Complaint Review: Von Eisenhart Rottweilers

I was looking for a female puppy for schutzhund and if titled and sound would breed her one time to my male.  I was new to the sport and purchasing a puppy from a Breeder. I emailed Eisenhart Oct 2010 then spoke on phone about a litter out of Von Eisenharts Miss Ruthie Due in November. The bloodlines were exactly what I was looking for to compliment my male and for working.  I asked about DNA & hip certs on parents. He was very evasive and stated they werent very important. In my exuberance for this particular litter, I moved forward even after the red flags. We agreed on second pick female and a price.

Oct 11, I mailed the filled out puppy contract, all my contact information and $500.00 non-refundable deposit.

Nov 15, not too concerned yet, I touched base to remind him I did not receive a signed contract from him and asked if the puppies had arrived. He emailed me back and stated he lost the contract and the puppies would probably arrive the following week.

Nov 15, I sent another filled out contract the same day. 

Dec 7, still havent heard anything, I emailed him again and stated I still hadnt received the executed contract and asked if the pups had arrived. He responds stating his veternarian, who is also his daughter as disclosed in our only phone conversation, indicated Ruthie had a false pregnancy, and must have absorbed the litter. Of course I had no way of verifying this.  This, he should have contacted me when he found out. Females do not absorb a litter in a week, if she was ready to drop the following week as stated earlier, at this stage, she would have more than likely been showing very pregnant especially to someone who does this for a living.

Well ship, now feel like Im stuck, I have no contract, no puppy, void of any real communication and he has my deposit. I feel cornered and have to settle for another litter or lose it. After much thought, I chose a litter from Top Marks and Sid Abraxus Viousious. She had one very nice offspring which I could findJake vom Gruberhaus, so I was mildly satisfied but still disappointed.

Dec 11, Via email, we agreed to transfer the deposit to the first pick female from this litter due in December and on Dec 11, I mailed him a revised contract. 

Dec 22, still no contract and I emailed another request for a fully executed agreement. His response was I forgot one would be mailed out immediately and apologized.

Jan 9, 2011, I still do not have a fully executed agreement and again no word on this litter that was supposed to be due in December. 

January 9, 2011, extremely frustrated at this point in my attempts to do business, I have lost all faith in his credibility and ability to perform.  After a string of email requests and changing the originally agreed upon litter due to the purported failed pregnancy, and after mailing a revised purchase contract for the first pick female from Abraxus Viousious x Top Marks von Ixoye suppose to be due in Dec 2010, I still had not received timely updates, an executed purchase agreement, nor any clear promise of delivery of his obligations. Due to von Eisenharts non-performance, I withdrew my offer to purchase a puppy and requested a full and immediate return of my $500.00 good faith hold deposit which all considered, should have rightfully been returned. 

Jan 9, His only response was SID HAD 3 FEMALES 12/25......DOUG. Well this was Jan 9, and again, why was I not already notified? In another email sent later the same day, he stated I mailed a contract last week. Thats all he has to say?

January 11, 2012, After 3 mos and rescinding my agreement, a contract was finally received by me.  However, it was the very first original contract I had sent that he stated was lost. It had the original names scratched out and only the call names scratched in. It did not reflect the most recent agreement which was for the first pick female puppy (not second pick as we agreed with the Ruthie litter and still marked on this contract) from the Top Marks von Ixoye x Abraxus Viousious litter, It did not reflect their accurate names nor did it include any parental registration numbers.  As any legal expert would agree, this contract is not valid. Things were crossed out, written on top of and the agreed upon terms were inaccurately filled out. Not to mention the changes written over by the breeder were not initialed by me. .  Geez.Why not sign and send back the third and only valid written agreement which I had mailed back in Dec reflecting the correct litter and information as agreed.

Some days later he offered another quality pup, I declined for reasons states above. If he would have sent my deposit back as I requested, I would have reconsidered as he would have shown some ethics and a little class with an attempt to make things right.

I have all the correspondence to verify my statements and I understand non-refundable and It is acceptable if both parties perform the necessary and common details associated with a contractual agreement as legally expected. I walked away from my deposit because I did not believe I was going to receive the puppy I agreed to purchase and it was too costly to pursue.

In the mean time I had contacted quite a few people who knew, had done or tried to do business with Eisenharts Rottweilers in an attempt to find someone who had something positive to say. No-one had anything positive to report and I will not post the negative I was told as it would be hearsay.

Eisenharts appears to have some nice dogs, but for me, trying to do business with him was very frustrating and extremely uncertain. 

Unethical breeders can make a fortune in non-refundable deposits. If they are advertizing on the internet there's no telling how many deposits they can collect for a litter that may not even exist...Collecting only 20 non-refundable deposits will equal $10,000 ..per litter! ...It's quite an incentive to cheat, and if you did recieve your puppy, well, where did it really come from? the newspaper, puppy mill in nebraska, a lesser litter? There's no way to verify the bloodlines unless you have DNA on file.

Non-refundable deposits are fine if the seller preforms and the buyer does not. It does not give a seller permission to keep your deposit if the litter fails and/or transfer it to another litter unless otherwise stated and agreed upon. Sad to say....There arent any viable laws to keep these things in check either.