Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/13/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Purchased Victorian Bulldog (****** *** ** ***** at the Cordova location of Petland near Memphis, Tennessee on May 28, 2024. The purchased Victorian Bull dog ("Wrigley") was born January 18, 2024. On December 10, 2024, at 10 months and 3 weeks old, Wrigley died of renal failure. She had only one working kidney her entire life, and the other was infected and problematic since birth. Petland has not returned calls or emails requesting a refund. Since Wrigley was born with the infected and non-working kidney, the breeder, Homer Slabaugh, and Petland should have found the issue prior to the sale of Wrigley. Further, Wrigley had a surgery to remove a herniated umbilical chord prior to Petland, and that was the only health issue shared with us, the buyers. I still owe a significant amount of money, over $3,000 on a dog that did not survive 7 months in my home.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/07/2024

  Type:Facilities Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The Petland in Knoxville on Market Square does NOT take care of their small animals, it’s blatant animal abuse. As soon as you walk in there is a potent smell of pee and feces. The small animals are able to just be picked up by anyone with absolutely no supervision, which could easily lead to injuries (or death) for the animal and injury to anyone holding them. The animal cubes are not clean. There are no ‘litter boxes’ for the animals to use, so they’re forced to go either wherever in the cube or it piles in the corner, definitely unsanitary. This causes the animals to become covered with their own defecation/urine, which is extremely cruel plus, again, people are simply picking these animals up while they’re covered in this. There is no clean water in ANY of the cubes. All of it was heavily contaminated, a clear sign of neglect. Several of the ferrets appeared to be sick, coughing/sneezing. Absolutely appalling:

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/01/2024

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am not going to be the kind individual I usually am. DO NOT! Buy animals from PetLand Knoxville. They have flat out LIED. Actual people who need advice about the animals and employees are telling them false information.... It's lies. I originally went to buy a bird. Then someone handed me a fuzzy ferret and fell in love. They told me they could be bought by itself (nope). NOONE ever told me it needs to be able to free roam for 6-8 hours a day and out of a cage. THEY POOP all over. They tried to sell me a "kit" with this ferret that included TOXIC FOOD, TOXIC SHAMPOO saying to wash is every few weeks (nope). They handed me this ferret, no paperwork just swiped my credit card for 500$ (which is insane please go get one from a rescue), and they put it in a cardboard box. The ferret ate through the cardboard box within the first 5. The worst part of all of this... I actually wanted to keep this fuzzy thing, got home I realized I was DEATHLY ALLERGIC. They were clear that they dont take back live animals. I figured I would try my luck anyway and I called to explain NOONE had told me that if you are allergic to cats you are definitely allergic to ferrets. I didn't want my money back, I just asked if it could stay with its pack and maybe give me store credit. The first employee said, call back tomorrow and speak with a manager. So I did call the next day... "yes your'e speaking to one" and said her name was Allie. Said she would try to work something out and to call me back before 5pm. I called THEM back at 3pm because (IM DEATHLY ALLERGIC). This girl snottily says "whatever a manager can help you with I can HELP you with". And kindly I told her, "no you cannot help with this matter, a manager needs to". Obviously nothing came of that. I asked her her name, she paused for 2 minutes... Allison. -_- UNKIND employees. LYING employees. HORRIBLE behind the scenes animal practices. THANK GOD FOR FUZZY FERRETS RESCUE and MONICA. PETLAND you suck. I will call Corporate.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/20/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We bought a dog in July of 2022 and we asked for a Pomeranian they presented a dog and said that he was a purebred Pomeranian and even gave us a "certified Pedigree" certificate through the ICA. Well as time went on he started to look less and less like a Pomeranian so we gave him a DNA test and the results came in and he's not even half Pomeranian. So we paid the purebred price for a "mutt". We felt deceived that they went through a different association than the ones that they listed in the registered part of their website. We feel like we were scammed.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/30/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We purchased a female chinchilla on Saturday 5/6/2023 from Petland Knoxville, TN with a 7 day health warranty. This chinchilla passed away at home on Saturday 5/13/2023 and we were waiting at the store with the dead chinchilla on Sunday 5/14/2023 when the store opened. This chinchilla had been examined by a local vet earlier in the week for diarrhea and stool samples taken ($130 vet bills). We found out on the following Tuesday (5/16) that she was infected with tapeworms AND Entamoeba parasites. The manager agreed to give us a replacement chinchilla. We picked out a replacement chinchilla on Sunday 5/14/2023 and took her home. The store refused to give us a receipt for this animal stating that "this is your replacement". On Tuesday (5/16/2023), this chinchilla stopped eating and was taken to the same vet for an exam. An abdominal mass was found and x-rays taken. The vet suspected an abdominal lesion or gastrointestinal stasis. Was sent home with medications and poor prognosis ($195 vet bills). On the evening of Friday (5/19/2023), the chinchilla was lethargic and in a lot of pain. We took her to University of Tennessee Vet emergency room and was evaluated by a vet there. She agreed that euthanasia was the best option given the chinchillas current condition and the amount of pain it was in. The chinchilla was euthanized there at 10PM on 5/19/2023. University of Tennessee is performing a full necroscopy on the chinchilla to determine the cause of her rapid decline. We can obtain vet records if needed for resolving this. The local Petland store has record of the purchase of first chinchilla on 5/6/2023. We have done a lot of business with Petland in the past, including the purchase of 2 chinchillas 1-year ago (which are still doing well) as well as a puppy which we spent $6000 on last year. We want Petland to do the right thing and refund our original purchase price of the chinchilla for $400. We do not wish to have another replacement chinchilla.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/30/2023

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

  The Knoxville location is a franchise location and privately owned and not corporate. 

  This will need forwarded to the appropriate party and removed from the corporate account.

  Thank you, 

  Petland Customer Service

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/07/2023

  Includes original Petland receipt for 1st chinchilla that died.  Also included are vet bill receipts for both chinchillas and an email from vet letting us know that the first chinchilla tested positive for tapeworm and Entameoba parasites. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/15/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  They charged me $3,600 to my card when only $1,850 was supposed to be taken out because we agreed to a payment plan of $2500 Down and the rest monthly. I paid $650 in cash as well. They said they refunded me for the extra money the employee mistakenly charged me and that it would be back in my account within 48 hours and it's not. It's been 72 hours and I still haven't gotten my money back I never authorized them to charge. An employee also told me he was fully vaccinated when he infact was not as his records show no rabies vaccination and our vet said that rabies vaccinations are eligible at four months. I was straight up lied to about that and now I can't board my dog in training programs because the employee wasn't truthful to us. He's missing two sets of canine flu shots also required for boarding.