, they were regular customers and I don't see how it's annoying to have to catch fish for customers, it was your job.

[Lady Hobbs]

When I got my otto's, the guy trying to net him had to be 85 years old. I was afraid to have him stand on the step stool he needed to reach the tank. By the time he caught 4 of them, I thought I'd be as old as he was. GAWD... it too him f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I wanted to lay down on the floor and take a nap.

[Northernguy]

lol It sounds like he did as well!:hmm3grin2orange:

[cocoa_pleco]

If you worked at a good store, you'd probably actually like it a lot

the saltwater store i go to is like that, they rarely get any stupid questions and i dont even think being there for 8 hours a day is work for them

[lobsternoob]

So you were perfectly happy to rip off some kid with a disorder? And also, I don't see how that is annoying, they were regular customers and I don't see how it's annoying to have to catch fish for customers, it was your job.
It was stated on our feeder tank, no picking fish, we did it the first few times for the normal price for them, and after that my boss decided that if people insisted on picking a single feeder out they would pay the same price as if they were fancies. Sifting through 100's of feeder goldfish just to get one was NOT supposed to be part of my job. Any other type of fish I never had any problem spending time to get people exactly what they wanted, especially since I am the same way when i go to the store. The kid always came in with his mother and she had no problem with that either. I never once took money from the kid himself...

[SamAnthrax]

There are two ladys. Both older. That drive me INSANE!!!

First lady is the goldfish lady. The first time I encountered her this is what happened. She asked for a fancy goldfish, I asked her about her tank. It was a 2g tank with no filter or anything. I explained that they still need room and everything and a filter for bla bla bla. So I was happy to explain to this nice old lady everything. Next

Next time I saw her she had already gotten the small 3i whisper and 8 feeder fish. I explained to her again about how much room the goldfish need, you know all the good stuff. And she complained some of the goldfish died. I explained everything AGAIN.

Next time she came in. Same. Exact. Thing. She acted like she had never talked to me. And I refused her sale of fish again. and Now she comes in about once a week. I have the exact same conversation. And deny her the exact same thing. And I found out most of my employees just give up and sell her the fish. Which I told them not to and for them to find me when she comes. Uhg... Its been about 8 months of this now.



Now the next lady is a bigger pain in the butt. We call her the platy lady. She is an older orthodox jewish woman. She complains that the platys she gets always die (well come on its petsmart you think we have super high quality fish?) and SO i try to steer her to tetras and other fish. She doesnt give in. So she picks out every pregnant female she can find. Then complains when they don't have babies. And we think she does this:

her at home sunburst platy dies

she comes and buys another one

and then returns the old one the next day with the second ones receipt...


But we can never like, catch her. According to a guy I work with hes been dealing with her for 3 years now...

[lobsternoob]

Oh god, the people that come buy a new fish so they can come back and return their dead one they already had. I actually heard 2 people talking about this at my LFS not long ago. They were openly discussing which oscar had a pattern most similar to theirs, unfortunately there wasn't an employee nearby to overhear them.

[cocoa_pleco]

ive never returned dead fish. i see it as i bought it, i should have checked it for health, my problem if it dies.

[lobsternoob]

But your a responsible owner right? I'm pretty dang sure you are. Not everyone is, and It's a pretty common occurrence for people to bring back dead fish and expect a replacement. Even in stores that do not have a policy that allows it. Even when the fish sold is perfectly healthy, people still toss them into uncycled tanks, and tanks with horrid water quality, then come back blaming the store for selling them dying fish... A lot of people I talked to when working at a shop didnt even own a test kit, plenty more wondered why a fish would die in an unfiltered tank. There's no end to the ignorance or even stupidity of some people, and some just don't even care about their fish.

[Rue]

This isn't a shopping story...but...

We're treasurers for our kids' sport club. Payment was due Jan.2. Now we're tracking down all the late payers.

Just got an e-mail from one of the moms. She's out of work, can't find a job (hard to believe, everyone's hiring - many places are hiring on the spot they're so desperate), she would hate to pull her kid out of the sport, but will if she has to...and so on...

And in the meantime? Is the club supposed to pay for her child to go for free? I feel bad if she's having financial difficulties, but wouldn't you have pulled your kid before you owed for a month? It's not fair to all the other parents that pay on time or make arangements!

[cocoa_pleco]

But your a responsible owner right? I'm pretty dang sure you are.

sure am

one thing ive always wondered. with dead fish, most stores require a water sample, right? couldnt someone just get some RO water or tapwater and give it to them?

[Northernguy]

sure am

one thing ive always wondered. with dead fish, most stores require a water sample, right? couldnt someone just get some RO water or tapwater and give it to them?

Yup and I'm sure people do but it doesn't tell them what happened between picking up the fish and getting home.

Rue Here its if you don't pay the kid don't play. It sucks but thats the way it is.
She should b making arrangements for it before hand.
We are all friends here well almost lol and if we don't have it we get a up to a week to get it.
Thats for tournaments though! We have to pay up front for the yearly fee and coats or something.
Sports are expensive.

[labnjab]

ive never returned dead fish. i see it as i bought it, i should have checked it for health, my problem if it dies.

We've never returned a dead fish either, we keep our water clean, but I just don't want to go through the hassle of bringing them a sample of the water and trying to get a new one.

[MCHRKiller]

Dont think crap like that happens just with fish. I had a guy last week try to return 4 dead feeder mice. He had came bought them on one of the days where the temps was well below freezing. He put them in the bed of his pickup truck and went to walmart for 2 hours, went to eat and then decide "i might wanna check my rats" well needless to say they were little mouse popsickles. He came back literally in a rage demanding new feeder mice. I argued with him for a good 20minutes and finally pointed to our sign of all sales final and told him it wasnt our stores fault he was to fing stupid to keep his animals warm and let them freeze, I should call the humane society muchless give him replacements. They were to feed a snake anyway which IMO should be fed live stuff anyway so he really was better off with the frozen mice....

[Mith]

So if the kid gets charged more for specifically choosing a feeder....would I get charged less if I said just net any of those cichlids?? LOL