[Moderator's note: NEEPS asked for a chance at a rebuttal and I think the request is fair enough, but please, no more about the specific company unless you have concrete evidence of good or bad, since I'm not thrilled to grant still more exposure to this except when the advertising issue rolls around. BIG] Hello all, I am posting this message in response to the negative post that Mr. McDermott about my company. I do not believe that the FML should be made into a "business" forum, but these allegations were made against me, and the allegations were posted, so please allow me to explain myself. First off, we are not a SCAM company, we sell our products in the retail market. By no means do we attempt to disguise ourselves as "Wholesalers", or having "Wholesale prices". What I can tell you is that we priced these items in "our market area", which is Wilkes-Barre, PA. The price that is listed for Safeguard cages on our Web site, and in our catalog are NOT more expensive than what these exact SAME cages sell for at Pet Supplies Plus, and two independant pet stores. Safeguard cages are of "the best quality". I discovered this when I bought my first Safeguard cage in 1994. In 1995, I bought my second Safeguard cage from "Pets and You", yes Michael, the same cage that you say we sell for $ 99.95 plus shipping, I paid $ 89.99 plus tax, and this was marked down on sale from $ 114.99. If you do not believe this, I can send you a picture of the cage and the original price tag which is still on the pull out tray of the cage. Just today, I checked the price of this cage at Pet Supplies Plus. The EXACT cage is $ 106.99, six dollars more. So Michael, our prices are competitive with our market, this does not classify us as a "SCAM" unless you would like to label all RETAIL outlets a scam. As for the other ferret items we offer, anybody who has a copy of any other ferret items catalog, I urge you to price compare, and remember that they charge shipping. We are right in line, if not better than their prices for the same items. So Michael, I urge you to check out some prices in "retail" stores, not "wholesale direct" companies before you come out into the open and blatently call my outfit a "scam". The moral of the story is, if you can get a cage "factory direct", by all means do so, it will save you a lot of money - but please do not try to compare an apple to an orange and then make a harsh judgement. Most every item we sell, I guarantee sells for less than pet store prices, which after shipping, we make hardly any profit, cages on the other hand are the one exception. The entire reason Scott and I started this company was to help people who live in remote areas like ourselves, get ferret stuff. We are not a corporation, simply two ferret enthusiasts, and we are the only two people involved in this project-we are not a scam. We have spent many, MANY hours putting together catalogs and building our Web site-on top of our full-time "day jobs", and I will not stand here and let you call me a fraud simply because the same cage we sell can be bought for less, factory direct. To all, I am sorry to have to subject you all to this, but I will not stand here and have my name slandered for no crime. If anybody has any questions or comments, please e-mail me directly for messages of this content do not have any place here on the FML. I would like to thank the many people who have written to me with positive comments, your appreciation does not go unnoticed. Again, I thank everyone for their time, Joseph W. Palko [Posted in FML issue 1615]