I just found this site and thought I would share my own personal Petland experience.
My brother and I decided that we wanted a Miniature Pinscher. We were both clear-thinking adults and we thought we had asked all the right questions. All of the breeders are quite a ways from us and it was Sunday. We found ourselves at the mall looking in the tiny puppy cages at a min pin. Big mistake.
The store was decorated with "Healthy Guarantee" ads. Basically, anything goes wrong with the puppy and they take care of it. But... No price on the glass. I asked the girl "How much for the Miniature Pinscher?". She ran off, grabbed the puppy (Brutus) and put him down in the "visitation room", which I did not ask her to do. So here's this seemingly helpless little guy, and of course he was adorable. It's a min pin puppy... And the original question was asked again. This time she said $1,400.00. Dear god, I can't afford that. "Oh, well you can pay it in installments." Then I asked all of the appropriate questions. I was assured that Brutus was coming from a reputable breeder and that he did have papers stating this and all other info and it would be mailed to me in a few weeks.
I was then reminded of the "Healthy Guarantee" and told that his sleepy behavior was because he had a little "cold" and the store vet was already taking care of it. So after much deliberation, and a down payment of $500.00, we left the store with Brutus.
We took him to the vet the next day because we were concerned about the sick behavior, diarrhea primarily. He was indeed sick with Giardia (which is also contagious to humans) and the vet had not been treating him for it. Not to mention that the medication was EXTREMELY expensive. I saw the bill and said "Thank God Petland is paying this". At which time the Vet informed me that Petland would not be covering my next visit. "Excuse me?!" I immediately called Petland and was given the extreme run-around when asking to speak to the owner. At this time they also admitted that he did NOT HAVE PAPERS and said "That doesn't matter anyways, he's not going to be a show dog is he? You're not going to love him because he doesn't have papers?". At this point I was furious. Finally the owner called me and agreed to pay the vet bills ONLY for the condition he was being treated for, Giardia. He would not under any circumstances refund any money. We even asked about outright returning the puppy and going to a real breeder as I found that Brutus had come from a Canadian puppy mill with some research after they admitted he did not have papers.
Brutus is now 3 and he's healthy and happy. However, due to his beginnings he is very anxious, fearful and one vet even insisted I put him on relaxers before bringing him in for treatment. We do not want to return our beloved pet, but I STILL feel I am owed a large portion of the money I paid for a dog that I thought was a purebred with papers. I will never visit Petland again and I always tell people to stay away from that store.
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