Pets at Home SUCK!!!!!

[xpsolo]

this is just a thread at pets at home becuase im really pissed at them right now.
I bought 2 male chinchillas from them and after a year and abit one is dead( when i got this one it was prone too fits and had one from when i got it every other month it just had a really bad one the other week and died ) and the other is female, not just that i got anougher male and the female could be pregnant.
I complained about this issue too this reponse.
trevor manager of pets at home at trafford retail park manchester said too me that his head office said that as it had been over a year that as a reponsible pet owner i should of sexed them and it was strange that it was female and spraying becuase the males are the ones who spray too mark territory( this is after i told him i thought my chin was a girl becuase it stood on it hind legs and sprayed like 2 feet which males cant do) and then he was pretty much making out the other one must of died through bad care on my part when i did everything i could too stop the chin from dieing.
I think it had a problem with sugar the vet couldent comfirm this as she did tests and found nothing but i found after it had a treat dried bannana, raisin it would sometimes fit which started making me think his sugar levels with his level excitement (of getting the treat) or sudden shock of somekind was what caused him too fit ( prob was a girl too but did used to make a cooing sound which i think is a male courting sound my new male does it too if it was a boy would have added to excitement coming out with a girl all the time which is all down to why i think he fitted plus could have got the other one pregnant ) i stoped giving it treats like this and it stoped fitting for a few months i started too think i had cracked it then all of a sudden must of had a big one found it under my bed dead with my other chin very stressed out wouldent come in for hours.

Anyway if you have just read my thread and you are thinking about getting your first degus/chinchillas plz dont buy pets from pet shops either go too a breeder or adopt one they dont now much about the care of your degus and chinchillas and may give you missleading info they cant normally sex properly ( i bet im not the first too have this problem with pets at home ) and i have no faith in pets at home sources as im sure my chins problem came down too bad breeding i cant proove this and it may have just been an unluky chin .

pets at home have cost be alot of money 1st for the chin thaqt died all the vet fees i spent trying to find out why he fitted so much and now i have spent 80 pound on my new chin will cost me over 60 pound too get my male dun plus the vet fee of like 15 pound too confirm it was female and they dident even say sry now thats just criminal

[philbailey1806]

woooooooow! Sorry, just posted a reply on your other thread before seeing this one! That is absolutely apalling! So I take it you spoke to them in store and didn't ring the customer service helpline? When I spoke about a sexing problem in store they said they would need to be separated and hinted at me buying another cage, it was when I rang the customer service helpline that they rang the store and told them what they had to give me.

Don't give up! This is negligence on their part! Most people, such as yourself and myself go to pets at home in the first instance and just presume that they can sex animals, I can't speak for you, but I trusted that they would have done it loads of times and would be much better at it than I'd be after looking at a few pictures online.

From my experience in retail, the store manager is trying to fob you off by saying that he has spoken to head office, I very much doubt this is the case, and like I say I would advise ringing the customer service number and telling them not only how upset you are at the initial mistake, but how you were treated on approaching the store manager about the problem!

Don't give up! You absolutey do not deserve to be treated like that and sooner rather than later they'll compensate you I'm sure (I know this is small comfort with all the stress and heartache of losing one, but at least it's something). Please let us know how you get on! I'll be very interested as to how they respond.

[xpsolo]

hey well i have wrote a letter too head office when rang the customer help line and they put me through to the store i got them from. I have stoped buying everything i used to buy from pets at home and will never buy from there again. Still really pisses me off that the manager was trying to tell me that male are the ones that spray and males dont do it lol scary

[xpsolo]

fenmales dont do it sry im in work and typeing fast

[scubaa]

Although you experience sounds bad I feel i should defend P@H as both the New Malden and the Farnham branches are excellent, I think it is just down to the staff and the staff we spoke to at both these branches are animal mad and most of them seem to have lots of pets of their own. P@H is a large chain so it is bound to get the most attention both good and bad but I do feel that people on this website need to complain about their specific branch rather then the chain as a whole as my impression of P@H based on the branches i've been to is VERY Positive..

[scubaa]

Although you experience sounds bad I feel i should defend P@H as both the New Malden and the Farnham branches are excellent, I think it is just down to the staff and the staff we spoke to at both these branches are animal mad and most of them seem to have lots of pets of their own. P@H is a large chain so it is bound to get the most attention both good and bad but I do feel that people on this website need to complain about their specific branch rather then the chain as a whole as my impression of P@H based on the branches i've been to is VERY Positive..

[woodchip]

I'll stand up and defend P@H Newaven as well. They were really excited and pleased when we adopted our two and when we've gone in there they've asked how they are doing.

As scubaa said, it's now P@H's fault. It's the fault of the store, and a jobsworth manager with no compassion.

[lollie24]

I hate to say I'm going to defend pets at home too, as I used to be the branch's in Boramwood and Cricklewood main breeder of Siamese mice. all my animals were vet checked, I was RSPCA checked and we made sure they were sexed correctly when given to the branch's, they would keep me updated with weekly check ins on how they were doing and how many had sold and if there were any problems they were caring and professional at all times.

the pets at home branch in Newhaven as my partner woodchip has said have been more than helpful, when we got our goos they gave us loads of freebies and said if we had any problems to not hesitate to ask for help as they wanted the best for our goos.

I think you have been very unfortunate to have had a bad experience with that particular store and unfortunately has tainted your view of the company as a whole, the staff at that store sound dreadful and so does the manager but it doesn't mean the whole company is the same

[fred]

I am sorry I have to disagree with this outbreak of praise for P@H the company. While we can probably all agree that there are good stores and poor stores, I come to a very different conclusion. If you have a good experience with particular stores, the credit should go to manager and staff. However, there are far too many and recurrent complaints to blame it on the odd manager not up to his/her job and / or lacking compassion. I have read so many of these on this and other forums that my conclusion is that there is at the very least a serious systematic problem with the internal control procedures in the company.

[philbailey1806]

I agree with Fred, in my experience with retail, I would have thought that on paper and in the eyes of the people at the top of the chain within P@H the stores that we would call good, would be the ones they call bad, for spending money on labour for extra staff to look after the pets and taking the time to see how the animals are getting on rather than stacking shelves etc, and for using extra substrate etc for cleaning them out more often, I even read a report on the internet from a girl who worked for P@H who got a warning from them because she did a full cage clean when she saw a hamster had been eaten, leaving behind only a head! She got the warning for misappropriation of stock! And I think we've all seen the size of the teeny tiny tank they keep hamsters in, it can't have taken long to clean and cost much in sawdust!

Plus, with the exception of the degus and our very first hamster, every pet we've ever had from there has been either vicious or unfriendly in some way, and we've had a lot! (4 hamsters, 2 rabbits, 2 degus, 2 dumbo rats).

I'm sure every store would like to spend more time looking after the animals and making sure they're handled and comfortable (who would go for a job at a pet shop if they didn't like animals?) so the only reason I can think of as to why they don't is pressure from the top to spend less money on staff and supplies to increase profit. Sadly it's the way every large chain is run, they will have targets on maximum profit and minimum labour to beat, or at the very least match, and if they don't it's the store manager that will get it in the neck.

[lollie24]

unfortunately there are alot of BAD stores that give the very few GOOD stores a very bad a name. as a breeder (as mentioned in prev post) and animal rescue worker (rabbit rescue 1993-1998) the stores I mentioned were run well and maintained a good working partnership with the RSPCA and breeders and the staff are lovely, I never said that all the stores do this nor did I say that all stores were good, I myself have worked in retail for over 10 years and know that with everything you get some good managers and some really crap ones too the same with staff, all I was saying is that please don't paint all stores and staff with the same brush as there are some good stores out there and they deserve recognition.

Maybe we should do a Good reliable pet shop guide on here??

finally I may like to say sorry if we offended anyone for defending the P@H stores we have mentioned but we felt as they were the minority that have been helpful we should point out that not all of them are staffed by cretins and that they do generally care about the pets they are selling.

I have however had a bad experience with the P@H in Eastbourne but again as I said everyone always remembers the bad and never the good that is the only reason I felt I should praise the ones that have been good sorry if I offended anyone

[lollie24]

Jul 5, 2011 12:36:45 GMT @fred said:

I am sorry I have to disagree with this outbreak of praise for P@H the company. While we can probably all agree that there are good stores and poor stores, I come to a very different conclusion. If you have a good experience with particular stores, the credit should go to manager and staff. However, there are far too many and recurrent complaints to blame it on the odd manager not up to his/her job and / or lacking compassion. I have read so many of these on this and other forums that my conclusion is that there is at the very least a serious systematic problem with the internal control procedures in the company.

I agree back in the early 90' we had an influx of bunnies because of P@H then pet smart (prev incarnations have been shut down and appeared on watchdog) but as consumers it's down to us to make authority's aware about the BAD stores and why they are bad otherwise they will carry on the way they are

[philbailey1806]

I hear what you're saying lollie, but I find that it's all to easy to hide whats going on, who knows what's in the back of the store? and a lot of the animals they sell (hamsters, chinchillas and rats to a certain extent) are nocturnal or crepuscular, so if something does happen, it can be cleared up before anyone comes into the shop. It is awful, but I suppose the people that work there are concerned for their job? Hamsters in particular get a bum deal, because they're so small and don't live long, they're almost seen as disposable and are ram packed into those tiny tanks, and noone knows quite how old they are, so can't possibly know when their territorial aggressiveness is going to kick in. I think we've had our last hamster from there, the last 3 have been aggressive! Would like to find a breeder next time.

[woodchip]

I've never met a hamster that isn't a) asleep or b) trying to kill me by chewing off a finger. I guess I must smell of an aggresive hamster. lol

[fred]

No offence caused lollie I am all for a balanced discussion and it is absolutely right to mention the good shops. In the interest of balance: in Edinburgh there are to P@H and they could not be more different. In the Straiton shop the degus are always well kept and I haven't observed anything major to criticize. In contrast the shop in Costorphine is an absolute disgrace and the reason why I feel so angry about the company and mentioned the failing control mechanisms.

Recently, degutopia's Chloe had a meeting with P@H and informed them about observations that had been posted on the degutopia group. This included my report on Costorphine: “... it was horrible, horrible!! I felt so sorry for the three adult boys they have for adoption there (in two cages). I realised only later that these cages must be smaller than the standard Thickets ones, maybe 2/3 in width? The base is wire mesh. I don't know how much that affects the animals as they use a thick layer of hay for bedding (the wire mesh was coming through in some places but overall it may be OK). Additional hay was also offered in two places in each cage. Altogether there was so much hay in each cage that it made a very unkempt impression and I wonder how often these cages are properly cleaned. It's difficult to see how the set-up can appeal to people wanting to adopt a pet, unless they feel terribly sorry for the inmates. There was no wheel and next to nothing in terms of toys/enrichment. They did however have the small plastic exercise ball! They also had the cobs of sun-ripened corn as food!...”.

For a while it was somewhat better but when I visited the shop last Saturday they were back to their bad old ways. The cage base was wire mesh and there were two older (almost adult) and four youngsters (~ 2months?) in that small cage. Clearly a failure of the company when they are not able or willing to follow up complaints.

[lollie24]

well thats sounds like Eastbourne they were told by the RSPCA to clean up thier act so they sacked everyone and took on new staff inc a new manager and things were great for a while but recently they seem to be slipping again it makes me mad

[darkhorse27]

Id say it was more the fault of whoever bred the animal than the store

[philbailey1806]

Yes, I do agree with what you're saying dark horse, but I think that since P@H take their livestock from that particular source, they should be the ones doing the checks on them and making sure that the animals that they provide are fit and healthy. Maybe it's not overly concerning with animals such as rats and hamsters that only have a life expectancy of a few years tops, but the other animals should be expected to live much longer, especially a chinchilla.

As P@H were the people who supplied the chinchilla to xpolso, I feel it is they who should be the ones to reimburse him, and if they are having trouble with the quality of the animals from the breeder they use, it is up to them to change to a more responsiblr breeder.