Conclusion of dealings with Eric Crider
 

Hello everyone,
My name is Koby Engel and I had the misfortune of working with Eric 2 years ago.
At the time, I had to withdraw my claims from this board since I had no choice- my money was already transferred to Eric and he demanded I'll remove the post if I want to see the reptiles I paid for here in Israel.

I contacted Eric on March 2011. I am bringing this up again since there were issues and updates I think the community should be aware of when choosing to deal with him.

Eric agreed to ship the animals to Israel and promised that this can occur within 10 business days.

I sent Eric 60,000 NIS, the equivalent of 15-20K USD at the time.

Since then, Eric has repeatedly sent false reports and made errors. Eric claimed to have sent animals to Israel and that he's aware of the procedure- but he sent salmonella test swabs to only a handful of animals rather than all of them, and made other such errors that had cost money and quite a bit of time.

For roughly 5 weeks, he continued repeating various mistakes... every week assuring us that he learned from his mistakes until finally, after a period of said 5 weeks of repeating mistakes, he informed us that he got the CITES permit(after claiming that he had Master CITES and that this wouldn't take any time at all).

A summary of just a few of the emails.

28'th of July 2011:

"Well all is ready now, just waiting for Broker/Lufthansa ready to 'OK' to ship. All health certs are complete.
Sitting on USDA desk, I will call them and they will stamp and I will pay to have courier driver them say day to broker and fax you copy.
Please see attached copys of all docs"

5'th of August 2011:

"Well Friday after noon I got telephone call from USDA veterinary and he has delayed signature of paper work based on the issues states below, it is Monday am here and I am in contact with my local vet at Kulshan veterinary hospital to get this issues resolved as fast as possible to get shipment in the air.

PLEASE be patient as I am very frustrated at this point, so I can resolved the issues at hand and will advice all party's this afternoon as I know more."

Please realize that this very chain of events has been unfolding over the last -10- weeks. Every time a different mistake.

During this whole period, Eric has refused to refund my money

Here are the facts:

1- Eric claimed to have a Cites Permit and that he can deliver the animals within 10 business days. It took him 6-7 weeks just to obtain the Cites permits.

2- For over 10 weeks Eric made technical mistakes and errors.

3- Eric guaranteed arrival within 10 business days, the money was wired immediately, it took close to 3 months for the animals to get here.

4- Orders for reptiles were taken in advance, and the relevant time period had long gone. This meant loss of money to all relevant parties here in Israel.

5- Eric has been extremely unreliable as far as communication goes. He promised to get back to me and then didn't, I had to chase him around the clock to get updates and answers.

6- The dealings with Eric were extremely shady. On more than one occasion when we'd ask for pictures he'd send pictures of animals that weren't on my order manifest. At one point he was bold enough to send an email with 2 pictures of a blood Boa. Eric claimed that they were "too nippy" to properly take more photos of... I sent them to the person who owned them- so that he'll be able to appreciate the animals he paid for.

Imagine my embarrassment when that person got back to me- he pointed me to Exotic By Nature's site and indeed, those two pictures were from there. Indeed, after checking with Sean from EbN at the time, Eric indeed bought a pair of Blood Boas, but those pictures were from 2009, and of only one animal.

(see attached mail)

http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...ps06b54ef1.png


Now, after all was said and done, the shipment did take place(even though one of the Boas had a broken tail tip)- BUT, Eric failed to provide the full list of animals since several of them failed their Salmonella testing(meaning that the animals were shedding the bacteria. Hardly the state of healthy reptiles).

At the time, I was also forced to financially cover up for his mistakes in the medical test department, so I paid allot more than I should have- 2000$!

Now- why am I bringing this up now? well for undelivered animals(the ones that failed the Salmonella tests), Eric ows me 3500$.
For roughly 2 years he's been avoiding me, and refusing to pay up what I am due.

Recently, he described a fantasy concocted from God knows where- that I still own the animals he could not send, and that he should be paid for their maintenance. Also, since 2 years had passed and the BP market changed, their value is now lower.
Interestingly enough, he took the liberty of selling some of those animals though(how exactly do I own them if he sells or keeps at his own discretion without making sure I get those animals?).

You see, I am at a tough position here cause the man has my money and I from Israel can't do a whole lot.
I -tired- to reach some sort of agreement. Eric admitted to have sold 1350$ worth of animals from "my stock" and agreed that I am entitled to them. He refused to pay me the full 3500$.

http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...psd2f39d0d.jpg

He promised to send me that sum via bank transfer and I suggested we also work out a sum that is more relevant to today's value(again, this is outrageous but what choice do I have?)

He had since promised again and again to send the 1350$ and a counter-proposition for the rest of the animals.

He sent an email with "see attached file" with no attached file... he ignored requests to resend.

He promised to send the money on several occasions and failed to execute that as well.

http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...ps56722743.jpg


To add insult to injury- some of the animals from that shipment were diagnosed with Crypto after some time they spent in their new owner's collections. I cannot know for a fact that this originated from him, or that they were carriers at the time of arrival.

In short, I have given up, in the face of the repeating lies.
This post's purpose is to show the real face of Eric when he deals with someone who he thinks he has the upper hand on.

How he believes that if he fails to deliver an animal I paid for, I still own it, though he still does with it as he pleases and wishes. And even though he never said such a thing in the course of over two years.

You decide whatever you wish. I would think twice and more before making any transaction with the man.

Yakov(Koby) Engel.

BTW- since then I have made several, very smooth dealings with other herp dealers and everything went perfectly.

Just to clarify your first paragraph


Your previous posts were not removed from this board. We don't remove them.

However, you posted using Oren's account and that is why you show no previous posts (for those that may be wondering).

Here is the first thread on this subject

Calling Eric a "Bad Guy"

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=250127

Here is the second calling Eric a "Good Guy"

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=254799

Reference here will help people understand what your talking about and what has been posted before.

That is why you are suppose to use the same thread here instead of starting a new one every time you report about a person.

I also just want to be clear because I don't see where it was commented on in the previous posts. You guys need to post from your separate accounts. It confuses the readers and is against the TOS of the site.

Good luck on any resolution.

Thank you Dennies. Yes, you're absolutely right I was not clear enough.
When I wrote that I had to withdraw my original post, I meant that I had to ask Oren to go back on his(my) statement and go as far as to post a positive thread in order to pacify Eric and try and get a positive resolution.

I think I was as understanding and forgiving as possibly can be expected... but this has gone way too long and way too far.

I chose now to expose details that were not shared back then, and give a more complete update.

I apologize for not using the same account but I did not wish Oren to again have to take the blame for speaking on my behalf, so I opened an account for myself.

I have used Eric for several export shipments without a problem, and he has been no less than stellar every time.

I would highly recommend him to anyone when shipping overseas.

Hmmmm, Josh, perhaps you could persuade Eric to conclude this transaction in an equitable fashion. Seems he might need a nudge in the right direction if what the OP says is true.

Eric, anything to say?

I will mention it to him.. it seems to be very one sided on what is being said here vs what actually happened...

Couple questions for you.
1. Are ALL the animals shipped owned by Eric, or were they purchased from various breeders under an umbrella agreement?
2. The delays, caused by standard CITES regs or by the rules outside of CITES imposed by your government?

Sorry for missing the replies

Erm, well, of course it is one sided. I am also quite sure Eric believe things went down differently. BUT- the emails clearly expose lies, and I will post more if it's really needed.

You see for yourselves that he promises something and does not pull through, and that he feels comfortable to take other people's pictures, claim that they were taken just now, and boldly lie that these are two snakes that he just couldn't take photos of at once because they were nippy... when the picture is of the same snake and taken by Sean from EbN.


1. Roughly 70% were his(Eric). Maybe he had to buy some in order to close the deal, I honestly don't know- he provided a list of what he can provide and I closed a list with him. 30% were bought from another breeder with whom Crider claimed to work closely

2. We need to "divide and clarify" here- Israel poses no special CITES regs. Eric claimed to have Master CITES when accepting the deal, and then suddenly, he needed 5 weeks to get the CITES Permit that he claimed to already own.

The further delays were caused by a restriction by our goverment, demanding a clear Salmonella testing results to be conducted within a short time-frame prior to shipping.
The number of repeating mistakes here was beyond reasonable... sending the wrong number of tests in and the like.

Reasonable or not, you need to realize that Eric claimed to have shipped to Israel before and that the entire process will not take longer than 10 business days.

And even then, I was willing to drop it- but he still ows me money, since he did not ship the promised amount of animals(he failed to provide animals that cleared the Salmonella tests). He first says that I still own the unshipped animals(after more than a year of silence), and then also claims that he did sell some of those animals... these two statements do not go hand in hand together.

He admitted to own me money, and did not send it- I have 10 or so SMS messages and emails promising me that he's wiring the money- nothing happened.

This is disshonest conduct, period.

I just wanted to add,
Look, I am at a disadvantage here- afterall, he has my money and there's not a whole lot I can do at this point.

I'm doing this primarily in order to save others the same predicament. I have been trying to resolve this for ages without much success.

I will upload more emails and SMS's later since questions were raised and I want everything to be "on the table".

Last thing- Eric was informed and was aware of this restriction and demand PRIOR to accepting the deal. He was very fast in assuring us that he knows how this is done and we shouldn't worry- 10 business days is all it'll take.