It is a dead fish, it’s gone to meet it’s maker.

Dear Petshop Owner,

I’d like to paint you a picture if I may, not literally of course as I don’t want to spend more time on this complaint than is absolutely necessary, but I would like you to get a feel for the emotional devestation my experience with your merchandise has caused.

I have two small children, a son, Thomas (5) and a daughter Freya (3), both of whom worked very hard recently at being good for a week, going to bed without moaning, and eating all their vegetables, in order to gain stars on a star chart which on completion would mean they were able to get a pet each as a treat.

Imagine my children’s excitement when Saturday morning came and they put the last two stars on that meant they were soon going to be the proud owners of brand new goldfish. Luckily I had researched on the internet and realised you had to have the tanks set up for a week before hand to aclimatise so we had done just that seven days previous. The tanks I hasten to add were purchased from your pet shop along with the pumps, filters, tank furniture,food, water testing kits and various liquids that needed to be added to the water to make it habitable. Whatever happened to just putting a fish in a bowl of tap water like we used to in the old days? This little lot cost me the best part of a hundred pounds.

I had tested the water and all the colours of the little dipstick were within the safe range of the chart so we all trotted down to your shop to choose the fish, well the kids practically bounced there.

Once inside we have to admit you had a very wide range of fish, all of varying colours, but of course since we had a non-heated tank we could only choose from two of them. Once the kids got over the disappointment of not being able to have fish that glowed in the dark they each chose their fish which were then scooped up from the tanks and popped in a plastc bag each. All well and good so far.

Once home we followed the instructions on the bags to the letter, leaving them in the bag in the tank to acliamtise, then releasing them slowly. The kids then spent a good hour watching their fishes swimming around their new homes. They then proceeded to draw pictures of the fish, name them (Thomas called his Cool Dude and Freya called hers Fish), and generally go on about how much they loved them. Thomas even read his one a bedtime story that night (the fish tanks were in the kids rooms.)

When we woke up the next day, the first thing Thomas did was run over to the fish tank to see Cool Dude. He was looking at the tank for a few minutes when he suddenyl asked me why Cool Dude was not waking up. I looked over at the tank and to my surprise saw a very much dead fish lying belly up at the top of the tank. I then had to break the devastating news to my son that his fish had gone to meet the great white in the sky and comfort him while I flushed the deceased down the toilet. The only thing that consoled him was the promise that I would get him another one that day.

A thought then hit me and I rushed into Freya’s room and, you guessed, it, in her tank too was another…dead…fish. Luckily Freya was still asleep so I managed to dispose of Fish before she saw it. When she awoke I told her that her fish had had to go back to the shop as it missed it’s Mum and that we were going to go get another one.

I put it down to bad luck and we went back to your shop to get two more fish, and went through the same process as the previous day. This time however, Thomas’ fish didn’t even make it to bedtime. Freya’s lasted a little longer but expired sometime during the night. Puzzled I tested the water again, and again it all seemed fine. However, with both fish now floating somewhere in the sewer system I decided enough was enough and talked the kids into getting guinea pigs, much to my wife’s disgust.

Now that you know what devestation and emotional scarring was incurred as a result of the fish you provided, I think you’ll agree you cannot put a price on what it would take to compensate us. However I will accept a full refund for all the goods I purchased along with two bags of guinea pig food.

Yours faithfully

J Coley