Steve Lieber/Vigo theveiledchameleon.com
 

I started dealing with this guy earlier this spring. I sold him hundreds of veileds over the months. He paid me but never in full. Then told me he sent payment thru the mail but it got lost several times. After him being in debt with me for over $3800, I decided not to send him anymore veileds. After that he stopped calling me, woundn't reply to my email or texts. I found out a couple other people have been burned by him too. A wholesaler and a cricket seller. If more info is needed I could go in detail. Just have to say, stay away from this guy. He's a taker and a liar.

Can you post a few emails from him?

Here are links to some previous Bad-Guy threads about Steve Vigo/Karin Lieber/Chameleons By Design.
I believe their website is "theveliedchameleon.com".
Buyer beware.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...t=karin+leiber

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...t=karin+leiber

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ght=steve+vigo

Sorry to hear you've been added to their list of victims.

Here is one you missed...

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=109755

Thanks Juli ... I thought that particular (Jim Flaherty) thread was #2 of the 3 threads I linked.

Oops-It is-you did not miss a one! :)

Steve vigo also burned my brother for almost $900 in Veiled chameleons and burned me for an adult het for leucistic monacle Cobra he was supposed to send me month's ago and now wont respond to my phone calls or e-mails.Just another Jay Eaton(liar and thief).

thanks alot for this i was ganna buy from him!! thanks alot!!

In addition to their normal site (http://www.theveiledchameleon.com/), they also have a second site (http://www.veiledchameleoncare.com/). The WhoIs info for their main site is an address in Portugal but here it is for their other site:

http://i48.tinypic.com/wwkk5j.png

Chris

got took !
 

Steve and Karin ripped me off as well . I bought 2 chameleons from them as well , but after i paid for them i have gotten nothing but excuses . It has been 3 weeks and i still don't have the chameleons or my money back . The first excuse was they ran out of boxes to ship them in and they would send them the following monday . Then they would not return my emails or take my phone calls . Now the excuse is that Steve was in an auto accident and broke his leg and cannot work . I find it hard to believe that a broken leg can keep him from writing a check and giving it to Karin to put in a mailbox . I just emailed him and told him i would file suit in small claims court if he didn't send payment through Western Union tomorrow by 3 pm . A new friend of mine gave me this link , so i didn't know he did this to everyone before tonight . So not only can he pay me for my chameleons back , he is going to pay for my gas money to drive to florida and back and a hotel room for 2 nights . Hopefully the court system will make him shut down his website so he can not rip anyone else off . I will print all of the negative feedback from this website and take them with me to court . I hope all of this was worth it to him .

im sorry you got took advantage of by him. hope everything goes in your favor. keep us posted!

I contacted KS.com about banning Steve and Karin as Seller's. This is what I got back:

Hi John,

In order for your complaint to be considered a formal complaint against an individual or a business, we require that you file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) located at http://www.ic3.gov/.

Once you have completed filing a complaint there, they will e-mail you an username and password. Please forward this to us and we will begin an internal investigation of your complaint.

If you reply, please include this email in its entirety in your reply for tracking purposes.

--
Melody/Classifieds Coordinator
phclassifieds@pethobbyist.com

I don't feel I have an actual complaint anymore because I recieved all of my money back. This is the information for everyone else, I don't like the fact he can still screw other people on the internet!

I have gone through this process before, when I was burned by someone selling on KS. It is actually not that bad. ~Six months later I got an e-mail from KS asking me if the issue had been resolved as the seller was trying to get back in and was claiming we had settled our dispute. Upon telling them this was not the case, I still have not seen them back on KS. So at least in my case, KS took it seriously.

Caliente dragons agreed to a refund and I returned the animals, I never recieved a dime. I filed Internet fraud and through KS. They gave them a "mark" against their account.no one knows how many people they get to burn before the marks add up to a ban. Everyone should do the paperwork so it adds up.

i just ordered a savannah monitor from them and now i cant get ahold of them they wont aswer my call or email me back at all im a little p'd about it.

Has the OP provided any proof of this scam yet or is this just old stuff being dredged up

i ordered the sav on sat they said they would be shipping monday or tues and still havent got it and they wont return any emails or phone calls and i have tried calling them since monday.

Please post emails with headers, and any other proof you have.

Steve Vigo and Karen Lieber of thechameleoncompany.com
 

Hello,
I too have been recently scammed by Steve Vigo. I ordered 5 farmed savannah monitors that were supposed to be 8-10 inches. I was very concerned about receiving the shipment because it was around 40 degrees. Steve told me that he was qualified to ship in the cold and to not worry. I was dumb and listened to him. When I received the animals, there was absolutely no heating in the box and they were freezing. This wasn't the first thing I noticed. After opening the pillowcase I came to see massive animals. After measuring, these animals measured 14, 17, 17.5, 18 and 18 inches. They were massive. After further inspection, one of the savannahs had a crushed hand with many broken fingers. Another had a broken hand and was having alot of trouble walking. Each one of the animals was infested with ticks as well.

Steve was very responsive when receiving the money, but every time I tried to contact him after I showed my anger, I was told that he was not in the office or that he was "sick". I am still trying to contact the man, but just like many other people on this thread, it looks like he robbed me as well.

I just ordered an ornate pacman from from them. Steve said on tuesday that my frog would ship yesterday. However I didnt recieve any email with tracking information. In case you didnt know if you used paypal to buy from them you can get your money back within 60 days of it being sent. If I dont get a response from him today I am going to file a dispute with paypal. If any of you call paypal and tell them what happened they will be shut down from recieving payments that way, which will make it much harder to scam people.

...Or easier depending of which end of the rope the scammer is...We have only used PayPal for down payments; you use the benefits of speed risking only a fraction of the total amount.

Best

I would never send a check or money order to buy something online. It doesnt make any sense, paypal is good for not only speed buy the have buyer protection that will get your money back if you have been scammed. Even if the seller sends you an animal that is sick or deformed in some way paypal will refund the full amount you paid including shipping. The easiest way to get scammed is by sending a check or money order.

You haven't read enough threads on here with tons of stories about people being sent sick animals...dead animals...and even empty boxes with random crap that had no animals. And Paypal didn't do squat for them because a tracking number had been given, proving shipment was sent and received. They may be a little better with their eBay customers...but the rest of us out here in the real world rarely get the benefits of any of Paypal's "protections."

Your best bet is to back your paypal account with a really good credit card. A good CC company takes fraud a lot more seriously and will be far more ready to do a charge back than Paypal ever will.

I am just speaking from my own experience. When I bought some live coral from a guy on another site and it arrived dead. I contacted the seller for over a week with no response. Then I called paypal and by the end of the week I recieved a full refund. With paypal you wil get your money back you just have to be firm with them on the phone that the seller scammed you and the product was dead on arrival. Paypal does an investigation into the sellers live arrival guarantee and then refunds your money.

^ I would have to say that is an exception to their policy. Paypal has traditionally not gotten involved with any issues involving a live animal. Paypal's Buyer Protection really only extends to items purchaded through ebay sites. As long as their is evidence a seller sent you ANYTHING, they consider you rec'd your product.
Most people find this out and muct go thru their CC to recover the money.

Curious if you were aware of their reputation on here kluas, and went ahead and ordered anyway? Hope you recv your pacman and it does well forya!

Actually only after emailing them yesterday and today and not recieving a response did I start to look at the site reviews and found this board of inquiry. Steve said that he would ship my frog to me yesterday and I havent recieved tracking info yet. If I cant get a response by 1pm I am going to file a claim with paypal and tell them about how this site has been scamming people. Hopefully they will place holds on there acount and refund my money. I wish I would have seen this thread before I bought. All I wanted was a healthy pacman for a low price. $35 shipped is to good to be true

Just wanted to say that it turns out he did ship yesterday. I just recieved my ornate pacman and it is in fantastic condition! Much healthier than any pacman from a pet store. For only $35 shipped this was a steal! Pacmans in my area cost at least that much in the pet store. I think they have turned it around.

Most scammers going through paypal take the money out as soon as it hits their bank and then you have no recourse for recovery if there is no money in the account. Speaking from previously being scammed. CC with guarantee is bout the only recovery/

Glad you got the frog. At least one guy got what he ordered.

This looks to me like a classic case of those magical blinders that convince someone whatever they experience in life automatically guarantees the same experiences for everyone else.

I'm glad you had a situation resolved with paypal. I know they certainly DO resolve some situations satisfactorily, but the fact is, they are extremely inconsistent with their "protection" and I've seen way too many people on both the buyer's side and the seller's side SCAMMED out of their money not just by the bad guy, but also by paypal who would not live up to their vaunted "protections."

It's fine to say, "I had a good experience, so maybe you will to." But to say, "I had a good experience, so they WILL fix things for you too" is just wrong.

Same with the frog. I'm REALLY glad you got what you wanted and you're really happy with it. But dealing with a "business" like this is a crap-shoot. You MIGHT get what you expected and wanted....but you very well might not. And just because you got yours is not evidence that they've turned some corner and suddenly become good guys.

Sorry...I don't mean to be harsh if that's how it sounds. I just get very weary of those magical blinders. :rolleyes:

Usually when people write a review of something its for something negative that happened. So since I had a positive experience I am leaving positive feedback for the business. I didnt say that they were a great business but I do think that they have sold products to many more people than the ones on this BOI. So maybe the rest of this businesses customers did get there animals and were happy.

I will say though that it would help Steve if he came on here and explained what happend with his customers orders.

Also being a ebay seller and having used paypal countless times to purchase fish and reptiles I can say that you have a very good chance of getting your money back if something goes wrong especially if your buying from an internet business. This is because internet businesses have to have special accounts with paypal so that if there is an issue they cant take the money right away. Business have to abide by stricter rules with paypal. As far as individual personal accounts they can pretty much steal your money if your not careful.

It is so sad, that it looks like they spend a good bit of time on their website making it presentable and trustworthy... I've been contemplating a purchase, but I'm glad I'm holding out due to my research phase.

I say if your considering purchasing from them use a credit card thru paypal thaat way they cant take your money.

Steve Lieber "The Scammer"
 

I have a best friend that is a lawyer and he stated that you guys(collectively or individually) can take him to court with the forum documents and so on. I got lucky back years ago and purchased a male veiled(my first cham) from him and actually received it(even though it was a female). I also watched a guy start taking items off a table at the Repticon show and the seller flipped out and then the guy said "remember me I'm *** that you've ripped off $2000 in hybrids so I taking what's mine and this guy is my lawyer(pointing to the guy behind him with a file of documents) and if you even try anything I'll kick your a**. That was a show stopper! lol Needless to say the vendor let him take almost what he owed but it was a weird moment to be around but I think I would do the same if I ran into a vendor that owed me thousands. I hope you guys actually run into Steve and take everything from him that he owes you guys. People like that will never get anywhere in life. All I have to say is Karma is a b*tch! :AR15firin

Steve "Scumbag" Vigo's Verified Home Address
 

Can anyone of help me verify the current address for Steve Vigo is 4562 NW 58th Court Tamarac, Florida 33319. IF you know of a different address post it here, or pm me asap. Thanks in advance. Randall

The fact that you got sold a female veiled instead of a male is an automatic red flag. Veiled Chameleons are hands down one of the easiest reptiles to sex.