Bad customer experiance with Marcscandygirl22

Posted by Brian Hamel of Tribal Propagation

Hello, just want to give a heads up about some potential scammers. The name of this person is Candice AKA Marcscandygirl22. We sold her a captive born & bred ball python and shipped it as planned, however, we received an email that read "we received our snake...but we took it out of the box and examined it and found 2 ticks you said that this snake would have no problems! Please write me back and tell me what you are going to do about this thank you Candice" I decided to call Candice to see what the problem was and dove head first into what I would say is blatant ignorance of reptile husbandry. They proceeded to tell me the snake had "WHITE MITES" as well as the two ticks they found. They told me that they were going to bring it to a Vet and get a shot to remove the mites and wanted to be compensated for this. Needless to say this has enraged me! We would never sell an animal that we ourselves would not be happy to receive and we pride ourselves on quality customer service. We offered to have the snake sent back to us and they said if we paid for the total cost (theirs included shipping $75.00) plus shipping. I feel that these people are trying to take advantage of us and I would like some advice on this situation. Thank you to all who reply

Tribal Propagation:
Brian & Laura
1255 Saratoga Lane
Geneva FL 32732
407-349-2824

Now, they are trying to bash us on kingsnake.com ball python forums. Someone please educate these people.

Brian....My advice to you is simple....IT'S NOT WORTH IT! Send her a check for $125...let her KEEP the snake....and BE DONE WITH IT!! Yeah....you might lose a COUPLE of bucks, but...someone like what you described, will continue to bash you in every way, shape, and form you can think of until she gets satisfaction! Been there, done that! GET IT OVER WITH, NOW!! Just a tip from your "Uncle Goobs"! ....Neil

We have refunded these peoples money within the last 5 minutes!  We take pride in our customer service and the quality of our animals and we wish to straighten out this situation NOW!

Brian and Laura

Tribal Propogations,

I do not feel that a refund was necessary.  I mean, there is a point when you have to sit back and say "prove it."  These people posted on the BP forum at 7:16 PM today talking about the little white ball under the snakes scale.  A person responded to them saying that it sounded like it was a parasite.  Candice and Marc took Nicole's word for it and regretfully attacked YOU because of it.  If they want to take the snake to a vet, so be it.  I would have only given a refund had the vet found anything wrong.  After the vet removes the tiny little piece of packing material from the snake, they would give it a clean bill of health and probably tell these people that they panicked for nothing.  Should you be held responsible for every paranoind customer.....NO.  These people should have taken it to a vet FIRST (or just tried to remove whatever it was themselves) and THEN questioned you PRIVATELY about the issue.  There was no reason for them to post the way they did, but I see no reason for them to get a refund.  While their post may have hurt your reputation slightly, by giving them a refund so quickly you've set yourself up for possible similar cases in the future.  

Just my observations of this 3 hour ordeal.......

Todd Evans

Todd...You're missing the point...you've got to know when to "pick" your fights?? If we were talking about an Albino Ball or a 100% het Pied or a Motley Boa....well then, heck yeah you fight it (in THIS EXACT scenaro)! But, we're talking about $100 or less! That's NUISANCE VALUE!! I think Brian did the only thing he could do in this case! SWAT the FLY and get it out of your life! OR...start believing in the phrase, "ANY publicity is GOOD publicity...even when it's BAD publicity!" THAT would be a mistake! There aren't too many people out there that would do that sort of thing, but you WILL run into it from time to time...as I said...you have to PICK your fights...this one just isn't worth the time or trouble it could cause! ....Neil

Neil,

I absolutely understand your point.  But while this is one of those cases in which $100 was all that was lost, by giving them a refund so quickly, others may follow up with similar "low value" arguments.  TP was able to avoid a tainted name by giving a refund as quickly as they did, but now they might have a reputation as pushovers.  I'm not saying they are in the slightest.  from the posts on the BP forum, tehy seem like very likeable people.  I'm just affraid that by giving up, essentially, as quick as they did, they might be stting themselves up for more of these kinds of cases.  $100 isn't a bad loss, but 10 X $100 is........it's just food for thought.  Like I had said on the forum, if these people want TP to pay for the vet bills, they should've HAD vet bills......take it to the vet FIRST, before ranting the way they did.  Not to mention a private conversation with Brian would have sufficed.....they didn't need to go asking for advice from people that don't know a normal ball from a "pastel jungle, black back, ringer, spotted, with one eye" ball python (but that's another one of my pet peeves)  I just think that Brian could've made arrangements for the customer to take it to the vet (like they were advised in the forum) and then pay any bills orgive any refunds when it was PROVEN that there was something amiss.

I do get your point though.

Todd....There's a very easy way to alliviate that type of situation....I don't think there was ONE SALE I've ever made where I DIDN'T SPEAK to the person BEFORE the sale was finalized! ANYBODY can write an email....but, when you speak to them directly, you have the opportunity to "qualify" the sale! By that I mean, in the course of your conversation, you "subtly" ask questions! You wouldn't (consciously) sell an 11' Anaconda to a ten-year-old girl, would you? You can develop a "sense" for the person....I've refused to sell people baby Iguanas because they were going to put them in a TANK! Had I not asked the question, they would have, possibly, come back in two weeks accusing me of selling them a sick animal because it died! Because of simple conversation, I've NEVER had a problem like that (knock on wood)! ....Neil

You should have at least gotten the snake back. Then you would at least know for sure if there really was any problem and if not, then you could make the money back. I understand it is small change but there is principle involved too.

I think you should have asked for the copys of the vet bills stating the parisitic (its that spelled right?) problems..then refunded the money for the snake if proven it was an on going thing, and or offered to take it back? i dunno im not a breeder or seller i have just recived an extremely sick lizard and i would have liked it that way, any thoughts?