I would like to report my experience with Sharon Gray at PuppyPawPrint Shih tzu. I did not know this person before, but she was having difficulties with a breeder I had trouble with previously, so I wrote to tell her. She told me that this breeder, Heidi, had taken advantage of her also. She asked me to put my experience with Heidi on her complaint about her, to back her up, and since no one else was helping her. I decided I would repeat my experience to warn others. I felt I should since that is what complaint was designed to do, not because I knew Sharon before then. I wanted to support a fellow small breeder and report a bad business experience.
Since then, I have regretted contacting Sharon at all. The more I got to know her, the more I realised that she is not someone I would want to deal with.
It began with her telling me that Heidi and her friends were "out to trick her" and were trying to buy a puppy of hers. She was worried "bad breeders" would get it. I tried to be sympathetic to her, and wrote her with encouragement. Finally, I offered to just buy the puppy myself if the price was fair to make sure that it went to a good home. (She gave me a good price, but told me to tell people that she sold it to me for more).
She insisted on a deposit, so I sent $100 out to her since I was supposed to be having the puppy picked up in person when another woman picked up her own puppy. It only made sense to pay for the puppy when it was physically delivered. But then during the next two weeks after I sent the deposit, Sharon kept asking for - no demanding - that I send more money. The plans for picking up my puppy changed, and I was informed that she wanted the money and new travel arrangements right away. She also started making demands for the other woman to get her dog right away as well.
Since it had only been a couple of weeks since I'd offered to take the puppy, I was confused at her urgency. I really didn't need the puppy, I was just trying to help her out and now she was acting like she needed money, when it was supposed to be about helping the dog.
Sharon then wrote and said she could relist the puppy if I wanted and she didn't mind. Since I was having my doubts about her at that point and hesitated to send even more money, I agreed. Then she wrote and said she already had a new owner for the puppy, so I asked that when the puppy resold to have my $100 returned... Sharon stopped writing to me. I wrote and asked for the money to be returned, and she said that she was keeping it. I never signed anything to this effect nor did I ever agree to a non-refundable deposit for a puppy that I'd only considered for about two weeks. There was no legally binding agreement for her to justify keeping my money, and no ethical one since she resold the puppy right away and was not inconvienced. Not once was I ever told the deposit was non-refunable, not until the puppy was sold and I asked for my money.
The other woman who was going to buy a puppy had doubts about Sharon too, and she decided against her puppy. Sharon also relisted it and resold it. Then she became abusive... She said we had done her wrong and she had held the puppies from 1 week old, that is not true at all. I did not even know Sharon when that puppy was 1 week old. She said this other person and I were "in this together". She ranted that she had been tricked and lied to. She also threatened to "warn" people about me because I did not buy her puppy. That is when I became angry because I orginally had decided that if she needed to acquire my money through fraud, then she needed it more than me. But now she is slandering me as well.
Her newest defense to keeping my money is that "everybody does it". And that it is on her website somewhere, but I did not contact Sharon through her website, I contacted her in response to an ad in PuppyFind, and through emails. Not once was a contract brought up. I also never, at any time, agreed to a non-refunable deposit for a puppy that she resold to someone else.
As for "everybody does it", I have to point out to her that Heidi returned the deposit for the puppy that I had issues with her about. As a matter of fact, I have never had anyone keep a deposit for something I did not recieve until Sharon. She keeps calling Heidi unethical, and I certainly am not a friend of Heidi's, but at least Heidi didn't take my money and keep it.
I just want to warn anyone buying dogs - from Sharon or anyone else - to be sure to find out in advance what hidden rules a breeder might have to use as a way to keep money.insist on a signed contract stating all rules, so that everyone is in agreement, even before you recieve a puppy. I can only imagine what might have happened if I had recieved the puppy and not been happy with it. Or if I'd sent more money when she demanded it.
I am still waiting for Sharon to return the money she recieved from me for a puppy that I did not get and was resold to someone else right away. She is very deceptive in not telling me up front that if I sent any money and wasn't satisfied, that she would keep it.
I definitely want to retract any support or recommendation people feel I may have given Sharon by defending her in her argument with Heidi. I now realise after dealing with her, that Sharon is agrumentative with everyone who does not want one of her puppies. And she certainly has proven that she isn't very honest by keeping my money through some "loop hole" she created.
And looking at the nature of her responses in the past, she is more concerned with fighting than good business practices. I am certain that I will recieve a similar unarticulate response to my own complaint. But I simply want to state my case and will not resort to fighting. If my money is returned, I will then add that to the report.
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