Cat?

It's never fun to see "Unknown Number" show up on the caller ID at work. 
Mostly because 9/10 times this means that we're about to deal with a Prank caller.
But like it's not ALWAYS the case, so you can't just answer the phone with the expectation that it's a prank caller because it could be a legitimate customer.

In any case.
I had that "Private Unknown Number" call the store today.
Which I had the benefit of answering. 
*exhales*
It's halfway funny because I was just talking to my greenie coworker earlier on if they'd answered any prank phone calls yet. Which they hadn't. Lucky them.

So I suppose it was only karma that I had a prank caller call after my greenie had left for the day.

This time though it wasn't your typical "Hi, I think my fish might have drowned" or "Do you sell monkeys?" type of prank calls. 

This time the caller was like "I got your email! You guys have found my cat Whiskas and I'm soo excited to get him back can I get him?" 

And I decided to take it the more serious route....mostly because this could have been legitimate. Though I could tell after like two minutes of talking to the guy that it was a prank caller. 

Because I was like "I'm sorry we don't email people about their missing cats." etc etc.
And the dude wasn't having it like "I just want my cat back. Give me my cat!" and like....i couldn't do that because a) I didn't have the cat and b) it wasn't like I had had proof of purchase or ownership or anything from them.
But like the dude wasn't taking the 'no' as an answer.
Keeping the sharade going until he was like "Oh hey look here's my cat! Nice kitty!" 
*shakes head* 
I ended up hanging up on them.
But like....why?
Why prank call the pet store?
I don't get it? What's the thrill with it? *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Helpful Mornings

There are mornings when my manager is scheduled to help me open the department.

Which usually means that I'm opening the department by myself lol.

Because, while my manager has good intentions about helping out and such.

He gets easily distracted. 

Today was one of those days. lol. 

Where he chose to do the task of the Reptile Bedding change.

Which because like half of our cages are still empty right now. (our reptile shipments have been thin recently, possibly due to the cold.) 

Should have been a quick process.

But my manager loves to be an overachiever too. 

Where he's looking to make the tanks look better.

Looking to add in new decorations, to do deeper cleans. 

Which is great....if he could stay focused on the task at hand. 

But being the manager...

He can get caught up in other issues.

Like the fact that customers were waiting to checkout like right when we opened, and our cashier hadn't made it to the front yet. So he was helping them.

And then he had the only phone in the store because the others were missing or dead and needed to be recharged.

Then there was getting radios for all of us so we could communicate easier.

And checking online orders.

Checking in with the other managers and their tasks they were working on.

Taking animals to the vet...

And before he knew it...it was like two or three hours later. lol. 

And the reptiles?

Yah he'd only gotten like a third of their cages done. ^^;; 

*laughs*

Like it's something I've come to expect with opening with my manager.

He's easily distracted.

So I usually plan to do most if not all of the opening by myself.

But today he was like "I am so sorry! I have such good intentions and then I get distracted, and I lose track of time." 

He was so apologetic. ^^;; 

But like...I didn't see why he was apologizing.

I mean I liked that he was apologizing for having me do most of the work and him not being as helpful as he was meaning to be.

I just...kinda plan for things to not work out you know?

At work, part of what I do is that I figure out the quirks and abilities of my coworkers, and then do my best to account for their faults, but also support them in their strengths. 

So the fact that my manager is easily distracted?

I've come to expect it.

So it doesn't really bother me when he takes longer to do things he says he's going to do. Or if I end up taking over for a task that he was unable to finish...it doesn't stress me out. 

Because I evaluate issues, I work to take care of them. So if things don't go according to the original plan...it's fine. 

And if he's serious about staying on tract then it's just a matter of saying "Have you received in that paperwork yet?" or "How's the bedding change going?" 

Basically giving him little reminders of what his original task was. lol. 

Long story short.

I'm adaptable, and pretty easy going.

So if things don't go to plan. I don't mind. 

But I do appreciate that my manager recognizes the fact that he struggles to stay focused lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Way Up There

I had a gentleman come up to me wanting to know if I could tell him the price of some cat scratchers he wanted to look at as he couldn't see them.

So I asked him to show me them so I could price check them.
And he pointed up to our overstock section of products. -aka we have these steel shelves that we store extra product on that's out of reach of customers, but they can still see them up there as they line the walls of half the store. 

So I simply looked at the type of product...and then took him around the corner to where we store the cat scratchers that size, and showed him the prices there. 

*shakes head* Really...it would make more sense if the people in charge of organizing how product is placed on the shelves would be more thoughtful on keeping things together. That way people who see the big cat tree sized scratchers could also see the smaller ones nearby...
Instead of them being located on a completely different aisle out of sight of the other scratchers. *shakes head* 

But at least I figured out the prices for him. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

WAAAIIITTTT!!!

So I had a moment of panic, when I walked out of the room we have behind our fish wall.
And saw two customers over by our fish, specifically the feeder goldfish.

And one of said customers was holding a bag with one goldfish already in it.
While the other was bending over with one of our plastic catch containers (to hold the fish before we bag it) and was scooping out more water from the fishtank.

And I was like "!!!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!!"

Only as I got closer, I realized that the customer scooping water in the bag...was actually one of our groomers.

Their spouse had come into the store randomly, and wanted a goldfish so the groomer came out...and I guess...since they didn't see anyone to help them....decided to catch the fish themselves?

*shakes head*
lol. Gave me a mini heart attack as I never really see the groomers doing that. Like ever....

But at least it was one of the workers catching the fish and not just a customer attempting to do it on their own. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Catfish Issues?

I had a customer come into the store to return a catfish (alive) and some guppies (dead) because she thought that the catfish may have killed the guppies because the guppies had all died and she'd noticed the catfish constantly swimming up and down from the surface to the bottom of the tank. 
And she thought that somehow the catfish had been the instigator of the others deaths....

*shakes head* 

I doubt it was the catfish.
They're usually not aggressive to other fish. Especially the Cory's. 

But the fact that she put 8 guppies in a 5.5 gallon tank may be part of the reason why they all died.
She was overcrowding the tank. 

But there was also the consideration that guppies...are just really delicate.
They can die so easily. So very easily.
It may have had nothing to do with the tank conditions or the other fish in with them.
It may have been that guppies just weren't healthy enough or something.

In any case.
I returned the catfish
And replaced her guppies...
With some platys.
Though I did my best to convince her to buy less fish because buying a ton again would only kill the fish once more.

I partially succeeded....
So hopefully her new fish do well....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scrubbing Frenzy

I didn't think much of it when I told my coworker, who would be covering the department while I was on lunch, to scrub the tanks.
I mean, they'd opened in the department before.
And knew that during the week we gravel vacuum and scrub certain tanks each day.

So I was like "Okay, tanks still need to be vacuumed and scrubbed, I'll be back in a bit." 

I mean....what could go wrong?

lol. Flooding the department.. 
But that's not what happened.

No I got back from lunch and my coworker was like: "Okay! So I scrubbed the entire top row and the middle row and I'm to this point in the bottom ro--"

It took me until their "middle row" part of the explanation to realize that my coworker wasn't talking about the 18 tanks we were scrubbing today.
No they were talking about The ENTIRE WALL. 
Which we have like 72 tanks.
And my coworker was just telling me that they'd scrubbed like 60 of those tanks in the half hour I was gone. 

O.o

And I was like "umm...you only needed to scrub the section of tanks that didn't have any decorations in them..."

-Because part of the cleaning is to take out the decorations within our tanks and get them cleaned too. So while the decorations are out, we scrub and vacuum because then there's not things in the way. 

So while we have 72 tanks, we only scrub 18 a day so as to not...you know...make our arms super sore the next day. lol. 

*shakes head*

My coworker was like ()_() 
I THOUGHT WE HAD TO SCRUB ALL of them and just Gravel Vacuum the one section?!

Nope.
Nope nope nope.

*shakes head*

I don't know where they got that thought into their head.
I mean, my coworker had scrubbed tanks before. 
So I don't quite know why they didn't remember that they'd only scrubbed a small section of our fish wall before. 

Whelp. Doesn't hurt to be an overachiever I suppose....
Though I wouldn't be surprised if their arms are really tired tomorrow lol. Because that is ALOT of tanks to scrub. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

New Things

The annoying thing about work.
Is that they always bring out really cool fish decorations just AFTER I spent a lot of money buying different ones!

Like where were you fish decorations when I HAD my sunken ship theme.
WHY bring out more cool sunken ships now that I've switched to a different theme??

>.>
It's just cruel.

Luckily I like my new theme.
So while the big cool decorations that we got into work today are Awesome to stare at.

They hold no temptation (yet) over me. ^^;;
You shall not win this round. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Staying Motivated

So last night was our Inventory.
And like three of the managers stayed up all night in order to make sure that the whole counting process went off well and such. 

Which....apparently it didn't because they should have been done by 6am this morning (having started at 9pm last night) 
And well....they were still there until like 830.
Though to be honest I think they were done at like 730 after going over discrepancies and the like. 

However, the amusing thing of the morning, was listening to them while they were refacing the store. 
-As when you do inventory you push product back on the shelf to show that there's nothing behind it, and everything from the back to the front of the shelf is the same.
So they went through pulling all the product back to the front of the shelves so customers would be able to reach them easier when they came into the store today. 

But like they were trying to keep themselves motivated about the entire tedious process...and so commenced yelling "WAHOO!!" to each other throughout the store lol. 
It was like an endless series of them.
"Wahoo"
"WAHOO!"
"WAAAHHOOOOO!!!" 
lol normally it's just one manager that does the "wahoo" call.
So it was rather amusing to hear the other two doing it as well.

I really hope that they got some good rest once they got home. Poor tired Managers. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Little "Salt"

It began with a note left on our whiteboard in the back area behind the fish. 

"The bucket of Salt is in Iso." 

Which I thought. O.o That's a weird place for it to be. 
Because this particular "bucket of salt" we only use in relation to making our ornaments safe to place in our fish tanks again after we bleach them.
Because every week, we take out all the ornaments in the tank (certain sections each day) and bleach them to get any algae that may be attempting to grow, off of them. 
We then place them in a fresh bucket of water and add in the "Salt" -which is Sodium Thiosulfate in to negate any bleach that may still be on the ornaments.

Basically Sodium Thiosulfate is a Dechlorinator, that is often used to treat Chlorine levels in Swimming Pools and such.
So it's a lot more concentrated than the little bottles of liquid we sell off the shelf that take chlorine out of tap water. 

So again, knowing this info....
Why would anyone take this "bucket of salt" into our sick room?

Because there's nothing back there that's needed. 

But if my coworker thought it was regular Aquarium Salt, that can be used to help fish that are suffering from...I think it was Dropsy? Along with other issues...than maybe they treated our sick tank that was in our sick room with it? 

:S 
Which.
Turns out that assumption was correct. *face palm* 
It seems like whoever wrote the note....decided to put this "Salt" in our sick tank. To treat the fish.

And it didn't turn out well. 
>.< 
No. All but 2 of the fish that were back there for various issues....had died. 

Like a dozen fish.
Dead.
Because one of my coworkers thought using the Sodium Thiosulfate was a good idea. 
*exhales*

So I did a half water change...and hopefully that's enough to ensure that the other two fish still in the tank live. *fingers crossed* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Happy Customers

I tend to have this talent for the store ending up getting super busy....whenever I go on Lunch lol. 
So like whenever I'm off the floor suddenly everyone is like "Oh! Sarnic's gone! Quick let's go into the store and give her coworker's a workout!" 

XD haha. 
It's always fun to come back to see the department in controlled chaos lol. And then it usually disappears within 5 to 10 minutes of me coming back from lunch lol. 

In any case.
I'd taken like a 15 minute break, and since I was nearby the room where we keep our extra animals, and knowing that we had a couple of empty cages on the floor, I grabbed them to bring out to the floor so that we'd have more options for customers if they decided they needed a hamster.

The store had been pretty dead when I left on break.
But when I reached our hamster enclosure, there were a lot of people gathered nearby them...which I kinda figured most of them were probably just looking.

Nope.
I set the cages I was carrying down to put the first of the hamsters away and a gentleman and his daughter were like "Can you help us?" 
And I was like 'Yah, what can I help you with?" as I was working to put the hamster into it's cage.

"Can you help us with a hamster."

well what a coincidence, here I was working with the hamsters. lol. "Sure! Which one did you want to look at?" I asked, secretly hoping that the second container I had with the hamster in it...would stay put and the hamster inside wouldn't escape.

In any case.
The customers were looking for a hamster, specifically winter whites. 
So I pulled open the cage to show them, and they were like "Yes we want one of those!" 
So after quickly putting away the second hamster and grabbing the necessary paperwork, I returned to them, and was helping them out. Telling them our return policies and other facts about the hamster and such. and the Father made a comment along the lines of "Wow you guys are so much easier to work with than the other store." 

^^;; lol. I try? 
Like I want you to have a good experience at our store, so I do my best to help the customers how and make sure their experience is good here.

And I've had more than one customer tell me that they're going to come to my store instead of other ones because they like the experience they have here. ^^;; Yay lol. 

Though in this case, I think the customer was just happy to discover that we have a return policy where you can bring back the animal you purchase for any reason with the guarantee timeframe.
So basically they were happy that we were willing to work with them if they bought the pet and then decided that they didn't want it or it happened to die.

Still. Glad to know they had a positive experience with us. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Ring Ring

I'd been the one mainly answering the phone at work throughout the day.
Mostly because everyone else was busy prepping for our yearly Inventory Count.
Meaning, they were distracted.

Which for the most part wasn't bad.
Because it gave me something to do as me and my opener got the department opened by like...10am it felt like and I still had like half of my shift to work.
So the phone calls did help break up the monotony of trying to find something to do that hadn't already been done as the store was basically dead today customer wise. 

But by the end of my shift, I was growing tired of answering the phone.

And finally there came a moment where I was busy helping a customer with fish tank questions. 
-He had questions about salt water tanks but like...I had no experience with salt water though I did manage to distract the customer with fresh water stuff and showing him my tank lol. (cus i show pictures of my tank off like a proud parent of their child.) 

And the phone was ringing. 
And I was like. Okay someone else can get that call because I'm busy helping a customer.

Which thankfully another person did pick up....
Only for them to tell me over the radio like two seconds later that there was a call on hold for me about....fish tanks. 
*exhales*

So I finished up with the one customer, and picked up the phone to answer the other customer.
At least they didn't have exactly the same question.
As that would have been crazy if it were the case lol. 

Still. Kinda frustrating that the ONE time I don't answer the phone is the ONE time its actually for me. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bit

I'll say it once and I'll say it again. 
Parakeets are evil.
Evil evil birds.

So I had a family come into the store, wanting to get a couple of parakeets. 
Specifically a boy and a girl.
Which is always an adventure because our birds are still quite young, which means that they don't always show the coloration on their beaks that indicate whether one is male or female. 
*shakes head*
Why do people insist on a boy and a girl? Like...do you want them trying to breed? 

In any case. 
After some looking and debating and me pointing out girls and boys that I could see in stock.
The family left me to grab their birds while they went to look at cages. 

And I had the luck of having another customer decide to watch me catch the birds. *exhales* which is always stressful when you have an audience. :S 

In any case.
I caught the first parakeet, the male, and the evil creature latched onto my thumb, pinching my skin in it's beak and clamping it's mouth shut. 

It took all my strength not to fling the bird about right then, but geez that creature would not let go!
I ducked down to wrap the bird in a towel and managed to shake my hand loose. 
Yeesh.

The area still hurts hours and hours later. >.< 
Evil bird. 

At least the female was much easier to handle and I only got bit the one time. 

But after catching the birds, the family were like "Hey do you have this cage in stock or do we just take the display?
Which I was reluctant to let them take the display as it would only mean that one of my coworkers (or myself) would have to put together another display cage. 
So hoping to avoid that, I told them I would check in my overstock and see.
Which I was in luck, we did have the cage in stock there. 
So I told them that.
And then went to grab it down.
Which took a bit of jigsawing as there were other boxes piled on top of it.
But after much effort...I managed to get the box down and to the customers....
Only for them to have changed their mind while waiting.
They were looking for a smaller cage that the grandmother could lift and move around.
Which....why would you be wanting to move the bird cage around? Shouldn't it just stay in a stationary location? *shakes head* In any case they wanted a different cage. *exhales* 
I tried to convince them they needed larger to give the birds space.
Though I don't know if I succeeded in that or not....

But I was all too happy to leave them to their decision making. 
As I was still dealing with an aching thumb at the time. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

In a Bowl

A woman came into work today, looking to buy a fish for her son.
She'd done the betta route. Done the goldfish route.
And was basically looking for another fish that could live in a bowl.

Which.... Ummm...
We didn't have any.

-I mean I'm sure some of the fish cold possibly survive in a bowl of water.
But all the other fish we sell on the wall usually require a filter and a heater in order to do well. 
They are also not always as hardy sooo the constant water changes could possibly stress them out and well...kill them.

So I told the woman that if she wanted to do a bowl....it would be either bettas or goldfish.
Though I was trying to encourage her to do Bettas as they're much easier to take care of in a bowl than a goldfish is.

But after helping a couple other customers....
She stated that she was ready for fish...
And pointed directly to the Neon Tetras saying she wanted one.

Which. They are a schooling fish so you'd want to get at least two.
And......
Neon tetras are probably one of the worst fish to get for a bowl.
They are soooo temperature sensitive and tank sensitive....
I mean we can easily loose the entire shipment of neons when they're sent to our store if the temperatures get too hot or too cold.
So them living in a bowl? Not going to work.

Which I told the basically that.

Soo...she ended up opting for me to fish them out a couple of goldfish instead. 
Which...while not my favorite choice for bowl living...is definitely better than the neon tetras....

-Sarnic Dirchi

All By Myself

I opened the department by myself today.
Which...wasn't supposed to happen.
But due to a scheduling error....
Was what happened.
As my manager was scheduled to open with me.
But he was the only manager scheduled for the first part of the morning.
Which meant that he needed to do all the morning manager tasks, and work on the stocking tasks and basically...left me to my own devices to get the department opened.

*shrugs*
It's not like I haven't done that before. And I was kinda grateful as it was a slow day customer wise. So me doing everything by myself meant that things took longer which made my shift pass quicker because I had stuff to do to keep me busy.

So it was nice and I didn't mind it.
Though my manager sure felt bad about it. lol. 

But hey.
Things got opened before I left. So woot!!! 

^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

All Together Now

It's always disconcerting whenever I suddenly have an influx of people hit my department all at once. 

Like the store could be completely dead. I'm helping maybe one or two people in my department.

And then it feels like in the blink of an eye....
A mob appears.

Suddenly there are six people waiting at the fish wall for help, two at the reptiles, one at the small pets, and another eight at adoptions. 
All needing my help all at once.
And on the way to meet the customers waiting, I'm stopped by other people, asking where the bathrooms are, where a brand of food is, if I know anything about dog training.

Some people try to interrupt me and ask me while I'm in the middle of finishing up with another customer....

And I'm like....the only one in the department.

It's a mad house. 
It's crazy. 

And it happened today.

I had a sudden influx of people ---mostly because I got stuck with a chatty Kathy that liked playing Yo-Yo with me where I'd try to break away and she'd call me back with a question....and the cycle would repeat. 

But I had like a guy asking about salt water fish, another wanting to purchase neons, someone wanting crickets, and another person come up to me asking for help with the birds all at the same time. They basically came from all directions. 
and wow. *shakes head*
It was crazy.
To the point where I was trying to multi-task helping customers. 
Answer questions of one while I was catching and bagging fish for another.

And then as quickly as the rush appeared....
It vanished.
And I was left with no one in the department....
Wondering what ha just happened. 

*shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Extinct?

There was a little boy who came into the store today, who like most little children, was automatically captivated by one of our almost empty feeder goldfish tanks. 
Almost empty because there were like maybe 5 goldfish in said tank, while the other tanks surrounding it were filled with hundreds of goldfish. 

-Normally out of our 8 feeder goldfish tanks, we keep two of them empty of fish. That way we can easily tell at a glance which fish are Large, Small or XSmall because we have the tanks divided as: Large Large Empty Small Small Empty XSmall XSmall 

But occasionally we put goldfish in the two empty tanks...mostly when one of the other tanks isn't doing too well and we don't want to introduce healthy fish into a tank that's suffering from whatever the goldfish decided they wanted to be suffering from. 

In any case.
The nearly empty tank caught this little boy's attention. 
And he was like "Where did all the fishies go? Did they go extinct?" 
Which the woman he was with was like. O.o Huh?
And I was definitely like. O.o Huh? That's a weird way to ask if they died. 
And the boy clarified. "Like the dinosaurs did the fishies all go extinct or did they get bought?" 

lol the woman was like "I'm pretty sure they were bought." 

Which yah, most of them were, but some had died off too though I wasn't about to tell the kid that lol. 

It is amusing though his choice in words. Extinct. ^^;; 
Very creative kiddo. Very creative.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Specific Leopard Gecko

My manager had informed me that there was a customer waiting on hold who had a question for PetCare...but when I went to answer the call....I just got a dial tone in return....

So at some point somewhere....someone had hung up.

But in any case. Soon after the customer called again, and this time I managed to pick up. 

What did they want?

The woman wanted to know if we had any female leopard geckos in stock.

Why she specifically needed a female...I don't know. I never think to ask these questions until after the fact.

However, I was unable to help her.

Because our Leopard Geckos are babies. Like maybe 3ish months old?

And when they're that young...it's basically impossible to tell if they are male or female. You have to wait for them to get a bit bigger and older. 

But when I told the woman this she wasn't like "Oh, okay." 

No she was like "I know, you guys told me that last week when I called, but it's been a week, surely you can tell now if you have any females?" 

Umm....No. 

A week isn't going to make a difference. It takes months for the lizards to grow large enough to be able to tell. 

So like...a week? No.

It's rare for us to even keep Leopard Geckos long enough to be able to tell. *shakes head* They usually go pretty quickly in the store. 

I did try and tell the woman about local pet stores that could possibly have larger Leopard Geckos. As people will often take their pets to the locally owned petstores if they can't take care of them any longer. 

But she didn't want to hear it. "I don't want an adult one!" 

...Well....then close your eyes, cross your fingers and hope that you pick a female then...because like...you can't really tell when they're babies. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Eyelash Crested

So Yesterday I had a woman call on the phone;
Asking if we carried any Crested Geckos.
Which we did.
And we had one in stock.

Well, the customer wanted to know if we could hold the Gecko for her until like Friday when her bf could come pick it up as she lives like 3hours away from our store and he would be driving down to see her then.

Which....I can't really do.
We have a policy of NOT putting animals on Hold because a) what if the customer never comes for it? and b) what if we accidentally sell it because of a miscommunication?

So I was like...We can't do that....

To which she was like "But I need the Gecko, as we just lost ours (it died) and my son, who is autistic, has taken a turn for the worse with the gecko's death and he's *drops voice* being suicidal, so I really need the gecko as I believe it will really help him.

Uhmm. ()_()
:S
So like...I went to the manager to see if there was anything we could do.
But it was too far away.
This call happened yesterday (Monday) which meant 5 whole days in which the customer 'might' come to grab this gecko...

So I had to tell her that I couldn't hold it that long.
At the most I could hold it until the end of the day.
As we do recognize we have customers coming from long distances to come buy animals. So if they're heading right over, we can hold the animal until they show up.
 But like...it's just a day thing.

The woman couldn't make it up last night though.
She didn't want to make the drive in the dark in the canyons, which makes a lot of sense. Canyon driving at night can be rather tense.

But she was like "If I come up tomorrow can you hold it for me then??"

Which...I couldn't hold it for her since it was tomorrow.

But like the Crested Geckos....go through phases where we either sell them super quickly or they sit there for a couple of months before someone buys them.
I had no idea which way this one would swing as we just got the Gecko in a few days ago.
But I was like "Well, I can't put it on hold until then, but if you call tomorrow morning, I'll be here, and if the gecko is still here I can hold it long enough for you to make the drive up."

And that's what she did.

She called this morning asking if the gecko was still there.
Which it was.
And she was like "Great! I'm coming right up I'll be there in 3 hours."

And to ensure that the gecko wouldn't be sold before she arrived, I put a Reserved sign in the cage -which we usually use to indicate that the cage is empty.
That way my coworkers would assume just that. That the cage was empty, and not try and sell anything out of it.

Which, considering I was like the only employee that afternoon with keys to the cages....lol it was pretty easy to ensure that the gecko wasn't sold.

Lol though with the crazy of helping other customers in work, I'd actually completely forgotten that she was coming up until this lady with blonde hair and frentic energy came up to me stating that she was here for the Crested Gecko.
And then it clicked like "Oh yah! I was doing that for you!"

Which I had expected this to be a quick "Grab the Gecko, fill out the paperwork, pay and go" sort of exchange.
But not quite.
The woman ended up being quite chatty wanting to explain how they ended up losing their first Gecko (suspected foul play from another resident in the home) and how much the original gecko meant to them etc etc while the son was immediately taken with his new pet, wanting to be as close to it as possible and such.
So yah...
Definitely an interesting exchange.
Though I am glad we were able to get the gecko to them and that the son bonded so quickly with it. :D The way his face lit up was so pure. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

In Their Tank

I had an odd theme with customers today.
In that I had two different individuals who well...wanted to put certain fish in other people's tanks without them realizing it?

The first was a woman who was going to be house sitting for like the next month or so while the owners of the home are out of the country doing business stuff. And as part of that job of house watching...she's also in charge of looking after the fish.
And so she came into the store looking for a pleco because the tank is turning green, but also to buy herself a fish for that tank because if she's going to be watching it for a month or so, she might as well have a fish that she can call 'hers' within it. 

Which...it would be easy to hide a new fish in among a ton of others....especially if the owners are gone for long periods of time....if there were more than two fish in the tank.
But the woman specifically said there was only two.
So like....I'm pretty sure the owners are going to realize something is off when they get home and see a fish in there that wasn't there before.
*shakes head*
But she ended up buying the pleco and the fish anyway. 

While the other was a customer who was with an older woman and a bunch of small kids...possibly a Grandma out with her Son and her Grandkids?? *shrugs* In any case she had a tank and was looking to get fish and specifically didn't want "Female mollies" 
...even though I was told this fact after I'd already caught some females in another tank. 
The guy was like "She doesn't want girls." 
But like...the tank they were picking from...it's difficult to tell the girls from the boys....
And after a couple of minutes the guy was like "Just pick one, it doesn't really matter" giving me the impression that he was the one in charge of the fish....
So I just kinda fished out a fish....
:S Hopefully the woman doesn't mind that...though I doubt she'll realize.... *shrugs*

It's just weird that I had two customer today who were putting fish in tanks that the owner of the fish tank may or may not end up wanting...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where Are They?

There was a customer who called this morning on the phone in search of one of our algae eaters.
Specifically our Otocinclus
Which are actually a type of catfish apparently, but ones that eat algae.
And are popular with customers because they only get about 2" full grown which makes them great for small tanks.

The problem?
We haven't had them in the store for about a month now.
Though according to the customer it's been two months.
*squinty eyes* 
Pretty sure that's an exaggeration.
As I've been wanting to buy Otos as well for about a month now, and about the point where I decided I needed some...was the point where we stopped getting them in. *exhales*
So pretty sure it's just been a month.

But in any case.
The customer was like "Why aren't you getting these fish in! ORDER THEM IN! 

Like....It's an automatic replenishment customer. *shakes head*
We have no control on what gets shipped to us. 
When we sell the fish we get in replacements.
And occasionally it happens where the demand for one of our animals is greater than the supply.

Why aren't we getting in Otos?
No idea.
a) it could be that we ARE getting them in...but they're coming in dead. (as happens on occasion) 
b) we got them in but we sold them all already. (Idk I rarely work Fridays) 
c) The weather has been too cold to ship them (happens with some animals) 
d) The breeder has no otocinclus old enough to ship yet. 

Which my guess is it's most likely option D happening currently. Considering it's been at least a month.
My guess is that the breeders don't have any otos old enough /big enough to ship out yet. 
Or other stores have taken priority over us and the breeder runs out of ready fish before our store's needs can be meet. *shrugs* I have no real idea. These are just theories.

But the customer?
So frustrated.

"If you're not going to carry the fish you should just take the tag down!" They exclaimed. "Because calling every week to see if you got them in is rather ridiculous!" and click went the phone. 

>.<
well Sorry.
A) we are still carrying them, we just don't have them in stock so I can't just take down the tag. 
And b) At least you're calling first customer because if you're frustrated now just imagine how frustrated you would be if you'd driven 2 hours to get to us to find out we had none. XP 

*exhales* 

Definitely not the best way to start out a crazy Saturday. 
*fingers crossed* that our Otos show up soon though. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Short Tasking

I don't like shifts that have me working past 3pm. 
Because most of the time....if I work a shift after that point in time.
Then I spend forever too long being bored at work if there's no customers in the store to delay me.

Today was one of those days of boredom.
Because I was scheduled to come into work half an hour before we opened. 
Which meant I got to stay at work until dinner time. XP Nothing like spending your entire day inside a building. *exhales*
In any case.
I knew it would be a quick morning with opening because Thursdays tasks aren't the most difficult. 
But I hadn't realized how quickly it would go.
Because I didn't know that my greenie coworker was opening this morning.
And I didn't know that she's rather...quick with opening tasks. 
*exhales*
Which means when I came into the store, she was already nearly done with the bedding change of the day.
And that was like...what I had been planning to do.

I mean...I had to give her a few pointers and correct her on parts of the cleaning procedure she'd missed as it was her first time.

But still. 
It meant that not even halfway through my 8hr shift....
I'd run out of things to do.
Because she'd already done most of them in the 2 hours she was there before I arrived. 

Gah. >.<
I hate not having things to do.
It makes time go by so much slower. Especially because due to the crazy weather outside...there were hardly any customers in the store.
So I was left basically wandering in circles, looking for things to keep me occupied for hours and hours only to find relief in helping customers in like the last half hour of my shift. *shakes head*
Why do they always come when I'm almost off?
No idea.

In any case.
I admire my coworker for her gumption to get things done quickly. 
As it's great that she wants to get things done and doesn't wait to be told to do things in order to do things.
But still....I kinda like to be able to have things to do while I'm at work. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi