Stan Ruppel-buyer beware!!

This story goes back a year and a half. I purchased an Albino Western Hognose female from Mr. Ruppel. I was adamant that it be feeding on unscented pinkies. Well, it wasn't. It ate a couple of toad scented pinkies and then refused food completely. I contacted Mr. Ruppel and told him of my disappointment with this animal and that it was not feeding at all. His response was, and I quote"with a little patience with the assist feeding, she will come around like they all do, when she is ready". So we continued to try and get it to feed on its own, with no luck. She began to lose weight so we began assist feeding it pinky heads, because she would not take a whole pinky. This went on for quite a while until one day when we checked on her she was dead, for no apparent reason that we could see.The picture will show how small she was after 1 1/2 years of fighting with this animal.  I then contacted Mr. Ruppel. His response was" I'm sorry for the loss of your snake, but I can't do anything after a year and a half". He said that if the animal had died right away, he would have replaced it. The thing is, it would have died if we had not assist fed it for over a year. I was not asking for a full refund, just something to show for my $1400. His continued response was that he was sorry and that was it. No compensation, no nothing!! After emailing several times, I got,"just plain childish. I'm not  going to participate in this anymore". So I guess I'm out of luck and I just thought that I should warn anyone else that might be thinking about buying something from him!!

Haveing personally seen this snake from the time of its inception into Ricks collection, I would have to say that I was pretty damn surprised to watch, over a period of  12 MONTHS
as this snake had to be force fed pinky heads because it wouldn't eat.
 Now ,I am not the biggest proponent of force feeding, but the meticulous care that had to be taken to force feed this thing was nothing short of insane. Silly me..I guess I am old fashioned, but I figure that if you spend  over $1,000 on a snake, it ought to at least feed voluntarily!!!
  Things like this happening  shake my confidence in this hobby and where it is going. ANYONE could sell someone else a non feeding snake, it could happen to me or to you, but WHAT we do after the customer makes us aware of it says alot about WHO we are. Correcting mistakes is what we often have to do, even if it is not our fault.
    Rick and Becky care about their snakes, otherwise they would have not assist fed that snake in an attempt to keep it alive. they would have just let it die and then supposedly gotten a full refund from "Mr.Ruppel"
               
                   "Aint life grand?"

This shakes my confidence in people in this lovely industry.
We ought to keep it a hobby, with all the perks  involved in
treating each other like we actually LIKE each other.

          Just another name to add to the list of real
          nice guys in this industry.................

                            Sincerely,

                             Fred Albury
                             (Aztec Reptiles)

Having dealt with both Renegade Reptiles (Rick and Becky), as well as Stan Ruppel, I felt obligated to share my experiences with both on this board.
I've dealt with Rick and Becky on numerous occasions in the past.  I agree with Fred's assessment that the care they provide their animals is amazing.  They even surprised me with some gravid Thayeri this past spring, when they easily could have held them back until after they laid and I'd have been none the wiser.  Why is this important in this thread ?   What it tells me is Rick and Becky are as honest as they come in this industry.
Now for my one deal with Stan Ruppel.  
I purchased a trio of het western hogs from Stan earlier this year.  Stan was rather difficult to contact, but did respond when his schedule allowed.  First snag with our deal is Stan told me he fed the smaller pair of hets in their cage together
(a big no-no with one prey item).  Not surprisingly one animal ingested the other (so I'm down to two het hogs in our deal).
Stan did make good on the refund portion of the payment, though the ingested snake (3rd het hognose) would have only cost me $20 when I totaled the difference in my original payment to what I ended up actually paying him for two <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>
The biggest disappointment I had in our transaction, and one I quickly voiced over the telephone to Stan, was in the fact the 66% het hog had a rather large kink in the end of his tail I had not been notified of.  The fact this info was not mentioned got me just a little angry to say the least.  Disclosure is key in this industry and I felt as though I had been shipped a sub-standard snake that I'd paid a premium price on.. I can state the snake is extremely healthy in his feeding habits and the kink will have no bearing on his ability to breed in the upcoming season.  
Moral to this story is I've received animals from both Renegade and Stan Ruppel.  My purchases/sales with Rick and Becky were outstanding, and will certainly
continue without hesitation.  Yet with Stan Ruppel, I would have to pass on another transaction after our first.

Now I know that a year and a half passed on Rick and Becky's transaction with Stan, but I would have to agree with the above posts.  There should be some sort of compensation given for a snake that obviously started out life on the wrong foot and sounds as though it was misrepresented upon the initial sale..

Just my opinion, take it for what you will <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Thanks, Stephen Emerick
Napa Valley Snakes

I have done two deals with Stan over the last couple of years and everything went very well. Both of these deals were for high-end boas (hypos and an albino) and I was very concerned that many things could possibly go wrong between Wisconsin and Florida. Packaging was great and customer service included follow-up phone calls to make sure that I was satisfied with the animals. I have only owned two western hognose in my brief experience in this hobby, but encountered no feeding problems. This is just to let people know that all of Stan's deals are not bad.  
     <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> Frank Ball <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Wasn't it stated that the snake ate a couple of pinkies after you first recieved it??

Having never personally dealt with any of the parties involved in this deal I can't really comment as to who was or was not misrepresenting their animals...

However I can say that, in my experience, animals that don't generally feed on endothermic prey but have been acclimated to taking pinkies will often revert after a period of stress. I.E.- Shipping... Usually an animal that had been feeding on pinkies or mice before being shipped will readjust fairly quickly after they arrive. Perhaps a meal or two of toads, worms, fish or lizards (depending on species of course) then a few scented pinks and usually they are good to go after that. Not always of course.

The question here is the possibility of misrepresentation of a product (as much as I hate to call an animal a product). If it had truley been feeding on unscented pinks as the dealer had stated then there is no misrepresentation, even if it does not continue to do so in the future. However most dealers, especially when selling animals that are 1) pricey  and 2) noted for being tough feeders will usually offer satisfaction beyond what it appears was suggested. Such as... "If it doesn't feed in two weeks, send it back for a refund/replacement" or something of that nature...

Within this buisness there seem to be two major schools of thought on how to handle customers, disregarding those who are outright crooks (mailing phone books, selling animals they don't have under false names and running away, etc) There are those who seem to want the quick buck. They sell an animal and then offer no satisfaction whatsoever, poor service or sometimes, while not outright lying, they seem to  forget these little details that would make a customer less  inclined to purchase an animal. They do make more money short term but eventually their reputation catches up to them and without selling to other dealers/retailers/breeders, they signifigantly reduce their ability to create profits and wither away into the background with nobody who knows better being willing to purchase from them. The second type may not make as much money  short term, but  by being honest and selling quality, healthy and properly represented animals they make much more money long term, mostly due to ease of repeat buisness and refferals. For instance if the hog-nose was not feeding on rodents... Stating this and knocking $150-200 off the price, it would still sell, the customer would be happy, the snake would probably be alive because (not to say that the individuals didn't take excellent care) it would have gone to someone who was willing to feed it ectotherms until it  was fat and happy... and prepared to do so from the start, the dealer would still have a signifigant sum without having tarnished their reputation or aroused suspicion and this entire matter would have been avoided.

As has been said before  and will be said again... Honest communication and a willingness to ensure the animal  comes first, followed closely by your customer will make you successful in this industry.  Theivery, misrepresentation and poor service will tend to remove you fairly quickly.

This was my first post on this message board and I'm told that I need to post my name, so here it is:
Rick Trenney
Renegade Reptiles
www.renegadereptiles.com
[email protected]
(760)787-1488
I welome any feedback!!!

whats with "   " ?
bryan remington

cuntrysk8rgntlmn said:

whats with "   " ?
bryan remington

Click to expand...

Probably the forum ran on different software 7 odd years ago when this was posted.

It'll be something like that.

thanks for the heads up...mate : )

Did you really drag up a thread from 7 yrs ago to ask that question?? Wow.
As long as we're here, Bryan, full names are required in all posts in this section.

wow ? you are tired and cranky eh ? wow ! : ) i'm new here, so..with that being said i put my full name in the original query, and i figured that was enough. But no, i did not "drag" that thread out from seven years ago, another person, whom i believe to be a moderator here as well, reposted the thing on the top of all the threads, with an explanation for doing so. I, interested, read it all. Am i to be believed i'm not welcome here Harold H Moore Jr ? With the little time I've been here, i've made some posts or asked questions in the chat room, only to get a friendly response and then some sophomoric response from someone else. What gives with that ? Why is it the half of herpers seem to be polite, friendly, and helpful, while the others seem to come off as pompous, know-it-alls with their noses in the air looking down on others who only wish to learn and politely inquire ? i mean c'mon, this isn't high school anymore and I'm not mocking your new dungeons and dragons game. I'm asking questions cause i wish to learn, not to set you up so i can later pull your pants down in the quad, k ? : )
anywyas, sorry for the sarcasm, just wanted to let it out there that i can play , too (lol)
great site by the wayso far, thanks for taking all the time to make it what it is and what it is thats made ya tired and cranky.
bryan remington
son of jim
son of wilbur
son of ralph
son of silas
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