We contacted Mathew Miller of Parrotlet Birds on March 18th requesting a blue female parrotlet. We had a pleasant, in-depth conversation and were told we could place a deposit for $25 that would be non-refundable after 48 hours, and that that very evening he would post photos of all of his available blue parrotlets, as well as advertising a 50% off discount to our airport should anyone local want to order to save us some money. In fact, those changes to the website were not done for five days. However, we decided we would stick with the initial bird we chose and go forward with the transaction.
We were told the bird would be shipped on April 12th and given flight details. My children went to sleep ecstatic to pick up our new little pet the next afternoon. Three hours before the scheduled arrival I received an email that the bird was packaged and taken to the airport but was not shipped because he arrived late to the airport. I had to pick my children up from school and give them this news. But I was assured the bird would be on the same flight 2 days later. Oh, and by the way, he had lost my credit card information and could I pay via paypal? This I now know is was a protection strategy for the seller because paypal will not issue a refund on a live animal. So, we paid via paypal and the flight was rescheduled for April 14th.
April 14th I went to the airport, two children in tow, and was told by the cargo office that the ticket had been purchased, but Mr. Miller didn't show up to the airport. I got no explanation, and had never received a call or email, nor could I get a call through to the owner. I went home with two crying children, and eventually got a vague email saying "Long story short, I had stuff stolen from me and ppl are not trustworth when I leaving my personal belongs and property with them" and shipping was rescheduled and confirmed for April 16th.
This third time the bird arrived successfully, though missing the accompanying health and care info. it should have had. It also had no water source nor water-containing fruit though it had been in transit for at least twelve hours. It had a few seeds scattered on the bottom, but no millet which he later told me was key in de-stressing a bird and he should have included some. In less than 24hrs. the bird died.
I contacted Mr. Miller and did a thorough exam of the bird with him on the phone, to which he concluded the cause of death was stress due to the multiple shipping attempts and his failure to include vital care info. He profusely apologized, claimed fault, and promised to send another bird because of his guarantee at no cost the next day. It was my daughter's birthday and I let him know of the extreme upset and he promised he would get right on it and send a new bird asap. He let me know he did not have a blue bird available, but would be most confident if we would accept a white which was older and seemingly more adaptable at no additional charge.
We took a few hours to discuss and contacted him the next day to say yes we would like the white bird because it was older and we wanted to be certain we had the healthiest bird to prevent the same outcome. This day Mr. Miller completely changed his story and told me I would owe $142 for shipping and a difference in price due to bird color although the day previous he promised the substitution at no cost. He also said he would not guarantee it's health although his website guarantees the health of each parrotlet for 10 days. Interestingly, his health guarantee and customer service guarantee pages have since been removed from his website, although he does still claim their health for 10-days. We were uncomfortable with the fact that he was no longer guaranteeing the bird and wanted another $90 in shipping, so we asked for a refund.
It has now been 8 weeks, and we are yet to get a refund. We believe we are entitled to the cost of the bird plus shipping ($226) because it was the terrible shipping (the bird was packaged for transport and handled three separate times and was not provided millet nor a water source) that lead to it's death. We would never have paid for what was done to that animal. However, we have told Mr. Miller we would settle for a refund minus the shipping and that we wished it to be issued immediately. He has since gotten very hostile, telling us we could try paypal but would get refused and we'd be getting nowhere. We have issued both paypal claims and a claim with the Better Business Bureau and he has refused to respond to either.
I would urge others considering ordering through www.parrotletbirds.com to reconsider. Although he has a beautiful website, seems very knowledgeable and was pleasant through out initial dealings, our experience was a disaster. The customer service has been beyond awful, and the shipping was done so poorly it resulted in the death of the bird. And 8 weeks later we are still here waiting for the refund that was promised and has never been issued. read more
