I googled the company name plus the word "complaints" and got this post in another forum about that company

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your vet is not out to rip you off. Ask them if they can match online prices. A lot of them will and you know you are getting the real product. For all you know they could be counterfit, there's been plenty of press on that in the pet world.

Isn't your pet worth a few extra bucks (if that) to ensure they are getting the real thing? They can even ship it to you I'm sure to save you the trip. Not that a trip to the vet with your dog would be a bad idea. Positive associations with going to the vet are actually an excellent idea.

Don't answer me. just think about it.

The linked thread says that the company in Canada was getting the meds from Australia, & provided links to some sellers in Australia.

I haven't ordered in a while, but I've gotten Advantage from Australia, always got good prices, & it's the real stuff.

How can you tell?

I mean really people, how much can you be saving?

I was paying about $11 or so per tube here, & I got it from an ebay seller in Australia for about $6 a tube.

Multiply the $5 savings by 12 tubes (2 boxes) & that's a $60 savings for *1 order*.

& it arrived in the mailbox, saving me a trip.

Also, Advantage is the same chemical for both dogs & cats, & the pricing is by tube rather than by volume, so I ordered the tubes for dogs over 55 lbs & used a syringe to draw the correct dose, saving about 50% for each dog.

Since cats are much smaller, I got even more doses out of each tube.

Your math definitely checks out but hasn't it crossed your mind that something may not be right with it if it's that cheap?

For an extra $5 a month, I'd rest a lot easier knowing that it's the real thing. Not that I don't love to save money. I do but I think it's a big risk to take just to save a little money.

My vet will match reputable online retailers price like fosters and smith and 800petmeds and for the 12 pack it is about $11 per tube.

I don't believe there's 100% markup in these products. So I would definitely bet there is something wrong with it. Even if it is the real stuff, it is probably stolen. (Like most of what you find on ebay, either broken or stolen)

Would you buy meds for yourself on ebay?

If a seller misrepresents an item on ebay, for instance claims something is good when it's broken, 2 things happen:

1. his/her feedback rating plummets, & nobody will buy from that seller again.
2. if the seller doesn't make good on the defective item, ebay can suspend the seller.

I've heard of a very few stolen items being offered on ebay, usually when a police department or the item's legitimate owner announces it in the newspaper or on the news.

By no means are "most" items on ebay broken or stolen.
If they were, ebay would have gone out of business by now.

Why would you say such a thing?

& yes, thank you, my math is correct.
more correct than yours:

1. Since I bought 12 tubes at a time, the savings is not $5 but $60.

2. On an $11 item, a savings of $5 is nearly a 50% savings, well worth ordering online.

The treatment came in an Advantage box, blister packs intact, & it was effective.

The seller bought it in Australia, in bulk.

Bayer does not like the fact that people are buying their product at lower prices;
if Bayer had any inkling that the product had been stolen, Bayer would have had the ebay seller shut down & likely prosecuted.

Why is it so important to you for people to buy this stuff from their vets?

Why would you care where anybody gets their veterinary medicines & treatments?

or their groceries, building supplies, or apparel?

(Medication for human beings cannot be sold on ebay, but I wouldn't have any problem ordering it from, say, Canada.)

I have ordered Heartgard and Frontline from the same company in Australia for years and never had a problem.

It IS the same product that is for sale in the US, what makes you think that Merial which is a French Company only sells the real Heartgard and Frontline to the US and sells the fake products to other counties? Dogs in Australia don't get Heartworm? Or do all Australians have to order their meds from the US because what they have in their country is just counterfit? Doesn't make much sense does it.

I pay my vet a decent charge for the office visit and any tests they may run in house. I can get any medications that are prescribed, including preventative a lot cheaper elsewhere.

Its great that your vet will match, I've also heard of vets who charge for scripts for people who don't buy from them.

I live on a limited budget and the money I save can help pay a gas bill or buy groceries.
Who do you buy from in Auzzie Kat?

Sylvia, my dear....

Come down out of the clouds.

I'd beg to differ about broken and stolen stuff on ebay but that's another debate for another day. I'm not advocating buying from a vet, just to buy from a reputable source. It's just that 1800 petmeds has had complaints of selling counterfeit meds. A feedback rating means nothing. Take it from someone who's been selling on ebay since 1999 and has a 100% feedback rating.

At my workplace there is the equipment to repackage and produce packaging. I'd be willing to bet that I could counterfeit any kind of packaging except bubblepacks and printed cellophane. The boxes that pet medication comes in and plastic tubes would be a piece of cake. I could go get a tube of the real thing, dilute it over a dozen bottles, and package it up and you'd never know the difference. Then I could sell it "bulk" to some fool that wants to sell it on ebay and thinks they're going to strike it rich.

Selling on ebay is expensive. Once you factor in the listing fee, final value fees and paypal it's gotten to a point where it's not even worth it unless you have a lot of volume. So the seller of this would have had to have bought it for so, so, so far below wholesale that it just can't be right. At best, it's gray market wares, Sylvia. Other countries may not have the same regulation over medication as the US.

I'm not saying you don't love your pets but you really need to use a little more common sense about this.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nothing new about counterfeit pet medication

"I live on a limited budget and the money I save can help pay a gas bill or buy groceries. "

This is not the area to pinch pennies. This is the health of your beloved pet!!!! Use some common sense. Clip some coupons, use one less gallon of gas, buy one less package of Oreos. That will make up the difference.

I buy from Pets-megastore.com.au
http://www.pets-megastore.com.au/

I have been purchasing Frontline and Heartgard from them for at least 6 years and never have an issue and their products always have a long expiration date.

A friend has purchased from Petshed http://www.petshed.com/
for years without any issues. They are a little cheaper than Pets-megastore. I cannot personally vouch for them but I can for Pets-megastore.

At the peak I was buying for 3 80lb dogs, 2 of my own and one belonging to a friend (I cover his dog's costs). I clip coupons and don't buy Oreos. I also don't see a reason to pay more for something that I can get cheaper elsewhere. As far as the 'counterfit packaging', the uproar was that the weights were labled in kgs not lbs. Big deal. The product itself wasn't counterfit.

Here is a link that might be useful: petsmegastore.com.au

I have ordered from http://www.petsuppliesnet.com/shop.htm (Australia company) for around 2 yrs now and they are great. From what my vet charges, I save a lot. My 6 month of flea meds, is the same price as his 3 month supply. I have never had a flea problem. Friends and family use them and no problems.
I believe 100% it is the real stuff. One can (or used to be able) to get "human" drugs from Canada cheaper. Not the exact same thing, but I can go into a toyota dealership here in VA and pay such a price, OR I can go ONLINE to a Toyota dealership in Texas and get the exact same product for much cheaper.
If you travel throughout the world (which I have with the CDN Armed Forces)one will find prices are very different. One is paying $5 for an item here in the USA,but in another country it is only $2. Just my 2 cents. $$ I save from those meds pays for the high quality feed my animals get.

You can lead a horse to water....

And we wonder why Walmart is taking over the world while local businesses close down and cheap junky Chinese imports and unsafe toys are all over the news. Hmmm.

That petsmegastore site doesn't even ask for a prescription from your vet to process the order.

Airforceguy, if the toyota from the internet dealer in TX was half the price of the local dealer in VA, wouldn't you wonder what was different about it?

Only this isn't a car or something that really doesn't matter, this is the health of your beloved pet. Why anyone would gamble with their pets health to cheap out is beynd me especially since the treatment for heartworms is very expensive and to treat for fleas it will eat up any savings you thought you had. Being a smart consumer isn't just about getting the lowest price on something.

Being a smart consumer is being OPEN to new ideas! Some people are and are not! I dont take a chance with my pets health, they get all the top quality feed (buy from local stores not big box ones)and meds and vet care. I did the research on the company that I use and they are great. Prior to departing Canada ( I live in the USA now), I talked to my vet about "internet" pet meds. He admitted some are fine, and some are not. If my vet would come to the price I would most likely purchase from him, but he could not. Like I said various products around the world sell at very different prices. Seemed to recall many Americans going to Canada for the same drugs, but yet at way lower prices. Each their own. I sleep soundly at night. Cheerio

That petsmegastore site doesn't even ask for a prescription from your vet to process the order.

Australia doesn't require prescriptions for Heartworm preventatives.

Quirky, you are missing the point. Merial is an international company that has manufacturing plants in multiple counties. http://corp.merial.com/

This is a link to their Australian site - http://au.merial.com/

How on earth can you compare this to a Chinese import? There is nothing wrong with the products ordered from Australia or Canada. They are as safe and effective as the products that you pay top dollar for at your vet.

Prescription drugs are cheaper outside the US. They aren't different drugs, just different rules from the drug companies. We are being forced to pay high drug prices and now it's a crime to travel outside the US to buy drugs. Do you think the Canadians and Australia aren't getting the same drugs as we get? I've been getting my dogs meds from Canada.

Not all online pet-meds place are shady. I use vetcentric.com -- which was recommended to me by my vet -- and the meds are still cheaper than they are at my vet's office. You do have to have a prescription to use the service, but my vet has no problem doing that for me.

Right, not all online pet stores are dishonest. They're not all that much cheaper either. In fact I didn't want to say this earlier until I had checked but I my last order of heartgard was 20 cents less than that mega site.

I would be highly suspicious of the ebayers (remember that reply with the $5 advantage) selling at below cost that's a red flag.

"Australia doesn't require prescriptions for Heartworm preventatives."

I wonder what else they don't require.
I'm through.

You can lead a horse to water.... :-) Always a fun time when we people mention internet suppliers. I loved Australia when I visited in 2000.

I don't use heartworm preventatives because of the fairly low incidence where I live. However, nothing works 100% of the time, even these meds can fail, even when perfectly legit. If you purchase it through your vet, the manufacturer will pay the full cost of treating your pet. If you buy it on eBay or some website, they will not.

Pets are expensive, there is no way around it. But I just can't imagine that most people really need to save that extra $60 and risk the health of their dog. I mean, if it just doesn't work, your dog gets fleas - not the worst thing, even though it's what you wanted to avoid. But what if it's something really nasty in those tubes? We're talking about pesticides here.

Ah, but it's not just fleas. Fleas and ticks are vectors for nasty parasites and diseases.

Ah thank you Olga! Finally the cavalry has arrived!!!

We're just saying buy from a reputable source! And even the added benefit to buying from your vet, even though it may cost a little more is that you are supporting a local small business.

Personally I wouldn't buy preventatives from ebay. But I don't understand why it is so hard for people to accept that the preventatives that are manufactured in other countries - ie: Australia and Canada, are not counterfit and don't contain harmful additives.

Whether or not a script is required also has nothing to do with the purity of a product. We have seen human medications go from prescription to OTC. In Australia, Ivermectin is OTC.

For me the question is not so much where the medication comes from, but rather that it's genuine and hasn't been compromised in any way (either accidentally or on purpose). This is why the manufacturers often won't stand behind the products distributed this way - because they have no way of ensuring that what you received is their product, despite their name on the box, or how it has been handled.

I agree that there is nothing wrong with things manufactured elsewhere (I live in Canada BTW). However anyone can put up a website selling most anything - it's simple and doesn't require much investment (like a brick-and-mortar store or vet's office would).

Also, I think a vet's guidance is very helpful in using these products - again, they're pesticides, you don't want to get the wrong dose.

"But I don't understand why it is so hard for people to accept that the preventatives that are manufactured in other countries - ie: Australia and Canada, are not counterfit and don't contain harmful additives."

That isn't the problem.
My problem is with meds from sources that are sketchy and selling at below cost OR from sources that may look reputable but there is little to no savings, doen't make sense to me either. I was not aware that the most common meds, mentioned in this discussion were mfg in austraila or canada. I tried to find this out on bayer and merials website but was unable to find the information.

But like Olga said good luck with a warranty claim on your gray market imports. On the box of hartgard that I have it says it was distributed by merial, duluth GA (About 10 minutes away from here)

This is like letting your kids eat halloween candy from unknown sources. With anything else I'd say that's great but this is your pet's health at stake. That should matter.

Well, I stand corrected. I just looked at the box of Heartgard that I purchased from petsmegastore.au and found that it is made in the USA by Merck Sharp & Dohme in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, USA

http://www.epa.gov/region02/waste/fsmsdq.pdf

Site Description
The Merck, Sharp & Dohme Química de Puerto Rico Ltd (MSDQ) facility is located at Road #2 km. 56.7, in the Municipality of Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. The facility is located approximately three miles south of the Atlantic Ocean and 38 miles due west of San Juan. The site is bordered by industries to the north and west, and "mogotes" (undeveloped large, round hills with steep sides formed by erosion of natural limestone) surround the remainder of the property.

MSDQ is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck and Company, Inc. and has existed at this location since 1971 as an operating pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The facility currently manufactures human and animal health products such as anti-hypertensives, beta-blockers,
diuretics, and anti-parasitic drugs.

It was also distributed by Merial, Duluth GA.

So this box went from the US to Australia to the US, and I still bought it cheaper than if I had bought it here to begin with. Pretty amazing how the drug companies can jack up the price of an item in the USA.

LOLZ. Quite a bit of carbon emissions just for that one box of heartgard.

I get more info about Merial such a great site you can chack this

Here is a link that might be useful: Merial