Glades Herp! How Have They Made It This Far???

A few months back, I had reason to go to glades herp, and decided to make the 3.5 hour trek from Orlando fl, to ft meyers. I prepaid my order, and decided to buy whatever else met my fancy. On the way down our vehicle got a flat tire, and this set us back about an hour and a half, until we finally got back on the road with our new tire. What should have been 3.5 hours turned into a 5 hour journey. When I got there, they knew nothing of my order, and it took them about 25 minutes, to get around to looking it up on there computer. I noticed a very interesting staurotypus salvinii(mexican musk turtle), and asked the sales rep, Mark, what it was going for.He replied that he dosnt know, and too many people are interested in it, and he does not have time to look it up(I began to get upset). When he finally got around to showing me where my preordered stuff was at, and naturally I wanted to hand select the turtles that I had bought, he proceeded to say that" these are not expensive turtles and he does not have all day".(I began to get more upset). I then asked him again, the price of the staurotypus, and he once again said that he doesnt know and there are too many people interested in them to find out the price for me. Just to ad my personal opinion about there husbandry: it was HORRIBLE!. They used nasty cracked ten gallon tanks for display, dirty water bowls, and the animals were frail and disgusting. I began to wonder how Glades Herp, became the largest, and most reputable dealers of "quality" animals. That night I got an email from a customer of mine, asking me a few questions and stating that he sold the staurotypus salvinii, to glades herp that I sold him, months back!!! It turns out that the turtle that was too rare, and valuable, had infact been sold to them by myself! I decided to email Glades Herp a nasty email about Mark, the salesman, and the other employees working there. I heard nothing back from any Glades Herp employee. I realized that Rob was out of town and maybe things would be different if he were there. We had to make a trip to fort meyers today, and decided to once again stop by Glades Herp, for a quick look. I found that the employees were even more rude, and pushy. I am in the reptile business myself, and wondered how could a place like this recieve such a great reputation, when infact it is just a nasty little hole in the wall petstore, with jerks running the place.


Let me know if anybody else has noticed this.

Nick Mole
First Choice Reptiles

I can't really comment on their husbandry because I haven't been to their facility since 1993. The two times I've purchased from them I have gotten quality animals (The second time was last year at a herp show).
That being said...I agree that their customer service sucks!
I have emailed or called about animals that I'm interested in on their price lists numerous times. I've never received a reply to any emails I've sent. Any time I've ever called with a question I get a impatient salesperson who never can give a straight answer and seems annoyed that I called to inquire about an animal.
I recently called about a snake that was on their currently available list (a fairly expensive snake...$400 range). They told me it wasn't in stock because their shipment had been delayed. I asked if I could leave a deposit or pay in full in advance to hold this animal. The salesperson just said "no, we don't do that". I asked if I could be put on a waiting list and be called or emailed when it arrives. She replied "no, you'll just need to keep calling back to check". I called back every couple days for 2 weeks and got different answers every time I called. I finally lost interest in dealing with them.
They come off as a company that is far too busy to deal with their customers...something tells me this might not be a problem if they continue to treat customers like an inconvenience.
If their too busy to deal with their customers they should probably do wholesale sales only.

So far I've dealt with Glades a few times, both over the net to have an animal shipped to me and in person at the San Antonio hot show back in Dec of 02. The snake I acquired via shipping from them was one of their c.b. juvenile East African green mambas. When I called to inquire about them I was handed over to the guy that deals with venomous, and he seemed happy to answer all my questions. I didn't decide until a few days later to actually purchase the animal, and when I called to place my order and spoke with a woman there. The only problem here was that she didn't know a green mamba was a hot snake so she first marked it down for shipping via Airborne, but that was quickly corrected. This was back in September of last year, by the way. The snake arrived when it was supposed to, packed incredibly well, and in perfect condition.

I then decided to pick the juvie up a mate while at the San Antonio show, so I called them and had them bring the last male they had (he was an adult, w.c., and I was forewarned he was in fairly rough condition but that he was eating). I checked him out at the show, and he did have some imperfections, as almost all w.c. snakes do, but I decided to go ahead and get him because he was eating well and seemed like he could be made into a good breeder later. I had him for about 2 weeks after the show, and he had eaten a few meals for me, but then just suddenly died. It was probably just from a parasitic overload caused by the stress of captivity. I called Bill Pierce (who I originally had spoken to about the mamba before he was brought to San Antonio). He said the sale was "as is" because of the snake's conditon (and I did get a bit of a discount on him because of this), but since the snake just died without any kind of warning, Bill told me that he would "work with me on my next purchase." I think this is a pretty nice thing for them to do. I've yet to purchase anything further from them so far, but I'm sure when I do Bill will stay true to his word. So I think at Glades you just have to get the right person talking to you, but then again it's like that with many other places as well. I certainly could have been told "tough luck" about the mamba and been given no recourse (as has happened to me by other sellers) but instead was offered some kind of consolation at least.

reply

This reply is to inform everybody that everything has been squared away with myself, and glades herp. I recieved a personal explanation from rob mac innes. Nothing can excuse the behavior of chuck(not mark). I realize that some people can have bad days, and the place did look understaffed, due to Rob being away on vacation, and they were fairly busy. I have heard nothing but good things from other people, and maybe it has just been my bad experience.


Best regards

Nick Mole
First Choice Reptiles

Hello everyone,
I've done business with Glades for approximately 7-8 years and have been taken care of each time. I've done business with Chuck and he's always been a very professional, very Knowledgable person. I would have to agree with Nick that everyone has their bad days.
My 2 cents,
Paul Bollinger
Bayou.Surreal
504-415-2423

I have a problem with Glades selling a Cobra to a gentleman as his first SNAKE. Not first hot, first snake. I witnessed this firsthand. Because of this act of total disrspect for the hobby an only in search of the almighty dollar, I wil never do business with them again. I will not mention the show. Granted, he was over 18 and it was legal for themto do. I find it inexcusable since they knew. I was standing there when he bought it.

Cobra for a first snake from Glades??

Since Glades is in Florida, can you explain how this guy (the one they sold a cobra for his first snake) acquired a venomous keeper's permit in order to make this purchase?

Thank in advance...

Perhaps this transaction happened outside the state of Florida where no permit is required to own venomous. Maybe at a "hot" show? Just a guess though, and I also feel it is iresponsible and just plain dumb of glades to sell a cobra to someone as their first snake. The greed of some people never ceases to amaze me..

just because...

someone said it happened... that doesn't make it so. I've never seen Glades at a venomous approved expo, so that's sort of why I questioned the accusation....

Tom-

I agree with you, just because someone says so does not mean it's true. IF that is true about them selling the cobra as a first time snake, it is a bad thing.

By the way, Glades has been at the last two San Antonio, TX venomous shows.

Glades also does the Columbia SC "HOT" show. I can not believe that they would do something as stated in selling a Cobra to someone as their first snake. They seem alot more responsible than that when I have dealt with them. Anyway just becuse this person said they witnessed it does not mean it happened. If this person has proof that is another story. (Like the person that bought it as his first snake).

It was at a "Hot Show" not in FL and several other members of the SHHS witnessed it. It was a major topic of conversation that night. The guy that bought the snake was very "loud mouthed" and anyone in the general vicinity heard him say it was his first snake. He may have been lying or mis-spoke meaning his first hot. Don't know.

well..here is my experience...

Last August in Daytona, I was at the Glades Herp booth where I spotted a killer albino northern pine snake. After taking it out and holding it, I noticed that the snake had a deformed face. It was born with a " hairlip". Every time the snake flicked its' tongue, the tongue would come out of the side of the mouth where the hairlip was, and all over its' face. $95 for a deformed snake. When I pointed it out to the seller, he said he would make me a real good deal cause of that.

My question is, why even sell a snake with that deformity? Just give it away to a good home. DUH! I overall felt that it was irresponsible on their behalf. Even with that, I wouldn't call them bad guys, but it made me not ever want to do business with them.

I then left, went down the aisle, and found a better looking albino northern pine with ALL of its' face intact, for only $50. Good things come to those who wait.

Take care!

Billy Fraser

My question is, why even sell a snake with that deformity?

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Because it's not a life threatening deformity and the animal would still make a great pet for someone not interested in breeding and it took them money to aquire it?

Just a guess.

A friend of mine who owns a petshop in FL had a customer come in with a cornsnake. Kid bought it from Glades.... they told him to "Keep the snake on cedar, it'll be fine

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Just a friendly suggestion... every post on the BOI must have your full name in it, you might want to add it to your signature so you don't have to worry about it in the future.

Anonymous information is also not allowed/accepted... where you have no name on your post, you don't name your friend, the shop or the kid who bought the cornsnake, that kind of rumor isn't really allowed.

The reason for the name thing and the need for firsthand information or information from named sources is because things can get somewhat heated on here at times and everyone is responsible for their own words... in case anyone actually does go ahead and file a libel suit I think.

Just a friendly suggestion... every post on the BOI must have your full name in it, you might want to add it to your signature so you don't have to worry about it in the future.

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And it was added by the time my response was up (Or I didn't see it to begin with and made a mistake).

There are alot of people that have had good experiences with them. I am generally hesitant to call anyone a really "Bad Guy". Particularly when they do a tremendous amount of business and have many employees. Owners cannot watch what every employee does. With the particular experience I referred to, perhaps it was a new guy at Glades or some other extenuating circumstance. Very rarely, do I ever sya "Do not do business with someone". I prefer "I will not work with them because of ......" So I have a moral issue why I will not buy from them, and I have always had a financial reason................ in my opinion, they are WAYYY to expensive. Good animals, good prices, and good customer service is how a company succeeds. At shows at least, about 25% of their animals look pretty good. But I think that is because they bring out nice stuff to the shows. Don't know. Never been to their facility. But I am to the point where, I go to shows and I may pick up a nice snake and if I see it is glades, i put it back and move on. That was hard too, at one show, they were the only vendor that had my target snake for the show. I'll just keep looking.

look, what I have seen:
http://www.micros-page.de/Glades Herp information.html

Benjamin,
Do you realize this thread is over 7 years old? Also all you did was post a link in German with no author or info.

no I didn´t.
There is an info (also in english) which concerns GHF. The Reason is all the same...
One should look in the future perhaps only a little more exactly, if one makes a business!