I recently had a nightmarish episode after adding a dozen Serpae tetras to my tank. Despite taking care to obtain expert stocking advice here on the forums, they ended up being an absolute terror in my tank and several of my Cories ended up with torn fins.
Read about it here: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/characins/considering-shoal-peaceful-tetras-110486/
So on day 4, I decided that I had no alternative but to rehome them. Of course, since the purchase was so recent, the first place I called was the LFS where I made the purchase. The answer I got was "Serpae tetras are not aggressive. We keep them with Cories all the time without problems." Oh is that so. How interesting.
"We do not accept returns because the fish can be carrying diseases now and we can't take that risk."
If I had been prepared for this answer, I would have responded with something to the extent of "well, what do you do with your wholesale purchases? Those are surely highly stressed fish that can very often be ill. You surely have quarantine tanks for them, don't you?", but I was too stressed to really come up with that at the time.
I can understand on the other hand that people may abuse return policies for frivolous reasons, like "the wife didn't like its colour, it didn't match the curtains" or something to that extent. How can a fish store adequately determine whether a return is justified or not? In my case however, I think I made it clear that I had done my research, did everything I could to try to make it work, and I was out of options.
I think it's not hard to determine if the problems are due to errors made by the aquarist through just asking a few questions. If it's a case where a fish is dying, or is dead, the customer might be asked to present a water sample to prove that the tank conditions were sound, and that the shop may have sold a sick fish. Without a return policy of sorts, how can the customer be protected against evil LFS practices like knowingly selling sick fish?
This is turning into a rant of sorts, but I can basically understand both sides of the argument. In my case, I found that another LFS was willing to buy the fish off of me at about 60% of his retail price, so thankfully that sorted out the stocking problem in my tank. What if I wasn't so lucky though? I might still be posting classified ads right now in the hopes that somebody will take the fish off of me.
Read about it here: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/characins/considering-shoal-peaceful-tetras-110486/
So on day 4, I decided that I had no alternative but to rehome them. Of course, since the purchase was so recent, the first place I called was the LFS where I made the purchase. The answer I got was "Serpae tetras are not aggressive. We keep them with Cories all the time without problems." Oh is that so. How interesting.
"We do not accept returns because the fish can be carrying diseases now and we can't take that risk."
If I had been prepared for this answer, I would have responded with something to the extent of "well, what do you do with your wholesale purchases? Those are surely highly stressed fish that can very often be ill. You surely have quarantine tanks for them, don't you?", but I was too stressed to really come up with that at the time.
I can understand on the other hand that people may abuse return policies for frivolous reasons, like "the wife didn't like its colour, it didn't match the curtains" or something to that extent. How can a fish store adequately determine whether a return is justified or not? In my case however, I think I made it clear that I had done my research, did everything I could to try to make it work, and I was out of options.
I think it's not hard to determine if the problems are due to errors made by the aquarist through just asking a few questions. If it's a case where a fish is dying, or is dead, the customer might be asked to present a water sample to prove that the tank conditions were sound, and that the shop may have sold a sick fish. Without a return policy of sorts, how can the customer be protected against evil LFS practices like knowingly selling sick fish?
This is turning into a rant of sorts, but I can basically understand both sides of the argument. In my case, I found that another LFS was willing to buy the fish off of me at about 60% of his retail price, so thankfully that sorted out the stocking problem in my tank. What if I wasn't so lucky though? I might still be posting classified ads right now in the hopes that somebody will take the fish off of me.