PaH boycott

Went to PaH today. 4 baby buns and NO hay. I complained. I hate it in there. It is totally depressing, they don't sell any of the stuff I want, the stuff they do sell is terrible quality and not worth buying (eg hay) and aside all that, they sell rabbits, which I utterly disagree with. Oh, also when I called up the other day to ask if they could order a brand of food in for me which for some bizarre reason they don't sell, they were really rude.

So I've decided not to shop there any more. Not that I ever did before but since moving house have been there twice as there's one just round the corner. However, I would rather drive 10 miles than go there again. b-m

I would never shop there,even if my life depended on it....when i used to go there always ended up with free rabbits that were in need of veterinary treatment ,and were due to be sent back to breeder!!....to be pts.....most of the staff hate it there and the way the animals are treated .The latest addition from there has just stopped her treatment and if i had not taken her when i did the infection would of killed her!my vet said it was touch and go.....when i complained to the head office they only asked me to return the bun!!!!!as if i was going to do that!!!!!Now i never go in there.

oo I am so glad that someone has already started this topic. I went in to one on Saturday, I was totally out of Timothy Hay but they didn't have any, there were three birds on loose I told a member of staff who couldn't give a hoot, one of the poor buns in there couldn't stand up cos the floor was slippy and he kept doing the splits, there were some kids laughing at him.

and none of the buns had any hay AND a bun was being sold when we got there and they put them in these really small boxes to be taken home.

PAH are ****.
Just another chain store exploiting customers & more importantly the animals they sell.
Most staff(I have met the odd knowledgable one) go on basic training(pet shop assistant cert or similar) but are only in the job for cash, not the love of the job.
I really can't bear them, the other thing is that they have put a lot of small decent pet shops out of business & gone are the days where you could pop into the shop & ask advice & get a smiling, informative response instead of being shoved a leaflet & lied to.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Oh & my boyfriends ex girlfrined was offered the managers job a couple of years ago at my local one. she was 17 years old!!!!! & NOT experienced in anything needed to be supervising people looking after animals!!!

leanne said:

gone are the days where you could pop into the shop & ask advice & get a smiling, informative response

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Hum, have to agree with that one :roll:

shock horror my p@h have no animals in at the moment as they are re building the animal pens lets hope they are for the better

Kerry is that the Portsmouth one?

I went there on Saturday since somebody mentioned new toys and there were no animals except fish, and they said the small animal toys section was being redeveloped or something like that

yep thats the one i dont go there often but wanted some toys for the buns was suprsed to see no animals there but on the other hand its a good thing

Lorna a pregnant rabbit I took in today, her previous owners were apparently told by the Slough branch of this large national pet store chain that you can separate the babies from their mother at 2 weeks!!

I am not sure what else this store told this man, however Lorna at Greenfields Rescue and myself were surprised at quite a number of the ideas this man had about rabbit care issues.

I have been in the Slough one (5 min from my work) and they are great with advice about dogs but their staff just aren't given the correct knowledge to properly assist customers with small animal, bird or fish advice however they did have frozen water bottles in with the rabbits and guinea pigs when it was hot the other week so they are trying.

The problem is it isn't in their interest to send their staff on long expensive training courses and 9 times out of 10 the staff will only be there a few months before moving on. They don't have enough full-time staff members in each store to be sent on specific courses and if there is a specialised staff member in store they won't always be on hand when the correct advice is needed.

I would love to see their basic training plan that each new member of staff has to go on before starting expanded with people perhaps choosing to specialise and getting an info pack to take home and read before a short test in two weeks time.

That staff member could then wear a badge saying something like "ask me about keeping rabbits" and part of their job would be to stock the rabbit/small animal section so ensuring they were always around the animals ready to hand out advice, or they could have individual pagers so if someone wanted some advice they can ask for a rabbit "expert" to be paged!

Caz

Caz i think that is a great idea

I find I goand walk in, walk about and walk out - looking at the same old stuff which is no cheaper than anywhere else - and sometimes more expensive. I do find that some of the staff are rude and don't really have a clue ( my aunt is a manager at one store and she is the rudest person I know ! so if they can give her a job as manager with no people skills what so ever theres no chance !)
But on the flip side there are times when you get staff who know their stuff and are friendly and helpful - as people have said here ! - its swings and roundabouts.

I do think they are better for dog toys, food, beds etc. & cats. thoughs sections are HUGE !

I don't buy from places that sell bunnies if possible - its bad enough seeing these poor things for sale, let alone knowing I am giving money to the person selling them. Sometimes can't get around this though, for example I needed a large corner litter tray recently and the only place that sells them near me that i know of is PaH in Stevenage (15 miles away!)
The worst place I have seen is a pet/farm shop in Willingham, Cambridgeshire, where they have a few buns, hamsters and parrots for sale - the buns never have anything to eat except dry food - no hay at all, don't know if they get greens.

bunny-mad said:

Went to PaH today. 4 baby buns and NO hay. I complained. I hate it in there. It is totally depressing, they don't sell any of the stuff I want, the stuff they do sell is terrible quality and not worth buying (eg hay) and aside all that, they sell rabbits, which I utterly disagree with. Oh, also when I called up the other day to ask if they could order a brand of food in for me which for some bizarre reason they don't sell, they were really rude.

So I've decided not to shop there any more. Not that I ever did before but since moving house have been there twice as there's one just round the corner. However, I would rather drive 10 miles than go there again. b-m

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Just out of interest, what time did you call in and find the rabbits with no hay?
I have been in and heard a customer complaining that the rabbits in the pens have no water, only for the member of staff to walk out 2 mins later with cleaned water bottles containing fresh water! There were no bottles as the staff member was cleaning them! :roll:

If you wrote to Pets At Home, either email or snail mail, you might push them to do something about it. I know after being told by the public they have changed some of their products, now the rat starter kit contains paper litter instead of wood shavings.

If you tell them, you might make a difference especially Caz I think they'd be interested in your idea. I know people who have emailed and got replies back within days.

Don't just complain here, tell them to do something about it, how else will you get them to change?

neeshkabeesh said:

Don't just complain here, tell them to do something about it, how else will you get them to change?

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Do you think if we write to them and ask them to stop selling baby rabbits they will??????????????????????????????

The entire place is depressing. I would rather not shop there at all than concern myself with improving their offerings for customers, thereby making them even more profitable.

I'm glad to see some others share my opinion on not shopping there. That was the point of this post, rather than to dredge up stories (again). b-m

i need to get a saterday job and i was thinking of trying to get one there. that was i can keep an eye out for ill animals (and fish in the wrong tanks). i know it sound silly but at least i will be doing some thing

I work there

Hi my name is linzi and I work in pets at home (i know you probably hate me now) but I just thought i would let you know that not everybody there is an idiot. I love animals and would do anything for them. I have a bunny rescue and I do get most of mine from pets at home and customers who dont want theres anymore. But some of us there do know what were talking about, and believe me we I give customers such a grilling before I even think about letting them have an animal and if I dont think they should have one then they dont get one. :wink:

Hey Linzi,

Welcome to the forum!

I'm sure you're one of the better Pets At Home staff, I do have to say the ones in local PAH are rubbish :roll:

Have you been trying tohelp improve the living conditions of the animals in your store?

I'm sure no one hates you, we welcome everyone, having you here is a privilege as PAH gets so much bad press