Sorry for the wall of text, I like to rant with detail lol! TLDR I almost caused a scene in Petsmart when an employee agreed to sell a 5.5gal as a starter tank, lady buying for her child didn’t want to upgrade until a year later while knowing that beardies can be 2ft long as adults.
So I went to Petsmart today to grab some lower wattage heat bulbs for my boy since the seasonal change is coming, tank always get a little too warm with my fall/winter bulbs. Overhead a conversation between a mom with a young child and an employee about purchasing one of the baby dragons, all of which were probably too small to sell in my opinion. They also were feeding them a pellet diet in the enclosures, which triggered my inner lizard chef as I’m what my friends and old coworkers call the Gordon Ramsay of reptile salad making.
I hung around a bit, acted like I was browsing the aisle just to keep an eye on them and make sure an innocent beardie baby wasn’t about to get murdered. Dear lord I was right to eavesdrop, this lady KNEW that they can grow up to 2ft long and still wanted to start with a 5.5gal tank. Employee then recommended a 20gal long for a “better” lifetime tank. I own a betta and inverts in a 5.5 and frogs in a 20gal, if I tried to shove my boy in either of those, he’d be squished or stuck in one position for the rest of his days. The worst part? The lady dropped a bomb asking, “so I could start with this (5.5) and come back to buy that (20) in a year?” Employee said yes. Us beardie lovers KNOW how fast babies grow, ended up telling them this and that neither option would be even minimum for a lifetime home. They ignored me unfortunately, and I had to leave before I ended up causing a scene knowing full well they were probably gonna suggest sand instead of carpet/tile/literally anything else, coil UVB bulbs instead of tube, night bulbs instead of CHE or none, and a processed diet instead of fresh/live.
Wish Corp would do more to prevent their employees from giving downright deadly advice to customers, but they don’t care since it makes them money. I’ve been reprimanded by corporate dogs myself when I worked for a Petco because I denied too many sales thanks to downright turds of customers not listening and then complaining in surveys. The best way I’ve found to educate and correct these mistakes is by telling the employees themselves. A little help goes a long way, maybe one day we can live in a world where bad advice is a thing of the past...
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