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A rant... And something for the new hobbyist.


Arsonmfg

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So a couple weeks ago I happened to be in the area of a LFS and thought I'd stop in to check things out since I hadn't been in there in ages.

 

While I browsed around at the very little amount of livestock they had I spotted this neat looking bright yellow nem with purple tips... I knew exactly what it was when I saw it and kinda chuckled cause I actually hadn't seen one in a really long time.

 

One of the employees came up to me and said, that's a pretty awesome anemone huh? I replied "yeah, pretty sweet" in a sarcastic tone which he obviously didn't get. He then went on to tell me about how it was a really rare anemone... I figured at this point I'd see how far this guy would really go to try and hype this thing up.

 

I asked what species is that I've never seen one, he tells me he can't remember the exact species but it's a "super rare hybrid" and how they never get them in looking that good blah blah blah... I played surprised and asked what they wanted for it, he replied $99.00 but he could make me a deal for $79.00 I told him that I had to pass.

 

So any guesses as to what this bright yellow purple tipped anemone was??? Most of you probably guessed it! A dyed yellow Sebae Anemone.

 

Now I've been in the hobby for quite some time and thankfully know a thing or two, but I got to thinking about the new hobbyists that wouldn't know any better and started to get pissed. Now on one hand this guy might just be there helping since the owner has been away but that's no excuse to flat out lie to people, pump them full of a bunch of BS just so they can make a buck, or in this case $56 (I happen to know where it came from and what they paid for it) on an animal that's guaranteed to lose all of that pretty color and more than likely die in a few weeks. A animal that would retail for about $35 in a healthy state from an honest LFS.

 

A business is free to charge whatever they want, after all they do need to make money to stay in business, but a business that chooses to operate like this needs to be called out. I'll refrain from posting the shops name in the public forum but most of you can probably figure out the shop I'm talking about.

 

So just a word of advice to all the new hobbyists out there, do your research and don't believe everything the guy at the LFS tells you! Get to know the local shops and what they're about. Thankfully there are a lot of great shops in the Portland area that'll take great care of you, give you great advice and sell you healthy animals for a reasonable price.

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I really don't understand why a store would do this. I know business slows down around town in the summer but trying to take advantage of new hobbyist in the long run is just a bad business practice. Word gets around in the hobby and eventually most people figure out they are being taken advantage. Not only has that business just potentially lost a repeat customer, but word of mouth gets around pretty quickly. I can guess the business but thank you for not posting the name publicly. I also hate the practice of some wholesalers of dying anemones.

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The store should be able to defend it's self but also if they are trying to sell something that is not what we all know it is why would we believe a word the say even on the forum. I understand it might have been an employee that said this and if it was then that employee should be fired or the shop owner should be responsible for his actions.we spend are hard earned money at these stores and should not be lied to. We should do are home work on the stuff we buy. But we should not be lied to also. Just IMO.

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Hey chris' date=' id appreciate a pm letting me know just which lfs that was so i dont make the mistake of stopping in there[/quote']

 

DITTO Please, as I am a new hobbiest and have already went through the pretty anonome that died after a few weeks, thankfully though i just bought it and the LFS did not feed me a line. AND I ONLY PAID $8.00 so not a big loss. Thanks for the FYI

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The store should be able to defend it's self but also if they are trying to sell something that is not what we all know it is why would we believe a word the say even on the forum. I understand it might have been an employee that said this and if it was then that employee should be fired or the shop owner should be responsible for his actions.we spend are hard earned money at these stores and should not be lied to. We should do are home work on the stuff we buy. But we should not be lied to also. Just IMO.

 

call it anyway you like there is always two sides to any story and to be fair as you are hurting somones business they should be able to defend themsleves otherwise this thread should be removed.

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call it anyway you like there is always two sides to any story and to be fair as you are hurting somones business they should be able to defend themsleves otherwise this thread should be removed.

 

I fully agree. Also. It leaves people questioning all the lfs now. I think it should be public...why hide it?

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call it anyway you like there is always two sides to any story and to be fair as you are hurting somones business they should be able to defend themsleves otherwise this thread should be removed.

 

 

I fully agree. Also. It leaves people questioning all the lfs now. I think it should be public...why hide it?

 

The problem with posting publicly is then it ends up being a bash thread. One group jumping on the bandwagon and a few people trying to defend the business. It just creates drama. Trust me been there done that. His post is fine as the point is to warn new hobbyists and he didn't say he was going to pm people with the name. Even if he did, it's no different than word of mouth.

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Here's a hint. They are no longer sponsors on the boards due to posts like this always flaming them. I may not like this business practice but we've all bought stuff from shops and been burned. Its part of the hobby.

 

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

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We really invite our members to resolve issues with commercial members (or not members) via PM, email or phone.

In case of negative feedback, the rules are posted at the end of my post and as a sticky in the feedback section.

I think this thread works well without a name. You guys can know via pm.

 

"PNWMAS is not responsible for any problems resulting in the business transaction of one of our commercial users and one of our members. It is up to the member to resolve any dispute with the commercial user. Please resolve this issue via PM, email or a telephone call instead of starting a thread in the forums. Only two parties are impacted by this issue, not the membership as a whole. If a commercial user has reoccurring issues with upset members or if the commercial user's business practices do not reflect the mission of this club, the commercial user may be removed by a majority vote of the Officers and Board of Directors.

 

In an effort to keep this forum from being a rants and raves section a few new rules will now be enforced.

 

1. A forum user may leave feedback that is either positive or negative as long as the feedback sights a specific example. You can't simple post "XXXXX Sucks" or "XXXXX Rules".

 

2. In the case of negative feedback, the member or vendor will then have a chance to explain their side of the situation.

 

3. In the case of negative feedback, each party involved in the disagreement has one opportunity to state their case.

 

4. In the case of negative feedback, the thread will be closed after both parties have made their case.

 

5. In the case of negative feedback, any post made by anyone other than the original two parties involved will be deleted without question or warning."

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I am not sure the forum rules would allow the store to be named? The rules state you must not intentionally "flame" another member. The store may not be a sponsor, but they are still a member? (scratch)

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You can name it. Sponsor of not, member or not. But to avoid frequent rants we invite you to not post the name and solve the issue privately first.

This is not about a member or a commercial member, a sponsor or a non sponsor. It is about focusing on our mission.

I think this thread is informative without the name. We all had bad experience with some stores, and great experience with others.

Mostly, I don't want to spend part of my day moderating this thread lol

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It shouldn't be "part of the hobby" to be burned by your LFS. By not putting the store name in the original thread, it is not flaming another member or vendor. if enough people spread the word about these unscrupulous scam artists, then maybe they will either change their practices, or go out of business.

 

Shouldn't we be mentoring our new people by telling them the truth and leading them in a good direction for success? Or should we let them learn the hard way, kill a bunch of animals, and eventually give up the hobby.

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I agree and I try to guide newbies with suggestions and every time some newbie show up at my place there is always the list of 'the good and the bad".

I'm just telling that, from my past experience, post it on a forum, especially our forum, is not a good idea and the thread 99% of the times turns to another direction and ends up not being as useful and informative as it was supposed to be.

It is not about what is right to say or not, but about how and when. You guys can just look back and check out all the thread like this and see how they escalated and ended up being a non-nense amount of words.

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I feel these threads are pointless flaming if both sides cant be heard and shouldnt be allowed even if names are not given you know they are and your messing with someone's living this just dosnt seem right to me and sad that folks here are ok with it.

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I can certainly see both sides of the coin here, each have valid points. I think there should be a feed back form, rather than opening a thread. Create a template the customer can fill in either positive or negative, short and sweet, with about 500 characters to explain, maybe some places to rate certain aspects on a 1-10 scale. Store also has X amount of characters to respond. End of story, everyone can see, but only the two related parties can respond. Thus, it eliminates the drama, word of mouth is still able to work, and each party can contribute their point of view on the experience.

 

Thoughts?

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