At the Fish Wall

I had a customer standing at the fishwall talking on the phone while I was tasking.

And like, usually as a general rule, I don't try and talk to people when they're on the phone because like...that's rude? And I don't really want to get people mad at me. 

And he'd been standing there looking at the fish for a good ten minutes or so it felt like. 
And I could tell that he was trying to wind down whatever conversation he was having on the phone. 
But at the same time. He kept talking. So I figured if he needed help he would let me know when he needed help and therefore kept working on the tasks (cleaning the tanks) I was doing at the fish wall.

But then.
I got called away to help a customer buy a guinea pig and a skinny pig. 
So I left the fish wall to check in on those customers and established that they did indeed wanted to get both animals today.
And I turn around to grab paperwork for them.
And the customer who had been standing at the fish wall was standing right there.
Just looking at me. 

And I was like "You need help with fish?" 
To which he was like: "Yes."
And I was like "Okay, I'm helping these guys but I'll be right over.''

But like. 
Dude.
I was literally standing at the fish wall for TEN MINUTES and you didn't indicate at all that you needed help.
But the MOMENT I walk away to go help another person is when you decide to finish your conversation on the phone and seek help? Like. Seriously??

*exhales*

I ended up sending my manager over to help him as I knew that the paperwork for the guinea pig would take a while to fill out.

Which since that particular manager is new to catching fish...it ended up taking them a bit to get all the different types of fish the customer wanted....I probably could have finished the task in the same amount of time if I'd helped the guinea pig customer and then went to help this guy get his fish.

But yah.

Still kinda irritated that the customer only decided he needed help after I'd walked away after like ten minutes. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Escapee

We apparently have a leopard gecko loose in the store.

One that's been running around long enough gorging himself on crickets that he's apparently now to his adult size. 

My manager told me that while they were cleaning dishes in the back during the reptile bedding change.
They happened to look down by their foot and there he was. 

But...because another lizard had bitten my manager during the bedding change earlier.
They were a bit reluctant to grab this random adult lizard that appeared at their feet.

Plus it's a bit surprising to just see a lizard where you're not expecting to see one.

So he ended up vanishing, escaping into a dark hole where he couldn't be reached.

So yah.
We have an adult leopard gecko running around the store.
I'm kinda hoping I can find him tomorrow.
I kept an eye out today but didn't see him.

So we'll see what the morrow brings.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Two More Please!

I had a customer come into the store today wanting to buy a couple of guinea pigs.

Which isn't a surprise as we usually urge people to buy more than one guinea pig as they are a social creature and love to have a friend. 

What was surprising was that this customer....already had two guinea pigs.

I remembered them specifically as they had brought back one of their guinea pigs to us to care for because he'd ended up with a little bit of a cold and needed some medicine for it. 

So already knowing that they had two guinea pigs at home.

I was rather surprised that the customer wanted not one, but two more. 

Like. O.o 
Why would you want four guinea pigs??

I probably would understand it better if I owned a guinea pig myself.
But currently I don't.
So I don't understand it at all.

But the customer was excited because they were moving into a bigger place and therefore could have more room for more pets. 

At least I know that they're going to a good home.
Since I've helped this customer before.

Still...four guinea pigs.... Huh.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Still Out

Surprisingly enough.
We apparently got a fish shipment in yesterday despite the fact that we were told we weren't going to. 
And among those....were betta fish! Woot!

However....we either got very few....or we sold them all the same day because when I came into work this morning there were only two bettas left on the shelf.
Which I ended up having to pull one off the floor and place it in the back because it had swim bladder issues which meant for Saturday, usually our most busy day of the week....we only had one betta for sale.

Thinking it over...I do wonder how many bettas we will get in the next little while.
Because like...I'm pretty sure we have our bettas shipped from Indonesia to Florida and then to our store. 

But like with the pandemic...I'm not sure how much international travel is happening. Or how many international shipments of product -including live animals- are occuring.

And if places are shut down.....

I won't be surprised if we continue to remain low on bettas for the next little while.

Which is...unfortunate as people are constantly coming in looking for an easy pet.
And bettas are pretty easy. 

It definitely wasn't fun to tell customers today who were gathering supplies for betta fish and such...that we didn't have any (besides the expensive glo bettas) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sold Out

It's interesting how customers can fail to comprehend the concept that pet stores can run out of things. 

Like they expect us to have a constant supply of what they want in stock.
But like...we can run out of things.
Especially if supplies are limited.

And with the pandemic...it's hard to predict just when we'll get certain things in.

Like Betta Fish.

Because of the pandemic, social distancing and a lot more people staying home. 
Everyone is wanting a pet.

And the simple and least expensive pet to get....is a betta fish. 

However...last Friday we didn't get in our fish shipment.
And it's unknown if we'll get in our shipment tomorrow.

But because we didn't get a resupply....we ran out of bettas on Saturday.
So have spent the entire week with only our GloFish Bettas left. 
Which considering those are between $10-$30...
Not a lot of people are willing to buy one.

Though there have been customers who have been so convinced that they need a betta fish that they have bought the glo ones.

In any case.

I had a trio come into the store today. Looking to buy a betta fish.

"Where are all your betta fish?" They demanded.
"We're sold out" was my response.
"Sold out! Why did you sell them all?!" 

....Like...that's a stupid question to ask.
Why did we sell them all?
Because people bought them. 
Obviously if something is for sell people will buy them. If we run out...it's because people bought them before we could restock the shelves.

*shakes head*

It was like the customers were offended that we didn't save a betta fish specifically for them.
But like Dude.
We've been out of the bettas for practically a week.
Not our fault that you got the idea to get a pet fish after everyone else.

*exhales*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Koi

I had a customer come in looking for koi fish.
But not any koi fish.
They were specifically looking for a 50/50 orange koi.

Which I'm guessing is a koi that is 50% orange and 50% white.

I could have told the customer that we didn't have any with that particular combo of coloration.
Most of the koi we have are mostly white with spotting of various colors. 

So it's easy to see at first glance that we have nothing like the customer was describing.

But the customer was rather focused on the fish. 
More particularly....what they weren't.

Apparently the customer was convinced that some of the koi fish that we had in the koi tanks weren't actually koi. Because they didn't have the 'mouth flap' that the koi do.

*exhales* I tried to say that it was possibly breeding, or age of the fish...

But the customer was adamant that if it didn't have the 'mouth flap' it wasn't a koi fish.

And proceeded to point at basically every single koi in every single tank saying "This one has it, this one doesn't, this one has it, this one has it, this one doesn't, this one doesn't." 

Like...Dude. I have better things to do than to have to stand there listening to you mansplain to me exaclty why the fish I have aren't the fish we're supposed to have.

It's not like I can control what fish we get into the store. Nor is there a tank I can put the 'non koi' fish in and sell them as "Ooops not koi" fish. *rolls eyes* 

But the customer seemed to be quite captivated by talking. Even speaking about the koi that they already have at home and differing variations and colors and shapes and sizes and pointing to koi and being like "I have one like this but it's now this big!" 

Like...good and all....

And I'm glad that this person is so passionate about their koi fish and are wanting to get exactly what they want....

But that doesn't still mean that I get frustrated that I had to stand there, listening to you talk, only for you to not buy anything in the end. Like...sure on a normal day I wouldn't mind. But with the pandemic going on...it really isn't a good idea to just....linger.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Research

You know...I think it's laudable that parents want their kids to know what they're getting into. 
Having them do research on the pets they want. 
Like it's an excellent idea. 

Only....it's probably a good idea for parents to do their own research too. After all, kids don't always know what to look for. 

You know like. What the animal eats.
Or how much it costs.
Or how much the set up itself costs.

*exhales*

I had to deal with multiple parents today.
Who let their kids do the 'research' on the pet that they wanted. 

Only to come into the store...and actually be completely unprepared for the pet that their child said they wanted.

I had one such parent come into the store with their kid wanting a chameleon. 

Which chameleons are not good pets for beginning pet owners.
They need a higher humidity, aren't really good for holding, and of course...eat bugs.

Yah. The parent wasn't at all prepared for the fact that all the reptiles in the store ate live bugs. (except the tortoises/turtles & snakes) 

It's frustrating. I then had to spend a good twenty minutes if not longer, going through all the various other pets that we sold.
All the while knowing that the parent was not keen on getting another pet in the first place.
Like...if you don't want another pet...why are you getting your child's hopes up by letting them come to a pet store??

It like...became a mission to convince the children that none of the pets in the store were ones that they wanted.
They weren't convinced though the mother was. 

*exhales*

So frustrating. I had to repeat the scenario more than once today.
And all the while I'm just rooting for the people to go home because I don't want to be helping people when we should be social distancing. 

Note to self. Whenever I have kids...I need to make sure I research the pets they want too.
That way I know how much it's gonna cost and what is involved. 
After all..I'll probably end up taking care of the animal anyways.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Ringworm

So I sold a guinea pig on Saturday. 
And as part of my spiel I often tell customers signs to look out for to indicate that the animal they're purchasing is sick. Usually I do this with the small pets. So guinea pigs and hamsters as they tend to have easier symptoms to notice than birds or reptiles. 

As part of this "look out" spiel I tell customers that guinea pigs can get ring worm and the signs and locations that they can show up in. 

It's basically a "just in case" sort of thing...though with how customers are...well overthinking things....I do wonder if I should stop telling people symptoms to look out for.
As with people being home with their pets all day long.
They tend to be paying more attention to their pets than normal.
Which means they tend to be more paranoid about them as well. Watching for things to go wrong really.
Which when customers aren't experienced with their pets. They tend to worry more that the little things they notice are 'not right' and then come to us. 
*exhales*

Apparently yesterday, the customer that bought the guinea pig the day before, came in complaining that they thought their pet had ring worm?

Why? Because there were bald patches behind the guinea pig's ears. 

*exhales*

My coworker who took the guinea pig in....wasn't sure if that was normal or not...and so accepted the guinea pig back even though the bald spots didn't show the normal signs of ring worm.

As ring worm on guinea pigs is shown by dry skin, red scabs, and hairloss.

Hairloss behind the ears would only match one of the symptoms.....if it were abnormal.

But for guinea pigs.

It is normal.

And like. The guinea pig that I had sold on Saturday had only come into the store on Wednesday and I'd put it on the floor Saturday.
That's not enough time for such large patches to occur on a guinea pig. Especially with no signs of dry skin or scabbing.

No.
It's just normal for guinea pigs to have bald spots behind their ears.
All of them have it in fact.

I did double check those spots to make sure there were no symptoms.

And after confirming with my coworker that that was where they were thinking the ringworm was (as it could have been elsewhere and I just didn't see it....but it was behind the ears that they were thinking) I called the customer back to have them come pick up their guinea pig because he's perfectly healthy. 

*exhales*
It does make me want to just bang my head against the wall though.
Because like....I feel like I'm the only one who actually knows anything in the store. And it's getting frustrating that my coworkers aren't doing their research or learning from past experiences. Like...if they're handling the guinea pigs every day...shouldn't they have noticed that there are bald spots behind the ears?? Like...if you spend any time with them you tend to notice things with animals.

...At least I do...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Too Many People

It's interesting how quickly people forget the 'distance' part of social distancing.

Like. Today was a rather busy day for us considering how people should be staying home.

But nope. It was like customer after customer after customer. 

And at one point I had multiple customers standing near each other in front of our animal enclosures because they all wanted the same animals.

*shakes head*
I'll never understand how differing customers can manage to want the same thing all at the same time. 

Today it felt like everyone wanted parakeets.
Like I had a line of customers wanting the demon birds.

And at one point I was like "please make sure you're social distancing from each other."

But the store was busy. There were customers looking at the nearby hamsters and the reptiles too.

*exhales*

It's like everyone forgot that we're trying to social distance.

It's frustrating.
Especially when us workers are trying to be safe. 
And people come in bringing all their kids and such.

-Sarnic Dirchi

For Adoption?

One of my Pet Peeves at work has been the use of "adoption" by some of my managers and coworkers. 

As "adoption" of animals usually comes in regards to our cats and dogs that come into the store to be placed up for adoption so that they can find their forever homes. 

"Adoption" could also apply to animals that we sell in the store as well. Though that is a rarer occurrence. Usually animals are put up for adoption in the store if they have a health issue that won't go away, a physical deformity, an agression problem, or they got too old/big to stay in the store. When these animals are placed up for adoption we basically give them away for free to customers capable of handling the animal and it's needs as we can't sell animals that aren't 'perfect' really. 
Again. This is a rarer occurence.

Usually adoption means the process of adopting a cat or dog from us. Which does also involve people paying money to get their cat or dog. But that money goes straight to the adoption groups. It doesn't go through our store at all so no cuts are taken by us.

However.
I have people at work who like to use the word "adoption" for our regular pet sales.
At least two or three times a week I'll here "Hey these customers want to adopt a guinea pig." or "So and so wants to adopt a snake." 

And considering the adoption of animals that we sell in the store is rather rare. 
I often feel the need to clarify. "Are they adoptiong it or are they buying it?" 
Because again, if a customer is adoptiong a pet that we sell -whether it be reptile, bird, rodent, or fish- the customer wouldn't be paying for the animal. And requires some extra paperwork.
However if they are buying the pet then they are paying for the pet. 

And nearly every time it's "Oh, they're buying one." 

*exhales* So like...to save the confusion...I do wonder why my coworkers don't say "Hey customers want to get this pet" or "buy this pet" or something like that.

As adoption? Definitely has different connotations. 

It wasn't my coworkers who used the word today though. 

No, a customer called the store asking if we had any guinea pigs up for adoption.

Which. Coincidentally for a while we did have some guinea pigs actually up for adoption.
As a customer returned a guinea pig to us that was a female. (I still don't believe the customer bought it from our store) and because that guinea pig was paired with a male guinea pig...the mama ended up having three babies that we also took back with the mama.

And since my store is a male store we can't sell female guinea pigs. So once the babies were weaned we would adopt out the mom.
And because the babies weren't born to our breeders and didn't go through all the processes to certify them for sell...even though they were males...we needed to adopt them out as well.

So for a couple of weeks we did have 4 guinea pigs up for adoption.
But we'd adopted them all out like a week ago. 

Plus...I was surprised the customer knew we had guinea pigs up for adoption.
Because with the pandemic there are a lot of people impulse buying pets to keep them company while they're constantly home.
And with the adoption of animals that we sell, the customer waives the usual 14 day guarantee we give our animals. So there's a "No return" policy on them because the customer is already aware that there is an issue with the animal. 
And because we've already had to deal with customers returning pets because they've changed their mind.
The choice was made to keep the guinea pigs up for adoption off the floor, away from customer's eyes as we didn't want them to be impulse bought only to not be cared for later. 

Like I said though, we did manage to find customers who wanted to adopt them and now no longer had any guinea pigs up for adoption.

So I was like "No I don't have any guinea pigs up for adoption" to the customer on the phone. 
So they were like "Do you have any other animals up for adoption?"
And yes "We have one hamster up for adoption currently." was what I said. As one of our Fancy Bear Syrians ended up with head tilt and even though we treated it...he still has a slight head tilt and therefore needs to be adopted out instead of sold.

I was kinda curious how the customer knew about the adoption process for our animals as it's not really something that is talked about since it doesn't happen that often. Usually only like maybe two or three times a year. 

The customer was like "Oh...is it because of COVID that you are so low on animals and you can't get any more in?" 

And I was like O_o??? Because no, we still had plenty of animals in the store. Especially because due to contracts or something, we can't stop our animal deliveries to the store. 
(Which is a sore point to a lot of my coworkers who wish we would stop selling animals during the pandemic and only focus on selling food/supplies that customers need for the pets they already have) 

But remembering that my coworkers like to use the word "adopt" for animals that customers are planning to buy, I asked the customer if they were wanting to adopt a guinea pig or buy a guinea pig.

Unsurprisingly the customer was like "What's the difference."
Which after I explained the difference they were like "Oh, I think I want to buy a guinea pig then."

Which was good. I mean I still had 9 of them in the store. So the customer could come in anytime to get one if they wanted to. 

Still. 
The conversation would have been much shorter if the customer had simply asked "Do you have any guinea pigs." Because then I would have answered: "Yes, we have 9 currently." And that would have been the end of the conversation. 

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Away

So a bit ago...who knows how long really because time doesn't really exist anymore it feels like. So maybe a weekish ago.

We placed tape on the floors to mark places for customers to stand or not stand.
One of those areas being in front of the habitats for our live animals.
As we're trying to keep customers from touching the glass on the cages when they look at the animals and such.

So half of my interactions with customers really are to tell them to step out of the blue boxes in front of the cages. 

Most people don't seem to realize that they're there really. I guess they look too much like part of the floor. 

In any case.

I had a family looking at the birds and told them that they needed to step out of the blue box as we wanted to keep everyone safe and healthy.

And the customer assumed it was because the animals could give us the virus.
*exhales* 

No.
We're having customers keep their distance from the cages because people love to touch things. And if we have a ton of kids and even adults pressing their hands and faces against the glass then there's a higher chance, if any of them are sick, of there being cross-contamination and people could get sick if someone is sick. 

So yah. We're just trying to keep people safe.

It took repeating myself like four times before I got it through to the customer that we wanted them away from the glass because of humans touching it. Not because the animals could give them the virus. So far that's not a thing.

-Yes I'm aware of the tigers catching it, but like regular pets? haven't heard anything yet.

But yah. We're just trying to keep people from touching things. That's all. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Answer the Phone

So three weeks ago we had a guinea pig returned to our store because the customer was concerned he was sick and wanted us to contact them when the guinea pig was better so that they could buy him back.

So after a week, we deemed that the guinea pig was healthy and able to be returned to the pet parent. 

Which meant calling the customer to come pick him up.

Only when I called...the customer didn't pick up. 
I tried again.
No answer.
So I left a message. Basically saying that the guinea pig was healthy and ready to be picked up and if the customer could call us back and let us know when they were coming that would be great.

But two days passed.
No callback.

So two days after the first call, I had a coworker give the customer a call again and had them leave another message.

No response.

So last Monday I called for a third time. And left a third message, this time stating that if the customer didn't come pick up the guinea pig by Wednesday, we would assume that they no longer wanted the guinea pig and would proceed to put it back on the floor. 

Wednesday came and went.
No response from the customer.

So Thursday morning I brought the guinea pig back onto the floor.

And a couple of hours later a different customer bought the guinea pig. 
End of story.

Or so we thought.

Apparently, yesterday, a week after I called the customer.
We had a customer come in the store stating that they were here on behalf of their daughter to pick up the guinea pig they had returned to us because they had received a message that it was ready to be picked up.

....yah.
A message.
Like three of them.
A week ago!

And I distinctly remember giving the customer a DEADLINE. 

And at first I was confused....because we only had one guinea pig in our sick room and we wouldn't have called the customers to pick him up yet because he's still on medications.
All the other guinea pigs that customers wanted to buy back had already recovered from their various ailments and been returned to their owners.

The only guinea pig potentially that the customer was looking for....
Was the one who was put back on the floor and already sold.

*exhales*
Like seriously? You don't check your messages for two weeks?? And then suddenly decide that you want to listen to them?

Thankfully the Head Manager decided to take over and call the customer back to get a better story as neither one of us were there when the customer came in yesterday.

So it was left to HM to be the one to break the news -after confirming that their guinea pig was black and white- that we'd already sold it. 
Because we had contacted them THREE times. And as per policy if we don't hear back from the customer after contacting them then we can go ahead and sell the animal. 

The customer obviously wasn't too happy to hear that. 

And asked if they would be able to get another guinea pig.
To which my manager assured them that they could buy another guinea pig and that we had plenty in the store to choose from.

The customer was like ??? buy?!

Because apparently they hadn't ever received a refund on the guinea pig they returned.

To which we were like ????
Because it's our policy if we return a pet that we give the customer their money back. 
That way if the animal ends up dying...the customer doesn't have to come back to the store a second time to get their money back for the animal.

So we were like ???? 
Because the customer should have gotten their money back. 

In any case.

After my manager hung up with the customer, we went and used their number to look up their recent purchases. 

And the very first receipt?
Showed that we'd given the customer their money back. 

So the fact that they were claiming we never did?

A big fat lie. 

*exhales*

Thankfully we didn't have to argue with the customer that they had to buy their new guinea pig.

When they came in they had their kids pick out a new guinea pig, bought it, and went on their merry way.

So thankfully it wasn't a big deal.

Though I do wonder...why they didn't check their messages for over a week.
Because like....if they'd answered the phone or responded to us...we would have been able to get them their original guinea pig back. 

Complications. All around.

-Sarnic Dirchi

What to Say

It's difficult to know how to answer customers....

When they ask me how we're doing. How the store's doing. If we're busy. Like....

There's so many answers I could give...but at the same time we have to keep up the stupid polite customer service sort of tone with customers.

So like I really want to say "Well I think you shouldn't be here because you're risking my health and safety by just coming into the store to browse and I would rather be home where I am safe but here I am helping people like you." 

*exhales*

But instead it's more like "Oh things have slowed down a bit, but that's good for us as that allows us to stay safer." 

But yah.
I don't think it's the best of ideas to ask the Essential workers how they're fairing in this.

Because I'm sure most of us are stressed out and worried that we're gonna get sick because there's a huge chance that a customer could get us sick because they chose to ignore the warnings or their symptoms and didn't stay home. 

So yah. We're stressed. We'd rather you not come to the store and we'd love to be home instead of at work. 

But you know. We gotta be polite to people and not tell them that.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Feeder

We had a customer come into the store today looking to buy a long-tailed lizard.
Which isn't out of the ordinary as we do sell reptiles...and the long-tailed lizards have been popular for some reason.

My coworker was the one who was helping the customer.
But as they were still newer to the store, they'd never caught the long-tailed before. And wanted to know how to do it.

Like...you just grab them?

I mean they can be fast, but it's not that hard to catch them compared to the Green Anoles which can be a lot quicker.

But my coworker was having issues.
Trying to catch the lizard in the container...but not grabbing it by hand.
And so I asked if they needed help.

And my coworker had me take over to grab the lizard. 
Since there were two in the cage.
I asked the customer if there was one in particular that they wanted.

The customer was like "No, it's just a feeder so it doesn't matter." 

And I was like ???? A feeder?

Which like, that's the term I'm used to hearing with our feeder goldfish.
Or even customers looking for feeder mice to feed to their snakes. 

But like. A feeder lizard?
Not so much. 

So I double checked to make sure I hadn't misheard what they said.

Nope.
They wanted the lizard to use it as food.
For a skink.

Unfortunately for the customer.
But fortunately for the lizard.

We don't sell any live animals for food (besides the comet goldfish and crickets)

So no mice for food.
And definitely no lizards for food.

So I ended up refusing the sale to the customer. 

So no lizard for them. 

*exhales*
That's definitely a new one though.
I haven't had to deal with customers wanting to buy lizards to feed them to something else before. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Another Farewell

It was my VP manager's last day today.

Well. Technically, tomorrow is their last day at work.
But since I have the day off.
Today was my last day working with them.

And like.
It's a bittersweet moment.

Because I don't like change.
I like to have things stay consistent.

And have yet another manager leave...just when we got a new one. 

Is a lot of change. 

At the same time. I get their reasons for leaving.
I mean it's retail.
Nobody sticks around. 

Not the best of timing because of the pandemic and everything.
And yet at the same time.
There's multiple good reasons to be leaving as well.

So yah.
Today was my last day with this manager.
Which is so weird.

Because it doesn't really feel like they're leaving. 

I equate it to the similar feel of the last day of classes in college.
You don't really end on an 'ending note' it's kinda just like a vague 'see you again' sort of mood.

Though it's rare to see them again.

So yah.
Weird day.
It left me rather melancholy. 

And just...on edge I guess.
As who knows when we'll get another VP manager.
And how it will change the dynamic of the store.

Guess it's a wait and see game.

Again.

Finally get our Head Manager...only to lose the VP. *exhales* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Listening

It's always ....frustrating....to deal with customers who are so excited about getting a pet that they don't listen to a word you say.
Like it goes in one ear and straight out the other.
So it's like...a waste of breath really to try and get through to them. 

I honestly don't know why I try.

I had a family come in where one of the members was wanting a fish.

And originally they wanted to put glofish and goldfish together. Which I told them wasn't possible because of how big the goldfish got. You'd need a much larger tank to even attempt it. 

And it sounded like they had a small tank. Though I could never get a straight answer of how big their tank was. It did sound like it was under 10 gallons.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a one gallon or two gallon tank.

As they said that they had bettas before....
And the person wanting the fish was like "Yah and you killed it because you don't know how to take care of it!" 

Which....I was trying to explain just how they could take care of the fish --as the customer was wanting glofish-- so that they would be able to live...like having a filter and a heater and a bigger tank---

but the entire family was just...on one. Like I'm pretty sure they were all just stir crazy as none of them were really paying attention and constantly interrupting or talking over or asking questions I'd already answered. 

Like it took me at least three tries to explain just why glofish and goldfish couldn't go together.
And why they shouldn't get certain glofish as some are more aggressive than others. 

And that some fish are more likely to die than others....

But of course they didn't listen....

The customers insisted on getting two glofish danios....
Which danios aren't the most hardy of fish when it comes to the glofish varieties.

And like the customer was like "I want pink and yellow...no purple...no green which one should I get!?"
The family was not helpful with that question. Just stared blankly when the question was posed to them. *exhales*

Yah.
I ended up just getting them the fish because I should have clocked out from my shift ten minutes earlier and these guys could dither the night away if I kept trying to convince them otherwise. *exhales*

I don't like dealing with those sort of customers.
Like...people need to be of a calmer mind when they're going to get a pet. Because impulse buying isn't the best of ideas. Especially during this time.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Switching Lids

It's always interesting to see what customers will do to try and save a couple bucks.

Like you get the ones asking for discounts, or claiming the price was different on the shelf, or price matching our online stores.

And then you have those who try and be sneaky and trick their way into getting a cheaper product. 

In this case. Bettas.

Off and on we have this recurring problem of people switching the lids on our betta cups.

As the top of the lids hold the barcode that we use to scan the bettas to get the price.

And we have quite a few 'smart' customers who realize that if they can switch the lids of a more expensive $20 betta for the less expensive $4 ones then they can save a ton of money that way.

Though the really smart customers don't go for such a huge price difference. They'll switch the lids for like a $10 betta instead. Or even a $15 betta. 

And it was becoming enough of an issue that my cashiers began doing "betta checks" at the register where they would have someone from petcare come up and confirm whether or not the betta listed on the lid was the betta in the cup.

However.
On Friday I decided to pull out an old tactic we used a few years ago, and some of my coworkers had thought may be a good idea to do....and marked the cups.

Where we would put the same initial on the lid and then on the bottom of the cup.

So if a person was grabbing a TwinTail betta the mark on both the lid and the cup would be "TT" 

That way the cashiers could look and see at a glance whether or not the bettas were the correct ones.

The funny thing is...
I had seen the customers walk by with the betta, heading up to the register.
And I could have sworn that the lid on their cup was green.

But somewhere in the timeframe of me passing by them and them actually reaching the register.....

It was discovered that the betta they had had mismatched labels. 
The lid was showing a $4 betta while the cup was showing the $8 betta.

And my manager handled it really well...I'm pretty sure they said something along the lines of "Sorry the lids on this cup has been switched, so the price is actually this much." You know...not accusing them of being the ones to switch the lids (though I'm like 99% sure they did), but letting them know that the problem was recognized and that they were taking the steps to ensure the correct fish was sold to them for the correct price.

I ended up taking the betta from them to go back to our endcap where all our bettas were so I could find the lid that had been switched....

And discovered one of our $4 bettas....was missing it's lid entirely. O.o 
Like...they didn't even switch lids.
They just took the lid off one betta cup and left it open to the world. 
*shakes head*

Which makes me wonder what happened to the original lid. 
Did it break and they were trying to replace it? 
Did they take it off and throw it away?
Who knows.
I never found it.

But thankfully I had extra lids in the back of the store so I could place the proper fish lid on the betta cup and give it back to the customers.

Who hopefully learned their lesson and won't do it again.

But score for us! Ha. We were able to prevent a 'fish theft' by marking the cups so huzzah. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Once Again

I came into work this morning to discover that we had had a guinea pig returned to our store. 

A "Female" Guinea Pig that "May be Pregnant." 

Which can I tell you how hardcore I was rolling my eyes at that. 
because it was hardcore rolling my eyes as I highly doubted the guinea pig was a female, let alone pregnant. 

Which.
Upon picking up the guinea pig.
I was right.

It wasn't a female.
It was a male.

As I could see the penis and everything quite well. 

*exhales*
Though to be safe I googled pictures again to make sure I was telling the difference correctly, checked the female guinea pig that we did have in the store to compare the two, and got a manager's opinion.

Diagnosis.

It was obviously a male. 

Which lead me to question exactly why my coworkers allowed the return to happen and to be convinced that it was a pregnant female.

Apparently it was rather crazy yesterday, and the guinea pig was wiggling like crazy making it difficult to look to see what gender it was. 
And I can guess that maybe the penis wasn't sticking out as far as expected either.

But I do wonder at the customers too. 
Who basically just assumed that it was pregnant because it was so big?

Like no, it's just a healthy guinea pig. 

But yah, I showed the coworker when they came in, how to see the difference between the males and the females since I had a female in the store to show them the difference...

And hopefully it won't happen again....though I won't be surprised if it does. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

GloFish Companions

Had a customer come into the store to buy a globetta.

Which apparently...it was like their fourth betta they were looking to buy?

Because they bought two.
One died.
Bought another one.
Then one died. 

So they'd come in to get a replacement one.....

Though I stopped the customer before they bought that fourth one. 

Why?
Because bettas aren't supposed to go into the same tank together.

*exhales* The customer didn't realize that.

Like they were buying female bettas...which those can occasionally go together.

But we usually recommend it being in a bigger tank. Like a 10 gallon tank.
And the customer only had a 3 gallon tank.

So probably too small of a space to have the two girl bettas in together.

And I tried to recommend that the customer just leave the surviving betta in the tank by herself as she would be fine like that.

Customer wasn't buying it though. 
I think it was because they may have had more than one kid and wanted to have one fish for each kid?

In any case. They began asking which other fish the bettas could go with. 

Which there are other fish bettas can go with...in bigger tanks.

The customer only had a 3 gallon tank.

And the other fish they were interested in were schooling fish. That like to have friends.
And placing more than like 2 fish in a 3 gallon tank....isn't a good thing.
More than likely the fish would die until there were two left.

Customer seemed entirely set on having another fish. No matter what.
Another glofish specifically.
As I did try to show them smaller fish that could do better in the smaller tanks (as they stay smaller)

But nope.
It was glofish or glofish.

*exhales*

They ended up getting two glo-tetras.
Though I am predicting one of them will die.
As I doubt having three fish in a 3 gallon tank will work out. 
Guess we'll see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Seeds

So there I was, getting the bird food ready after doing the bird bedding change.
We have a shelf with bulk bird food on it so that we can store a bunch of it for our birds at a time.
And I'd reached up to fill a bowl up with zebra finch food. 

Somehow...the edge caught on the container...and I spilled the food all over myself. 

Which wouldn't be a big deal...except somehow. It was at just the right angle...that a bunch of the seeds went down my shirt.

Which is totally impressive considering I was wearing two layers and the collars are rather high.
But yah. They went down my shirt and into my bra and that was the most uncomfortable feeling have a bunch of cold seeds against your skin.

And like...I had a coworker come into the back area right then so I had to like wait until they were gone before I could get all the seeds out. 

It was just like a crazy occurrence. I've never had that happen before. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Safe?

Had a customer today call the store asking if we had canaries in stock.

Which we do actually.
Two of them.
And I know one of them for sure is a boy because I heard him singing.
The other one? No idea. But it wouldn't surprise me if it was girl.

Though interestingly enough the customer who called didn't ask if we had any boys or girls.

As usually people have a specific gender in mind that they're looking for when they do call us. 

And more often then not the gender we have is usually the opposite of what they need.

If we have a girl everyone wants the boys.
When we finally get a boy in, everyone suddenly wants the girls. 

In any case.

The customer wanted to know if we had any in stock and how much they were.

And after being told were like "Whew....so yah....is it safe to buy a bird right now?" 

Which...huh? Safe?

My thoughts automatically went to the "Well I would prefer you didn't come in and buy a bird right now because I don't like selling animals to people right now because they're all impulse buying, but if you want to buy a bird we haven't been told to not sell animals so you can come in though really you should like...stay home."

But the customer was like "Is it safe, you know, with everything going on?"

I honestly should have answered "It is safer for you to stay home currently, but if you are set on buying a bird we are still selling them."

Instead my mind jumped right to the knowledge that I know there have been people dumping their pets because they're afraid the animals can give them the virus which THEY CAN'T. You CAN'T get the virus from animals. *shakes head* 
So that was my response 'You can't get the virus from animals" 

To which the customer seemed to be relieved to hear ad they were like "Okay I'll come in to get one then!" 

*shakes head*

Note to self.
If people ask if it's 'safe' to get animals I'm going to go for the "It is safer for you to stay home." route. Because honestly, people shouldn't be leaving their homes just to buy a pet. 

-Sarnic Dirchi