Getting Ripped off by Breeder

[PARADISECHINS]

Ok taking suggestions on how to deal with a breeder.

This person took a payment from me in July/August of $260 for a black velvet v/c female she showed me pictures of. (Deposit plus shipping) I also had the Ryersons make her up a two hole crate and send it to her that was fully paid for at around $30 with shipping. That was my deposit. Then she talked me into a "panda" mosaic male she called it promising to be top show quality. I asked for pictures and she said she would get them to me. Two months later I am asking about the chins and still no pictures, just an IM conversation finally three months later saying they made a mistake and the female bv I originally wanted was not a female, but a male. I told her the only reason I bought it was because it was a female and told her I didn't want a male and still needed to see pictures of the mosaic, that I didn't know if I wanted him because the whole reason I went ahead was so that I wasn't shipping just one chin. So she sends pictures and the chin is aweful and very poor fur quality. Then she sends me all this other stuff trying to get me to buy it in place of the bv female so she doesn't have to give me my money back. I repeatedly told her no and that I would be nice though and give her a month or so to sell the male mosaic and the bv and then pay me back through paypal once she sold them because I was sure she had already spent my money. It is now Feb and she still refuses to send me my money and is now trying to say that it is not refundable because it was a deposit and I AM THE ONE WHO BACKED OUT OF THE SALE, that she still had not sold them. I tried to report her to paypal but they are not helping because of the time frame since the transaction occured. Any ideas? I have sent her a bill through paypal for $290 for the crate and the deposit I already gave her and she is ignoring them, pretty much saying tuff @#%*. This person totally ripped me off. I hate dishonest people and it seems like me being so honest and trusting is always the one getting the bad end. All conversations were via IM as well so I have no emails to prove what this person said or sent me for pictures. I have been more then patient with this person and given them every opportunity. I have continually asked for it to be re-posted with the other items for sale and it is never done. You can's sell it if you are not advertising it.

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Horseygirl]

Depending on which IM client you are using there are automatic logs of all conversations. Sometimes they are hard to find and I am not sure how well the would stand up as evidence, but it might be a start. Sorry to hear that you got ripped off, wish I could help. There seem to be a number of shady characters selling chins lately.

[beckie467]

This is one of the reasons you should always look into the breeder and see what other people have to say about them. I HATE that you have gotten ripped off like this. I have AOL AIM and it does log my conversations on my hardrive for a certain amount of time. So you may want to play around with your computer and see if your computer saves them too. Keep bugging the breeder, I mean it was NOT your fault that they tell you it's a girl and SELL you a GIRL and then after you send the payment and a carrier for it to be shipped in the chin magically grows and extra body part and turns into a boy. DON'T THINK SO!! I can't even believe people are so shady. Good luck getting your money back keep us posted!

[miss_lissa_2002]

Wow that is aweful. Why can't people just act right? Horseygirl is right though, msn messenger automatically logs all messages and i know yahoo does if archive is enabled. I'm not sure about any other ones. Try to do what you can about it but I'm not sure if alot is possible since it's been so long. Obviously you don't live close to this person but maybe if you can gather some of the IMs and the paypal statement maybe you could try getting ahold of authorities in her area. Also since this happened over the internet you can file a report with the internet fraud thing http://www.ifccfbi.gov. Try all that and I hope everything works out for you.

[PARADISECHINS]

Thank you lissa I will try that link. Unfotunately my computer crashed in November so I wouldn't have any way of getting those logs... that is a good idea though. I have aol so I will have to look into that since everyone uses that so much now. I am learning to print the conversations now though before closing just in case.

[Nel]

Is there no one you can report her to locally? I would think that this would be considered Fraud wouldn’t it? She sold you a item she doesn’t even have!. She says you have to take this other “similar item” and won’t return your money. It’s not your fault she told you it was a female. I would be SO fuming mad! The deposit you made was for a female not a male. It might as well be two basically different chins!

You are lucky she didnt try to pull the wool over your eyes and send you some other chin saying it was the one you paid for!

[jencortinas]

I have a lady that ripped me off $100. I just took her to the Illinois State General Attorney and they are trying to mediate it. I have contacted her several times without response. I even have an email stating that she would send me back my $. That was in September!!! If nothing else, consult an attorney or try to sue in small claims. Unfortunately there are jerks out there. What this breeder did was wrong!!!! And one bad apple ruins it for the rest of honest people. Keep pushing and good luck to you!!!Is there no one you can report her to locally? I would think that this would be considered Fraud wouldn’t it? She sold you a item she doesn’t even have!. She says you have to take this other “similar item” and won’t return your money. It’s not your fault she told you it was a female. I would be SO fuming mad! The deposit you made was for a female not a male. It might as well be two basically different chins!

You are lucky she didnt try to pull the wool over your eyes and send you some other chin saying it was the one you paid for!

[Tjschin]

That is awful, unfortunately that happens so much. I had a person write me a $100 check on a closed account. Needless to say I never saw that money. I had dealt with her before so taking a check was no biggie. Sometimes people start out honest then turn. It's very sad...

Too bad a list can't be posted with dishonest breeders or buyers!!!!

[chinchilla_boy]

I think its a good idea for any business owner to be a member of the Better Business Bureau, especially when doing internet sales. It adds credibility to the owner since they are putting their reputation at risk by having the BBB document any negative complaints. If biz owners got nothing to hide, then why not register? Its sad that these sort of things happen all the time now due to e-commerce. I'm sorry for your predicament and am not sure how far you are willing to go for justice. A court should be able to subpeona the records of the IM's you had with this person from the IM service you deal with. :|

[PARADISECHINS]

Well now I am getting a threatening email about the whole thing and now supposedly I have been working with a man this whole time and not once have I ever even talked, emailed or chatted by IM with any man. Now I am being threatened that this has gone to his attorney and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent... especially if thier name comes up on this forum. Amazing.... they do something wrong and think they can go after the other person for it. I am so tired of people's childish games and I certainly don't have time for it. Amazing how they thing they are going to run a business this way. Oh and in the email it was said that they have numerous accounts with pet stores and will not have their name involved in this and harm their business. Amazing, I was told these were top show quality animals and now I find out after the fact that they are pet store quality instead. They are also saying that all their rules are on their website about refunds, yet there was no website when I was dealing with them, and everything was through the forum