A BAD review for A&E cage

I usually don't like to buy products online. Though it's ironic that I've had several birds bought/shipped sight unseen. Anyway, I decided to purchase Griffin's cage from Petco.com. Let me make it clear that Petco is NOT the problem. The sale price was attractive, the cage came right away... This A&E cage is HORRIBLE QUALITY !

That being said, I have had "cheap" cages before, but there were no problems like with this. I thought that since A&E is such a 'popular' brand name these days that it would be okay. I'm sure that some are. I can only tell you about MY personal experience with my A&E cage.

Assembly was rather easy. But... as I was putting it together I started to notice how things weren't aligning correctly (left and right not the same measurements for example). Several areas had measurements which were a bit off, making it impossible to sit completely flat or straight like it should be.

There are many exposed screws on this cage which are the zinc kind. Things were so hectic that we had to set up the cage last minute, and didn't have time to go buy all the screws and replace with stainless ones. Of course I didn't anticipate it would even be an issue. Raven's cage has some exposed screws, bit aren't in areas where it's a problem. Anyway, on Griffin's new cage I ended up wrapping with vet wrap the most exposed screws that attracted Griffin (shiny).

Then... the WORST part was that the playtop was welded so crooked that the toy hook (which sticks up) is noticeably slanted!!! I am working with Petco.com customer service to see if A&E will give me a new (non-defective one) after submitting pictures.

I can see that this will be Griffin's "starter" cage unfortunately. Piece of crap if you ask me. See pics.

This is how the toy hook sits


You can see the bracket is not centered in the middle where it's welded on, which is making the toy hook sit crooked.


This gap isn't on the other side


Vet wrap coveting screws. It doesn't look great.


Uneven bar spacing... Really? C'mon!!

Another thing... Can the door width be any narrower?!

That is unbelievable! I can't believe how cruddy the workmanship is. Seems like as much as cages cost they could at least make them correctly

Wow.. I have a cheaper cage that looks way better than that. :/

I had one of these too. It was a POS. Phlox is in a $50 Kaytee cockatiel cage at the moment and it's a way better value.

My favorite brand for quality with a reasonable price is Midwest. The next time I'm rich I'm getting one by Cages By Design. They are actually close enough for me to drive to. Those are magnificent.

Edited: Looks like they don't make the awesome Midwest cages I have anymore. Which is really a shame. It wasn't stylish, but its probably 15 years old and looks like new. I can't wait to get everyone settled in and get it out again.

http://www.zootoo.com/pet-product/bird-cagesstands/midwest-metal-2100-flight-cage

I have the Petco Designer Green Dome Playtop Cage. And I am pretty surprised with the quality of it for the price I paid.

Phlox said:

I had one of these too. It was a POS. Phlox is in a $50 Kaytee cockatiel cage at the moment and it's a way better value.

Looks like they don't make the awesome Midwest cages I have anymore. Which is really a shame. It wasn't stylish, but its probably 15 years old and looks like new.[/url]

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Robin has been in his California Cage for 20 years! It can stand to be upgraded now, but it lasted many years. Unfortunately this company has gone out of business also.

Terry57 said:

That is unbelievable! I can't believe how cruddy the workmanship is. Seems like as much as cages cost they could at least make them correctly

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I know, do they think people aren't going to notice? I can't believe A&E are so popular if they're like this. I can't wait to hear what Joe thinks about his new A&E Macaw cage. Maybe they make those better?!

I got mine on a Cinco De Mayo sale they were having plus free shipping, so it was deeply discounted. STILL it wasn't worth it!! I hate the way the vet wrap looks. I'll change the screws one day. What a pain that I shouldn't even have to go through. The crooked play top is unbelievable.

UGH! That sucks! Not to mention even if they do replace it it's a royal PITA!

Now that is stupid! How wired that it would be that bad! I'm sorry you had to go through the trouble with buying an expensive cage and going through all the trouble to set it up only to find that it is a piece of poo! I remember a view I saw on petco.com that a lady had bout a nice cage but it literally fell to pieces when they got it set up! Petco is a great store I love it! But I guess when you buy a cage from there it has to be in person.

Wow, that's really awful. It's also strange considering so many people own one of their cages. Thanks for the heads up. I'll be avoiding A&E cages from now on.

PetCo and PetSmart are sort of like the Best Buy and Walmart of the pet store world. A friend of mine is a buyer for them and the chains get their own cages built by the cage companies especially for them with standards set by the stores.

When I got my Linnies I got my A&E cage from MySafeBirdStore.com and it was wonderful. A friend of mine got seemingly the same cage from PetCo and had pretty much all of the issues you mentioned.

PetCo specifies the price point they will pay and how high the quality should be and A&E and other cage makers meet those standards. Because the chains pay such a low price the quality is going to suffer because the manufacturer can't afford to do the same quality as they normally do and still stay in business.

In an ideal world cage makers wouldn't sell to places that make them lower their standards but I'm sure the cage makers can't afford to not do business with the big chains either.

Yuck, that is a cruddy cage for sure. I still haven't found a suitable cage for my Zons as I can't really get a good 'feel' from the photo, and for some reason nobody has large cages out on display anymore.

Heather, how interesting. So the A&E cage purchased from Petco was made exclusively for them to fit into their price point. That explains why they were able to sell it way below what you see the same cage going for at other places.

We usually just assume a product of a certain brand is the same thing no matter where it's purchased. I also assumed that because I've heard of A&E so much, that it couldn't be so bad. Thank you for this info.

RavensGryf said:

Heather, how interesting. So the A&E cage purchased from Petco was made exclusively for them to fit into their price point.

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Hi Julie, All settled in? Sorry you had trouble with your cage

Very Sorry but I have been to the A & E warehouse in NJ, An A&E4030 (for example) is the SAME cage no matter where you buy it, Dan from A&E gave me a tour and I asked him about the price point over at Petco, He explained it like all large buyers Petco buys thousands and thousands of cages and just gets the wholesale price

Keep in mind the average markup for pet supplies is 3 or 4 X's (the real cost is 1/3 the price)

And the "cage" is just metal LOL nothing costly (he told me shipping cost more than the metal)

I posted a video about my cage back on June 15th, Since we didn't get to go visit our baby I figured we would do something to take our minds off the baby

Half way down this page:
http://www.parrotforums.com/macaws/44860-please-welcome-our-new-baby-greenwing-11.html

*HUGS*

Joe

Unfortunately Joe, Dan fed you a line. My friend who is a buyer was in the negotiations with A&E and they outright stated that for the price point the chain was going to pay they would not get the same quality that the rest of their suppliers got and the store was fine with that.

Of course they are going to tell the consumer that they are all the same. They don't want to jeopardize their contracts.

Of course I did think that myself, But the bird farm in Delaware that sells the A&E4030 for $700 is my EXACT cage that I got from Petco for $421 bucks

I checked every aspect of the cage (I am a mechanic) I can't find any differences, same hardware, same hinges, same metal LOL

So for $300 bucks less my A&E Cage is GREAT

Joe

GW.Joe said:

Of course I did think that myself, But the bird farm in Delaware that sells the A&E4030 for $700 is my EXACT cage that I got from Petco for $421 bucks

I checked every aspect of the cage (I am a mechanic) I can't find any differences, same hardware, same hinges, same metal LOL

So for $300 bucks less my A&E Cage is GREAT

Joe

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I'm glad YOU ended up getting a good one Joe . Mine is just going to have to do for a while anyway.

...oh, and NO I'm not settled in yet Joe, thanks for asking it's very hard getting used to this circumstance - and where to put everything still, and coordinating routines, etc.

RavensGryf said:

...oh, and NO I'm not settled in yet Joe, thanks for asking it's very hard getting used to this circumstance - and where to put everything still, and coordinating routines, etc.

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Keeping my fingers crossed that in time you are comfortable there !!

*HUGS*

Sorry to hear about your doodie cage.
I feel like customer service will just say something like "you get what you pay for" but very technical, and in a way that seems like it's okay to pay ANY amount of money for a dysfunctional and potentially dangerous cage.
Hopefully you get things sorted out and settled down soon enough, I can only imagine how stressful it is already!
I'm sure you'll be SUPER excited once you get him the *perfect* cage though..
Best of luck.

that sucks, ask if you can get a refund
btw i have a question. The cage that i have also have exposed screws ( not sure what it is zinc or something else) however the screws are exposed from the outside not from the inside. Should i be worried ?