# Problems with Petsmart



## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

Has anyone else had problems with Petsmart honoring their fish insurance?

I just went to Petsmart to get another crowntail since Edward passed away in the 14 day period. When I bought him they said I only needed to bring the receipt in to show that I bought him.

They didn't honor it since I didn't bring in a body even though he had been dead for several days and the fact that they had said nothing about needing a body as proof. Needless to say, I did not get another fish from them. I bought Walmart's last fish and will have pictures of him soon.

I should have gotten my previous fish for free since he was already at Death's Door, but I paid full price in good conscience that I would be refunded if he passed away. The cashier I asked was the one that sold me the fish and she remembered his condition. The manager came out and unfortunately said that they needed a body.

I'm unwilling to store a dead, diseased fish in my refrigerator for a few days and then handling it for the 40 minute drive to Petsmart. It's obviously very unhealthy and the fact that they suggested that I do that should be enough to report them alone.

Here's Edward the day I got him (He was in teh same condition when he passed away despite treatments):


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I've never had a problem with Petsmart. They have always been up front about bringing in the dead fish along with the receipt. You can e-mail corporate and complain to them.They'll get back to you in about 24 hours or so. I just e-mailed them about their blue water and they got back to me pretty quickly. Be polite about it, though.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

I just told the manager that was there and the two cashiers that next time they should let someone know that a body is needed. I've bought plenty of bettas from there and they've never said anything about bringing the body in. That and there are always the same cashiers there and they've gotten to know us pretty well with how many fish we buy there for full price when we could get them for cheaper. It's a little insulting that we're not trusted even though we buy their worst fish off of them for full price and never bring anything back for returns. That and their terms of insurance are very unhealthy.

I will be emailing corporate if I run into any more problems though. They really need to let people know what they expect so we can follow through instead of showing up unknowing.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I agree, they should make sure customers know what their policies are. I think it does mention it in their little care sheet/brochure thing, which would be nice if they gave people who buy fish.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

The only brochures they have are on a shelf next to the bettas on the side you don't usually go on. And even then it's just information on the fish itself, not their replacement policy. It's rather unfortunate that they don't let people know.


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## YoshesMom (Mar 15, 2011)

Ive always known you had to bring back the body..I honestly dont mean to be rude but dosent it seem like common knowledge? I mean you cant just bring back the receipt for a jacket with a stain and say hey I wanna refund without bringing the jacket along. My petsmart people know me very well and they still tell me remember you have 14 days


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

I didn't think they would condone bringing a dead and diseased carcass, however small, into a food storage area whether bagged or not. It seems like a very dangerous thing to do that would spread illness easily. And it wouldn't serve any purpose to leave it to rot for a few days until I could get out to the Petsmart again. 

And as for a jacket with a stain, it wouldn't be highly likely to spread disease like a dead animal.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I don't blame you for not wanting to carry the body on a long car ride but unfortunately, business is a cruel and unfeeling world sometimes. :/ At least a betta isn't as costly as, say, a saltwater fish, so you didn't lose out on $40 or something like that. Not that it's any consolation upon losing a beloved pet.


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## Persica (Jul 14, 2011)

The lack of people who understand common courtesy in this world amazes me. Honestly, for the price of a betta, couldn't they just have given you a new one? They definitely should have told you that you needed to bring the body in. It's not your fault for not just KNOWING that. I don't think that many people would try to scam them out of fish that only cost a few bucks....

I would email the big guys and try to get a free fish out of the deal. If you complain enough, in a polite manner, most places will try to keep your business by making things right. I'm sure if you talk to the right people you can get them to give you a voucher of some sort for a free betta, or some sort of gift card. Just my thoughts.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

I'll certainly keep that in mind, but I'll just argue the price down next time I buy a sickly fish. I won't go back for a while now to try and get a new fish from them since I bought Walmart's last one and don't have the space for 2 new fish.

I won't be buying fish from there any time soon, but I do still have to get my dog his food there, but that will be it.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I tried to argue the price down on an HM with SBD at my local Petco but all they did was say "sorry we can't sell sick fish who need treatment" and took him away to the backroom. I really hope they actually did treat the poor guy and not . . . something else. So you may or may not have luck with that tactic.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

Well, if they could sell me that last fish I'm sure they could sell me one in a little better condition for a cheaper price. I could always bring him up again and let everyone know they sold a fish in that condition for full price. I have no qualms about bringing in the only three pictures I have of him to make an example.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Ya, my LPS guy told me that if customers try to buy a fish they know is sick, they will and can take them out back because the customer is buying a fish that just might not make the 14days (we have 7 here). It's like setting yourself up for failure! I asked him if I took a sick fish and agreed to wave the 7day bring back, would that be ok? He told me he would just give me the fish LOL

Sorry about your guy, but I would email corp too. If they don't offer you anything, at least the employees will get a talking to and hopfully a retrain.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Yup. Spread the news and Petsmart may do something just to keep you quiet. Businesses run on reputation and if it gets around that Petsmart is getting a poor reputation, they'll be sorry they didn't try to work with you.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

Sakura8 said:


> I tried to argue the price down on an HM with SBD at my local Petco but all they did was say "sorry we can't sell sick fish who need treatment" and took him away to the backroom. I really hope they actually did treat the poor guy and not . . . something else. So you may or may not have luck with that tactic.


hate when they do that, makes me want to kick shins >_<


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I know. It's like, "Then if you can't sell sick fish, don't let the water get so bad that they get sick!"


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

yeah, if they're too sick to sell, why are they on the sales floor you dummies?!? gah >_<


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

If petco only sold healthy fish they wouln't have ANY fish to sell.

Anyways, petco has the same policy. Its written on the back of the receipt - you need the body, receipt AND they are supposed to test the water that you kept the fish in. I have heard many people say if the water is not perfect they dont have to honor the agreement.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Who defines perfect, them? Petco and Petsmart, the people famous for their 4.0 ammonia readings? Bah.


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## elijahfeathers (Oct 15, 2010)

Honestly if you want a return on a fish I'd be surprised if you didn't have to bring a body. I'd cup/ziplock baggy and freeze if I had to wait, or at least take pictures, and I know most places expect a water sample (which I'd take separate with me from the body as the body I'm sure could throw off readings).

I'm not trying to be rude, but honestly I could walk back into petsmart with my betta's cup three days later and claim he died and steal fish from them without that. And that's not even talking about the more expensive fish, like saltwater types and things.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

I got my last betta at Petsmart and he is perfectly healthy except for being blind... And they still gave him to me for free, but made me sign something saying that if he should die within the allotted days, that i could not come in and get another to replace him for free. I basicly adopted him. And he is just blind... I am sure if i found a sick one they would do the same thing... I dont understand why they would make you buy obviously sick fish... o.o


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## Hinata (Jul 21, 2011)

I've never been to a Petsmart, but I don't think I'll even visit one of their stores because of the terms. They want customers to store a dead fish (possibly diseased) in a fridge where people store their food? That's unhealthy and disgusting. I would be seriously offended if I was such a great customer to them and they told me to do so and said that they couldn't honor their terms because they needed the body as proof when they didn't even tell me that it was necessary. Shame on Petsmart for being so rude. If I was warned ahead of time that the body is necessary for proof of it's death then I wouldn't think of it this way because I would've known the body was needed and it'd be ridiculous to blame the store. If I threw out the body knowing then it's my loss.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Yeah, if they don't tell you about the whole body thing, then most people would immediately bury or dispose of the body as a way of closure etc. What are you supposed to do, dig the body back up?


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

They would have though I killed him if I did bring the body. I smashed his head to make sure he was dead and there was no coming back. I have to do that with all of the fish that die in my or my sister's care because we want to make sure they aren't buried alive. That would be a horrible way to go.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

You do the right thing, Pataflafla. Fish brains are very resistant to hypoxia, or oxygen starvation, meaning the brain can theoretically be "conscious" long after the rest of the body is dead. It's recommended to destroy the brain of all fish who die, although few of us, myself included, can actually bring themselves to do it.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

Unfortunately someone in my family has to do it, and neither my dad or mom are too interested in the fish we keep and it would be really strange to ask it of them. My sister cannot handle it, so I took it up. I'm really not too bothered by it because I know that they are already dead when the time comes. We always give them time to come back, but if it's not within 30 minutes we decide for them.

I've only had to do it twice now. My sister's first giant from Walmart was already long gone by the time we took her out of the tank and the green copper that passed tonight was given a few hours. She barely started pineconing. She had at least 2 hours and by the time I took her out she had already lost all color.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I'm sorry you lost the copper like that. It must have been an aggressive infection that got her.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

Yeah. The blue marble is still alive, but I don't think she's gonna make it too much longer. She doesn't really respond to anything and she's more pineconed than she was before we started treatment. We're going to try and get her to eat an anti-parasite pellet and hope it works. We're going to soak is in garlic first.

I thought the first giant got huge when she displayed dropsy, but the marble looks like she's going to get even bigger. I would take a picture but I don't want to startle her with a flash at all.

This was the first one we ever had that got dropsy. We started treatment too late.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Poor thing looks so miserable. That pineconing effect is so creepy, I hate it. It's bad enough they get so grossly fat but for the scales to go all weird is too much. I hope your marble passes quickly so she's not suffering.


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

Tikibirds said:


> If petco only sold healthy fish they wouln't have ANY fish to sell.
> 
> Anyways, petco has the same policy. Its written on the back of the receipt - you need the body, receipt AND they are supposed to test the water that you kept the fish in. I have heard many people say if the water is not perfect they dont have to honor the agreement.


 That's odd. When Kalona and Kaida died they didn't make us bring back their bodies. They said they believed us and just said to bring back a sample of Kaida's water.

His water was perfect and we got the 20 bucks back that we paid for both of them. I never bought another betta from them either.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Maybe they get a lot of bettas being brought back so they're used to it. -__- Or they forgot about their own return policy. Wouldn't surprise me.


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

Sakura8 said:


> Maybe they get a lot of bettas being brought back so they're used to it. -__- Or they forgot about their own return policy. Wouldn't surprise me.


 I'm not sure. The woman who had stashed Kalona for me said it was okay and they'd refund us. (We were such newbs I'm sure everyone remembers my panicked threads when taking care of Akira he began to do stupid stuff like tailbiting.)


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Haha, well we were all newbs at one point. And being the loving betta parents that we are, we panic over everything that has to do with our betta babies. I have to force myself not to post when one of my bettas doesn't poop for a day. Which, with Sherman means often because he seems to only go once a week but it doesn't bother him. *glares at Sherman for making me worry*


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