Opinions on a customer issue requested

I would like to solicit some opinions on a customer experience that has recently reared its ugly head.   My initial response is to tell the guy to take a flying leap, but I'd like to know if others think this is appropriate.
Here's the background on this deal:

A few months ago this guy calls me about purchasing a few animals and some of the animals he's hoping to breed.  I invite him over to my facility to look at my animals, and treat him as a friend.  He seems like a decent guy all the way up to a few days ago when he sends me an e-mail blasting me over one of my animals

More background:  He never buys anything from me (so guess he's not really been a customer in that sense), but instead of buying I offer to loan him two female Anza locality Rosy Boas to try his hand at breeding.  I even let him know he could keep his pick of half the litters produced by breeding his male to my two females.. Another favor I do him is since I'm working with some locality specific Mountain Kings, I agree to let my male "knock-up" his female and we would split the clutch.  Pretty generous offers in my opinion since with the numbers of rosies/kings I breed I would have produced babies from my females anyhow with one of my own males..

Here's the e-mail I received from him a few days ago:

Subj:    Your canabalistic Anza-borrego  
 Date:    Tue, 21 May 2002  2:40<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>7 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    "Ben ****" <****[email protected]>
 To:    <[email protected]>
 Sent from the Internet (Details)


Steve    

You can have have your rosies back when ever you want them.

The Big one has killed my male so if there not gravid now there

not going to be.

Ben *****

SO what do you all think?   Is this the case of a favor gone bad??  I've been breeding rosies for over a decade and have never had one eat another on me.. Of course I feed them separately and am not sure how he caged them/fed them.
Should I simply toss it aside, give him back his Kingsnake for my rosies then not return any e-mails/phone calls from him?
Or should I speak my mind in my most polite Marine Corps kind of way about how I truly feel about his message to me?

Thanks, Stephen Emerick


Napa Valley Snakes

i wouldn't get mad, rude, or disrespectful.  that's the worst thing you can do.  i would just take back the females, give him back his snake and be done with it.  like you said, you can't be assured of the care he was giving them so you can't reimburse him for anything.  things go wrong sometimes and there is nothing anyone can do about it.  whatever you do, don't paint yourself as the bad guy by being rude or disrespectful, that will just begin to make a case for this guy in the publics eye and make you look bad and that's something no one needs.  if you at some point (based on his story and the way he deals with things) feel that you may owe him something (i'm not saying you do or don't b/c i know very few of the details), then you may consider reimbusement in the way of snakes or $ or something to be worked out later, but i would only do it if he is civil with you and he explains everything to your satisfaction.
i don't know, these are just my thoughts, take them as you will.  best of luck in this situation.
jonathan brady

Well since you asked, there are not a lot of specifics in his e-mail or your post. IMHO, I would just return his king, get your Rosie's back. No need to give him a piece of your mind and start an arguement.

Dennis Gulla

I'd tell him that you're sorry for the loss of his male, but because the animals were in his care, I can't imagine that you would be responsible for this loss in any way at all.  I mean, it's not like you trained her as an attack snake, right?

If he wants his female king back, fine, but I'd say he still owes you the half-clutch you agreed on if she is gravid by your male.  I wouldn't pursuit it if he refuses to honor that agreement, but I'd sure remind him of it if he ever said anything bad about you.  That half-clutch might be the best insurance policy you could have against someone like that!

My $.02 worth.

Guys - Thanks to all of you for your input.. I just can't see how I'm liable to replace his male after having loaned him breeder females.. I would not have asked for a refund from him if one of my females would have been the casualty.. These weren't even the ones I had trained to be cannibalistic that currently roam my facility eating potential thieves  <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>
Darin - Have to agree with you on the solution.. We did agree to halve the clutches/litters, so I'll wait to see if his kingsnake is gravid, then once eggs are dropped, call him over to return his king and he can have half the clutch of eggs and incubate them on his own.. I've already got a couple hundred eggs in my incubator, so with his rather nasty e-mail to me I guess my doing him another favor by incubating his half of the eggs for him would kind of be ludicrous..

Stephen Emerick
Napa Valley Snakes

get your snakes back and forget the guy.
remember..the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
also..no good deed goes unpunished.
with that in mind its par for the course.

I think you are overreacting.  I've read his very short and to the point E-mail a number of times now and unless there is something more you are not sharing with us, I can't see what you are so upset about.  There may be a bit of heat to the E-mail, but I don't believe that it was directed at you.  Heck, I'd be pretty pissed too if I had just lost an animal to a freaky occurance like that.  Its almost impossible to tell "tone of voice" through an E-mail.  I'd say give him the benefit of the doubt and call him instead of E-mailing.

Mark

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Steve    

You can have have your rosies back when ever you want them.

The Big one has killed my male so if there not gravid now there

not going to be.</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>

This is quite unbelievable. I have raised both species in the past and unless an accident (if you feed them in the same enclosure) I can't see how that could happen. Kingsnakes can do that, but rosies? Now, I would have to assume he was not watching the female while she strangled the male. He probably found his male dead. Cause of death? Unknown (Uncompatible bacteria/parasites? Not that fast.). Get your snakes back and forget about the whole thing.

One suggestion though quarantine your snakes upon return.

Regards,   <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Daniel - Actually that was a point I brought up in my e-mail to him (which was actually quite polite I thought).  I stated that in the decade plus I've raised rosies, I've never had one kill another.. Yes, there have been accidents where they would bite one another, but that was always alleviated by feeding in a separate container and waiting a day before putting them back together again.  I've got 11 triv trivs in one large enclosure, and haven't had a problem.  By the way, he did leave me a voice mail also that changed a little in his version.  He now states the male was dead, but that it was not in fact eaten by the female but he found the female "around" the male.  Who knows, just aggravating when you try to do someone a favor and there's no thanks given..

Napa Valley Snakes