Cranky and Needing Advice

[bullibirdshow]

:Evil: *shakes fist* :Evil:

On another website a very distressed woman contacted me about what she could about this situation. She is an older woman who speaks English as second language. Does anyone have any ideas? I am not sure what to do about this type of occurence. What are the laws involved?

The details are:

A "tame" sun conure was (and still is) advertised on www.birdauction.com.au, an auction site which seems to be owned by birdworld. To buy it straight out was $ 475.--, which I did. I sent the money the next day and another $ 60.-- for airfreight and the box. Then 1 hr before the plane was due to arrive in Melbourne I get a phone call from "Elaine" in Perth telling me she was not "happy" with the Conure and would I take a baby conure instead. I was perplexed and said yes. Why in the world did they not ring me the night before or even early in the morning, why 1 hr before the flight was due in Melbourne. Elaine would not tell me why she was not happy with the conure.

Next day the baby conure arrived, shocking condition, wings very crudely clipped (I didn't ask for that), very poor feather condition, bow-legged, pigeon-toed. A bottle with medicine attached to the box against chlamydia "as due to stress when travelling birds could suffer from chlamydia".

I took the bird to Colin Walker, Bird Specialist in Knox Vic., who did a blood sample which proved positive. He was shocked when he saw the "clipped" wings.

They are not answering my complaints!

My Vet bills have come to over $ 300 and I have to go back to the Vet for 6 weeks once a week.

The shop is:

Birdworld

169 Abernethy Road

6104 Belmont W.A.

Phone [phone]
-------------

Does anyone know about these people?

What disturbs me is that they sent a sick parrot via freight. Who knows what other illnesses this poor bird has?

She is spending a fortune of this conure because someone else did the wrong thing. It does not seem fair.

Concerned and Cranky,

Kate

[Berserka]

Kate, the only thing I can suggest is the woman obtaining a complete report from the vet and lodging a claim through the Small Claims Tribunal. She should contact the Victorian Office of Consumer Affairs for information on how to proceed.
First though she should contact Birdworld to find out who the seller is and explain why.

Victorian Consumer Affairs: 1300 55 81 81
If she needs an interpreter: 131 450

Other languages:
Arabic speaking consumers: 1300 655 503
Russian speaking consumers: 1300 655 503
Vietnamese speaking consumers: 1300 855 110
Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) speaking consumers: 1300 726 656

[bullibirdshow]

Thanks Karen,

Your advice is most appreciated.

I have met other people who have had similar experiences online now. Apparently one guy was going to sue but it ended up being too expensive.

Another poster on another forum talked of a parrot arriving with no upper mandible and all the birds dying within a couple of days of arrival.

The more I look in to this the more disturbed I become.

Cheers,

Kate

[Berserka]

The Small Claims Tribunal system is very affordable, for the amount of dollars she is looking for I'd say it wouldn't cost more than $75 or so. The thing is she must have the sellers full name and address (to have summons served), I work for the Department of Justice in Qld and this is what we recommend in situations such as these.