garbage customer service from local pet store,,, sea scape

AMEN!

You should open up an lfs Bud!

 

If there is another side I can give you a few more examples of their poor service. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif

Wait. Not wink smile, wink sad ;(

 

I havent had a bad experience with them. Heck they even took back an open bag of dogfood since my dog wouldnt eat it. They Gave it to the animal rescue league program that is housed in their. Sounds like they need to step up their game though If so many people have had bad experiences. They sell a lot of fish or their fish die alot. They get in a lot of new fish every week. If you go in their before their weekly shipmemt they have a slim selection.

 

The LFS's in Des Moines have always been mediocre at best and lately they have all been sub par. Honestly I see better livestock at Petco.

When I had the ONE chance to make it out to AC&C I was blown away by the awesomeness. There wasn't aiptasia on half stn'd frags for 80$. There was no hair algae covered liverock for 13$ a pound.

Dry goods I just buy online. Tim set me up with my first tank damn near 15 years ago. He has always been very helpful and knowledgeable.

On the flip side, I had a faulty Rio pump I bought from Adams. I didn't know anything about pumps at the time, but the impeller was broke. All I knew was the thing made a terrible racket when I turned it on and moved no water. I brought it in and said I would like to exchange it and he asked what was wrong. He looked at it and said, so when did you drop it? I said I had not dropped it. He shook his head and said UH HUH...these things don't just break on their own. Ill give you your money back but don't try it again.

I almost told him don't bother. Mind you this was over 10 years ago, but it still bothers me. Like you said, when you drop thousands of dollars at a store, you expect good service.

 

The crazy thing is that I went to Chicago, Philly and Pittsburgh recently and had some down time so I hit some of the better reviewed reef stores there. They were very impressive, but none of the stores in the big cities had the infrastructure that seascapes does. They all pretty much have large but standard display tanks, not like seascapes gigantic tank, and they didn't have a salt pond like seascapes does or even the new frag setups that seascapes has. BUT they all were really clean - the tanks and store, had fantastic quality livestock with a large selection and a nice variety of aquacultured corals.

It really made me think how seascapes could be fantastic, they have everything already there, blowing even those big city stores away, but they just can't get the basics right. Since we drove I stopped at the two Davenport stores and they are superior to anything here in DM. Even the drygoods - they had ecotech, AI, all sorts of dosing pumps and modern skimmers and equipment that are currently popular. In central Iowa our stores carry none of that. Not even simple things like tube holders for dosing pumps - it was that little piece I saw in Davenport that really made me wish there was a better store here. There is a reason almost all the dry goods I have are ordered online, many of the big brands have manufactures restricted pricing so I would be happy to buy local, but there is nothing local!

 

I think if the owner of the LFS isn't involved in the hobby/reef keeping than the store is going to reflect this.
It's all & not about the best products we need/want them to carry.
My opinion for what ever it's worth

 

I just got back a few hours ago from seascapes. I asked for 10 cerith snails and 10 blue leg hermits. I didn't bother counting, but when I got home I had 9 cerith, 7 blue leg hermits and one hermit empty shell. Guess I should pay closer attention next time. A while back, fish manager was standing in the back/fishroom exterior doorway smoking, asked him if a specific fish would be compatible with a fish in my reef. He stated he was busy (Smoking a cig) and to ask one of the boys. I stood around the fish room like I was lost for approximate 10-15 minutes and not one other store personal came to assist. I ended up leaving and dropping a few hundred dollars at the local petco's.

 

Hart ~ for what its worth, I would personally rather have a LFS that has customer service, quality products and healthy live stock to make my own saltwater dream in my own home, instead of looking at a what if dream in the store.

 

Tim is there on Fridays-thats when I go in with questions.