Pets4Homes review: No support, misleading breeder & deposit issue (pawcover)

I am posting this as a formal complaint about both Pets4Homes and a breeder we engaged with through their platform, as we have received no meaningful support despite multiple attempts and evidence to resolve this directly.

On Sunday 14th June, my partner and I paid a deposit for a puppy after confirming two key conditions with the breeder.
- We collect the puppy on Monday 6th July
- We would receive health check documentation for both parents before collection
However, immediately after the deposit was paid, the breeder completely changed the situation. He informed us that:
- He had last-minute holiday plans (birthday trip to London and Turkey)
- We would now need to collect the puppy earlier
- If we could not, the puppy (only 8 weeks old with ONE vaccination) would be placed into boarding kennels

This raised serious animal welfare concerns and put us under immediate pressure.

Our additional concerns with the breeder were that:
- The puppy was NOT microchipped, which is a UK legal requirement before sale
- The breeder claimed issues with registering his address, which we found highly concerning.
- Despite asking multiple times, we were NEVER provided with the parents' health check paperwork
- The breeder stated we could only see this in person after he returned from holiday which was not what was agreed.

On Monday 15th June, we made the decision to withdraw from the purchase due to lack of documentation, constant changes to agreed terms and concerns about trust and animal welfare. The breeder responded by saying 'someone else will take the puppy' and that the microchip booking would be cancelled. We believed the situation had ended.

Despite this, the breeder continued contacting us via Whatsapp and Pets4Homes messages. He demanded an additional £100 payment for the puppy's care as well as setting deadlines (e.g. Friday at 3pm) despite us clearly stating we were no longer proceeding.

The breeder told us the puppy we reserved was the last one available, and that he was struggling to arrange care for it. However, we have since checked the listing and it shows 4 puppies are still available.
This suggests that we were misled to create urgency and pressure, the situation around 'needing urgent payment' may not have been genuine and other buyers could also be experiencing similar behaviour.

Pets4Homes have lacked their response back to us. We have sent numerous emails since 15th June, we have provided full evidence and screenshots. We had contact with Niek the Support Advisor who was unhelpful and dismissive and we have been advised by Niek (shockingly) to pay the additional £100, which is not protected. We have also raised a complaint, which was pushed back on and we were told it would be escalated, but we have still received no outcome or meaningful response.

Regarding our deposit, we paid it using PawCover protection, yet, we have not received required documentation, the breeder has not honoured agreed conditions and we withdrew for valid and evidenced reasons.

We are simply requesting our deposit to be refunded under the protection we paid for.

This experience has been stressful, misleading and completely unsupported by Pets4Homes. Our concerns are not just about ourselves, but about the animal welfare, misleading breeder practices and other buyers potentially being affected.

At this point, we feel ignored and let down by Pets4Homes and will be taking further action if necessary.