Might have been scammed? Has anyone heard of them?

[John Popp]

Also...many of us DO NOT allow visitors...we do not want our savannah kittens and/or savannah adult cats exposed to disease. Many breeders do allow you to come and pick up the kitten in person, though.

That was one of my prerequisites in choosing our kitten, I needed to be able to pick the kitten up in person. Part of it was I really needed a quick greeting with the kitten, as the wrapper didn't matter at all just that we wanted an extremely confident and assured kitten. I have plenty of air miles, so the travel was never a worry or cost concern.

Along the way with many emails, there were certainly many breeders that had legitimate health concerns for their cats and kittens, while others just pulled the plug saying it wasn't possible, even taking delivery of a kitten at the airport. Don't know if they were actually scammers, but I've had enough experience with our internet sales to push the buttons that reveal a risk.

Just too easy to be scammed these days while at the same time it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to avoid it.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I have to say… I just had a very frustrating experience with Paul. I too had sensed some dodgy seller behavior that would normally tell me to get out of there, but when I googled him and found this board, my nerves were calmed a bit. I was perhaps overly lenient/ understanding of his dodgy behavior because of his potentiao health problems. In any case, we tried to work through paypal but he kept saying he could not get access or release the funds… So he asked me to send the payment to another paypal account. I naively did, but again, he said Paypal wasn’t letting him release the funds. By this time I felt something weird was up, so I decided to back out of the transaction. Unfortunately, he also said he could not issue refunds for some reason… long story short, I have had to escalate both cases to Paypal claims (which is taking a painfully long time). I know paypal can be a bit tricky, but what is perhaps more frustrating is that during this time of correspondence, he never changed the “Available” status of my kitten, and just yesterday he had actually put up an updated picture and increased the price. So, I can’t tell if the Paypal struggle was real or not on his end, or if he had just changed his mind about selling the kitten to me and wanted me to get out of the deal.

In any case, just a small warning for those who, like me, were iffy about his seller behavior, googled him, and found this board— While I am not really going to say Don’t deal with Paul because obviously he is a known breeder and produces some gorgeous Savannahs, my warning here is to 1) Avoid Paypal when working with him, and 2) Be very firm and ask for a contract of sorts. I realize there were a lot of mistakes made on my end as a naïve and overly eager /trusting buyer, and Paul may not hvae had intentions to have this end result, but I thought I’d just share this experience for others…

Just a warning note, very recently I had an email exchange with someone that thought they were having a scam experience with Paul also. When she sent me the email exchange I noticed that the email address was one letter different from the email address listed on his website. And yes, the paypal address was some other person's name.

So make sure you ARE contacting the right person, check the email you are cooresponding with and if in doubt call the phone number listed on www.savannahcat.com

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

That was one of my prerequisites in choosing our kitten, I needed to be able to pick the kitten up in person. Part of it was I really needed a quick greeting with the kitten, as the wrapper didn't matter at all just that we wanted an extremely confident and assured kitten. I have plenty of air miles, so the travel was never a worry or cost concern.

Along the way with many emails, there were certainly many breeders that had legitimate health concerns for their cats and kittens, while others just pulled the plug saying it wasn't possible, even taking delivery of a kitten at the airport. Don't know if they were actually scammers, but I've had enough experience with our internet sales to push the buttons that reveal a risk.

Just too easy to be scammed these days while at the same time it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to avoid it.

John, you are my preferred kitten customer for that! I love it when someone insists on coming to get their kitten! In fact, I've not shipped one domestically (only one to Germany last year), either people come for a nice trip to San Francisco and take home a kitten souvenir or I fly to where they are...

 

[Mischief]

Do all breeders let you pick up the kitten in person or does it depend on the individual breeder? I do understand not only the health concerns for their cats and kittens but their own safety as well but with income tax time/bonus time rapidly approaching, I am starting to get very serious about my Savannah.

 

[Patty]

I let anyone that wants to, come and pick up their kitten. I prefer this to shipping, but most customers would rather ship.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Do all breeders let you pick up the kitten in person or does it depend on the individual breeder? I do understand not only the health concerns for their cats and kittens but their own safety as well but with income tax time/bonus time rapidly approaching, I am starting to get very serious about my Savannah.

Not all breeders will do that, it will be your choice on whether this is a deal-breaker for you or not. Some breeders live alone and there are safety concerns with having a somewhat-stranger come to their home... for me, I need to schedule any visit with when my husband is home for his satisfaction. I think Patti is a breeder that prefers to take the kitten to the buyer's home because then she gets to check out where her precious baby will live, so that is a good point. Buyers might want to see the breeder's home but the reverse can be true too!

 

[admin]

My kitten buyers pick up their kittens in person...recently one of my kitten buyers came by, since he lived 10 min away and was someone I had extensive convos with...he brought his wife and kids and let me make the decision on Ixas or Tau for his family. I then delivered the kitten to he and his family and was able to see where and how my kitten would live...I really liked doing that and hope to do it more often in the future...

All of my kittens have been sold locally (NJ/NY) with the exception of one who went to live in the Netherlands as a breeder. However, that couple flew here, picked up their kitten and brought him back in cabin...I got to know them while they were here and am so happy my kitten is living with them...

 

[John Popp]

John, you are my preferred kitten customer for that!

Thanks!

I know all too well the things that can happen when a pet is in the pressurized cargo hold and how baggage gets handled or lost. I've been on two flights where the captain has come on the intercom to say they had lost pressure in a cargo hold, i'm sure it's happened more, as it doesn't effect cabin pressure and it doesn't at all alter the flight or altitude. What that spells is not enough air for your pet to breathe and likely a temperature drop far below what a pet can handle.

Then of course there's the baggage handlers who don't view your precious cargo any differently than a box or suitcase. Your pet is likely surrounded by other cargo, in total darkness and gets tossed around like any other cargo. Not at all a fun ride and nothing I would subject my pet to other than as a last alternative.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Agreed. I've looked out the plane window and seen the pet crates brought out and sitting there on the tarmac waiting to be loaded while other planes roar by..they don't get the earplugs the ground staff have, so can only imagine how terrifying to be trapped in a cage with no way to escape. Probably me being overly dramatic, but I am like that with my pets.

In most cases, all is fine when they are shipped. I have had a couple arrived very traumatized, so personally think some kitten personalities do fine with shipping and others should not be. It's like most aspects of breeding, we don't all agree and the important thing is to find the breeder-buyer combination that best fits both sides

 

[LML]

Just a warning note, very recently I had an email exchange with someone that thought they were having a scam experience with Paul also. When she sent me the email exchange I noticed that the email address was one letter different from the email address listed on his website. And yes, the paypal address was some other person's name.

So make sure you ARE contacting the right person, check the email you are cooresponding with and if in doubt call the phone number listed on www.savannahcat.com

Yes, you are right- I didn't notice until now. Wow, well now I feel very dumb for falling for this. I hope paypal will still side with me..
So yes, general warning- either Paul or someone who has access to his email account is replying with a fake email address and trying to pull some sort of scam...