Petco — Local services in Charleston

We had a terrible experience there recently. We went into Petco for dog cookies and crickets for our small amphibians and reptiles. We have 3 parrots 3 dogs 1cat 1anole 2green tree frogs and multiple fish. My girlfriend and I came across a male Panther Chameleon they had housed with a female at the same age. We were immediately drawn to him and his beautiful colors. We decided right there we were going to give him everything he needs and a better home. After talking with petco management and staff we got the prices lowered to less then half what they were both priced for. Which was very kind of them at Petco. (Honestly though I've always appreciated the high price of hard to own creatures because I feel it deters bad pet owners. In this case, that thought was spot on). That being said, everything seemed okay. We walked out of the store with a male and female Chameleon a habitat and all the necessities to home a chameleon correctly with the vitamins supplements and correct light structure. Well it took us a few hours at home and doing a little online research to find out that every single person we talked to (petcostaff). Couldn't have been farther from being right about what the chameleons would require. From the lighting to the cage to the air to the food and supplements. Literally every piece of advice was terrible. The part that bothered me is that my girlfriend has a really soft heart and the petco lady told her the two chameleons were companions and would be sad to be separated. THE ONLY REASON! I bought them both. Well they flat lied. Actually he'll eventually kill her or stress her out so bad she'll die. They can actually only be housed together up to 5mths old or to breed. Even when they breed the process last less then a day and they are separated again.. Heres the thing I dont blame the staff. Petco doesnt hire people with zoology degrees. We know this. I blame management and corporate on this fully. I own my company I know what it takes to have your employees leave you a better person with a smile on their face. You have employees that have an affinity for pets. You don't culture that intrest? You don't get your employees excited about new inventory by having your employees come in for paid training on your inventory of pets? If I went in to Lowe's to buy a saw and the guy working tools couldn't tell me how to plug it in? I would walk out....

Had the most absurd experience with the girl in the fish department. We were in to get my 4 year old son his first pet- he was with us and we told her he was really excited to bring home his first pet fish. After some discussion with the employee, we landed on getting a small betta fish because it would be the simplest maintenance for a young kid. She started talking us through tanks and substrates and accessories and it just got more and more ridiculous what she was suggesting for one small betta fish for a 4 year old- “minimum 10 gallon tank, natural substrates, etc etc” literally at like $200+ in materials with her suggestions. After all of that, we told her our son was dying to pick out his fish so we need to do that. She goes “oh you won’t be taking a fish home today, your tank needs 3-4 weeks to naturally filter.” I mean clearly this girl doesn’t have kids- our son instantly was in tears. Why on earth put us through 20mins of upselling BS and then tell us we aren’t taking home a fish? She literally told us we would have to buy shrimp instead- like what? We asked for a few minutes alone and ultimately decided to get what we planned to do before coming in: One betta fish, 5 gallon tank with filter/heater, aquarium rocks, and a couple real plants. We collected everything on our own and went to check out. Easily costing $100+ less than what she suggested. She was super rude, staring us down at the check out, clearly upset that we were going against her suggestions and taking home a fish. We drove straight to petsmart on James Island and explained the situation and they laughed and gave us water conditioner and bacteria starter. Water conditioner literally exists to allow “immediate introduction of fish.” We treated our tap water and transferred the fish within a half hour. 5 days in and Mr. Seaweed the betta fish is happy as can be. The whole experience with Petco was genuinely so stupid, I couldn’t believe it. We live a quarter mile from this petco and I doubt I’ll ever be back. Petsmart from here...

My dog was examined and vaccinated at the Petco on Savannah Hwy six months ago and given a prescription for a heart worm and flea med. I got a six month supply. It is time for another six month supply. I haven’t been able to order it through Petco even though they have the prescription on file as they say they can’t reach the vet to confirm the prescription they already have. The vet has since left the practice she was with and I can’t track her down, but still have the prescription so I shouldn’t need to track her down. I could not get any information about the vet or how to find my vet record on line from the location on Savannah. I had to figure it out myself. I’ve made numerous phone calls to the company with nothing resolved. Other vets won’t honor the prescription without examining my dog. So now to get my dogs meds, I will have to get another exam from another vet even though my prescription is good for a 12 month supply and is from a licensed vet I seen through this Petco location and petco has the prescription on file. I went through petco’s vetco because I foolishly thought it would be easy to order meds online or through the store that held the vetco clinic since they would already have the prescription online. Never again will I use a vetco clinic or walk through the doors of a Petco, especially this location who could not provide any information at all about their own vetco clinics or how to contact anyone with petco that could help me with any information including my own pets records. Horrible service, huge waste of time, and they don’t honor the prescriptions they have on file which will cost me a new examination on a healthy dog who was just examined six months ago....