• Responding to email notices you receive.
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Ron Billingsley is he around or hiding??

M

Marc's Reptiles

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I paid him 9 days ago for a table display and now no word from him. Everytime I had questions about his stuff he would email me right back with anwsers and photos, now I made the deal and paid him he has not contected me back when I email him about receiveing payment and if I can get an update on the display case. No return emails. Yeah he might be busy, but you always have one min to reply to a paying customer right? I just want to know way he wont reply, maybe he will now. Im not trash talking him, atleast not yet.
 
It probably would have been a good idea for you to have checked the BOI before you placed the order and paid money. There have been a couple of such reports on this forum.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103271&highlight=Billingsley
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97424&highlight=Billingsley
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79854&highlight=Billingsley

It seems that a couple of years ago everyone was singing his praise now it appears that he may have over extended himself.
 
He is going to be at NARBC, so do not expect much contact from him this weekend.
 
Sorry, I didn't hire a customer service rep to answer phones 24/7 or return emails as soon as they come in.
I do not know why, but demand is higher this year, then ever before. For every order I accept, I have to turn down three.
I am making displays as fast as possible.
Not only am I having people call the week of a major show, wanting something, luckily I have people who are planning ahead, for upcoming shows, i.e. Tinley Park, and the new show in VA. Those I can do, the week of, I can not. Even Fed Ex and UPS is falling behind shipping orders to customers! But I am taking responsibility for that also.
All I can say, is be a little patience, and I'll return your calls as soon as I can, and reply to your emails.
I am looking into hiring a shipping company, to make boxes, pack and ship the orders.
So far, the cheapest I've found, will only raise the prices about 25%. I'll keep looking for now. But at some point an option will have to be made. Currently, doing it myself, I am not charging for any of those things (other then actual shipping cost). Just the price of doing business. As soon as I hire someone (company or person) I will no longer be able to do so. There will be a fee or charge for labor, material cost, and actual shipping charges. I tried the UPS store and Kinkos. The cost of doing business with those organizations would raise my prices nearly 45%!
 
Meant no harm by this, sometimes you read alot of bad things but still want to give it a shot and I did. Thanks for the reply.
 
Paying customers need a response

Ron,
I am glad that you decided to post a response here but I think customer service would be better served if you would return emails or phone calls. It is our money that you have and we have paid in good faith. At the very least those that have sent money need a reply.

Waiting...if not so patiently

Mike Phillips
Phillips Reptile Company
 
Ron Billingsley said:
Sorry, I didn't hire a customer service rep to answer phones 24/7 or return emails as soon as they come in.
I do not know why, but demand is higher this year, then ever before. For every order I accept, I have to turn down three.
I am making displays as fast as possible.
Not only am I having people call the week of a major show, wanting something, luckily I have people who are planning ahead, for upcoming shows, i.e. Tinley Park, and the new show in VA. Those I can do, the week of, I can not. Even Fed Ex and UPS is falling behind shipping orders to customers! But I am taking responsibility for that also.
All I can say, is be a little patience, and I'll return your calls as soon as I can, and reply to your emails.
I am looking into hiring a shipping company, to make boxes, pack and ship the orders.
So far, the cheapest I've found, will only raise the prices about 25%. I'll keep looking for now. But at some point an option will have to be made. Currently, doing it myself, I am not charging for any of those things (other then actual shipping cost). Just the price of doing business. As soon as I hire someone (company or person) I will no longer be able to do so. There will be a fee or charge for labor, material cost, and actual shipping charges. I tried the UPS store and Kinkos. The cost of doing business with those organizations would raise my prices nearly 45%!
Click to expand...

When demand exceeds supply......raise your prices.

I think that was in Business 101.

:thumbsup:
 
I bought a couple of displays from Ron. I told him that I was driving down to the U.S. (from Canada) to pick them up. I called ahead of time to confirm that the displays were shipped and he confirmed that they were....except they weren't....

So...there I was at a UPS store in NY 1.5 hours from home with no displays...

I called him when I was there. He was at a show and it took about another 1.5 hours before he finally confirmed that he had relied on someone else and that they weren't shipped. That's allot of waiting around.

He was always polite but I had to drive back empty handed and nothing was offered as a token. He simply said that he'd pay the difference for Express shipping.

So total time wasted. 1.5 *2 for the initial trip
1.5 * 2 for the second trip
1.5 waiting around for him to get back to me on first trip.

4.5 hours.

The experience was such a hassle that I'm now getting acrylic displays fabricated in Canada and reselling them to Canadian clients.

I only make $40.00 profit on each of them, but they sell well. That's business that would have gone to Ron...never would have thought of it if it wasn't for him. You also get what you pay for....When I brought one of the displays to a fabricator to show him what I wanted done, he immediately told me that he could never match the price because he refused to build the displays like Ron's with sharp edges, end pieces, non-polished surfaces, etc.


Denis
DenJenn Reptiles
www.pythonregius.ca
 
patenaud said:
He was always polite but I had to drive back empty handed and nothing was offered as a token. He simply said that he'd pay the difference for Express shipping.

So total time wasted. 1.5 *2 for the initial trip
1.5 * 2 for the second trip
1.5 waiting around for him to get back to me on first trip.

4.5 hours.
Click to expand...

Not trying to defend letting orders fall through the cracks (especially repeatedly), but I think paying the difference for shipping is offering something as a 'token', even if it was an insufficient token to make you feel better.

And 1.5 times two, plus 1.5 times two, plus 1.5 is actually 7.5 hours wasted.
 
I am writing this Sunday evening, around 9:30pm. I just finished packing 21 boxes to ship out first thing in the morning. All I can say is I am truly sorry for disappointing all of you. It was not my intention to cause any harm. Plain and simple, I am a one horse pony show. I had no idea this season would be as demanding as it was. I've filled almost double the orders then I had last season.
I now know first hand, the pains of a growing business. I was taken by surprise and let numerous customers down.
All can say at this point is, I am trying to work harder, and faster, and be more dependable. I've turned down countless orders, knowing I could not fill them in a timely manner.
I will strive to put in place, a working program that will allow orders to be filled and shipped within a limited time period.
Like I mentioned in previous posts, I am looking for a company I can use to package and ship the acrylics, without costing the customer to much more then what I am charging now. The only problem, as we all know, everyone wants to make a profit, including shipping companies. I will keep searching until I find a solution.
Until then, I would like to thank all of you who has stand behind me, and given me such support, and to the folks I have disappointed, I hope I can prove myself in a future transaction. Until then......
 
And for Denis comments, As I remember it from last year, he ordered some displays right before I left to do the Anaheim show. I shipped them as I left. I told him so.
I would recommend, in the future, to call ahead and confirm with UPS or FedEx, etc that the package(s) are at the location, before you travel such distance.
Your second comment about non polished surfaces, end pieaces, etc, I make these as economical as possible. In the thousands of keepers I have sold, I have had no complains (well, until you that is). If someone want polished keepers, or keepers with locks, or any other type of modification, I am more than happy to do so.
I've had all black keepers go to Germany (a big rule there, only clear tops), I've had keepers made to hold water for turtles, I've had keepers made of colored acrylic, I've done dozens of different modifications. I just think , you were looking for some displays to use to model your own line. I am not mad. Go for it. I still ship to Canada. Numerous Countries. It's all good. I am just sorry you was not happy with what YOU ordered.
Next time, please just drop me a line, and give me a chance to see what I could have done to correct the situation.
 
I would just like to say that all my displays are from Ron. My Tower is from Ron. I have two sets of his older displays and one set of the new one with the hinge. And the new one is great. I LOVE IT! I have a lot of customers and vendors ask where I get my displays. Then they ask the cost. I tell them and they can not believe it. lol.

Ron gets busy but he is honest and trustworthy.
 
Gary O said:
I have a lot of customers and vendors ask where I get my displays. Then they ask the cost. I tell them and they can not believe it.
Click to expand...
That may be a contributing factor in Ron's recent problems. It appears there is a higher demand for his products than he can deal with. Nothing wrong with that but it can be easily balanced by raising his prices; thereby lowering the demand to a level he can manage. Someone already made the Business 101 comment. This appears to be the obvious solution. My advice, for what its worth, is to take this approach now before a few missed deadlines lower the demand. Good luck to you Ron. I truly believe your intentions are in the right place.

Bart
 
I think a better way would be to put up a site. And give a two maybe 3 week timeframe. and when bigger shows come up extend the deadline.

but i just wanted to comment on the quality. I think you get very nice displays when you buy Ron's stuff. He will be getting my business.
 
Has Ron gone out of business? I was looking to investigate the possiblity of purchasing some displays and researching several people that make them. His website address seems to have been removed.
 
Deb, last I knew he was in the process of re-doing his site, and it was down while the work was in progress. I just checked again the other day, and could not acess it either.
 
Ron, in all fairness, I did call you to confirm that you had sent them and you said yes you had (When in fact you hadn't). So...my mistake was in trusting that when you said that, it meant that you yourself had sent the package. There was no reason for me to think otherwise. I'll take your advice and not trust anyone to their word ever again... :confused:

I don't why you leaving for a show has anything to do with it. If you told me you sent the package yourself (which you didn't) before leaving for the show, it's a moot point. You don't need to be in town for the package to deliver itself.

When I called you (from the UPS store) and you were at the show, you admitted that you had left the task up to someone else, and it took 1.5 hours for you to get back to me while I waited there to confirm that they had not sent it as you thought. I understand that mistakes happen, but when I saw these threads I realised that maybe it wasn't so much a mistake as a pattern. I don't think it was intentional on your part but I did think it was worth adding my experience here. Maybe there are things going on in your life, maybe you're really busy. As a human being I can understand that but as a client waiting and travelling for hours I'm a little less tolerant.

I did call you to work something out....while I was at the UPS store....and you said you'd send them Express and take the hit on the extra shipping. You didn't offer any other option...

As far as quality is concerned. You admit in your reply that in order to keep costs down there are some fabrication methods such as fit and finish that may not be up to standard. That's fine IF you represent the product as such. I thought I was getting displays that were of better quality. I was disappointed so I have them made to better specs up here that's all. They may be totally acceptable to some people but not to me. It's all a matter of opinion and I've made mine clear.

Denis
 
As far as quality is concerned. You admit in your reply that in order to keep costs down there are some fabrication methods such as fit and finish that may not be up to standard. That's fine IF you represent the product as such. I thought I was getting displays that were of better quality. I was disappointed so I have them made to better specs up here that's all. They may be totally acceptable to some people but not to me. It's all a matter of opinion and I've made mine clear.
Click to expand...

Just curious Denis, did you offer to pay a premium on the keepers you bought or did you pay the set price? It is well known that Ed's are one of the least expensive displays available. Personally I haven't tried anyone else's because they cost too much. I suspect though that they may be of better quality so given the choice I purchased the least expensive and didn't complain about the quality. Which, by the way, I think is fine IMO.
 
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