Pets at Home www.petsathome.com Review

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Pets At Home Tropical Fish Review

Store: Gateshead (Metro Centre)

I have had an ongoing problem with pets at home, since i bought my aquart 60l aquarium with all the equipment and supplies (great i thought to myself). Got home set it all up by the book, waiting 2 weeks and took a sample to the store, they gave me the all clear to add fish, they became ill with white spot within a week, they changed the fish which to be fair, was kind of them and showed they cared about their customers.

The above repeated about 3 times, in the end i rang up full of anger and told them this isn't good enough they asked me 2 bring water sample as expected and they explained there is nothing wrong, so few month later after more failing fish and expensive treatments used.....

They explained how the filter i had got with the tank (and possibly heater) was of low quality and they never sell them in store (yet they didn't tell me this when i spent around £200 buying everything i needed from their store). They said it is still in working order but you have just had no luck, so off i went back home with more livestock from the same store! Whilst spending fortunes on the supplies needed including food, Tap water treatment, Disease prevention....

Guess what, they all died, over the last months since i bought it i have lost over 30 fish all from pets at home, none bought survived over a month or survived 1 week before showing disease symptoms. I rang up furious and demanded to be put through to a manager which they did do, they explained how since the tank is a bundle package, i would whichave to contact the supplier, i couldn't believe this and refused to accept that their guarantee of 6 months after purchase seemed non-existent now.

In the end they agreed to refund me the cost of the tank and cabinet, I thought finally they can do their jobs. I like the staff their but some staff just don't appear to have the correct skills for their job! in the store they constantly tried to come to a deal in a way that i would keep the tank. In the end they offered me a fluval internal filter and heater and £10 store credit to restock, not realising I had spent 3 hours clearing the tank out and lost all the plants I had bought for the entire tank but that's how it goes.

All was well, filter much better.

Problems began when i took a water sample into the store to get the all clear which they gave me, the fish i bought (4 mollies, as recommended by aquatic team member) 1 died, the rest had white spot within days, i returned them and somehow managed to remain calm and give them the benefit of the doubt. They changed them straight away, week later i bought 5 neon tetra as recommended once again, all of the fish in the tank were dead within a week and shockingly one had fry, which I feel shows that the staff seem incompetent to not even know what a big fat Mollie looks like when its pregnant, especially when I asked for 2 males!. So.........

As i finish this review i have 5 fry, each seem ill from the diseased mother, and 5 dead neon tetra (bought after the last batch died) and will be contacting the store tomorrow!

Its such a shame because the store have just added the huge 2nd floor for sole use of the aquatic department and I think it goes to show, maybe they should have spent the money on training the staff first

Never again will i purchase livestock from pets at home. I bought my tank 7 month ago and I feel as though pets at home have managed to ruin my entire interest in aquatics due to some of their staff's apparent lack of knowledge ruining my experience of the hobby,

Thanks A Million Metrocentre Pets At Home!

I've applied for a part time job their (I'm a student), i would look forward to the job as aquatic manager just to have an insight into how the staff are trained and how they treat livestock.