Complaint Review: House of Burmese Cats

To whom it may concern,

I strong urge anyone considering acquiring a burmese kitten to look elsewhere and not support Marilyn Jean Glover at House of Burmese Cats.  I cannot attest to the quality of her kittens as I never received one, but based on my experience with her as a person I would not be confident to buy a living creature from such an unethical, dishonest, and irresponsible individual.

When I first contacted Marilyn about potentially adopting one of her kittens, she was extremely responsive.  She was available for every phone call, responded to every email within the same day, and constantly bragged how her kittens were puuurrfect. She asked no questions about my background and seemed to care very little about who I was, despite her website claiming they do thorough audits on their clients to ensure the well being of their kittens and to not be offended by any indepth personal questions.  Additional redflags were raised as I started asking her questions on how she cared for the kittens and what they were fed.  Her recommended vitamins and supplements are also nothing more than pure advertisement revenue for herself with a promo reference code when buying them online.

In my excitement and before recognizing all the redflags, I hastily made a deposit to her through paypal.  She specifically told me to use the personal transaction option instead of the business purchase option since they charge a small fee.  DO NOT DO THIS.  Paypal has a special protection for business purchases and you will be happy to have this when dealing with this scam artist.

About a month after I made my deposit, I contacted Marilyn for a refund on my deposit.  I've been in close contact with her throughout this time and know she has had no new litters in the time I made my deposit and this request for a refund. Under her policy page, she states she might keep part of the deposit to cover expenses used to raise your reserved kitten, which I admit is fair.  However in my case, there were no kittens even born yet, and the subsequent litter did not even contain a kitten that I expressed interest in.  Needless to say, I felt entitled to a full refund and requested as such, and Marilyn AGREED to paying me back.  This is where the trouble starts.

She starts by saying while she would like to give me a refund, she had JUST spent all her funds.  I don't understand how an individual can deplete ALL their money like that with no reserve, but I'm not here to judge.  She told me she was expecting more deposits next week and will pay me back asap.  Next week comes by, nothing.

I send her an email politely asking for an update.  No response.  I attempt calling her several times.  No one picks up.  I send another email sternly asking for an immediate response, and surprisingly got one.  However, it was another excuse about how she still doesn't have any funds, how being a breeder is feast or famine nonsense, and had the audacity to try to sell me another kitten that I was not interested in.  I told her no thanks and expressed I simply want a quick refund at this point.

Several weeks roll by and I have still not received a refund of any kind.  Any attempt at calling or emailing her is met with no response.  I eventually decide to call her from a different phone number, and lo and behold she picks up!  Before I can even muster a word, she nervously gives me every excuse in the book on why she has not returned my calls or emails, saying she's been sick, busy, and that her computer gave her virus/spyware warnings on my emails so she was afraid to open them, etc.  I didn't even accuse her of anything, why is she acting so guilty? She also clearly has my phone number remembered.  She proceeds to tell me every sob story about all the disasters that have occurred in her personal life and how she has had to use any available money to remedy them.  Then gives me the same old speech about how she still doesn't have funds but as soon as she gets more deposits in she'll pay me back.

Repeat the above scenario a couple more times.  No refund to be seen, any attempts of contact through email, phone calls, voicemail, etc is met with no response.  And once again, the one time I call from a different phone number, she picks up. Gives me more sob stories about how her house is hit with a tornado and she had to spend money on more personal issues that are irrelevant to me and kittens.  She gives me the usual run around about how I'll get it "next week".  At this point I have lost all patience and demanded a definitive date.  She said "definitely next week".  No, I want a specific date.  So she said to "be safe", let the date be X day.  I confirm with her that by X day, I will guarantee to get my money?  This is where she gets hesitant and starts saying she's not promising anything, and that she "should" or "hopefully" will have my money by then.

I very directly told her that I truly do not believe she has any intention of paying me back, and I am tired of being strung along and if I did not receive the money by next week like she's promising, then I would be forced to start taking legal action. This is when her true colors finally appears. She gets EXTREMELY hostile, starts insulting and cursing me out, and telling me she doesn't care what I think and if I can't accept what she's telling me then too bad, and that I should "do what I need to do", and promptly hangs up on me.

In my final conversation with her, she claims that I should expect a check in the mail next week. Really? How? Never in my entire time dealing with this woman have I given her my address. Her lies are extremely shallow. During this whole ordeal, not once has she tried suggesting maybe paying me back in small amounts little by little, or anything a genuine and honest person trying to pay someone back would do.

It has been roughly 4 months since I sent her a deposit and I still have not received my refund and have had no contacts with her since.