Experiences of an unsatisfied Allerca (Lifestyle Pets) customer

2010-06-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Wow! As it turns out, if you apply enough legal pressure to Simon Brodie, he does actually respond! Rumor has it that a number of unsatisfied Allerca customers received a legal contract from Simon, offering them a refund if they sign a non-disclosure order and agree not to pursue any further action against Lifestyle Pets.

Why did these customers receive a refund offer and not others? I believe this is the magic formula:

1) Contact your local District Attorney. Although a state-level Attorney General will be a more powerful force, it's hard to get their attention. Local DAs sometimes have more latitude to handle cases of these size. In fact, if you have not yet done so, please forward the details of your case to the District Attorney from Santa Cruz, California, who is investigating Lifestyle Pets. They can be reached here:

Kelly Walker, Deputy DA
Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office
831-454-2400
DAT025@co.santa-cruz.ca.us

2) Contact the FBI. Although it's pretty easy to log an online complaint with their Internet Crime Complaint Center, it would be best to also contact an actual FBI investigator. You may wish to start with the FBI office in San Diego, California because they have already gathered information from dozens of victims. They can be reached here:

FBI San Diego
9797 Aero Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
Phone: (858) 565-1255
Fax (858) 499-7991
E-mail: san.diego@ic.fbi.gov

3) Contact any consumer activist or advocacy organizations in your area. Often local papers or news stations will have a reporter dedicated to tracking down fraudulent corporations. They might be interested in hearing about your case. Although Simon is probably long past thinking he can squash all negative publicity, at the very least if you spread the word about your interactions with Lifestyle pets, you'll be giving information to other potential customers.

Now, are these refunds actually going to be sent out? Well, that's still unknown. Hell, Simon has insured that it will remain unknown by binding all of the recipients to a gag order. However, given the regular number of Allerca victims that I hear from through this blog, I'm guessing that there are still MANY customers who paid their money and never got anything back, let alone a legal contract dangling the promise of a refund.

2010-05-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing from more people like myself who have sent thousands of dollars to Lifestyle Pets, only to receive a never-ending series of excuses and delays rather than any live animals.

Actually, I've heard from a few other people in the last few weeks. One person actually did receive a cat from Simon Brodie. Was it hypoallergenic? That's hard to say because it died about a week later. Sadly, this is not the first time I've heard about Allerca kittens dying within weeks of their delivery. And, of course, no refund was ever received.

People are also starting to contact me BEFORE they send money to Lifestyle Pets and I'm delighted to inform them about the "customer" experience that I and many other people have been subjected to. (I put the word "customer" in quotation marks because it's hard to figure out if I'm a customer of Allerca if they take my money and then never send me anything.)

All of Simon Carradan's ("Carradan" being another of Simon's pseudonyms) shenanigans may be coming to an end soon though. The FBI has caught wind of Simon's business practices and they have assigned an investigator to the case. It's not clear at this time whether the investigation will also include Carradan Skis.

On a lighter note, I have been informed that one of Simon's latest (and more secretive) ventures is a company called Vimentis. They sell (and, as absurd as this sounds, I am not making this up), openers that one would use to open a screw cap wine bottle. It's the screw cap version of the corkscrew.

Why would one need a device to open a screw cap bottle of wine? According to their web site, for romance.

Simon, you old softy!

2010-02-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

Over the past several months I've heard from several sources that Simon was finally going to exit the cat peddling business and move on to other "ventures" ($19,000 skis anyone?). It was satisfying to hear that his reputation was finally affecting his ability to take money from more victims like me.

People, let me warn you. If you are considering buying an Allerca GD "Hypoallergenic" Cat, I urge you to contact me. Since I started this blog, I've been contacted by more than 20 people who all paid anywhere from $2,000 to $8,000 for one of these cats and never received one.

Another person did receive a cat, but they were highly allergic to the cat and Simon never refunded their money. A different person did receive a cat, and had no reaction to it, but the cat wasn't spayed, as promised, and Simon never paid for any of the vet bills as had been agreed to. The list of unsatisfied customers goes on and on.

Will you receive a magical hypoallergenic cat if you pay Simon Carradan/Brodie thousands of dollars? Well, I guess it's possible, but instead, how about contacting any of hundreds of reputable cat breeders who will actually let you interact with a cat BEFORE buying it. Check out the Siberian breed or the Bengals. Maybe you're allergic to them or maybe you're not, but isn't it worthwhile dealing with a breeder that will actually let you hold the cat before buying it? Those cats won't cost $5,950 either.

It's been 16 months since my cat was supposed to be delivered. Once Simon realized that I wasn't going to be a quiet victim, he stopped answering my calls and emails.

Please contact me if you have any questions: allercaclassaction@gmail.com

2009-04-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

Originally this blog was started as a warning to other people about the potential problems they might encounter doing business with Lifestyle Pets (aka Allerca). Since that time I've received a surprising amount of correspondence from people who've had legal and financial issues with Simon Carradan (aka Simon Brodie) from many of his previous business schemes, not just Lifestyle Pets.

(Simon, you sure have made a lot of enemies.)

Some of his customers only got fleeced for $4,000 like me, but I've corresponded with people who lost a lot more than that. Sadly, recovering those losses is difficult since Simon Carradan seems to hide the addresses of his companies.

Regardless, I sure hope that the people paying $12,000 to $19,000 for a pair of Carradan Skis have more luck than all the people I've been hearing from.

2009-04-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

Llewtrah, a fellow blogger, left a link on my last post that deserves some attention.

In addition to ever-growing number of complaints about Allerca's business practices that we've been highlighting, apparently some of Simon Brodie's cats are just repackaged cats from other breeders under a different (and trademarked!) name. What would you end up paying for one of these "trademarked" Ashera cats that's really just a Savannah available from dozens of breeders? $27,000.

Makes you wonder where Simon Carradan got those Carradan Skis that he's selling for $19,000 these days.

2009-04-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today the Consumerist, a non-profit blog which highlights issues affecting consumers, published a very unflattering report on Simon Brodie (aka Simon Carradan) and the inability of Lifestyle Pets to successfully deliver Allerca hypoallergenic cats. The comment thread on the article was quite active, featuring several comments by users that the editors of the Consumerist believe were just Simon undercover. Nice to finally hear from the guy though.

The Simon Brodie / Simon Carradan FAQ

2009-04-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Simon Brodie / Carradan FAQ. I know people have a lot of questions about Simon Brodie and Simon Carradan, so I've created this handy FAQ to answer as many Frequently Asked Questions as I can:

Question: Is Simon Carradan the same person as Simon Brodie?

Question: Is Simon Carradan really a crook?

Question: What do skis have in common with cats, computer training, and balloon rides?

Question: Do Carradan Skis even exist?

Question: Where in the world is Simon Carradan?

(Note: If any of this information is incorrect, or you have additional information, please do not hesitate to send me an email at: allercaclassaction@gmail.com. Thanks!)

Q: Where in the world is Simon Carradan?

2009-03-31T21:52:00.001-07:00

A: That's a really good question. None of his corporate websites list an office location and good luck finding his current address on any internet searches. I know one fellow who hired a private investigator to assist in serving Simon a subpoena and still wasn't able to find the guy.

Q: What do skis have in common with cats, computer training, and balloon rides?

2009-03-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

A: These are just a few of the past business ventures of Simon Brodie / Carradan and there seems to be a real pattern. Check out this link, or this one, or heck, just google Simon Brodie ventures yourself. These links seem to tell a story of each business selling a product at exhorbitant prices that are often 10 times as high as their competitors. The businesses leave behind significant debts and numerous lawsuits. The majority of the articles also talk about how customers often don't get what they were delivered. Is Carradan Skis the next one? We know the price fits the pattern....

Q: Is Simon Carradan the same person as Simon Brodie?

2009-03-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

A: Yes! Simon himself told me in a phone conversation that he changed his name because there were a group of people that were trying to kill him. I can't blame the guy. I know that if I had left a string of debts, failed corporations, jail time, angry partners, and dissatisfied customers in my wake that I'd want to change my name too.

Q: Do Carradan Skis even exist?

2009-03-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

A: Well, you won't find an address on their web site. You won't find a corporation registered with their state (Montana) Better Business Bureau. You won't find their skis in any store or even reviews of their skis on any ski web sites. What can you find? A web site instructing how you can pay between $12,000 and $19,000 for a pair of unseen skis.

Q: Is Simon Carradan really a crook?

2009-03-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

A: I guess that depends on your definition of crook. If by "crook" you mean someone that was sentenced to years in jail in the U.K. for fraudulent accounting, then, yes, Simon is a crook. Has he been jailed in the U.S. for similar offenses? Not as of March 31, 2009, no.

2009-03-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Note: The email account referenced in my previous post was not working, but it is now. Please contact me at allercaclassaction@gmail.com to discuss lawsuits against Simon Carradan (aka Simon Brodie) or his corporation Lifestyle Pets (aka Allerca).

I lost $4,000 to Lifestyle Pets aka Allerca aka Simon Brodie aka Simon Carradan

2009-03-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

I got in contact with Simon Carradan (nee Brodie) in October last year and foolishly wired the man $4,000 for what he claimed was a hypo-allergenic cat. My cat was to be delivered a few weeks later on November 8th.

That date came and went, as did the next date, and the one after that. At that point I finally woke up and did the googling I should have done on Day 1. What I found were an astonishing number of stories just like mine. People were posting their experiences buying an Allerca cat from Lifestyle Pets in blogs all over the Internet. The vast vast majority of these posts were from people like myself who paid thousands of dollars and never got their cat even months after the predicted delivery date. There were several other reports from people who did receive their cats, but were allergic to them.

Finally, there were a handful of reports from people who claimed to have eventually received a hypo-allergic cat. I'm glad someone got a cat (if you believe those reports), but the number of these reports was DWARFED by the number of people who never got a cat, or got a cat that simply was not hypo-allergenic.

Finding reports of people who got refunds was even harder than finding people who reported receiving one of these near-mythical cats.

All of the unsatisfied customers had one thing in common. They had all been personally strung along for months and sometimes years by Simon Brodie, whose skill at these types of delay tactics is remarkable. I asked for my refund at the end of November of 2008 and was promised it would be given to me within a week. Four months and countless excuses later, I still don't have my money.

Simon's latest venture is a company called Carradan Skis. Whether you believe that Mr. Brodie/Carradan is a crook or merely incompetent, I'd urge anyone seeking Carradan Skis to research them carefully before forking over any money.

My next step is to file a lawsuit against Lifestyle Pets. If you're interested in joining a class action lawsuit, please contact me at: allercaclassaction@gmail.com

For more information and other examples of people who got scammed by Simon, please check out the following links:

An investigation into possible fraud at Allerca/Lifestyle Pets

A site created by another abused customer

Tons of comments from people who got ripped off by Simon

Another investigation into Simon Brodie/Carradan and his products

That last article has a great collection of links with more information. Please don't get fooled into giving this man any money.