After finding out that our new baby Paige was deaf I contacted path valley and it went like this: ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Marshall To: pathfarm[...] Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 8:18 PM Subject: deaf ferret? I've recently purchased the most gorgeous baby ferret and we noticed that she was very vocal and when we called her name there was never a response. I belong to several ferret groups (on-line and socially) and after extensive testing (non medical) it turns out the she is deaf. What can one do about this? I know you have a guarantee with your ferrets, but what does one do in this situation? any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time Their response is as follows: Thank you for your email and concern. Deafness has really not been a problem with PVF ferrets. However..... as I am sure your veterinarian has probably already explained to you, deafness can have many causes. Deafness is very difficult to identify in ferrets because it is so common for ferrets to ignore even very loud noises. When a ferret is "busy" and interested in exploring, they will ignore even the most obvious attempts to get their attention. In addition, you need to contact the pet store where you purchased the ferret to seek their policy on something like this. Path Valley Farm, Inc. So, I even ventured to the point to call these "people" and try to address this problem verbally with them so they couldn't just "blow me off" with a simple letter. After being givin' a major run-around and transferred from this person to that, finally some woman "dealt with me accordingly" In so many words I am just some money hungry consumer who bought a ferret and felt I could rip off the company by drumming up some ficticious problems that don't exist in ferrets, just to try to regain the money I spent. Is this ludicris or what? so much for customer service and trying to please the customer. I thank path valley for the precious baby I got but I will never support their business again. [Posted in FML issue 4305]