Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Communication

I was scrubbing tanks when I heard the boy's voice.
"THEY HAVE FISHIES?!" He yelled out in utter delight.
I heard the pitter patter of his feet as he darted back to the entrance. "MOM THEY HAVE FISHIES!!"
I heard the feet again. Pitter patter and looked up just in time to see the boy press his face against the case of our display tank.
And start roaring at the tank.
lol

What is it with kids and making loud noises at fish??
Honestly I'm not sure why they do it.
Perhaps they know something I don't.

But it didn't stop with the fishies.
I could hear him rawring, growling and making other noises that sounded like "bangbangbangbang" all the way up and down the store.

So I can only assume he was trying to terrorize all the other animals in the store as well.
Or communicate....

Who knows.
What I do know, was that it was amusing to listen to as I worked. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

How Many?

It's always amusing when a customer comes up to me and asks me. "Can I get some crickets?"
And then they wait....as if expecting me to magically just bag up the number they need.

It's so strange really.
I always have to ask them "How many, what size?"
It's not like I can read minds.
Yet still, customers do it. Just ask for crickets but don't specify the type or number.

Maybe one of these days I'll just randomly pick a size and bag a number and hand it to them....just to see their reaction. lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Monday, November 28, 2016

Moving Slow

There is a reason why we don't sell the fish from our display fish tanks.

I mean, we can sell the fish there.
But we try not to and discourage people from wanting those fish by saying that they're not for sale.

Why don't we sell the fish from our tanks?
1. They're impossible to catch quickly as the display tanks have more decorations and an awkward reach for catching fish.
2. The fish are older, so there's no guarantee that the fish will do well if moved to a new spot.
3. Fish are annoying to catch in display tanks.

So guess what I had to do today?
Yah.

I had a customer insist that I catch one of the glofish from the display tanks.
Stating that one of the managers had said that she could have that fish.
(later found out it was a misunderstanding on her part.)
Why did she want that particular glofish?
From what I could gather it was because it was larger than the fish in the tanks that we had for sale.

And even though I explained that this fish was older, and it might not do well.
Said customer was insistent that I catch that fish.

So I did.

Very.
Very.
Veeerrryyyy
Slowly.

I was in no hurry to catch the fish.
As I didn't want to catch the fish in the first place.
So my net wasn't as quick.
And it helped that the fish was super good at disappearing within the tank and hiding in the decorations.

I mean, if I had moved quickly I could have caught the fish as soon as I stuck my net in the tank.
I didn't.
Because I was annoyed.
Annoyed at this customer because they wouldn't take no for an answer.
Annoyed that this customer was insistent on this fish when she'd already returned the same type of fish twice. Dead.

So I moved slowly.
Taking my time.
Replacing decorations as I displaced them to catch the fish.

Commenting every now and then that the fish on our wall were much easier to catch.

I have to give that customer some credit.
She was patient.
I must have taken at least 10 if not 15 minutes trying to catch that fish.

All the while hoping that she would get impatient and change her mind.
But no.
Her mind was set.
She wasn't leaving without that fish.

So I wasted her time.
But she did get the fish in the end.

Hopefully she doesn't expect more of them in the future. >.<
I don't sell fish from the display tanks.
The only reason I did now was I thought the manager had given permission.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Friday, November 25, 2016

A New Passion

In our store we have tanks with stands set up for customers to see and buy.
-Just the tanks and stands with lights, no fish or water or anything.

A year or so ago, we were told to set up the lights, and then later that we should decorate the tanks with ornaments inside so that customers could see potential possibilities of how they could decorate their own tanks once they got it home.

I actually find it quite fun to decorate those tanks as it allows me to play with potential ideas for my own tank. :)

So it's unsurprising that when I planned to get the 125 gallon tank, that when we had the opportunity to decorate it, I took advantage and tried a few different decorating ideas. And left one of the set ups within the tank since it needed to be decorated anyways.

In any case.
Today, Black Friday, I had an older gentleman come into the store.
One who'd just moved into a new house, and had gotten permission from his wife to fulfill his childhood dream of getting a fish tank again. He could even get a large fish tank so long as it fit on the wall. lol.
But since he hasn't had a fishtank himself since he was a child, he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting in over his head. So I spent the next couple of hours off and on talking to the gentleman about the different tank sizes, and filters and basically everything about the tank. lol. He decided to go a head and get the 125 gallon tank, since I'd just gotten one as well and he trusted that I would know what I was doing. heh.
It was surprising though, that he and his wife decided to go ahead and buy all the decorations within the tank that I'd placed there. ()_() They had a couple of adjustments, switched out a couple of ornaments, but basically bought everything I'd placed in there. lol. Which was totally surprising, but some customers do it.
However, now I'm in a hard spot as....It would feel weird to buy those decorations as well for my own large fish tank. Heh. Sooo I guess it's back to the drawing board for me. Which is fine, I was still playing with other ideas for decorations for my own tank.

I'm just glad that I was able to help the customer out.
I hope it works well for him. ^^

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Which Bag?

It's amusing when customers thing that we know more than we do at work.
Especially when it comes to dog/cat food.

You wouldn't believe how often people are like. "I'm looking for the food with red x shapes in it."
"Uh....do you have a brand name?"
"No, it's the food with the red x's in it!!"

Sorry dear customer....
But I can't help you there.

Unless a bag of food gets a hole in it and spills across the floor, I never actually see what the food INSIDE the bag looks like.
All I have to go off of is what is pictured on the outside if the food is pictured.
I can guide you to brand names, to pictures and such easily enough once I can narrow down the possibilities.

But if I get a customer in, like I had today.
Who just shows me a plastic baggy full of dog food....
There's not much I can do to help you know which one you buy.

Especially when you already know the brand of food, but you can't remember the Flavor of food you buy.
I doubt the dog would care if you give them chicken flavor or beef flavored. So long as its the same brand of food I doubt most dogs would care.
And honestly...different flavors don't always have different colors.
And since I don't see the kibble that often...I wouldn't be able to say for sure which flavor went to which bag.

Ah.
The thoughts customers get in their heads sometimes. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Picture Perfect

It's not uncommon to encounter customers taking pictures of the animals we have in the store.
Often it's kids doing school projects and the like.
But occasionally I encounter adults also taking pictures of the animals within the store.

Today was one of those days.
I was walking by our reptile section when I noticed a gentleman with his camera basically pressed against the glass of the cage, taking pictures of our bearded dragons.
Knowing that the reflection of the glass could cause havoc with actually having a good picture, I paused in my task and offered to open up that cage for him so he could get a better close up view.
To which he refused, because he wanted the bearded dragons in their 'natural' environment.
...Okay.

So, I asked him if I could show him any of the other animals.
-As most of them tend to hide during the day because they're stubborn like that.

To which after some coaxing.
He said he wanted to get a picture of our Milksnake.
Ha.
Ha.

I tried. That's what I can say.
Milksnake is pretty difficult to get to hold still. They're quick little buggers and when you disturb them they go crazy.
So to compensate for my failure with the milksnake, I offered to show him the Ball Pythons as they don't move as quickly -but can still be stubborn when they don't want their picture taken- and the gentleman proceeded to take pictures to his heart's content before thanking me and leaving.

Only to return later in the day, apologetically, asking if he could take more pictures of some different snakes as the ones he took before ended up out of focus. (hate it when that happens.)
He'd again caught me at a slow moment in the store where there weren't really customers to help and I was looking for a distraction.
So I willingly helped him out by spending ten or so minutes moving snakes around to try and get them have their heads visible to the camera and still be in their 'natural' environment.

lol Hopefully he succeeded this time around. :) I'm guessing he did since I didn't see him again, but that doesn't mean he didn't return again after my shift was over....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Monday, November 21, 2016

Same Place

You know what's annoying about scanning items?
It's the fact that the bar code is never in the same spot.
You'd think that every single bag of dog food would have a barcode in the exact same spot.
But no.
Depending on the brand of food you're buying the barcode could be at the bottom of the bag, the side of the bag, the top of the bag, somewhere in the creases of the bag....it's rather annoying.
To have to hunt for the stupid barcode so you can scan the item for the customers.

You'd think that with how advanced we are technology wise, there would be some sort of agreement somewhere to have a specific barcode location on items for sale. That way it makes buying and scanning said items much faster and easier....

One can dream...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Stuck Again

You know the problem of having snakes and sticky things mix together?

Yah. Snakes get stuck to said sticky things.

*exhales*

So, in our reptile cages we have thermometers and hydrometers to monitor the temperature and humidity in every cage to ensure that each animal is getting the right heat and humidity.

Unfortunately, due to the failing of stickiness, a lot of the older gauges have been replaced with newer ones.
newer ones that have difficulty staying on the cages after so many times being cleaned.

which means they occasionally fall off.

Which wouldn't be a big deal.

Unless it's the sticky side that falls off and remains sticky.
Unless it's a snake that's wandering around and happens to slither over the stickiness and get stuck....

Which is what I found today.
One of the gauges had fallen off and when I went to open our cornsnake's cage, I discovered that the poor thing had gotten stuck.

It's not a new situation as I've encountered it before.
So I knew just what to do.

I took snake and gauge out of the cage and immediately went over to our vet, requesting that they bring me some mineral oil.

As mineral oil helps to make sticky not sticky and helps to pull the snake's scales away from the stickiness with minimal damage.

Five minutes later, with my hands covered in mineral oil. the Snake was free.

Thankfully, it looks like there was no lasting damage.
I have no idea how long the snake was stuck there.
But thankfully it wasn't so long that it hurt the snake.

It's a good thing their scales can spread out....
Otherwise it could have been worse.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Thursday, November 17, 2016

A Fluffy Surprise

I was expecting to get in Nine guinea pigs today with our weekly animal shipment.

Nine more than I needed.
When I already had 31 Guinea Pigs in the store.
I didn't need to have an even 40 before the day was out.

But I had prepared anyways.

Yet.
Upon arriving.
The delivery guy announced that I wasn't getting Nine.
No.
Apparently on his form we were supposed to receive just four Guinea Pigs.

But they hadn't sent me four.
Instead I was only receiving two guinea pigs. O.o

Two.
Out of Nine.

Apparently there's a 'shortage' of Guinea Pigs now?? O.o
Which is weird...since they've been sending me half a dozen for like a month now.
So why the random shortage?

I was grateful though.
Because I could deal with two more guinea pigs a lot easier than nine more.

However.
The Delivery Guy and I both got a surprise when he opened up the container holding the two guinea pigs.

Because there weren't just two guinea pigs in there.

It took a moment for me to register what I was seeing.
But then I exclaimed
CHINCHILLA!!!!

Because there, in the box with the two Guinea Pigs,
Was also a Chinchilla.

()_()
How it got there....neither of us knew lol.

The Guy seemed to think that his company was testing him for some reason.

Which...all things considered.
Could be possible.

As my store isn't currently receiving Chinchillas.
We stopped carrying them earlier in the Spring.
So to see one there in the store with the guinea pigs....

Ha.
Was quite surprising. :)

I wish I could have kept it.
But the Chinchilla wasn't on my inventory, and we had no where to put it.

So it went back with the Delivery Guy.

Ahh...
I miss that Chinchilla already.
They were one of my favorite mammals to interact with in the store. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Too Early To Call

Sometimes I wonder if people look at the clock before they call the store.
Or if the even look at the hours of our store before they call the store.

I mean, who else would call at SEVEN AM unless they obviously didn't know we weren't open yet?
Who in their right mind would think that any store is open that early?
Honestly, most stores open at Nine or Ten. Not SEVEN.

Yet, there I was at seven in the morning fielding a call from a customer.
Who of all things wanted to know if we carried adult bearded dragons and how much they were.

Obviously they've never come into the store before.
Because we don't sell adult anything.
Everything is young. Babies.
Especially bearded dragons.

Which I told the customer.
We only sold baby bearded dragons.
They said "thanks" and then hung up.

Honestly though.
Who is UP at SEVEN in the morning and thinks "I want to call a pet store and ask if they have adult bearded dragons?"

Crazies. Go back to bed.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Overflowing

Uh.
Holiday Season.
It's one of the more crazy times of the year.
Mostly because it means more products, more customers, more animals.

It becomes a balancing act.
To make sure everything runs smoothly.

Especially in regards with the animals.

As with the holidays...people want to get animals as gifts.
Which means we get in more animals into the store to keep up with the demand.

And right now.

Our supply of guinea pigs is far exceeding the demand for them.
And every week they keep sending me more.

And more.
And more.

And this increase in guinea pigs coincided, unfortunately, with us not selling guinea pigs.
For the last month, we've hardly been selling any of them.
Maybe one or two a week.
When before we'd been selling at least six, if not up to twelve.

So it's a sharp decline.
A very sharp decline.

Which is bad.
Because every week, I've been getting in more guinea pigs.
At least six.
Because before we were selling at least six.
And usually the supplier replenishes what we sell.

Our suppliers apparently didn't get the memo that we're not selling.
As currently in my store, I have 30 guinea pigs. THIRTY.
Usually I only have around 12.
So yah, I currently have more than double what I usually have.
And guess what.
I'm supposed to get in 9 more this week.
Yah.
NINE More guinea pigs.

Bringing the total to basically 40.

Seriously.
I'm swimming in guinea pigs here at work.
And it's not fun.
You know how difficult it is to find places to keep 40 guinea pigs?

Thankfully, we are prepared for such situations.
And thankfully this only really happens around the holidays.
But if I don't sell any guinea pigs this week....
And they decide to send me more next week....
*rubs eyes*

I really hope they don't send me more next week.
Or if they do, that I sell enough this week to be able to have room for the more if they show up.

Ugh.
Holidays.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Monday, November 14, 2016

WHAM

I suppose, working in a Pet Store comes with it's hazards.

Though most of the time those hazards involve being bitten, getting wet, or stepping in something smelly...
Yah, I suppose there is no suppose in having hazards at a pet store. lol.

Today's hazard was one of those..."Well...that was smooth." moments.

In that I encountered a woman customer.
An older lady who was pushing a cart around looking for a way to clean it.
Why?
Because apparently the customer using the cart before her had had a dog in said cart....and dog had left a little bit of a mess in the cart.
O.o Honestly, first time I've encountered dog poo in the cart.
Usually it's on the floor because some people can't pick up after their dogs. *shakes head*

In any case.
Being the super helpful customer I am.
I dash to the nearest station that holds papertowels and the like for when doggie accidents happen.
And proceeded to clean the mess.

However...
In my hurry to help.
I misjudged the distance between the shelves and me.
-As sometimes my shoulders decide to be wider then my mind thinks they are.
And wouldn't you know it.
I nicely whacked my shoulder right into the corner of one of the shelves.
WHAM.

Talk about OW.

Like painful needle into the shoulder for a shot OW.
It definitely set an ache through me.
One that hasn't quite left just yet.
Just like those annoying needle shots you have to get on occasion.

I even whacked myself hard enough to leave a nice mark behind.
Just red for now.
But we'll see if this one actually bruises up or not.

I suppose this should be a lesson in either "be more observant." "be less fast" or "look out!"

Maybe it's a combination of all three....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Filter Problems

I got a phone call this morning.
From a customer that I had helped earlier in the week with getting a fish tank.
They were calling because the filter had stopped working. O.o

...Not something that usually happens so quickly but it does happen on occasion.

The problem was...he didn't have the receipt...
Which meant I would have to look it up when he brought it in.

Now, in most cases, we can exchange out a filter for a similar one because we carry filters that size....
Only he'd bought one of our new tanks, that's only like a gallon.
And we don't carry filters that small....

So after double checking with a manager.
It was determined that the customer would bring in the filter, and then we'd grab a working filter from another tank set -the same that he'd bought earlier- and switch it out, so he would get the filter that works and we'd just discount the tank that no longer had a working filter.

I told the customer to come in before I left.

And wouldn't you know it.
They showed up half an hour before I left....
Only it wasn't the customer.
It was his dad.

The Dad had the filter.
But no receipt, no credit card,
No way to look up what tank it was that they'd bought.
Because at this point I didn't quite know who the person was....as I do help a lot of people.

So it resulted in me having the Dad call the customer so I could get the information I needed to look up the tank.
Which took a bit.
But I found it!
Only...when I went to the shelf to grab the filter from one of the tanks there....
We didn't have any more.
That spot was empty.
>.<
Ugh.

Thankfully, the tank set he got was part of a series, and they all basically have the same filter.
So I just grabbed a different tank that was of similar price and pulled the filter from that.
To give to the customer.

All in all....the process took the remaining time of my shift.
Which was great as time went by quickly, and the customer left happy.

Hopefully that filter doesn't break either....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Early Shoppers

I should have realized it would get crazy.
I mean, work has been basically dead, customer wise, for most of the week.
Hardly any real rushes or anything.

And honestly, if anything crazy would happen.
It would happen on a Thursday.
Thursdays are just days made for trouble really.

The random rushes of people when you're in the middle of trying to do something...

Yah.
Happens on Thursdays more often than not.

I knew something was up when I looked up from the middle of my cleaning tasks to see an older gentleman standing near the entrance looking confused.
I quick glance at my watch showed that we still had half an hour before we opened.
A look back to him and a quick "Can I help you?"
Had him answering. "You're not open yet are you?"
"Not for another half hour no." I responded.
He looked at me with sad eyes, half hidden hope really. "All I wanted to do was buy a dog tag." He said quietly.

Ah.
Just a dog tag.
That was easy, and I knew the registers would already be open -I double checked my watch to be sure- because our grooming department was open even if the main store was not.

So I walked over to the register since the tags were right there.
Of course...he hadn't picked one yet.
And once he picked one, he needed help with the actual engraving of the tag part.
So all in all it felt like 15 minutes later that I sent the customer on his way.

lol he was pretty gracious about it as well. lol.
"I'm impressed you're here working so hard. It's good to see someone dedicated to their job." and other such compliments. lol. I'm not sure why it impressed him....I guess he's had to deal with too many apathetic young people who are just there to earn money. But as I told him "Do what you Love, Love what you do." :)
Haha, perhaps he was just being complimentary to show his gratitude that I was willing to help him even though we weren't open yet.

In any case.
After he got sent on his way, I got interrupted again thirty seconds later by the arrival of our new shipment of animals, which I usually need to oversee.

It was crazy because we basically got done receiving the animals right as the store opened.
And basically right on the dot of opening.
I hear over the intercom. "Backup cashier."
O.o
Huh?
We just barely opened! Why would you need a backup cashier?
I moved up to the front and heard. "Third cashier."

Literally there were 12 people waiting in line to be helped out.
And all I could do was ()_() stare at it.
WHERE DID ALL THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?!

Literally we hadn't been open 5 minutes at that point, but we suddenly needed THREE cashiers?

It was crazy.
*shakes head*

Who knows why everyone and their mom decided to come into the store in the first hour of work.
But it definitely meant finishing my cleaning tasks quickly became more difficult lol.
Thankfully it seemed to be just a quick morning rush and everything returned to being slower.
Still...its weird for there to be so many people in the morning.... really weird.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Fly Woes

Flies.
They're annoying.

Though I suppose that's nothing new.
It's also not new to have flies in a Pet Store I suppose.

They probably dart in from the outside and find the situation to their liking.

However, they've recently become more of a nuisance.
Which is odd since it's heading into winter.
I usually feel that they're more of a nuisance in the summer....

In any case.

It's not surprising to occasionally find the flies inside the animal cages.
They happen to dart in at the wrong moment and get trapped in there until the next time they can free themselves.

What is surprising.
Is how many flies I've found in one of our Guinea Pig cages.
O.o

Like...I almost felt like I was seeing one of the plagues.

I think it was...yesterday? Maybe the day before.
I had a customer come tell me that there were a ton of flies in the Guinea Pig cage.
I figured she was exaggerating...I'd never seen more than like...four flies at it's worst.

()_()
It was worse.

There had to have been at least 15 flies in that cage.
O.o

I'd never seen so many stuck in one place.
Which makes me question how exactly they showed up.... >.>
Considering we're diligent in keeping the cages clean...

It's hard to say for sure.

But I had a fun five minutes of trying to convince the flies to get out of the cage.
And succeeded to get most of them out and away.

Only today,
I come in to find.

That there had to be like 15 more flies in the cage!! O.o
Where did they all come from!?!?

Thankfully, today was the scheduled day to clean out the guinea pig cages.
Which I did with great vigor.
Scrubbing every surface.

And, came across a nice solution to catching those pesky flies and getting them out of the cage.
I sprayed them with the cleaning solution.

Though I'm pretty sure any water type thing would work.

As I figured, and probably learned from somewhere, that when flies get their wings wet....they can't fly.
And if flies can't fly, then they can be caught.

I took great joy in grabbing those pesky creatures and tossing them in the trash.

lol. I felt like a bit of a ninja really, catching those flies. ;)

Hopefully they don't return. >.<

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

To Get A Pet

I always feel for the customers,
Who are eager to the point of desperation to do everything correctly, when it comes to getting a pet.
lol.
They ask a ton of questions.
Want to know every little detail.
Look to you to tell them how to do everything right so that they can take care of the pet correctly.

For the most part, I enjoy helping these sort of customers.
Because you know they're listening to you and they want to do everything right.
lol They may be a bit time consuming, so it's not always the best to have them come when we're busy.
But I do enjoy helping these sort of customers.

Today I had a gentleman come into the store.
Wanting to get a pet for his kids.
But one that would be easy to take care of.

Naturally that usually lends to fish.
Particularly Betta Fish. :)

lol, my coworker had started talking to him first.
But I ended up taking over, oops. :)
Talking to him about the different tanks and decorations and fish and how to care for the bettas. :)

It was a pleasant conversation.
I really hope that everything turns out well for him and for the fish. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Monday, November 7, 2016

Just Wait

It's always frustrating when greed wins over safety.

But time and time again I see it happen at work.
Where I tell customers that it's best to not buy fish the same time they get their tanks.
As there is a higher risk of said fish dying due to stress from the new tank.
I tell them that it's better to wait. Give the tank a couple of days to settle and then come back to get the fish.

Some customers listen.
Others don't.
I don't like the others. "Oh we'll just risk it" they say. >.< Well...how would you feel if someone said that to YOU dear customer? "Oh, we just built the house today, we have the walls up, but you know, you can survive the winter with just that right?"
Yah, pretty sure most people wouldn't stand for that.

Yet, they can stand for that for fish. *exhales*

I had that experience again today.
In case you couldn't tell. lol.

I had a couple come into the store.
One of those 'fresh college students" type of couples.
They'd originally come in with the concern that their water was super cloudy.

So I asked them how long they'd had the tank.
A couple of days.
Did they have fish in it?
A couple of gold fish.

Well....brand new tank.
With goldfish.

More than likely the water in the tank was still settling.
It's not uncommon for tanks to be cloudy for the first little bit as the water is stirred up and bacteria and other particles in the water go for a floating ride before settling wherever they settle.

So the cloudiness of the tank wasn't an issue really. It would be an issue if its still cloudy in a week,
but basically I told them to wait.

"Okay" they said. "We are just going to look at fish, what can go with them?"
To which I reiterated that their tank was still settling.
It wouldn't do well to add in fish already when they added in fish two days ago. It may stress out the ecosystem/bacterial environment whatever it's called, and get the fish sick and cause them to die.
They should wait at least a week before getting more fish.
Let the tank adjust.

For a little bit....they agreed with me.

But apparently the thought of having their 'empty' tank look fuller was too much for them.

"Well..." they said coming up to me. "We don't come up this way that often, so we want to get the fish today."
"Oh, how long is your drive?"
"Under 20 minutes"

*eye twitch*

Ugh. They must be from the city own south. Everyone from that city seems to think that they "travel from far away" but in reality they don't.

Under 20 minutes?
Please.
You can make the drive up this way anytime you want.
I'd be more understanding if it was an hour, or two, or three. As I have customers who do drive that far to reach our store since there isn't another Starsmet closer to them. I could understand the risk then.

But under 20 minutes?
No you're just being lazy.
You're being greedy.
You can't wait and give the fish the best possible chance for living.
No you want it and you want it now.

>.<
I bagged up their fish, internally seething.
Honestly, I hope that they have troubles with their tank now.
Perhaps they'll learn a lesson in patience then. XP

-Sarnic Dirchi

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Revive It

I don't think I'll ever understand why people would want to prank call a pet store.
Like honestly, in this day and age of caller id. Prank phone calling people is rather silly.
Yet, at work, I still occasionally answer the random phone call that is soon revealed to be a prank.

Now.
Normally, it takes me a little bit to realize that these sorts of phone calls are prank calls.
As like I've probably mentioned at some point.
I'm way too serious/logical/helpful at work. I don't automatically see sarcasm. I'm looking to help people and give them answers first, thinking about what they were actually meaning later.

Some days I'm good at catching the fact that people aren't being serious.
Other days I'm not.

But today.
I caught on quickly.
lol.

It was towards the end of my shift.
So I was tired and anxious to get home, distracted with plans of what I needed to do with once I got off work.
I'd just finished talking to a customer on the phone and hung up only to find the phone still ringing with another caller.

So I answered it.
And the customer -a teenage boy by the sound of it with a girl laughing in the background said: "Hey, I have a slight problem, my fish drowned."

What...drown in air? "That's rather weird since fish can't drown in water." I responded back.
(It helps to throw helpful logic out of the window when you know fish can't drown lol)
"Yah...but this one did, what do I do?"

Now...even though I'm aware that this is a prank, I still kinda have to keep up the helpful tones just because I am at work and there are customers around who might overhear me.
"What do you do to revive it or to take care of it because it's dead?" I asked bluntly.

"Revive it."

"Okay, well first you're going to have to do Mouth to Mouth." because at that moment I couldn't remember that it was called CPR. "Though you'll want to wash your mouth out with soap first because you don't want to get sick, and you'll need---"

About that point in time I realized that the caller had hung up.
So I'm not sure exactly what they heard.
But oh, I do hope that they did wash their mouths out with soap. lol.

In any case.
I still don't understand why people decide to amuse themselves by making other people's lives more difficult at their jobs.
But at least I think I got the upperhand this round. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Within the Tubes

The water was looking dirtier than usual.
Which wasn't a good thing.
I noticed that our Display Goldfish in the Tank had been hanging out at the surface a bit more for the past little bit as well.

Which once I stuck my hand in the water.
Confirmed my suspicions.
As I placed it where the outflow of water should have been from the canister filter.
And felt nothing.

Not a good thing as no flowing water meant that filtration wasn't happening which meant that the water was getting dirty and without the air pump already in the tank providing bubbles...the water probably would have stagnated.

The fact that the filter in the goldfish tank wasn't flowing told me....
That it had probably been waaaaay too long since the canister filter had been cleaned out.
As I can't remember when I last did it.
I feel like it was recently but it was probably like 3 or 4 months ago. *shrugs*
I hadn't really thought about it because we usually do display tank maintenance on Sundays and I don't usually work those days.

But who knew if my coworkers would actually work on the tank this Sunday.
The fish needed help now.

Unfortunately.
I had to wait until another coworker arrived so I could mess with the canister filter.
-That way I could work without having to stop and help customers.

I wasn't surprised when I opened up the filter.
-after making sure it was turned off and properly closed down so I wouldn't end up spilling water all over the place.

It was covered in brown slime.
Yah...definitely hadn't been cleaned in a while.
So I took apart the filter, cleaning off all the different media associated with canister filters before putting it all back together and turned it back on.

To have it not work.
Oh yah the motor was running, I could hear that working just fine.
But for whatever reason...water still wasn't flowing!

Ugh.
I took it apart again and again.
Filled it up with water.
Moved the nozzles. the pump things, whatever I could think of to get it to work.
To no dice.

I couldn't figure out why the filter wasn't drawing water from the tank to go into the canister to spit it back out cleaner into the tank.

Since the canister itself was fine.
I -after like 45 minutes of struggle- decided to see if I could take apart a section of the hosing.
The part that holds the hoses to the canister filter.

And to my surprise.
I discovered the problem.

The intake hose was clogged with sludge.
Thick sludge.
Like it was a dirty brown cotton ball consistency of sludge.
Probably could have made a rope out of it really.
A couple of prods and I dislodged the thing and managed to get some water flowing that way.

Which meant water was now going Into the filter!
Sweet!
Now...to get it back into the tank.
So I took the little pump gizmo and moved it up and down a few times.
And was rewarded!!

It more sludgy cotton ball type rope thick slime getting shot out into the tank.

And after that blockage was removed.
WATER!!
We had water flow into the tank!!

YES!
It only took me an hour, lol but at least I figured out what was wrong in the end. :)
Now the goldfish can relax and swim about in piece.
....until I remember I need to change the filter again. lol

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Counting

I'm good with numbers.
I suppose.
I suppose it's not normal for people to remember how many of each animal there is in the store.
Nor is it normal to remember details of when certain events happened in the past....

*shakes head*

So, during the week, we have to count all the animals in the store at work.
A duty usually handled by the manager.
But for basically nearly a year I'd taken on the duty myself since the manager had been unavailable to do so at the time.
To which I got in the habit of numbers and such I guess.

I just remember small details like that.
Ask me how many guinea pigs we have and I can tell you how many are in the different areas of the store.
Ask me when an animal got injured and I can tell you.

Due to the counts, I tend to be more aware of numbers.
It's easier with reptiles and small pets.
Not so much with the birds. (probably because I don't like birds as much as the other animals)

In any case.
My manager commented on that this morning while he was counting.
As the past couple of weeks I'd had counting day off.
So he'd been working with another coworker of mine. lol.

Who was in charge of the cage cleaning that day.

It was only natural to assume that since my coworkers had cleaned the cages.
They would know how many animals were in the cage.
But when my manager asked....
My coworker didn't know.
O.o
You'd just cleaned the cage like 15 minutes ago and didn't remember how many animals were in it?

Yah....
Apparently.

It makes me wonder what goes on in my coworker's heads.
When they don't notice details like that....

But it solidified my manager's gratitude for me though. haha.
Since today he could be like "How many of these?" and I could point to the cage and tell him how many were in each making his job go a bit faster. :)

Yay for memory. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Waiting and Waiting

I can totally understand it.
When you're waiting for help, and it feels like the workers are taking forever to get to you, even though in reality it's only been a couple of minutes.
I've been on the customer side of things before. Where I feel like the people are moving too slowly and I've been standing thee too long without getting what I came in to get.
I understand it.
But with experience working retail myself.
I've become a bit more patient when it comes with dealing with workers in retail.
A bit. lol. There are times where I know the people could be moving faster than their snails pace. lol.

In any case.
I had a customer ring out to the store today.
-Ringing out, meaning that they'd already been placed on hold, but it had been too long since someone had talked to them, so then all the phones in the store go off to remind us workers that someone is waiting on the phone to be helped.

In reality it's only like a two minute wait before the phone begins to ring.

Back to the story.
I'd seen the number on the phone before when I glanced at it.
As I'd managed to glance the number before someone else picked up the phone to answer it.
I'd heard the call go out over the intercom that the person on the phone needed someone in grooming to pick up.
The fact that this same number showed up again meant that for whatever reason, grooming hadn't picked up the phone like they were supposed to.

I'd glanced at the number, then stuck it back in my pocket.
Unfortunately, another coworker noticed this and asked me "Aren't you going to answer it?"
"No, it's grooming and I don't want to talk to them." I said. Before giving in -since no one else was picking up the phone- and answering it.

I was right.
It was grooming.
And the customer on the phone wasn't pleased that they still hadn't been connected to said groomers.
"I've been waiting and waiting and waiting!" she complained.
Which since she was put on hold at least once....
Wasn't more than like 5 minutes.
Not long at all really.
I mentally rolled my eyes.
Assured the customer I'd make sure the groomers would pick up this time before placing her on hold, and walked over to the groomers to tell them that they had a call on 21 in person so they would pick up.
Which they did.

*shakes head*

Honestly, I wish society was a bit more patient on occasion. It's not like my store puts people on hold as long as other phone places do. two minutes isn't that bad at all. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi