Fish Gallery

Reviews 3

SY

Sy Salerian

The most important thing to keep in mind about The Fish Gallery is that the Retail store and the Services side are two different business entities that seldomly correspond. The actual layout of The Fish Gallery (TFG) store is quite impressive and worth a visit. Honestly, thats the best part, which in my opinion gets a solid A. To be crystal: its the architect who designed the store layout that receives the "A", no one else. Regrettably, however, a great design layout to any store does not an "A" make. The customer service you encounter in TFGs retail is OK at best. Frankly, some of the sales people are not really responsive and come with a noticeable attitude (over the phone and in person), which is not entirely surprising given the sad fact that TFG management clearly seems to endorse the antiquated practice of indentured servitude towards its own staff. In sum, this is where the good news ends. Be aware that once you purchase your aquarium tank, fish and supplies from TFG, you are then transferred unwittingly to the service side of the business forever. To clarify, the retail staff itself is emphatically forthcoming in discriminating between the retail portion of the business and the services side. Retail take no accountability for the assistance TFG service technicians provide. Essentially, services at TFG are treated by the retail staff as separate businesses for all intensive purposes, period. Relying on TFG services for routine maintenance is unwise to say the least. Unfortunately, my experience was so horribly frustrating that I decided to move onto another service provider in Houston who does excellent service work (Aquarium Innovations if youre interested). Regardless, theres many more solid aquarium service companies in Houston to choose from who are plenty eager to provide these type of routine fish tank maintenance services with a greater degree of professionalism. Snapshot of issues with TFG services: 1. Unresponsive customer service: when attempting to make appointments or set-up routine cleaning schedules I would receive no or delayed responses from customer service. 2. An "Excuse dependent" management style. TFG always gave me a list of reasons why they could not deliver on their promises. 3. Missed appointments and no-shows. 4. Poor aquarium maintenance--"pump-and-dump" aquarium cleaning practices. Very rushed and unthorough, sloppy work. It was immediately evident that TFG service people were on the clock and were in a rush to move onto their next job. 5. After one cleaning, 2 of my fish went missing. Convoluted and half-baked explanations were all I was offered as explanations after almost a month of inquiries on my part. No corrective action was taking by any of the TFG staff, top-to-bottom. The across the board solution is not terribly difficult: Crucially, regular and high quality training in the fundamental tenants of customer service are needed desperately for the TFG management team on down.

MA

Mark Myers

I have trouble understanding the 1-star reviews here, esp. the one that called the store "dirty" and "ghetto". Price and staff helpfulness are debatable, but there is no way in hell you can call this store ghetto or dirty. As fish stores go, this one is top 10% in terms of aesthetics of the facilities. Another review tried to claim the fish are all diseased and in terrible shape. I consider that claim to be slanderous, akin to falsely claiming a restaurant has rats just to run it down, and I will be flagging it for that reason. In my 30 years in the fishkeeping hobby, I have patronized scores of fish stores, and found that Fish Gallerys livestock is one of the better ones in terms of reliability of fish health. About price. Yes, for your average common community aquarium fish, Fish Gallerys prices may seem expensive compared to the same fish at Petsmart or Petco. I have found, though, that Fish Gallerys fish come from better stock and are more attractive, hardier, and healthier than Petsmart, etc, which is why they are going to be more expensive. But Fish Gallery specializes in rare, hard to find specimens for the serious hobbyist, fish you often cant find anywhere else. Even when you can find the same species at another specialty store, usually Fish Gallerys price is competitive, if not outright cheaper. Their prices are certainly lower than Aquarium World, which is their main competition for a high end fish store. Furthermore, last Fall I was looking for Monodactylus argenteus for a brackish setup. It can be a little hard to find, I found it at about 4 shops in the Southwest Houston area, Fish Gallery, City Pets, a little hole in the wall way down on Fondren, and another little hole in the wall on Bellaire in Chinatown. Fish Gallerys price was the lowest of the four. As for staff helpfulness - I have never had a problem finding someone to help me. I dont think I have ever been in there browsing and NOT had someone ask if they could help me with anything. I usually say I am still looking and they go back to their tank maintenance or whatever, and when Ive found what I want and approach them, they are always happy to stop what they are doing and get the fish I want. Sometimes they wont know all the information on a particular new fish I have questions about, but expecting them to have encyclopedic knowledge in a store that is always bringing in new species that even I, in my 30 years of fishkeeping, have never heard of, its an unrealistic expectation

JA

Jason Scott

Im a first time buyer with Fish Gallery on Fountain View. The store is nice and there are alot of fish to choose from whether you are looking for Freshwater Fish or Saltwater Fish. But Im questioning the quality of their fish. I went in looking to stock a 37 gallon freshwater tank and Shawn was very helpful and provided me with information and helped me select a very colorful tank. The reason I choose to shop at Fish Gallery is mainly because Fish Gallery is a true fish store, and I thought it would not be like the others and have a much healthier and better selection of fish. I wanted to be sure my tank was ready to stock, so I took a sample of my water in and had it tested before buying. This was suggested by the employee when I called the store, since I informed them I had just recently done a complete water change. Shawn checked the water sample I brought in and gave me the thumbs up my tank was good to stock up. That day I ended up spending $79.80 for (7) African Chiclids. I thought this was a little expensive, especially when I purchased (11)from Petsmart for around $50.00 and had them over a year with little to NO problems. I purchased the fish and got them home in my aquarium and had them for 3 days and lost 2 of them. I called the store and asked them some questions and explained to them what I encountered and was told to bring in a water sample. I did and again all test were good. I replaced the two fish spending close to another $40.00 including an additional fish purchase a Jewel Chiclid that cost me $14.00 alone, I woke up today, again 2 days after purchasing and getting them home and the two fish that I just bought were dead. Fish Gallery doesnt have a gaurentee on thier livestock but for the prices that people pay to them and keep them in business it would be nice to have a gaurentee and not just be flushing money down the toilet. Im not so sure Im going to continue to do business with Fish Gallery unless they can implement a gaurentee to their valued customers to make things right within a reasonable time.

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