I know I'm new here, and I may be biased, but my wife has worked for Petco for over 6 years. While she and I both will admit that buying from a reputable breeder is your best bet, Petco does try and give the animals what they need. Every Petco region has a specialized vet for reptiles. They do sometimes hire a dumb employee, but they are trained to know the information about the animals they carry, just sometimes the employee isn't enept enough to soak in that information. They do suffer from high prices, so I'm kind of baffled why you would go to Petco for fake plants where there is a much more abundant selection at most all hobby/art/craft stores as well as Wal-Mart.

Anyway, I unfortunately have experienced the same thing, at my wifes Petco. It was a Dumpy frog though. I walked up to the associate and asked him when they would get more in since they were out. He said "but we're not out" to which I replied, "but the hides are upside down and no water is in the cage." He opened the cage and we found one hiding in the corner. I did not even see it at first when looking in the enclosure. He appologised for the misshap and "re-opened" the enclosure.

Also, if you didn't know, most Petco's allow you to bring in your unwanted LARGE snakes in on weekends for adoption. It's an un-advertised thing, but the two Petco's in my area both do it. They had just recently stopped allowing people to bring in snakes over 6' to be dropped off for adoption. This is kind of their solution to that so people won't take them to the pound.