Can Pets at Home refuse me back my hamster?

kindofagilr

Ive never had any bother with P@H, I hope your hamster is ok!!!

Some of us dont have a pet shop anywhere near where we live.

~Chameleon~

The animals sold in P@H are bred on large farms akin to puppy farms, several animals to a cage, and are severely inbred and in poor health. I wouldn't advise anyone buy an animal from there!

They are supposed to be health checked at point of delivery but staff are inexperienced and don't really know what to look for. Any that are rejected are sent back to the farms and dispatched. Staff are also discouraged from getting any sick animals treated by the vet in order to keep costs down.

Amethyst_ice

Hia guys, i wish id never posted this now!!!

I am all against chain stores and livestock however i have already registered with the RSPCA as an animal fosterer and in my area there are no small mammals needing homes atm. I cannot afford a large pet such as a dog (my one at home was from a local rescue shelter and my nans dog we saved him from a caravan site also). These chain stores are the only place i can get livestock..we visited the only 2 local hamster breeders we knew and afterwards reported them to the RSPCA..so just because they are local and small does not mean they are better.

I understand that some abuse does go on inside these chain stores but i have met staff who are knowlegdeable and do seem to care about the welfare. I am applying to work in a similar store so i can feel i am helping towards the quality of the animals life inside these places.

While i understand the supply and demand element there will always be people who will buy from these places and i would rather home an animal myself and know it will be cared for than go to someone random.

I plan to ring P@H tomorrow to see how the lil guy is getting on, hopefully he will be home with us soon

Thanks for the chicken advice, i had heard of it for preggers hammies

xXx

Amethyst_ice

samboette wrote: »

Sorry yeah I meant discount not refund

Yeah I can post pics of Gingey, will do that in the morning as they are on our other laptop!! Might post some of the others too................we have 8 of them!

I just joined hamster central so i will check your lil guys out there lol 8!!!

amy104

When I was unfortunate and got a poorly bun from [EMAIL="p@h"]p@h[/EMAIL] they paid for all the vet care. They didn't have to refund me to treat him.

Proc

I love the irony of the situation;

OP purchases a product. Product is faulty, so they return it to the store. OP then moans how [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] refer to the animals as "it" and treat them like items.

If you were that concerned, you would have taken the hamster to a local vet. It's surely fairly obvious that taking an animal to a retailer who are interested in profits are going to do the bare minimum to "fix" your hamster. I wouldn't be surpised if that one ends up in a bin, and they fob you off with a new one - even going so far as telling you it's the same one.

shegirl

Proc wrote: »

I love the irony of the situation;

OP purchases a product. Product is faulty, so they return it to the store. OP then moans how P@H refer to the animals as "it" and treat them like items.

If you were that concerned, you would have taken the hamster to a local vet. It's surely fairly obvious that taking an animal to a retailer who are interested in profits are going to do the bare minimum to "fix" your hamster. I wouldn't be surpised if that one ends up in a bin, and they fob you off with a new one - even going so far as telling you it's the same one.

Hate to say it but I agree with you.I would never take a pet back to the petshop for them to get it 'treated' as it is just treating the animal like a defective product that you aren't satisfied with.It will likely be exchanged (refund on it to buy it again later I find odd myself) and they just see the animals as profit.

One of my geckos was bought from a pet shop.Within the allowed time to take it back or get them to treat it she became noticably ill from sand impaction due to her time in the pet shop (takes time to build up).I did phone the pet shop to tell them BUT I took her to a vet myself and am glad I did as she was treated properly and not treated like something with a manufacturing fault.The vet also decided not to charge me for her treatment because of the fact that I had only bought her a few days before her appointment.If I had of been charged I would have asked the petshop to assist with that rather than have them take her and do it.Due to the nice vet though the only phonecall the pet shop got from me after was one having a go at them for their standards of care!

ps taking it back is like treating the hamster as an 'it' anyway,so you can't complain about the shop who sell them for profit calling it an it!

Amethyst_ice

I have never said how pets at home have called the hamster an 'it'.

I have always been concerned with his welfare so don't accuse me of treating him like an item! I am not one of those pet buyers who gets them impulsivly, we had a cage set up ready and went with the intention to get him. We rang up to ask for advice and becuase it is company policy to treat the animal for you we did that. they have a registered vet in branch.

We rang up this morning and he has has a course of antibiotics, a small scab left where his injury was and i am going to collect him later.

If you go to a private vet you have to have it cleared with the store first before they consider paying costs. Where they have a vet available they offer a free service first.

Surely if P@H didn't have qualified vets they would be subject to trading standards and animal welfare councils.

If we do find he has any more problems we will take him to another vet but it seems fair to let the store try right a wrong first.

The man on the phone called him a 'little guy' the whole time and seemed generally concerned about his welfare. The antibiotics he has been on is what any other vet would have put him on too. x

kindofagilr

I am so pleased he is ok and you are going to pick him up

What kind of hamster is he?

We got a chinese dwarf hamster from there and he is lovely! so lovelable and cute and playful

Amethyst_ice

I tried to post a pic but dunno how.

Hes a syrian black bear.

Im quite ill today but i want him back soon. gonna put him on some probiotic...then leave him to settle ..all this stress wont be doing him well but they are toughies. Then we can start getting him used to us, from the one night we had him he seems very friendly and willing to approach us x

we want some dwarf hammies but the spare cage we have is wide barred