Fins n Things Sick Animals, Poor Knowedge Of Animal Care oskaloosa, Iowa

Thank you for your apology I hope that ends all of this ugliness. Because of the apology I will no longer deter friends from your store and hope the animals in your store are continually healthy and that your business continues to reflect that in a positive manor.

Actually, we do not sell any dogs from puppy mills.  All of our puppies are on consignment only from reputable breeders or private citizens needing to find homes for their dogs.  They set the price, not us.  I have stated this many times on our FB page and I for one am very against any kind of puppy mill, so let that be noted as it is important to me.  Anytime I do find out a puppy may have come from a puppy mill, I never do business with that breeder again. I am sorry that my trying to defend myself has come off as "harassment", but rebuttals need to be filed in these unfair incidences.  I apologize for anything that other customers or my girlfriend may have posted in trying to defend me, but again, I did not put them up to this and I actually tried to stop it.  I deeply regret this incident and misunderstanding ever took place and I am saddened by the allegations which hurt me in a personal way.  This business has been in my family my whole life and I take great pride in it and try to be as knowledgeable as I can and always try to learn and better myself and my business.  I enjoyed doing business with the writer of this complaint and was saddened to see her still holding a grudge against me for something which happened almost a year ago that I am not completely responsible for.  I would have enjoyed doing more business and helping this person out with any animal situation they might have had, and was quite shocked when I saw the negative complaint against me and my store.  It is time to let it go and move on, as I thought we already had until I was pointed out to this very mean spirited negative criticism of me and my store, which rarely happens as many customers are quite happy with us as a small local business which has been around for over 30 years with never an incident quite like this.  But again, I do apologize for any stress which it has caused, it was not my intention.  As always, enjoy life and enjoy your animal friends.
 
-blaine

As you can see this person is very set in their ways and has no intention to better their store or to apologize to the harassed customer, whom still has copies of messages from the owners wife harrassing them. An apology for the customers bad experience would more likely help your stores reputation that constantly badgering them online. As long as you continue to call me wrong and lie about how you handled the situation, I will continue to stand up for myself and share my bad experience. And the fact that you sell puppy mill puppies inaread of encouraging people to adopt homeless dogs of any age is just plain disgraceful. Dig tour own grave or learn from your mistakes. I strongly hope you learn from your past to work towards a better future for the animals, especially the puppy mill puppies you're hocking for $200+ a piece!!

Again this has been an unfortunate incident and the business has done nothing wrong.  I have always been very friendly with this particular customer and always listened to her and helped her out when she wanted to order something.  The puppy she keeps referring to did get bathed, it was well taken care of, it was allowed free run of the store (as do most of our puppies/kittens), and it was indeed healthy.  It may have been lonely those particular times the above complainer was in the store, but that puppy also got plenty of attention from people coming in who wanted to hold it and play with it.  The inspector did not issue a warning of any kind, the puppy had been sold and the new owner even posted a thank you on our page and told us the puppy checked out 100% healthy at the vet the day they brought it home.

The reason she was "harassed" was again no fault of the business, Fins n Things, I found the mentioned complaint after it was pointed out to me, and I did not want this complaint online for everyone to see without some kind of rebuttal, so I posted it publicly on my Fins n Things page, instead of trying to hide it and hope nobody saw it.  I had no idea of the firestorm it would set up, I simply wanted to set the record straight that we do in fact take care of our animals.  This person did not take that into consideration and instead publicly slandered our business online and continues to do so.  I had told the people commenting on her post to stop and leave it the way it was, I had no control over what other people were saying or how they went about defending my business, and I am sorry that it had gotten out of hand.
 
It is sad that this person continues to only see her side of the story and continues to slander my business when I have done absolutely nothing wrong other than to try to set the record straight about a puppy that she had been worried about.  The inspector said she was told the puppy was "too sick to stand" which was simply not true in any way.  I could not let that go, not only as a business owner, but a person who takes great pride in my love for animals and the care that I provide for them. 

Vendetta? You use that word and i dont think it means what you think it means. I am not sure why they believe I have a vendetta against them. I used to be a frequent customer and enjoyed visiting and buying things there, even making special trips because it was a half hour drive. I repeatedly mentioned about the puppy looking dirty and was told the puppy would be given a bath but every week when I returned the puppy was dirtier and sicker. I had not originally planned on filing a report on here but after I was harassed for asking an animal welfare officer to check on on the puppy I had no choice.

I had decided to not go there anymore but I was worried about the puppy when I posted on a site asking what number to call and ask them to check in on a puppy at fins and things. Ever since I posted that I had very rude feedback from the stores owner, wife and friends. If it was up to me a business would never be run that way and any harassment would warrant an apology from the store owner. Its sad that my concern for a puppy was not looked into after repeatedly mentioned to the owner, but when I take to Facebook to ask for the number and in no way trash the business I had people with relations to the shop and its owners harassing me and threatening me.

They can run theirbusiness like that if they wish but my personal experience has been horrible. Feel free to visit their shop but I imagine getting as harassed and threatened as frequently as I was, the animal welfare officers must have gave them a warning or more. Hopefully they learned their lesson and will keep their animals healthier from now on. I will continue to encourage fellow aquatic hobbyists away from this shop by telling them about the horrible experience I had, though I don't need help because many people I've spoken to have said the people they have encountered have been uneducated about their aquatic stock.

I hope you and your friends can stop harassing me and just accept that you messed up and grow from it. Especially fighting on the internet? I'm just a faceless screen name speaking my mind, but your store name will be continuously be associated with negative comments if I have to keep trying to defend my actions which were the right thing to do and 100% legal. Please try to bring your image up instead of fighting me for taking concern about an animal. If you find that I am still in the wrong I will see you in court.

Having read this, I know exactly who the person is that wrote it and I feel this person has things completely wrong, and I would like to set the record straight.  First of all - at Fins 'n Things we strive to make sure all of our animals are healthy and the statement that animals were sick or covered in feces is simply not true.  If an animal gets dirty, we bathe them as soon as possible.  We have a good reputation at Fins 'n Things for taking very good care of our animals, and I feel the person who wrote the above complaint has a personal vendetta against our business. 

Myself and my staff are knowledgeable about all of our animals, and we carry a large variety of them, including many different types of fish - some which we know better than others but every day we learn more and more and put this knowledge to good use for our customers.  If a person has knowledge and information about a fish or animal, we take time to listen and learn from them.  As far as photos of incorrectly labeled names, not really sure where that one is coming from, as we have a few info sheets about some of the fish in the tanks, and they are all accurate. 

It is unfortunate that this person felt that they were being "harassed", but this had nothing to do with the business itself.  The author of this complaint filed a false complaint on another board about a sick puppy which was in fact not sick, and our business was checked on by an animal welfare inspector and cleared of any and all such claims.  As the owner, I was not about to sweep this under the rug and I pointed out this false claim on our Facebook page for people to see, and to know that we had nothing to hide.  We have loyal customers, and when they saw this false claim of neglect on our store, it was they, the customers who went on to defend me and my store.  Yes some were friends, some were also customers I did not know personally, and in no way did I encourage any of them to go off on the author of the complaint, instead I defended her right to complain and defended her own knowledge and ability to care for her own animals. 

At Fins 'n Things, we are deeply sorry this situation had to happen, and I will gladly answer any questions on the situation and if you have any questions about your pets and animal care we will do whatever we can to help you out and give you guidance towards proper care of any animal you might buy from us. 

All are encouraged to go to our Facebook site at www.facebook.com/finsnthings and browse through the pictures of our animals to see for yourselves that yes, we do take good care of all of them, and have many more positive comments than the above report would imply.