Glitched

So Black Friday was basically a week ago.
And we had the problems of our online order system being on the fritz.

Where we could only intermittently get into the system to try and pick people's orders so they could come get it later without having to fight the crowds.

And occasionally the system would kick us out.
Or not allow us access.
Or freeze...

Which....we managed to pick all the orders in the end.
So it didn't seem like much of an issue once all was said and done. (besides how long it took) 

But in the past couple of days I've gotten multiple calls from customers.
Who had 'ordered something online a week ago.' but had never received a confirmation email. 

But when I would go into our system to see if their order had been picked. 
It would be there under the "Come get me!" section. 
I would then double check that this was actually true by going to go find the customer's order in person to make sure we actually had it set aside for them.
Which we did.

And because I've had to answer this type of phone call at least a half dozen times....
I'm pretty confident in saying that the system glitched in sending out confirmation emails.

Soooo hopefully we can get it all sorted out...and if people don't come get their stuff, call them so they can come get their stuff.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Silent Assistance

I had a woman call me over to the reptile aisle because she needed help finding something.

However, when I got there. I was like "What can I help you with."

And she, while looking at the shelves, started to say. "Well, I can't fi---"

and she trailed off. "Maybe?" she muttered, looking at the products.

I stood there, waiting for her to tell me what she was needing help finding.

Only she never told me. lol.

She ended up picking up the product off the shelf without needing me to show her.

I guess my presence was enough to help her find it?? 

lol but then she was like. "I also have a question."

To which I was half expecting her to trail off again or else answer her own question.

She did neither.

She wanted to know if we had any small baggies used for holding carbon.

Which we did.

So I happily showed them to her.

And she happily went on her way. 

Yay. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Walk Away

There was a father and son duo that came into work today.
Looking to buy more betta fish because theirs had died.
But they were also looking to add in some neon tetras, and some algae eaters into their tank as well.

To which I tried to get a general idea of what size their tank was so I could recommend the right sort of fish for them.
But I could only get a vague "it's small" answer out of them.
Who knows if it was a gallon or five gallons. 
But apparently 'small' was a good enough answer. >.< 

So knowing that it was small, I tried to recommend some snails to them as they usually do a good job of keeping the smaller tanks.

Only to be met with the response of: "We tried those, they died." 

And the father basically ignored me after that point.
Saying. "Alright, son, you pick out two bettas one for you and one for soandso and then we'll grab four neons and two algae eaters." 

Which. The son could easily pick out bettas. 
Which he did. 
He picked out a $4 betta....and a $15 betta.
And I warned him. "That's $15" and he was like. "I'll ask my dad if it's okay."

But the main thing was the father hadn't ever said directly to me. "We need four neons and two algae eaters." 

He just was talking to his son.
And then walked off.
To who knows where.

So me, being the good person I am.
Fished out his fish.
Four neons. And two otos (as they stay small) 
And bagged them up in one bag.
Handed them to the son.

And sent him on his merry way. 

Only for the father to be like. ()_() You put them all in one bag?!?!

-Because apparently those fish needed to be divided out.
Which he hadn't told me.
Because he walked away.

So I took matters into my own hands and just put them into one bag. 
And he was like. "Could you divide them out?" 
To which I gave him a neutral look, waiting for him to tell me how he wanted them divided.
Because he was like. "We don't have a net!! How are we going to get them out of the bag?" 

"We sell nets for $5" was my response.
Which apparently seemed to satisfy him as he didn't wait around to tell me how to divide the fish. Instead he was like "Okay, we'll figure something out."

The man definitely wasn't a patient fellow that's for sure. *shakes head* 

I do wonder if he even realized his son bought a $15 betta fish, or if he just assumed the price was form other things they bought?

I wasn't about to point it out to him....mostly because I was curious to see if he'd notice.

He either didn't. Or he didn't care. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Weight?

I had a customer call today, looking for a particular dog crate that he'd found online.
Because he wanted to know how heavy it was.
Which...they don't exactly put the weight of the cage on the box....
Just the dimensions of the dog, and the size of dog most likely to need such a large cage.

But he was insistent. He wanted to know how much this cage weighed.
And I was like. "Well I can barely lift it so it's probably going to need two people with it in the box.

And he was like: Is that sixty pounds? thirty pounds? What? 

Honestly I didn't know.
it was heavier than a bag of dog food, cat litter. But not as heavy as lifting one of the giant fishtanks... *exhales* 

He ended up deciding it would probably be around 60lbs and was wondering if his wife would be able to move it around.
Which...sure.
Once it's all put together and out of the box, it should be rather easy to scoot around and clean it and such...
It's just when everything is piled on top of each other that it gets heavier. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pinhead

Had a gentlema come into the store today looking to buy a pinhead cricket.

Which is like the tiniest cricket ever. One that can fit on the top of a pin. (hence the name) 

Only often our crickets at emuch larger than that. The 'smalls' tend to be about 3/8s of an inch when they come in, though occasionally we do get in crickets that tiny.

(and they're a nightmare to try and catch) 

So the guy was looking for a tiny cricket.

And I showed him the prebagged ones we already had so he'd have a general iea of the size we usually carry. (which were on the larger size this time around) 

And he was like "is it 14 cents a bag?" 

"No, it's 14 cents per cricket" was my response. 

And apparently...the guy didn't realize that we had a whole bin of crickets that I could grab from.

As he started looking through the bags of crickets I'd already prebagged looking to see if there was a pinhead one within one of them that I could then grab out for him. 

(I think he was feeding a tiny spider.) 

I watched do this for a little bit, as at first I thought he was just looking for a bag of the smaller quantities of crickets.

When I realized he actually just wanted one.

I was like "I do have this entire bin here where I can just grab one cricket out for you.

Which he took with some surprise lol. 

But was grateful he was like "Okay, get me the tiniest one you can see." 

Which surprisingly I did manage to find him a little pinhead cricket.

I caught it.

Put in the bag and bagged it up for him.

And had to double check like three times that the cricket was in there because it was so tiny.

Gave it to him.

And he went on his merry way.

So at least I was able to help him out. :) woot. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Online Mishap

Whelp. 
Black Friday.

Always an...interesting experience to say the least.
Especially when it comes to online orders.

Which is a rather new thing for us. 
We only started it last year.
So you can imagine that there are...well kinks to work out.

Like the fact that the servers kept crashing/goingdown/malfunctioning.

So people who ordered stuff online the night before to get their things....
Were rather confused when morning came...and there were no order confirmations waiting for them.

Because we were struggling to access our system. And when we could...we'd only manage to do one or two before the system would fail again. *exhales* 
So it made for a rather slow process. 
*shakes head* 

Which means...that a lot of people were calling, 
Wanting to know where their orders were.

I don't know how many times I had to explain over the phone that our system was down, but we were working on picking them as quickly as we could. 
I honestly don't know if they ever got the system back up and running.

I know it was completely down around lunch time...
But after that point...not sure. 

However.
I do have to say that my favorite phone call customer was a woman who called, with the concern that she hadn't received her order yet.

However, she was really understanding. Wanting to know how we were holding up. Reassuring me that she knew it wasn't our fault and that we can't control everything in the store, and she was perfectly fine waiting a couple of days to get her order. 

Which was so gratifying.
Seriously. It's great to deal with customers on Black Friday in a Pet Store.
Because 98% of the time.
They're really understanding.
Most of them are rather laid back.
Most of them don't get frustrated.

And I'm so grateful for it.
It's crazy busy lol. But at least it's a good crazy busy. 

And I really just like it when the customers know that sometimes...things happen that are beyond our control. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Two or One?

I had a young customer who came into the store today to get a guinea pig that he'd saved his money up for. 

And they were having trouble deciding on a guinea pig, as the ones on the floor were all unique looking and energetic. 

So I suggested that they get two. 
So they'd have less of a decision to make, but also because Guinea Pigs love to have a buddy to be with.

But...yes, admittedly, I suggested that they get two because I currently have 45 guinea pigs in the store and I really want to lessen those numbers as much as I can. 
-Hopefully Black Friday will decrease that by half. *fingers crossed*

Still, they were like "Yes!" but they first had to see how much what they already got came up to.

Because again, it was the son who'd saved his money for a guinea pig. (with the mother going to pay for the rest) 
So they went to the check out with a single guinea pig as well as the cage and everything else they needed for him.

Left.

And apparently sat in the parking lot feeling guilty that they hadn't bought a second guinea pig,
As they came back like five minutes later and picked out a second one. ^^

I hope they have fun with their new pets!! :D 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Trio Trouble

I had a trio of teenage guys come into the store today.
The type that are 'out on an adventure' and aren't inclined to think of the consequences of their actions.

Why were they in the store?
To get a fish.

A fish for their bowl.

Which unfortunately for them, limited their options. To basically a betta fish.
Though one of the guys was quick to point out his goldfish is doing just fine in a bowl. *rolls eyes* 

And the guys weren't inclined to listen to me at all.
When I was trying to direct them to a fish that would actually live in their bowl.

They had a knack for going straight to the fish that would get at least 15inches long.
And I would have to actively dissuade them from getting said fish.

I actually don't know if they ended up getting anything.
As they came in just as I was getting off work.
But last I saw them they were excitedly looking at the reptiles.
Soooo
Hopefully they ended up getting nothing.
Who knows though.
Who knows.

-Sarnic Dirchi

OverStocked

Whelp.
The Holiday season has officially started.
Because that's when I get overloaded with animals that I have to find room for in the store. 
*exhales*
It can be quite the task to juggle that all.
But somehow I make it work.

Yet, it's going to be an interesting few days before Black Friday.
Because I'm in that rock and a hard place of wanting to sell more animals before Black Friday so I can empty out the back rooms.
But also needing to make sure we actually have animals to sell on Black Friday so I don't have to keep telling customers that "there aren't anymore." 

Still....
I kinda wish that the shippers would look at our inventory a little more closely before they send us animals.

Because having 45 guinea pigs in the store is rather extreme. 

*exhales* 
Especially when I can usually only have 6 out on the floor at a time. *shakes head*
So right now...
I'm really hoping that we can sell a few guinea pigs before Black Friday because we really need to decrowd the space in back.
Because 45 guinea pigs eat a ton, and make a huge mess. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Gravel Decisions

There are days where there are customers that just....automatically drive you crazy.
Because they have this desperate insatiable hunger to be told what is right. To be told that the thing they researched on the internet is definitely the correct thing.

And it gets....rather draining. To try and validate that customer when they expect you to know everything...and you don't.

*exhales*

I had one of those customers today.
It was a woman who wanted to get a tank set up that had live plants in it, but she also wanted to put in betta fish so she could breed them.

And she was like "I need this special rock for the plants to survive in, but I also need sand and gravel." 

Which....I didn't quite see why she needed the three different soils.
Usually for our aquatic plants I just recommend the gravel that has nutrients in it and is meant specifically for plants to grow in.

But this woman wasn't hearing it.
She needed Sand.
She needed good rock.

And she wasn't going to hear anything different.
But wasn't listening when I offered suggestions.

Why?
Because she had this book.
That she'd picked up from a book store.

That detailed with setting up fishtanks for aquatic plants to survive in. 
And she wanted to follow it exactly.

Only her hang up was that the book didn't detail tank set ups for bettas.

And she wanted to make sure everything would be safe for the betta.

And it was getting to the point where I was like. "Lady. It's aquatic stuff. It's meant to be in the water. The bettas are meant to be in the water. Therefore the two should do well together."

*exhales*
I didn't.
Not exactly.
I basically just went. "Okay you need this, this, and this." and pointed to the rocks and gravel and sand that I thought would work best with what I saw in her book thingy.

Which basically was what she wanted.
She just wanted to be told direct things.
Didn't want to be given options.
Didn't want to make decisions.
She just wanted to be told.

So I told her.

Hopefully that tank works out well for her.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Carry Out

So the call came over the radio today that a customer needed a flat cart to get a cat tree out to their car.

Which had me going O.o 
Because cat trees, despite being awkwardly shaped...aren't that hard to carry.
I'd think that they would be the same weight, if not less, as a bag of dog food. 

So I was confused as to why there would be a cart needed.
Therefore, I decided to go check out the situation,
Since I wasn't busy with customers at the moment.
To see if I would really need to hunt down our red cart.
(Because that thing can be notoriously difficult to find. It likes to hide.) 
And found an older gentleman and his wife, who were looking to get one of our taller cat trees.

Having carried such cat trees before. I was like. "Oh, you don't need a flat cart. I can just carry that for you."

To which the guy was like. "Well...then I'd feel like a weakling if you did that." 

Which honestly he shouldn't. I kinda figured he just had a bad back. As that's often the reason why people ask for assistance in the store. It's because they either aren't strong enough to lift the thing, or else have a physical injury that prevents them from lifting it.

So I took the cat tree up to the register.
And the customer was like. "...would you be able to carry it out to our car too?" 
To which I happily complied because I don't get to go outside often once I'm at work lol. So being able to see the sun (or the clouds) and just get some fresh air is nice.

So I helped the gentleman and his wife get their cat tree out to their car.
And was like "Have a good day! Drive safe!" and turned to walk away.
I heard him say something,
Glanced back, saw the gentleman rooting around in his car, figured he'd been talking to his wife, and continued walking, only to have the gentleman call out again. 
So I turned, saw him walking towards me. 
I walked back to him, wondering if he needed help with something else.
Until I saw the cash in his hand.
"Here." He said handing it to me.
"That's not necessary sir." I said, with some surprise. 
Because...I don't usually get tips.
Pretty sure we're supposed to decline accepting tips, because we're not working for tips.
But the guy was like "I insist. I feel bad that you carried it out for me." And again handed it to me. 

^^;;;
Guys.
I got tipped.
This is so weird.
lol. But so cool!! Like it's an extra thank you for helping out.
And ahhh.
It's nice. ^^ So nice. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Locksmith

Apparently I'm now the unofficial locksmith at work now. lol. 

So like three months ago? Really. It's been forever. 
Two of the locks to our small pet cages broke. 
They simply fell apart, and pieces got lost...and therefore became unfixable. 

Which meant that we had to order in new locks to replace the broken ones. 

And like I said....it took forever.
Those cages have been unlocked for months. 
Because for whatever reason, the parts take forever to come into the store. *shakes head*

However, today. They finally arrived.

The key locks. 

Which, I probably wouldn't have realized had come as quickly.
Except the managers were like: Hey, Sarnic. The locks came in to fix the cages. Could you fix them for us? 

Because guess who's been the one fixing the broken bird lock multiple times in the past month?
Me.

Because I actually have the patience, and the curiosity to try and figure out how the lock works and how to put it back together again in order to get it working.

And since the bird door lock has a pretty similar principle to the small pet cage key locks....
As well as the fact that I have put together the small pet cages locks before as well....

I obviously was the best person for the job to get the job done. lol. 

So that's what I did.
With some fiddling and some faddling.
And the search for like a mini wrench where I could loosen a piece of the lock so it wouldn't be crooked any further.

I fixed them!!! 

Woot.
Yay for me fixing locks. lol. 

>.>
<.<

I really hope they aren't broken when I come back into work tomorrow. >.> 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A WEEK?!?!

There was a customer on the phone today, with a southern accent with a simple enough question.

She wanted to know how long it would take the money show up in her account after she returned an item to our store yesterday. 
After double checking if she'd used a Debit or Credit card and finding out she used a Debit card.
I told her that it could be within a day, but could also take up to a week for the money to show up.

And it was like the woman hadn't even heard the first part where it could show back up in the account in a day.
No all she heard was "Up to a week." 
and for whatever reason, that sent her temper into full on volcano mode.

"UP TO A WEEK!? WHY I NEVER!" *shakes head* 
She was like "Everywhere else it's 2-3 days! Why in the world would it take up to a week for my money to come back?!" 

Which....she made it sound like she needed that money to show back up in her account NOW. 
Which left me confused...as usually with debit cards our policy is to give the money back in cash because of that very reason. That it takes a couple of days for the money to show back up in the account. Why she got it back on her card...not sure...but honestly...I couldn't see why she was freaking out. The money would be back in her account within the week. 

But she was still stuck on that "seven days" sort of week thing.
And was like. "You believe it's up to seven days?! Do you KNOW how long it takes?" 
To which I was mentally rolling my eyes at this woman. and I calmly interrupted her and said that I could double check with a manager to see for sure what the answer was.
Which I did.
And I returned to tell her that the manager had stated that it takes 3-5 days to show back up in the account, but could be up to a week if the return was done on a weekend. Because it's 3-5 business days.

And that seemed to calm her right down. As she hung up soon after.

*shakes head* 
Don't get it. 
Really don't get it.
Why did she get so upset?
Why was she checking the DAY AFTER she returned an item if she knew that other places took 2-3 days to put the money back in the account? *shakes head* 
I have no idea.

But instead of being annoyed by the encounter, I was more amused.
because really...it was a stupid reason to get upset.
And because her accent...I actually liked listening to it. So the fact that she was mad while it registered, didn't really bother me.
It was just well...funny to hear that southern bell accent trying to be mad. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Looking for Help

There was a woman and her son who came into the store pretty early this morning.
Probably just after opening really.
They'd come in to check out the fish tanks and such.
And the woman was like. "What sort of fish tank should we get." 
And after a few questions of my own, I directed her to the types of tanks that would suit what she and her son were interested in getting. 

And I continued to give her advice, information, and answer her questions.

To which she was like. "I've been in multiple pet stores." (she may have said 'been in here multiple times') "And I've never met someone as helpful as you have been."

She was rather grateful for that fact.
That I was willing to answer her questions, volunteer information....

Which always catches me off guard when customers are surprised at this.

Because like...that's why I'm here?
I'm here to answer your questions. 
I'm here to help you figure out where something is, what animal to get, how to take care of your pet.
That's why I was trained, that's why I'm in this particular department.
I'm here to help the customers find a pet to take home and to try and help them make caring for their new pet as easy as possible.

*shrugs*
At least I was able to give her a clearer picture of what she wants to get. :)  Yay. lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Emailed

Pretty close to after opening, I answer the phone to a customer who was calling all the way over from North Carolina. (which is on the opposite side of the country from my store) 

And she was calling because last night she received an email receipt from my store...and she'd never been to my store before. Wasn't even in the state. 
So she was like "Can you explain to me why I'm getting this email receipt about purchases that were made in your store with a card that isn't mine?" 

And yah.
I could explain it easily. 

You see, our store can Email receipts to customers instead of printing them out.
We just enter their email address into the computer and walla! Receipt is emailed to that email address.

The computer doesn't do anything further than that. It just sends a copy of the receipt to the email address. 

And because the card used on the receipt didn't match the cards of the lady in North Carolina.

I pretty much put it down to human error. 
The email address of the customer who had bought stuff from our store had been entered incorrectly, and therefore had sent a receipt to the woman instead of the customer. 

The woman was a bit disbelieving. She was like "But my email address is "firstnamelastname@gmail.com" and my name is not a normal name!! 

Well...apparently it is normal enough for someone to have a similar enough email address for us to input. 

In any case.
I reassured her that there was nothing to worry about.
And she should be fine.

And I wasn't going to think more about it.

Only, a few hours later....I got another call...
Well I took over the phone from my coworker who was slammed at the register, and encountered another customer....

With the same problem.
He'd received an email saying that $80 worth of doggie stuff had been purchased at the store....and he doesn't own a dog....nor has he been to our store.

And from my understanding, the guy had basically gone and cancelled all his cards and such. 
--I think he'd been having other issues with his cards (information taken maybe?) which was what prompted that measure.

But he was calling to find out what had happened and what could be done and yadda yadda.

So I had to give him basically the same spiel. That someone from our store had purchased something, and sent the receipt to his email instead of theirs because most likely their email had been put in incorrectly and so he'd received the email instead of them.

The catch...is that this particular customer had paid with a check.....so it wasn't as easy to tell that the payment hadn't been taken from his account.
But I told him another customer had called with a similar issue earlier, and that I was pretty confident that he hadn't had any money taken, and that he'd only received the email. That was it.
After all...we treat checks a lot like debit cards at my work, so once the check goes through, it's taken out of a person's account basically as quickly as if they'd used a debit card.

So I told him, since he hadn't seen any charges yet in his accounts, that he should be fine, but he could keep an eye on it just in case for a couple more days.

Pretty sure there's nothing wrong....
Beyond the wrong email addresses in our computer system that is....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Enough Space

It started out as a simple enough encounter with a customer.
Where she wanted to know how the Under gravel filters work within a fish tank.

Which...honestly...I have no idea. I know you place the grate at the bottom of the tank, cover it with gravel and place the tubes on the side and walla! 
I also know you have to clean out that grate every few months or so as it gets clogged. 

And so I told the customer as much.
And instead recommended that she get an over the back Tank filter because those are easier to deal with. 
To which she stated that she already had one...only she wasn't using it because when she set up her tank (it was a corner 56 gallon) she'd placed it too close against the wall so the filter she bought wouldn't fit in the tiny gap that was left.

-Which I was like...why not readjust the tank to let it fit if you already bought it??? 

But I just went and suggested some internal filters that could suction cup to the inside of the tank and not need to hang over the back.
The problem?
We were out of the larger sizes. We only had ones left for 10 gallon tanks. 

And the customer was like "If I buy this smaller one now, will it help until the larger one comes in?" 

To which I had to be like..."Yes...it will help a bit, but the larger one will do a better job."
"Well, I'll get this one for now." was her response.

And then. THEN. 
I find out that her water is green....which is possibly due to no filtration, or direct sunlight or who knows what else.

AND.
She ALREADY HAS FISH IN HER TANK.

Seriously?!
SERIOUSLY?!
She was like "Sooo I bought these fish here" *points to goldfish* and I already had one die....

And I was like: ITS BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T HAVE A FILTER, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU PUT FISH IN A TANK THAT BIG WITHOUT A FILTER?!

Because, especially with goldfish, you'd be needing to do water changes at least once a week to try and keep that water clean, and goldfish are sooo messy...it's like...crazy that she decided that she didn't want to adjust the filter or move the tank or worry about anything until AFTER things started going wrong and GAH.

It doesn't help that this customer only told me this information...After she bought MORE FISH.
>.<

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Playing Telephone

Manager: Sarnic, could you check and see if we have pet wrap?
Me: Pet wrap?
Manager: For wrapping injuries on dogs.
Me: *goes and checks* Yah we have some.
Manager: Great, can you tell the customer on the phone we have it?...
Me: Sure. *Picks up phone* Thanks for holding, how can I help you?
Customer: Yes, do you have pet wrap?
Me: For like treating injuries correct? Yes we're have them.
Customer. No, no. Pet Rap. R-a-p
Me: You mean, w-r-a-p?
Customer: No, the live animal. Pet Rats. R-a-t.
Me: Oh!! Sorry, we don't. We haven't carried rats in a couple years.
Customer: Oh, okay, thanks for the help. *Hangs up*
Me: *goes to manager* They were looking for rats not wrap.
Manager: No! They said Pet Wrap.
Me: They said Pet Rat.
Manager: ....oh.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

On Display?

So I was letting a customer hold one of our chinchillas today. 
Which she was beyond excited about. Excited enough that she had her mom constantly taking pictures of her holding the chinchilla. lol

And they were really intrigued with them, wanting to know the care, and the cost and such. 

When the mom asked me...

"So where do you keep the ones that you sell? Are they in a different part of the store?" 

O.o 

Uh... No?
I told her that the ones she saw were the ones we sell. 

Which seemed to surprise her....
Which....surprised me.

 I mean....why would there be another room specifically for selling our animals?
Admittedly, we do have a back room where we keep our extra animals until there's room for them to come out to the floor.
But a different room/section of the store for selling them? 
Nope.
The chinchillas they saw are the ones we sell.

It's not like they're just there to be on display. They're there to find a forever home.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Come Apart

So we have this door at work,
That opens into our little bird enclosure.
Where we can open up the bird cages within and catch the birds in the little space without worrying about the birds getting loose in the store. (you know...so long as people remember to shut the door. lol) 

In any case.
That door has a lock on it, and that lock is located on a mini door that slids up when you unlock the lock to reveal the handle to the door within so that you can open the door...but customers have no easy access to opening the door to the birds themselves.
(why they didn't just create a door that had the lock on the handle....who knows.) 

In any case.
Recently that particular lock has been giving us problems.
In that the screws that hold the lock together....
keep falling out.

That little round piece...a bolt? a nugget? Like a washer? Whatever that little round piece is called....likes to unwind and get loose...and fall off....if no one is paying attention and making sure that it's still tightly put in place.

But it got a little ridiculous this week.
As I've had to fix that lock twice. 
TWICE.
Because it fell apart.

O.o 
I don't even comprehend how it fell apart!
But it did. 

And last night when I came in to help out with stocking...I discovered that the bird lock had once again...fallen to pieces.

Which considering I had fixed it not TWO DAYS earlier.
Was pathetic.

Like seriously...what did my coworkers do to make it fall so thoroughly apart in the single day that I was gone?
*exhales*

I didn't have time last night to fix the lock.
So I ended up putting it back together again and replacing the lock this morning. 
So that once again our door could be locked. 

*shakes head*
Still...I have to wonder if any of my coworkers even attempted to fix it...or if they just saw it was broken and went. "Oh well." And didn't even try....

Who knows....
At least its fixed again though.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Water Problems

I had a customer come into the store today with a problem.
You see, he'd bought a ten gallon tank and had put fish in it....
Only they were having troubles keeping the Ammonia levels down within the tank.

He'd tried everything he could think of to get those ammonia levels down.
And nothing. 
If anything the Ammonia levels in his tank were only increasing. 

Which...isn't a good thing.

And everything that we would suggest to treat the tank....he'd already done them.

*exhales*
It's kinda weird....in that if people have problems with their fish tanks...it's usually those people who own the 10 gallon sizes. 
Dunno what it is about that ten gallon size....but it's definitely difficult to keep that tank 'happy' for a lot of customers.

This particular customer, had ended up bringing in a couple of his catfish in some spring water he'd been filling his tank with.
So I decided to test the water, there -though it could show slightly skewed results because there were fish in the water sample.
And discovered that the gentleman's water was rather soft, low in alkalinity, and low in PH levels.

Which could be the cause of some of his problems.
Because my friend Google (because yes, I google answers if I don't know them.) told me there was a particular syndrome called "Old Tank Syndrome" where ammonia levels could skyrocket if a) the tank was overcrowded. or b) the PH is low because that means the biofilter can't function properly and that biofilter helps to decrease ammonia in the water.

Basically, I told the customer that he should probably try adding in some good old tap water or yard water into his tank. Water that wasn't soft (because the fish in our area are used to hard water) and would be harder than the spring water. And see if that would help.

I dunno if he believed me.
Nor if he's actually going to try it.
But I did at least offer him a couple of possible solutions to the problem....

*exhales*

In any case.
Out of that exchange....I also ended up adopting his two catfish he brought in. -A Peppered Cory and a Sterbai Cory-- as he didn't want them to die in his tank. And I have a nice 125 gallon fish tank at home that should have plenty of room for them to do well in.
*fingers crossed*

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Wet Morning

I was cleaning cat cages today.
Minding my own business.
When I suddenly felt something cold and wet splash down upon my head and shoulders.

I look up.
To see the kitty in the cage above me, with his head shoved underneath his water bowl (it's a metal bowl in a holder hanging on the cage door) trying to get my attention.
And said bowl...is full of water.
And him lifting it up...tilted the bowl...sending water splashing down upon me.

>.< Considering I already took a shower...the sudden wetness was rather unwelcome.
And it took a bit of moving the bowls about to ensure that I wouldn't continue to get wet.
Which I succeeded in doing. Yay. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi
 

Dunked

This morning I got into work, and as per the usual went to go grab the keys for my department as well as our department phone.

Only when I grabbed it...
I noticed that something wasn't quite right. 
For one, the screen was just showing the white screen of death.
For two...there was moisture built up on the INSIDE of the screen.

And the phone wasn't responding to anything at all.

Considering there was moisture inside the screen....that could only mean one thing.
It had been dropped in water.

:S Still...I was hoping that the phone would still work.
So I popped out the battery and then put it back in.
And walla!!!

The phone turned back on!
....Kinda.

The screen now was a pixelated mess.
But still legible which buttons and symbols were which.

However...despite being able to navigate and use the phone...
The speaker in said phone no longer worked.
So while I could pick up and answer the phone....
No one would be able to hear me.

Which means...
Phone is definitely busted. 

*shakes head*

So I ended up borrowing a different phone for my work shift.

Wondering how in the world the phone had gotten soaked last night...and what crazy had happened in the store after I left yesterday to cause the phone to get a bath....

I got a partial answer.
So last night, my coworker got sick and had to leave early.
Why?
Because my coworker ended up throwing up. 
:S Not fun. Especially not at work.

But apparently....
The phone...had ended up taking a tumble into the toilet at some point. :S XP 
Uhmm can you say EWWWWW?!?!
Because gah!!!
That's gross. XP 

*shakes head*
Definitely a first for the store....
But gah. 

-Sarnic Dirchi