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WARNING: Internet Puppy Scamming
When 85% of the nations populace is located only 1 –2
hours from an ocean and close to 85% of the purebred dogs are raised in the four
Midwest states ( KS, OK, AR, MO) the puppy buyer has an avenue/means of broadening their choices and selection. If
puppy buyers on the east and west coast were limited to only what was available
from their local hobby breeder or newspaper, many of you would not even get a
puppy, let alone the quality that your looking for, unless they decided to buy
from a local pet store, which is not always a good idea. Purchasing your future puppy
through the means of the Internet could lead to you finding that perfect puppy
match which would otherwise be impossible through any other venue.
Common sense, little bit of patience and developing a trust relationship with the
breeder/seller will go a long way toward helping you find your perfect puppy match. Good Luck !!!
The other day I received a phone call from our
local chapter of the Better Business Bureau. They asked permission to use some
of the information offered on this site to use in an interview with a local
chapter of an animal rescue. The interview was about the increase in puppy
scammers that are rising up on the web. This phone call alerted us to the
importance of posting
this information. I hope that you will carefully read ALL of it and then use wisdom and your inner
voice to give you guidance to your Internet puppy purchase. The information provide in this article combines common sense
principles with
information derived from my own knowledge after talking with so many people that
have been scammed.
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Don't
get suckered into low cost/cheap puppy prices. When you see a price of $400
- $600 US dollars for a AKC registered teacup yorkie female -- and sometimes
price includes shipping -- you'd better run! Ladies, I hate to
admit it, but we are often the
"world's worst" for a bargain. Well, "blue light specials" simply do not exist with Yorkies, and it
is usually our emotions that get the best of us. The price of
a yorkie puppy can vary depending on size, quality, sex, where you live or
from where you are buying your puppy. If we take the East and West coast prices and average
them with the mid-west prices, the cost of a yorkie puppy
would generally range from $1,250 - $2,500. (Prices in national pet stores you
would likely
add $500 to $1,000 US).
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Don’t adopt the next member of your family from a breeder/seller that
does not have a website. Now I know a few will disagree, but many more will
agree: How many of you, when you go to purchase from the web a product or
item such as tools, clothing, etc. would buy from a company or person that does not have
a website? A website should
give a potential puppy buyer important information about the seller/breeder.
This should be a way by which all puppy
buyers to get to know the folks from whom they are buying their puppy.
At the very least, the site should have
an e-mail address, a home phone (not just a cell number) and a physical address.
A reputable breeder website should not only have info about what puppies
they have for sale but good educational information, information that will
help you, as puppy parents, in the adoption process and for the care of
your new puppy.
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Don’t allow the breeder/seller use e-mail alone as the
only form of communication. I speak
with each and every puppy parent that is in the final steps of making a
decision. I ask several important questions of them and they are free
to ask questions of me. Through
this means, we both are able to discern if the particular puppy that they
are interested in is the perfect puppy match for them, and they in turn can
get a better sense of whether they want to adopt one of our puppies.
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Don’t
buy from any foreign country such as Nigeria, Africa and Germany. I have
personally seen the hard evidence of puppy scamming. Many Internet puppy classified ads such as
www.puppyfind.com will warn you about sending money to these places.
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Beware
of buying your puppy from a individual,
puppy placement service or puppy clearing house that does not have the puppy
on their property and in
the seller's personal care. As you surf the web you will see what I
call “ puppy clearing house” sites. These sites have all the "bells and
whistles" like that of a commercial business which appeal to the
emotions of the consumer. They have a very skilled sales personnel
ready to “close the deal” for each puppy sale. They offer multiple breeds for sale and creative financing to pay for
your puppy. These people/services that run these sites generally do not have
any physical contact with either the breeder or the puppy offered on the
site. They solicit breeders all throughout the US to place pictures
on their site. They will charge a fee/commission to breeder when/if the
puppy sells. Breeder, (generally in a different state) will ship said puppy
and the seller has never physically seen or handled the puppy or personally
knew the environment in which this puppy was raised. If you decide to buy
from one of these sites, at least make sure that they are members of their local
Better Business Bureau (BBB). This gives you a means of seeing what type of customer satisfaction
record they may have.
The puppies you
will find on our site at 8 – 10 weeks of age are in our personal and daily
care. The puppies offered on this site are very well socialized in a family
environment with 9 children for playmates along with other pets for additional
socialization. You can personally see how your puppy is housed and raised. We are
then able to place a puppy profile and
"aptitude
test ".
We see these puppies in several different environments and watch how each react
to the kids, other pets, travel etc. Then we take this information and create a
puppy profile. This profile is used to match the puppy parents to their perfect
puppy match. I am a true believer that “ not all puppies are created equal”
We are members of the BBB to give our
puppy parents peace of mind and a safe place to adopt their puppies. No puppy
scammer could be a member of the BBB: members must be in business for more than one
year, have several positive references from satisfied buyers, a physical address/location
and a clean business track record. To put it plainly, members of the BBB are held
accountable to the public/buyers for every business transaction. IF the breeder
is a member you will see a logo of the BBB. But make sure that there is a link
to that business’s BBB account and not just a icon that was taken from another
site!
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You
may also obtain personal support by telephone,
Toll-Free
at
1-888-925-6624;
and/or
by e-mail to Carrie:
yourpuppymatch@yahoo.com
FAX
1-918-386-2933
Puppy
Matchmaker Services
P.O.
Box 576 Chouteau, Oklahoma, 74337 (918) 386-2654
E-Mail :
yourpuppymatch@yahoo.com
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