Funniest/Dumbest experiences you've had with sellers

[Moakmeister]

People aaaaalways ask me if we keep every spider in the same “cage.” Like dude what do you think?

 

[ShyDragoness]

whilst doing my last lap of an expo I had someone try to sell me a p.met because it was "so pretty".. I just sort of laughed and said I'm not really ready for that kind of thing before very quickly walking away haha..

 

[Jesse607]

Try being in the pest control industry...sounds similar to the zoo stories...for example, every hive, rash, and acne must be a "spider bite", and FYI the Brown Recluse lives in every state in the USA (It's distribution is quite limited actually) and every spider must be one, if it isn't a black widow! Ohh, and people are willing to dish out hundreds of dollars to get rid of a few springtails in their bathroom! And the customer is always right, not the Board Certified Entomologist...

Back to the real topic...to this day I shake my head at how stupid I was when I got my first tarantulas (about 20 years ago mind you...before Google was big and this forum). The online site, which was a popular one at the time said they could sex the spiders that you buy, any size! So of course I wanted just females. I bought a juvie B. albopilosum and a P. murinus sling, and they told me they were both females. The OBT did turn out female actually, but the juvie B. albopilosum matured male a year later. At the time I thought "experienced" keepers could tell just by looking, as this vendor claimed, but shortly after I learned from an honest keeper, that only sexing molts is an accurate way.

 

[Veitchiiman13]

When I was a kid, I had an mom and pop exotic pet shop not far from my house. I'd go there at least once a week and heard all kinds of dumb/hilarious stuff from the employees about the tarantulas. Of course, being a kid at the time, I bought into a lot of it. Some of the stuff I distinctly remember hearing:

"Tarantulas can easily catch a flying bird"
"Some kinds can jump 3 feet into the air"
"You should spray the tarantula with a spray bottle every few weeks, they get rained on in nature and they could dry out if you don't"
"We had a 16" spider here before"

And my personal favorite:

"You can train them to eat wet cat food"

Of course, most of their spiders were kept in awful conditions as well. Probably a good thing they went out of business several years ago.

 

[SonsofArachne]

This isn't seller thing, but it fits here. Many years ago, when P. imperators were fist becoming common in the hobby, I bought one, along with Emperor scorpion care book the pet store was selling (this was before the internet was a thing). I will never forget the "advice" on molting in that care book. It said that if your scorpion molts it will most likely die, due to fact that they need high humidity to molt and it was difficult to maintain that in captivity. No actual advice how to keep humidity high - nope, your scorp will die.
I was very proud at the time that I managed to get that scorp successfully through a molt. Wish I still had that book to see what other nonsense was written in it.

 

[Godzillaalienfan1979]

I've said this before (IDK, I don't even remember what I had for breakfast), but the store where I bought Dragon had Desert Hairy Scorpions for, like 60$ or something around that figure.

......yeeeeeeaaaaaahhh.....

 

[Vanisher]

Ohhh, i have had my share of dumbness! At the top of my head i remember when i went into a pet store to buy rabbit pellets with my daughtet. In front of me in the line was a 15 years old boy that apperently had ordered in " an adult female Honduran curly hair" The boy said something like, are you sure it is a female? The ckerk said "Well, our spiderexpert says it is a female!" I saw that this was a leggy adult male! I said excuse me! But this is an adult male. She said no, its a female. This was many years sgo, but i had been into the hobby fir around 10 years and i told the female clerk so and explained why i saw it was an adult male, but she still refused to belive me and was quite rude! I saud to the boy, this is a male and i wouldnt buy it if i where you. I have been unto the hobby for 10 years, and if you believe me fine! My daughter said to the boy, dad knows alot about spiders. If i rememner correctly, the clerk had by this moment started to beluve me and appologized to me and the boy and she would talk to the "so called" spider expert! The boy lefte the store i paid gor the rabbit pellets and me and daughter left as well!

 

[MrTwister]

Went to an expo last month and a vendor had an assortment of unmarked T’s in cups on table. Spotted a small sheet of paper with a price list and asked if I could read it. Had maybe a dozen items, did not recognize a single one. These were not even the most used common names like fire knee, or red knee....I think she literally made them all up.

 

[velvetundergrowth]

Pet shop Tarantula Kits:

- Exo-Terra medium tall
- Red heat lamp
- Reptile pellets
- Water pellets
- Fake cactus
- Fiberglass skull
- Miniature "Danger" sign
- "Chile Rose-Haired Tarantula Spider"

 

[Garetyl]

The guy I bought my first tarantula from was... something else. I informed him that the Brachypelma albo I was getting from him was my first and that I'd done research, but wanted to confirm what I'd read about their care.

My research: Deep substrate, water dish, 3x legspan enclosure size, a hide, slightly damp, dubia roaches are illegal here.

His recommend care: Enclosure maybe 1.5x legspan, not even an inch of substrate, no hide, no dish, absolutely bone dry, feed dubias like he does.

He had several adult breeding pairs of many different species (firelegs, GBBs, ECT) in the same bogstandard enclosures. I know I shouldn't have bought from him, but I had Gumdrop in my hands and already paid when he showed me the adults' enclosures.