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Pet Paradise Complaint - Pet Paradise - Should be put out of Business - Pet Store
Pet Store - Complaint
ENGLISHTOWN, NEW JERSEY -- After reading many of the online reviews on the consumer complaint web sites I feel that I am just repeating the same story with different names. However maybe my letter will put in motion what should have been done years ago with Pet Paradise. They should be SHUT DOWN! I will preface this story with I knew before I went into this store that I should not purchase from a Pet Store. The puppies come from puppy mills. The "papers" they provide are fraudulent and ridiculous. But my emotions got the better of me and my family purchased an 8 week old Chihuahua from Pet Paradise in Englishtown, NJ on September 1, 2006. After deciding to buy the puppy who we named "Gracie", we were baraged with the paperwork contracts to sign. Our salesperson, **name removed**, was explicit in explaining how incredible Pet Paradise's health guarantee is and supplied us with a copy of the New Jersey state law regarding the sale of puppies. We were told how important it is to get our puppy checked by a veterinarian and if the puppy was sick with kennel cough (she explained it was very common in puppies) then we needed to get her on a "very strong" antibiotic at once. Do not let the veterinarian give us an antibiotic like "Clavamox" because it just like giving the puppy water! I laughed so hard inside at this absurd comment. I asked her at that time if she was a veterinarian which she replied she was not but she knows how the veterinarians practice...they just want you to have multiple office visits so that they can make money on their patients! Sounds like thats what they do by getting their puppies from puppy mills and then charging obscene prices for them! Should have been a red flag right there for me but once again my emotions got hold and my daughter was already attached. Thats the heart of their business. They play on these poor dogs and cats cuteness. They know we cant resist. We were told that we had to buy a bag of puppy food from their store because its sooo important to keep them on the same food. Puppy food for the dog lovers soul (or something like that) I cant remember because they dont sell it anywhere else that I am aware of. Not the major chains anyway. Why would you put a puppy just weaned from its mother on a food that isnt sold at Pet Smart or Petco? Why? They must be making money on that deal. We also had to buy a crate from them as well and were told we had to crate train the dog. HaHa. I dont crate train but I bought the crate anyway. They didnt have one to fit a one lb. chihuahua but we still had to buy one that was too large. Still making money! I couldnt get out of there fast enough. We were told to force feed the dog if she wasnt eating. Anything the dog would eat. That is ridiculous. She even gave me a few jars of Gerber Banana Baby food! Do dogs eat fruit? Why were these people allowed to open up a pet store. They are obviously completely uneducated on animal care. Well, long story short...Gracie was checked the next day by our veterinarian. She appeared to be fine..but were told she could still be in the incubation phase. Watch her carefullly. Two days later back at the vet with horrible coughing. Xrays were taken, she had pneumonia. My vet felt since she was so small and young that she should be taken care of by a critical care veterinarian. Off to Red Bank Vet. She was very ill and needed 3 days in the hospital, oxygen, iv antibiotics (hope thats strong enough for Pet Paradise ) At this point there was nothing I wouldnt do to save Gracie and I certainly would never bring her back to Pet Paradise. Our bill was $1800. and the worry immeasurable. After three weeks of intensive caring for our new puppy with multiple medications and repeated visits to the veterinary hospital she is doing much better. During this time we documented EVERYTHING and sent all bills and certificate of unfitness to Pet Paradise. They assured us they would take care of it, we had to make sure that we submitted our bills to the pet warranty company which they work with for issues such as ours. We sent them all receipts certified mail. How surprised were we when we received the return receipt signed by a **name removed**, could this be the same **name removed** that works in the Pet Paradise Store? When I asked them about this they acted dumb and had no idea what they were talking about. They own the pet warranty company. Talk about deceptive business practices! It has been over thirty days since the papers were submitted and still no check. They have used every stalling tactic known to man. Not only are they not paying us which is required by NJ State Law..(within 10 days) they are being deceitful. They have hung up on me and my husband on two different occasions. When threatened with a complaint with the Div. of Consumers Affairs they welcomed us to do so. I have never dealt with such unscrupulous people in my life. It is a shame that they are in the animal business and that the animals are the ones ultimately suffering in this situation. I am so embarassed that I bought an animal from these degenerates. I knew better and I did it anyway. Hopefully my story will help in the elimination of "puppy mill pet stores" because that is EXACTLY what Pet Paradise is. I hope that the state of New Jersey does the right thing and thourougly investigates these people.
Comments:
Posted by Nohandle on 2006-10-17:
I would never criticize anyone who bought a pet from a pet store and later came back to inform others not to do the same. Thank you for sharing that.
Posted by SherryH on 2006-10-18:
Bless you for taking a little one into your home. Just think, if everyone adopted from shelters instead of these places, then the "mills" would go out of business and the shelters wouldn't be over flowing with the unwanted pets. Your story is unfortunate...and way too common. Where is the legislation???
Posted by Anonymous on 2006-10-18:
I hate to point this out: They won't SHUT DOWN, because OF people like you. You should have went with your first instinct, and not purchased from them (all this, I realize, you now know). That is exactly the kind of behaviour that keeps stores like this in business. I actually appreciate your letter, because, maybe at least it will make some others think twice, and, not have to go through the nightmare you did.
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