I think that's better than a "no" so I would keep at him. If you could get an employee or two on board to help push him that would be good too.
Doesn't look too good. I swung into the Petsmart after class last night to see the little birdies. The Sun remembered me and did a contact call!
I asked the Manager what they could do for a price. Told them what I had found out on the websites for a price range on these birds, explained I would be willing to adopt them together because they were bonded and that I was aware the Sun had been returned previously, and that I believed it had a lot to do with the bond it had with the Jenday. I also explained that I was an educated pet owner who had two conures at home that were from the same genus, and that I was well-versed in their care requirements (or well, as well-versed as we can be, right? I'm always learning new things on this forum and that they would be in an excellent home environment with me. I went so far as to explain that I could potentially get the little Sun to stop plucking his tailfeathers and making himself a duckbutt, if I was able to isolate what was causing this in the first place and eliminating it, if it wasn't already done so by NOT being in a giant glass case on display for thousands and thousands of people to walk by and tap at.
I offered a starting price of $500, for both of them, and I could tell that didn't go over well. He just sort of blew me off. I insisted that he figure out what was the lowest he could go, and even mentioned that the Sun would probably continue to be returned and have issues. He told me for $500, I could have just the Sun and then told me he would "look in to it" and to stop by and he would let me know about the price, but he wasn't going to be able to make a commitment on the price now. Considering they are a percentage-of-sales company, I would assume that this was just to get me out of the way without telling me flat-out No and sounding like a jerk