Pet Zone

The business has responded The paperwork was put in three attached files

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# ***, and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:
Principle, integrity and accountability! That simple and this business has failed multiple timesThe health of the dog is vital and in this case was very misleading and still lacks details for our Vets to assess why the reasons why this animal was put through these surgeries
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above
***

At this time, I have been contacted directly by Pet Zone regarding complaint ID ***, however my complaint has NOT been
resolved because: The ownership is unethical and has zero integrityI will be pursuing a ban of their USDA license and operation and those steps are supported by Veterinarians
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above
Sincerely,
***

The business has responded.  The paperwork was put in three attached files.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

 
 The vet costs will far exceed the purchase price of the puppy!!! Our vet says it can take months for his Pneumonia to clear because puppies have very weak immune systems. This dog would have likely died in that store especially when it received a clean bill of health and no one had a clue as to how sick he was, not even the store's vet! I am asking for partial reimbursement of the purchase of the dog. 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The business has responded.  They submitted the contract and health records as requested.
If you would like to keep on pursing your case, please submit a vet bill or any other documentation stating any problems with the puppy,

We offered this customer the 3 options provided by the New York State Puppy Lemon Law:First, we offered the customer to return the puppy and receive a full refund.Second, we offered the customer to return the puppy and to chose another dog of her choosing equal to or less than the...

purchase price of the puppy she originally purchased.Third, the customer had the option to keep the puppy and receive reimbursement for veterinarian expenses up to the purchase price of the puppy as listed in her warranty. This customer did not want to return their puppy which is perfectly fine, therefore we will honor our warranty and reimburse this customer up to the purchase price of the puppy in veterinarian expenses as our warranty list.

Review: On 8/**/15, I purchased a Beabull puppy who had received a clean bill of health from the Store's Veterinarian. 2 days later I rushed the puppy to the Animal Hospital as it was in distress. He could not breathe and was hacking non-stop. Upon examination, it was determined that the puppy had a [redacted] and [redacted]. Upon speaking with the manager she was rude and unsympathetic stating " The dog was fine when it was here. He must've got sick under your care." My other pets are now infected with [redacted] (something the puppy was cleared of) and my vet bills will be ongoing because of the nebulizer treatments he needs in addition to the antibiotics and [redacted] solution.Desired Settlement: I would like a partial refund for the purchase price of the dog. It is terribly unfair to pay so much money for a puppy that was clearly ill and advertised as completely healthy. At the end of the finance terms, I would have paid $3359.21 for a very sick puppy, and that does not include the future vet bills I will incur.

Business

Response:

We offered this customer the 3 options provided by the New York State Puppy Lemon Law:First, we offered the customer to return the puppy and receive a full refund.Second, we offered the customer to return the puppy and to chose another dog of her choosing equal to or less than the purchase price of the puppy she originally purchased.Third, the customer had the option to keep the puppy and receive reimbursement for veterinarian expenses up to the purchase price of the puppy as listed in her warranty. This customer did not want to return their puppy which is perfectly fine, therefore we will honor our warranty and reimburse this customer up to the purchase price of the puppy in veterinarian expenses as our warranty list.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

The vet costs will far exceed the purchase price of the puppy!!! Our vet says it can take months for his Pneumonia to clear because puppies have very weak immune systems. This dog would have likely died in that store especially when it received a clean bill of health and no one had a clue as to how sick he was, not even the store's vet! I am asking for partial reimbursement of the purchase of the dog.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

The puppy would not have "died" in the store because we have trained staff and certified licensed veterinarians to monitor the puppy. The customer was offered the 3 options provided by the New York State Puppy Lemon Law and choose to keep the puppy and receive reimbursement from our warranty to help with veterinarian expenses. We highly recommended that the puppy simply be returned for a full refund to avoid unnecessary expenses and so that our highly trained staff and veterinarian can properly care for the puppy with around the clock care. The customer refused to return the puppy so therefore our warranty will be helping with expenses as listed in our written warranty.

Review: Purchased a Puppy from the PetZone on 01/[redacted]/2014. Breed - Cockalier -[redacted], In the review process upon purchased, there was no review that th epuppy had multiple surgeries at 6 weeks of age. A umbilical Surgery and Inguinal Hernia Repair. The paperwork states you have three days to take to a VET to determine if puppy is "fit for sale", upon 2 separate Vets expertise that we hired, both deemed the Inguinal Hernia to not be a accepted practice for a puppy of this age and listed it as a major Health concern and that they would not have authorized this puppy for sale.Desired Settlement: We have asked The Pet Zone and specifically TIm , to provide the details of why this Inguinal Surgery was necessary and too fully disclose the medical records of the original Vet who performed this operation, so our Vets could collaborate with him to determine the facts. We also expect a refund of $700 dollar to be applied immediately for misleading information and lack of disclosure, we spent out of pocket $ to get two separate Vets opinion and both drew the same conclusion. We will consider this matter resolved when both are complete, we will be pursuing the removal of their Business License and we are in contact with the ICA and AKC regarding this matter. I have requested this information several times and continue to be told to supply my VET, which is not relevant. We will take this matter to every state and local govt office where they operate their stores until they are held accountable and other future consumers not exposed to misleading and misguided transactions.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have been contacted directly by Pet Zone regarding complaint ID [redacted], however my complaint has NOT been resolved because: The ownership is unethical and has zero integrity. I will be pursuing a ban of their USDA license and operation and those steps are supported by 6 Veterinarians.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

The business has responded. They submitted the contract and health records as requested.

If you would like to keep on pursing your case, please submit a vet bill or any other documentation stating any problems with the puppy,

Business

Response:

The business has responded. The paperwork was put in three attached files.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

Principle, integrity and accountability! That simple and this business has failed multiple times. The health of the dog is vital and in this case was very misleading and still lacks details for our Vets to assess why the reasons why this animal was put through these surgeries

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Review: I recently purchased a victorian bulldog on 6/**/13. On 6/**/13 I had to rush the bulldog to the emergency Vet Clinic, due to him not being able to breathe. I am currently at day 2 of oxygen therapy,IV antibiotics,nebulizer treatments,and compressions. With this being said, the 3 vets that are treating him have all came to the same diagnoses. this particular diagnosis would occur under the pet stores care.With that said this pet store was negligent,by selling an unhealthy puppy. Aswell I was informed that to start preparing for his death. This has all occurred within a week of buying him!Desired Settlement: I would like ALL expenses paid for,the refund of my $2400.00,and a monetary settlement for my young childrens emotional pain and suffering, as well as MY BULLDOG'S PAIN AND SUFFERING!!!!!

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by Pet Zone regarding complaint ID [redacted].

Sincerely,

Review: http://www.petzonesd.com sold me a fish, then packaged it poorly for shipment, fish arrived barely alive and died within days.

There were several fish in the order, the smaller fish are doing fine, this arapiama was in a bag that was too small to accomodate shipping and fish had clearly been banged around when it arrived. He acted funny for a couple days then died. I emailed the company and was given a completely impossible cause of death. I personally tested my water and all other fish are flourishing. Also this dish breathed air directly so oxygen level issues are impossible. They also informed me at this point that they do not do anything after 24hrs. This rediculously short time is abnormal in this industry and it was not stated during the sales process. To further the insult, the customer reviews on their sight need to be approved before they are posted, which is a misrepresentation of their products and allows me no recourse in this matter to warn others. Their info from their site is Address: Pet Zone, [redacted]Desired Settlement: I would be more than happy to have my fish replaced and packaged properly. I spent almost 300 $ on fish and shipping. If it weren't for the arapiama I would not have ordered any fish from this company at all. And I would like thier site to post actual reviews. It is misleading to post only good ones.

Business

Response:

Dear Mrs. [redacted] and whom it may concern at the Revdex.com,

My name is [redacted], and I would like to thank the Revdex.com for what you do for our community and communities around the nation, as well as to all readers for taking the time for this lengthy letter. We have received a complaint to the Revdex.com and are writing this letter in response to allegations of cherry picking and filtering our reviews, as well as improperly bagging and shipping fish. I have attached the original invoice as well as the messages following the unfortunate loss of the arapaima.

We are a small family run and operated pet store that has been open since the early 1980s, and acquired by our family in 2007. Our mission is to provide aquarium enthusiasts, such as ourselves, with fish that they otherwise would not be able to acquire, at low costs without a loss of quality. We personally select every order we bring in, making sure they come from reputable breeders, or are caught legally from the wild. We strive to maintain our quality of water as well as monitor all our fish for diseases and treat those with our many hospital tanks. For all fish that we bring in, we quarantine them for 2 weeks minimum to be sure they are healthy and disease free before selling to the public. This being our first Revdex.com complaint, I am sincerely sorry for such a lengthy response, but as a mom and pop shop, we take these accusations to heart as we love and adore all our pets and treat them with care out of the love of this hobby.

For the issue pertaining to us filtering reviews, we contacted the customer about the issue, as we were confused about what review websites we had that we needed to screen reviews. In this call it was discovered that our store website (petzonesd.com) requires us to screen our reviews. Unfortunately, we have not accepted any reviews since July of 2013, as my brother, the one previously in charge of the online aspect of our store, is abroad for school. After contacting him, it was discovered that the screening of reviews had been turned on due to spam reviews from companies marketing their products. Out of 200 reviews in 2013, over 120 are spam reviews, as seen in the image attached, and no legitimate review before so was denied due to being negative. In a time of history where knowledge is so openly available, we do not condone the hiding of evidence, or purposefully misleading customers. Although we do have our petzonesd.com store, our main source of online business comes from Ebay.com (PetZoneTropicalFish), http://www.ebay.com/usr/petzonetropicalfish, where we have a 98.6% positive feedback, where only one negative review was from a loss of fish and the buyer not reading our e-mail to him, and the rest from miscommunication from either us as the seller, or from the buyer.

Another aspect of the complaint is Mrs. [redacted] claims that we had improperly bagged the arapaima, stating the bag was too small. The size of the bag is minimized for large fish, such as the arapaima, as it acts as a restraint for the fish to protect it from potentially harming itself from jumping and hitting the sides at high velocities, as well as to protect it from possibly being thrown around. A simple Google search for “shipping large fish” or “how to ship large fish” will bring you to a forum named MonsterFishKeeper, the top forum and social network for large fish enthusiasts around the world. A quote from one of the big names in expensive (fish easily over $3,000) and exotic shipping, states: “When choosing a size of bag for a particular application we like to use a simple rule of thumb. We choose a bag that will allow a fish to be covered with water while allowing us to keep a ratio of 1/3 water to 2/3 gas in the bag. We don't pick a bag that will give the critter the ability to "swim" in the water, but rather sit in the water. One would not choose a car for the ability to exercise in the vehicle...it's(its) purpose is to get you from one place to another. We sort of look at the bag in the same way. We like to use a bag that will get the critter to the destination but not allow the animal to thrash around (which would also create more waste).”(http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?252621-ho...⇄ We ship several hundred fish a year, and without statistics to back it up, I would say we have a failure rate of less than 2%. The biggest source of fish arriving dead of arrival is from UPS delays such as with Storm Hercules recently, or from mishandling from our local UPS store (which has been fixed).

As for the quality of our packaging, the complaint states “(Pet Zone) sold me a fish, then packaged it poorly for shipment.” Our method of shipping fish is arguably the most costly and time consuming for us, the seller, and we do not charge a handling fee for it. Our method includes bagging the fish as stated above as close to 4pm as possible to minimize the amount of time in bags for the fish. These fish are then either triple or quadruple bagged to protect from punctures and as insulation (same way double paned windows work.) These are then protected by either bubble wrapping, or newspaper for further insulation, as well as supported by 2-3 heat pads ($1-3 each depending on size), which are individually wrapped to avoid overheating and damaging the fish. This entire package is then inserted into specially ordered Styrofoam boxes that have strong seals to avoid heat loss and taped up to further ensure this. These are then placed into thick cardboard boxes, and if needed, surrounded by another later of newspaper or bubble wrapping.

In the message sent to us from the buyer, the buyer states that the fish arrived damaged and was not swimming the first few days, but was eating. The troubling issue is that the buyer mentioned that the arapaima continually “yawned” which is a sign of under-oxidized water, which the buyer correctly stated that arapaima are air breathers, the buyer did not acclimate the fish correctly (shock,) the water conditions are inappropriate for the arapaima, or the fish is being overfed. Unlike humans and other mammals, which can survive in most conditions, fish require certain parameters for their water quality to survive, these being, pH levels, Ammonia and Ammonium levels, Nitrite and Nitrate levels, water temperature, Chlorine levels, salinity, and water hardness. In our almost 7 years of owning this store, we have only had 2 situations in which a fish we shipped arrived alive, and died after more than 24-48 hours. In both of these situations, the issue was found in the water quality or temperature being wrong for the fish. In the buyer’s case, and 6 days since it had been in the buyers care.

The complaint also states that our 24 hour policy is “rediculously(ridiculously) short time is abnormal in this industry and it was not stated during the sales process.” Unfortunately, 24 hours is the standard and the companies with extremely long guarantee times (14 days) are only the largest companies. This can be confirmed with a quick Google search for companies that ship live fish, on Ebay, as well as on Aquabid, which is the EBay for live fish. In theory, our policy covers 24 hours, but in practice, we understand that some fish are not compatible with certain tanks, and take returns or exchanges after 3 days if we believe the water quality or damage from other fish is not the cause. We had not heard from the buyer for 6 days. Also, our policy is very

I hope by now I have proven to you that we do not take shipping live fish lightly and take every precaution to send healthy fish properly to our customers. We upload multiple instagram videos of the exact batch of arapaima the buyer ordered from, the most recent of which is found here: http://instagram.com/p/g6PjH4ABH_/. In the video you can see that the fish are all very healthy, they show correct coloration (no fish too dark or too light, which are signs of stress and water quality,) no broken or torn fins, no drooping fins, eyes, etc, no sunken stomache, and no broken scales. There are higher quality pictures found on the exact ad the buyer had purchased from (http://www.petzonesd.com/arapaima-gigas-sold-out/)

The buyer stated that “It(Arapaima) had been hanging out at the surface like a log for a few days and doing a weird strech(stretch) thing with its mouth. I didn't know if It was normal behavior or not, he was still eating.” The fact that the arapaima was eating means that we did a good job in packaging the fish and minimizing the damage and stress of shipping. Almost all arowana and arapaima will not eat for at least 10 days and in some cases a whole month after being shipped due to the stress from temperature loss, bumpy mode of transportation, or shock from new water. The fact that it did eat is a sign that it was indeed healthy when it was shipped and when it arrived, and that the fault should fall on the buyer. The buyer does state that the water quality was “perfect,” but as stated earlier, perfect for one fish is not perfect for another. A small change of 6.5 pH to 7.5 pH could be lethal to certain fish, or temperature differences, such as the popular koi fish can survive freezing temperatures to blistering hot temperatures, while a temperature drop of 15 degrees is enough to be lethal to fish like arowana, arapaima, discus, angel fish, etc. As seen in the messages between us and the buyer, you can see that we mentioned these things to the buyer, but they only mentioned the lack of air in their complaint, which is the point that matters the least.

Thank you again for taking your time in reading this, and I hope we have proven ourselves to be honest and diligent in our goal of providing high quality fish to enthusiasts around the nation, at low costs. It is very unfortunate that such an amazing and rare fish has been lost and our condolences go out to you Mrs. [redacted] for losing such an amazing fish that you had wanted for so long. But it seems that more research has to be done on your part to keep this fish to avoid another situation like this, and we wish you luck in future purchases. We have shipped thousands of fish with positive reviews, and are always saddened when something goes wrong and a life is lost in the process.

I have attached several images to this e-mail, the original invoice for 271.88 for 1 arapaima, 1 silver arowana, 1 clown knife fish, and 1 red tail catfish. The other images are our message logs, and example of our spam reviews.

With Sincere Condolences,

2013, University of California, Berkeley

B.S. Neurobiology, Molecular & Cell Biology | College of Letters and Sciences

B.A. Sociology | College of Letters and Sciences