Astounded by Pets at Home.

cornishrobos · 06-01-2009, 05:03 AM

We've got 3 new additions to our hamster family, 3 Syrian boys. 1 is from an independant Pet Shop in my town who in my opinion are brilliant with their animals, we already have a Syrian from them, who is fantastic. The other 2 are from Pets at Home. Yes, I have read some of the horror stories on here and but I can't help thinking that it's not the fault of the hamster to come from where it does and deserves a home just like any other and also because we got our Dwarfies from there and had no problems, so we thought we'd give these 2 little things a chance of having a nice home with us.

We only went into Pets at Home in Plymouth to get a Perfecto Tank for Bailey and ended up coming home with 2 hammies. 1 is a Satin, possibly Cinnamon in Colour and totally gorgeous the other is a long haired, possibly cream but seems more white to me, he's a pretty thing too and we've called him Cloud because he's fluffy like one. Bailey we got 2 weeks ago is banded, possibly honey coloured but will get some pictures on here of them in the hope someone can tell us what colours they are,

We let the boys from P@H settle for a couple of days from their journey homie (Plymouth 1 hour from us) but unfortunately Gingey has developed Wet Tail, we took him to Companion Care within P@H in our town, they are great there and because of the amount of hamsters we have they advised it was best to keep him in, which was fine by us, then we were informed because he was from P@H, they were obliged to py for his treatment, not that it matters to us whether we paid or not, we took them up on their offer.

This is that part that astounded me the most though, the manager from P@H came over and said she had to refund me the money we paid for Gingey because he has to "belong" to P@H for them to pay for the treatment. We said that was fine but then she asked me if we wanted "it"back after the treatment as finished? I got quite angry at this point and told her that of course we want HIM back, and that just because he’s poorly doesn’t mean I want to give him back, I said if this was how it was i’d rather pay for the treatment but she then started stuttering and stammering and said no no we’ll pay. I also told her that “it” is actually a him and he has a name. I don’t think she was very happy with me at that point but I don’t care. I can’t believe they can treat an animal like it’s an object, Gingey a living creature, yes i’d take back a defective radio etc but just because he’s poorly they think it’s acceptable to just swap him over. It makes me so mad!!
Anyway my rant is over, also just phoned Pets at Home for an update on Gingey, apparently he’s active and was having a drink , he’ll be there for 7 days so fingers crossed he’ll be ok. Although the girl that answered the phone kept referring to him as her!!

shazzy · 06-01-2009, 05:21 AM

Good on you for having a go - I hate it when people refer to animals as 'it's' and hate it even more when Pets @ Home expect us to willingly give up our sick animals like objects just because they are poorly (unfortunately though, alot of peopleactually do this it seems)

I hope little Gingey pulls through - sending him my love and positive thoughts!

Toria · 06-01-2009, 06:50 AM

I felt like that when i got my robo's from P@H.
They explained wet tail to me and said that if they did get sick they would give us a new hammy. Me and my partner had a laugh about it at first as it just seemed like they were talking more about an electrical piece of equipment, not a living animal.
But when i actually thought about it i was pretty disgusted. Also the way they spoke about wet tail too, gave me the impression of OH its just something that happens nothing serious.
Although the girl that serves me in there is always very nice.

I hope he gets better soon, keep us posted

Bunsey · 06-01-2009, 10:54 AM

yeah, i've heard about this before. None of the p@H stores near me have a vets attached, but i know that they have to buy them back and then usually, the owner doesn't get them back as they either die or if they don't get better, they won't sell you a sick hamster, so you can't get him back. They just offer another one like you won't care about the hamster as an individual.

They just see the animals as products, like the cages. If one is sick, it's treated as faulty and taken "out the back" for who knows what. When i pointed out a sick hamster, the guy was just annoyed because he was trying to sell a hamster and i put the customers off buying a hamster from the tank.

In reply to your comment about the hamster deserving a home just as any other does - yes, it's not their fault where they come from, but the more hamsters they sell, the more they breed. The more poor hamster mill mothers they will get and the more they will each have to give birth to before they die of exhaustion in their tiny cage where they never see light or pleasure. The only way to stop this is to not buy from shops supplied by mills.

sparklyfluff · 06-01-2009, 01:00 PM

The same happened to us with Custard, when we told them he had wet tail they said we could swap him if we wanted!! I was disgusted but not surprised tbh. I refuse to ever buy another animal from there again. I hope Gingey gets better and you have him home soon.

LittleSnowBear · 06-01-2009, 01:33 PM

both my last two hams have been from PAH, the only thing they mentioned when I bought the last one was asking if I was over 16 (i'm 27) no mention of how to care for them or anything, possibly they knew I was a old hand but surely they should have someone instore (possibly the people that pick them out of the cages) that goes through everthing hammy related (diseases illnesses how to care for them etc). I have to say though that I have been to worst petshops than PAH one in particular had small dogs in tiny cages.

I would love to buy from a profesional breeder or rehome but my local pets rehoming place never has hams and i have searched for breeders but they are always too far away.

**Pompompoms** · 06-01-2009, 04:43 PM

I also was given the option of giving one of my Robo's back as they were fighting and had to be seperated. I replied slightly horrified that I was completely attached to them both, and not only would I never consider returning one, I would also never be able of willing to choose between them!

I will give them credit however for giving me a new Rody cage, sand bath, seesaw log ect all for free in order for me to seperate them both and have them live in an interesting stimulating enviroment at no extra cost to myself.

cornishrobos · 06-02-2009, 04:37 AM

I agree with Bunsey and people including myself should stop buying from them, i'm just a sucker for giving an animal a home. It's a shame nothing can be done about this problem.

Well they are saying Gingey is doing ok, so lets hope that's the truth and we have him home soon.

Also whilst on the phone to P@H, I remembered when we bought him last week, there was a family there with 2 little girls who bought 2 of Gingey's siblings, so i've told them at our store to contact Plymouth and follow the sale up with that family. It's bad enough for us when we lose a pet but for 2 young girls, well they;d be devastated,

Bunsey · 06-02-2009, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pompompoms

I also was given the option of giving one of my Robo's back as they were fighting and had to be seperated. I replied slightly horrified that I was completely attached to them both, and not only would I never consider returning one, I would also never be able of willing to choose between them!

I will give them credit however for giving me a new Rody cage, sand bath, seesaw log ect all for free in order for me to seperate them both and have them live in an interesting stimulating enviroment at no extra cost to myself.

wow, that does surprise me! When i told them they'd sold me a mis-sexed group, all they were interested in was getting the babies off me so they could sell them and make £8 on them after i'd raised them! I think not

Toria · 06-02-2009, 11:27 AM

I went into P@H today. The adoption area doesn't have any locks on the doors. (when i adopted my russian i actually opened the cage and stroked him before i even enquired about him) and the rats water bottle had fallen down so they couldn't drink from it. Also they had a animal inspector in and me and my partner 'over heard' some things he wanted changing about a week ago, and none of them have been change yet