From Japan
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November 21, 2003
I began looking for 2 English Bulldog puppies in August. I was going to surprise my husband with them when he came back from his TDY. I sent a message to an add I found on terrificpets.com. On the 18 Aug, Lisa emailed me a picture of a beautiful female puppy. Right away I wanted her and told her so with so much excitement. This is the first puppy she offered me. I told her I wanted an all white female and a fawn/white male. She wrote me back telling me all the things that could go wrong with all white English bulldogs, i.e. over half are born deaf, they have tons of health problems, skin and allergy probs. Your aren't sure until you BAER test them which most breeders won't do. She goes on to tell me that as a breeder your first interest should be to better the breed and preserve the integrity. Breeding something you know is going to h ave amore than 50% chance of having serious genetic defects is not responsible. She said she can ship to Japan with no problem. She said she ships worldwide and has shipped to Korea twice. She told me it would probably take about 2wks to process the paper work from start to finish and she knew the health certificate would have to be USDA stamped to come to Japan. She said the female was sired by a world champion. I wrote her and told her I wanted the female. On the 22 Aug she wrote back and told me that normally she would be $1500 but she was only going to charge me $1250 b/c the shipping is a bit more to Japan. She told me again she was from a World Champion father and a champion mother and she would be ready for shipment next week. I immediately wrote her back and told her I wanted her. She wrote back and said the only way she does international payment is via bank wire transfer. I didn't hear from her for a couple of days so I wrote asking how the puppy was doing and if she found out anything about shipping to Misawa. She wrote on 25 Aug and said she lived near Miami and had every airline at her disposal and couldn't find anything to Misawa but everyone flies to Tokyo. I told her Tokyo is fine, that she was worth it. Tokyo is an 8-10hr drive for me and outrageous toll fees but that was okay with me. I asked her what the pups age would be at time of shipment. She wrote me back on 26 Aug with an attachment of the payment info and told me they had just moved to south Florida a couple of weeks ago from Tennessee and their bank account was still in Tennessee. She said they do allot of international shipping and it was almost impossible from Tennessee. That was on reason she wanted to move close to Miami. She said she and her mother breed together and she is still in Tennessee. Ideally she will be coming to Florida w/in the next couple of months.&n bsp; She told me they were house hunting for them now. She said her husband was in the military for a few years and she hated being away from family. For some reason she told me she hasn't lived with her parents for 19 yrs but she didn't want them far from her. She offered me a male puppy and he would be ready to go too by the time the paper work was completed. I wrote back and told her I couldn't open the payment info. She emailed me back with all the info. Names, address, tel. number, bank name, acct number, routing number and total price. I wrote her back and told her when the transfer would take place and told her I hoped she would go ahead with the paper work and I would email her when the transfer was done. On the 29 Aug she told me she would have an overnight stay in Germany where they would take her and let her spend the night in the vet's office. They will feed her and giver her water and exercise and then she will fly to me. She asked if I got the transfer taken care of yet and that she couldn't do anything until I did that. She said she has done that in the past and been burned so she waits until she has some sort of payment. I emailed a few days later asking if she got my last email about the transfer being done and the status on the puppy and told her I was hoping I didn't fall for a scam. I asked her to please respond and let me know what's going on. I apologized if I was bothering her b/c I was sure she was busy arranging the trip and all. On 1 Sep she replied and said she got my last email and that usually the transfer takes a day or two to post and it was Labor day weekend so the banks were closed on Mon. She said she will start everything next week. I thanked her for writing back. I told her my hopes of her getting her to me by the next weekend because I was off for the weekend of 5,6,&7 but I will work it no matter when she c ould get her to me. I told her my friend was looking for a cavalier king Charles spaniel or a havanese and if she knew of any breeders that would ship to Japan. She wrote back saying she has havanese puppies and if my friend wanted one she could ship the pups together and we could save on the shipping price. I asked her for some recent pics of my little girl. No response to that. The next email I can find is the 7 Sep. She mixed things up and was using old emails from the our first contacts. Anyway on the 7th I emailed her because I hadn't heard from her asked her if I could get recent pic of my baby girl when she gets a chance. I told her I knew the transfer has gone through by now so where do we stand with the paper work. Last time I asked her age she told me 9wks but I wasn't sure if she meant 9wks now or she would be 9wks at shipment. I asked her if she could remind me her age or just give me her birth date. She wrote back and told me she was on the second step. Waiting for the documents to be approved and then mailed back. She said it has taken up to 3wks, it's not something they can do overnight. It is red tape and just another thing to get unnecessary money from people. Then on the 8th I asked her for the birth date and some pics and how was doing and was there any probs with her health. Then on the 13th I wrote stating I was a little concerned. I hated pushing the issue but I would really love to see a pic of my puppy. I asked her would it be the same one I originally agreed to or was I getting a different one. I told her I hoped not just a lot of worries at this point. I told her I know things can't happen over night but it just seemed like once the deal was made communication cut back. I asked her again for the birth date and her number incase I had anymore questions. She wrote back on the 15th and told me she was still waiting on the paperwork and she was hoping it would be in this week. If it does then she would get the flight booked. If it doesn't then we could run into some probs. She wasn't old enough for rabies but she may be by the time the paperwork gets back. She said if she makes it to 12wks that would create new rules and difficulties. Then it seemed she kinda put some blame on me. She she said this was the big reason she wanted to get things started the week before we did. She wanted to allow at least 3wks prior to her becoming 12wks so would be no hang ups. I got sick on 28 Sep and was admitted. I had a friend of mine call the number she gave me to let her know my status and to ask about the puppy. When she did, the husband yelled at her saying it was 11pm there and she said she was sorry and that she was in Japan and was calling about my puppy. He hung up on her. She gave the number to her grandfather because he lives in Florida and he called. When he said he was calling on my behalf they hung up on him. When they tried to call them back there was no answer at that point. Then on 4 Oct she emails me saying she was becoming concerned because I don't seem to want to reply to her emails. (She hadn't sent any) She said certain things have presented problem and she's trying her best to solve them but she needs to hear from me and she hopes all is well and I am okay. She said her only solution is to send me a younger puppy because the age has presented a problem with the quarantine issues. She has a younger one that's not ready yet but looks much like the older pup (the first one I was suppose to get) She said she has started the paperwork so it's ready about the same time she is. She said she was scared of this prob. which she tried to talk to me about. She said she had tried UNSUCCESSFULLY! (can you believe that) to discuss this with me for almost 2 wks so she put it in motion since she didn't know what else to do. The other puppy has to have rabies to get into Japan and that will delay shipment for a month by then she would have to do paperwork all over again since it is only good for 10days after issue. She sent me a pic of the new puppy (second attachment) She's the one on top with the white face. (I wonder if its the one she is advertising of freeads) 7 Oct I responded to that email accepting the new puppy. I apologized for all the miscommunication and told her I was unable to check my email because I was in the hospital. I told her I didn't know what was going on with the email because I had emailed her a couple of times in the past with questions and never got a response. I told her the last email I got from her was that she was waiting on paperwork and to keep my fingers crossed. I asked only one thing from her: if she could just keep me updated w/pics of this new one as she grows and her health and could she tell me where she comes from, her parent's blood line. I told her there shouldn't be any problems now that money issue is taken care of. I was hesitant but I figured she wouldn't agree to a refund so I chose to not go there and just get the puppy and not deal with her again. She didn't respond so I wrote again 10 Oct asking if she got my response to her offer of the new puppy and that the problems we seem to be having with emails I would like for her to respond to mine so I know she's getting them. I emailed again on 12 Oct asking for confirmation that she is getting my emails. no response. Again 16 Oct asking for contact. No response. Again 17 Oct I emailed her asking to respond so I know we are on the same track. She emails me back! She says she was wondering what happened to me and thought maybe I got deployed and couldn't understand why she couldn't get me! She asked "What happened?" She said she is anticipating shipment in about 2wks. She wanted her memory refreshed as to what city she was shipping to for the airline reservation. I wrote back on 19 Oct and told her I would call her. I wanted to talk to her and give her the info that way. I also asked for a pic and thanked her for writing back. I emailed on 20 Oct because I got in touch with her husband. He said it was his birthday yesterday. I told her it sounds like this has been a bad experience for both of us, mainly her because she is doing all the work to get her here. I said I was sorry for any trouble I may have caused in all this and this is why I would like to talk to her. I gave her the info to where to ship the puppy to and my tel. numbers she could reach me at if she needed to. I tried to call back like her husband told me to but I got voice mail so I left a message, same on 22 Oct and left an email, same on 25 Oct and emailed her. I told her I have emailed her 9 times this email being #10 and have called and left messages and gotten no response from her. I told her I purchased another puppy and when it was going to arrive and to see if we could arrange the shipment of this puppy to be the same. I told her if she is having such a hard time with this, then I am okay with a refund. 26 Oct I emailed her with my number and told her since I am having no success contacting her, she can contact me at her convience. 30 Oct I told her again I have been calling for weeks. I need to know the status of my puppy and to let me know if she would be able to get her to me. I am very interested in purchasing one and I need to know if I am getting one from her or if I need to look elsewhere. I tried to call on this day and I got voice mail again. So I emailed her one last chance. I told her I am thinking she disconnected her phone and have blocked my email address or she's just ignoring them. But I paid good money for a beautiful puppy that I was very excited about getting and very serious about. I told her I was going to contact my legal office about getting a refund since she has not kept in touch about sending me the puppy we agreed to. I told her I was really disappointed that she took advantage of my trust that she was honest enough to keep her work about sending a puppy upon payment in full. My last email was 17 Nov. I told her I was disappointed and would like to put this bad experience behind me. I would really appreciate it if we could settle on a refund. I just want my money back. I am not concerned with anything else. Her last email to me was 17 Oct. She didn't respond to any of the other ones after that. I wasn't going to persue prosecution because I am not like that but some reason I went back to terrificpets.com to see if she was still advertising and this is how I found out she is a real life crook. - From Japan - |
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