Dottystory
New member
- Sep 17, 2014
- 1
- 0
As a first time parrot owner (who was very gullible) I just wanted to warn others of the dangers out there when buying a parrot - I just wished I had found this forum and got some sensible advice before we had to endure the heartache of these last few weeks. This is Dotty's story.....
On the 24th August we travelled to the isle of Dogs in London to buy an African Grey Parrot (whom we called Dotty). I wanted to buy my husband a parrot as a surprise for he's 30th birthday (my husband has been parrot crazy for the 8 years we have been married, researched endlessly regarding what breed he wanted and even had a cage which has been waiting on our landing for nearly a year) so I called an advert which was placed on Pets4homes in East London. I asked specifically if the parrot was home reared and was it used to being around children. She told me it was home reared and sent me lots of photos of an African Grey in a family home with lots of children holding and playing with the parrot. She told me the parrot was vet checked, female and had a closed ring.
I asked if she could hold the parrot for me as I wanted to buy it for my husbands birthday and she said she could but would need a deposit of £200 payable by bank transfer. I paid the £200 deposit to a bank account.
When we arrived a the location we were taken in to a ground floor council flat which was quite apparent no one lived there as there was no paint on the walls, no furniture etc. (the lady said to excuse the place as they had only moved there that day). She also said she had her vet there to check the parrot before sale.
Once inside it became apparent that she had not bred the parrot and the person pretending to be the 'vet' was actually the owner of the parrot and was there to collect the cash.
I was under complete false pretences when I paid the £200 deposit believing that the parrot was coming from a genuine pet home and that she was the breeder.
We brought our parrot home and it was obvious that she had some breathing issues, we rang the number to the girl who we supposedly bred the parrot and she told us that it was normal for parrots to breathe like that when they were excited - as first time owners we believed her.
After 9 days of owning the parrot she got quieter each day and eventually stopped eating, we took her to our vet were they said she had an avian disease which can also affect humans. This was particularly worrying as my 3 young children had been in very close contact with the parrot.
On the 10th day we got a call from the vet so say the parrot had died.
We rang AJ (or what ever he's real name actually is) and explained what had happened and we asked for a refund. He refused any sort of refund for the parrot and after much wrangling he transferred £120 into our account to pay for the vet bill for the parrots treatment. Which still left us £550 out of pocket which we paid for the parrot.
When we said that if he did not refund our money for the parrot that we would report him, he laughed at us down the phone and told us that many people had tried to report him before and nothing ever becomes of it. At one point he spent a considerable amount of time bragging to my husband about how much money you can make from selling parrots.
He calls he's pet shop a 'sanctuary for birds' and falsely posed as a vet.
The address he gave us was Holland road West Ham.
I have reported this to Newham council who are now investigating 'numerous similar complaints' about this person. I desperately want to warn others about this scam and prevent the heart ache that we have been through just lately of losing our beloved Dotty
On the 24th August we travelled to the isle of Dogs in London to buy an African Grey Parrot (whom we called Dotty). I wanted to buy my husband a parrot as a surprise for he's 30th birthday (my husband has been parrot crazy for the 8 years we have been married, researched endlessly regarding what breed he wanted and even had a cage which has been waiting on our landing for nearly a year) so I called an advert which was placed on Pets4homes in East London. I asked specifically if the parrot was home reared and was it used to being around children. She told me it was home reared and sent me lots of photos of an African Grey in a family home with lots of children holding and playing with the parrot. She told me the parrot was vet checked, female and had a closed ring.
I asked if she could hold the parrot for me as I wanted to buy it for my husbands birthday and she said she could but would need a deposit of £200 payable by bank transfer. I paid the £200 deposit to a bank account.
When we arrived a the location we were taken in to a ground floor council flat which was quite apparent no one lived there as there was no paint on the walls, no furniture etc. (the lady said to excuse the place as they had only moved there that day). She also said she had her vet there to check the parrot before sale.
Once inside it became apparent that she had not bred the parrot and the person pretending to be the 'vet' was actually the owner of the parrot and was there to collect the cash.
I was under complete false pretences when I paid the £200 deposit believing that the parrot was coming from a genuine pet home and that she was the breeder.
We brought our parrot home and it was obvious that she had some breathing issues, we rang the number to the girl who we supposedly bred the parrot and she told us that it was normal for parrots to breathe like that when they were excited - as first time owners we believed her.
After 9 days of owning the parrot she got quieter each day and eventually stopped eating, we took her to our vet were they said she had an avian disease which can also affect humans. This was particularly worrying as my 3 young children had been in very close contact with the parrot.
On the 10th day we got a call from the vet so say the parrot had died.
We rang AJ (or what ever he's real name actually is) and explained what had happened and we asked for a refund. He refused any sort of refund for the parrot and after much wrangling he transferred £120 into our account to pay for the vet bill for the parrots treatment. Which still left us £550 out of pocket which we paid for the parrot.
When we said that if he did not refund our money for the parrot that we would report him, he laughed at us down the phone and told us that many people had tried to report him before and nothing ever becomes of it. At one point he spent a considerable amount of time bragging to my husband about how much money you can make from selling parrots.
He calls he's pet shop a 'sanctuary for birds' and falsely posed as a vet.
The address he gave us was Holland road West Ham.
I have reported this to Newham council who are now investigating 'numerous similar complaints' about this person. I desperately want to warn others about this scam and prevent the heart ache that we have been through just lately of losing our beloved Dotty
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