Not All LFS are bad..

[Xclusive Reef]

Went to my LFS and picked up a deep blue 75 gallon tank for a new build. I saw a new 30 gallon wrapped but dirty, I said whats up with that tank? LFS said its been under some water leaks and just dirty, cant see it. I told him hey I will take it off your hands? He just gave it to me!!! a deep blue 30 long for the sump... I quickly packed up my car and left before he changed his mind. He charged me $ 1 dollar for the tanks. lol

Dry goods i will go back but i was very dissapointed to see so many bad things in the fish tanks. at least 8 fish i quickly counted in 7 different tanks were dead. when i mean dead i mean like chunks missing. young kid and his friend looking at a tang for 80 bucks and wanted to get it. I asked them what size tank and he said 55 gallon. Tang was about 4 inches already. LFS came over they said they wanted it. no questions asked lfs went to assist another person and I stepped in. lol could not let these terds do this. so I told them to look around, first thing look at how many dead fish.. 2- a tang will not do well is a 55 gallon tank. 3- tang is showing signs of ick or red velvet. fish was breathing really heavy, and rubbing alot against glass and pvc.I told them to go to reef2reef.com first and ask questions and read up on ick and general fish keeping. finally i told them if they want the fish ask the lfs to feed it see if he eats. well he tried and tang wanted nothing to do with the food. They walked out and did not get the fish...

 

[Water Dog]

I must admit, I'm a little torn on how to respond to this. The LFS guy hooks you up big time, saving you over 100 bucks with gear, and you return the favor by nuking an $80 sale for him. I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but as a business owner, I kinda feel for the LFS guy here...

 

[Xclusive Reef]

I must admit, I'm a little torn on how to respond to this. The LFS guy hooks you up big time, saving you over 100 bucks with gear, and you return the favor by nuking an $80 sale for him. As a business owner, I kinda feel for the LFS guy here...

yea i thought the same thing but what was I suppose to do.. let he kid take a bad tang home with probably ick and have the fish die? chances are he would not go back if fish dies in 2-3 days.

 

[mcarroll]

I think he's saying that you can get "dirty fish" anywhere, especially online. But you can't get a store helper to GIVE YOU A TANK anywhere but a LFS! I could be wrong.

 

[ksanfranfan]

IMO, you did a good thing by helping a hobbyist make an informed decision.
On the other hand getting something for free can come at a cost. In this case it did for the lfs. I have a guilty conscience when I know that and probably would have negotiated a reasonable price for the freebie for the decision I made helping the other person.
Still it's not a bad thing that you did by helping out the customer. It probably would have been helpful as well to return the favor to the owner and maybe even point out the problems with the tanks.
For me it equates to going to a restaurant and paying for the meal but not leaving the waiter a tip. The restaurant makes money and can continue to employ people but the waiter takes home less of their potential earnings.
Can't say you made a right or wrong decision. I would have helped the kid out myself but probably did things a little different dealing with the lfs.

 

[Xclusive Reef]

IMO, you did a good thing by helping a hobbyist make an informed decision.
On the other hand getting something for free can come at a cost. In this case it did for the lfs. I have a guilty conscience when I know that and probably would have negotiated a reasonable price for the freebie for the decision I made helping the other person.
Still it's not a bad thing that you did by helping out the customer. It probably would have been helpful as well to return the favor to the owner and maybe even point out the problems with the tanks.
For me it equates to going to a restaurant and paying for the meal but not leaving the waiter a tip. The restaurant makes money and can continue to employ people but the waiter takes home less of their potential earnings.
Can't say you made a right or wrong decision. I would have helped the kid out myself but probably did things a little different dealing with the lfs.

Oh I did.. I told the LFS to look at his tanks.. I told him I saw 8 dead half eaten fish and a sign of ick. he said being alone sometimes time gets the best of me. I offered to help him out clean up those dead fish and he did not want help, said he would get to it. My point i tried to make is yes it was nice he gave me a 30 gallon but at the same time I am dropping a few K on this build. i am getting all my dry good from him. so he was happy. he was not to concerned about not selling that fish.