Bounty Maine Coons Cattery Suzanne Bouchard Unscrupolous Business Practices Curie North Carolina
I recently went on-line to find a Maine Coon kitten for a new pet. I found an available female kitten on line at Bounty Maine Coons. I wrote about the availability of a female kitten showing as "available" on the web page. I was informed that the kitten was still available. I said I was interested in putting a deposit down. The breeder informed me that as soon as she had the deposit that she would schedule a spay appointment and let me know when that was. The breeder also sent me a contract to review. There is no mention of deposit forfeiture criteria in any of our correspondence nor is it stated anywhere in the contract. On July 17, 2015 I sent $400 for deposit. The status of the kitten was not changed on the web page from available to reserved nor did I receive any notification that her spay appointment had been made. After thoroughly reading the contract (which was never signed) and not hearing anything from the breeder, my instincts told me not to purchase this kitten from this breeder. On the morning of 22 July, 2015, I inquired whether the spay appointment had ever been made and I was immediatley told it was for the following day (I don't believe it was ever made). When I found that the breeder had not followed through, I told her that we had changed our mind, we found her cost extremely high and her contract extremely restrictive (to the point of ridiculous). I was immediatley told my deposit was non-refundable. The breeder did not incur any costs on my behalf, did not remove the kitten from availability of sale, did not state anywhere in writing that the deposit was non-refundable, did not follow up with the spay appointment as promised in writing yet wants to keep my deposit. I want to warn others of this unscrupolous behavior.
Cathy K
Alexandria, VA
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Breeder
CURRIE,North Carolina,
USA
Not exactly accurate...
#2REBUTTAL Individual responds
Tue, August 30, 2016
There is full disclosure of the non-refundable nature of the security deposit on the website, on the same page where the kittens for sale are listed.
The client was sent a copy of the sales agreement prior to her having secured the kitten for herself with a deposit, and she had no complaints about it at the time she sent the deposit.
When she wrote to cancel the sale, she said the reason was that "I have found several options here in Virginia that are much less costly." This is a quote from her email. She made no mention of the restrictive nature of the sales agreement, which are standard restrictions for any responsible breeder (cat may not be de-clawed, or de-vocalized, or allowed to run free outside, etc.)
I explained to her that the security deposit was an exchange of consideration, a legally binding agreement that I would not sell the cat to anyone else in exchange for the deposit. There was no signing of a sales contract because the sale had not yet been completed. The agreement to sell the kitten to her was validated by her having sent in the deposit to secure the kitten for herself.