JG1153

It has been my intent for some time now to post this thread but due to the nature of my work I had been unable to spend the time to write it and consequently because of the nature of the thread I knew full well that this thread has the potential to stir controversy in which case I would need to present as much evidence in order to support my assertions, which once again will require time which I did not have until now, or I would risk coming of as just another windbag or a ranting loon

On 7/6/08 I contacted Dan Scolaro of DTS Herps, Inc. through email about an ad posted on Kingsnake.com regarding the sale and availability of some Blue Marine File Snakes. Each snake was being sold for $250.00. Mr scolaro emailed me back saying he still had about a dozen available and I negotiated a price of $950.00 for two pairs of these snakes (2 females, 2 males) plus a $60.00 shipping fee for a total of $1010.00. These animals were supposed to be blue (blue and black stripes), fungus free, and healthy according to his ad. There was also a live arrival guarantee. The money ($1010.00) was paid to Mr. Scolaro on 7/6/08 through Paypal(ID: 4YF06400736055425).

Mr Scolaro was advised that I was presently working in the Alaskan Arctic and would remain at work for an indefinite amount of time therefore the animals would have to be shipped to my roommate, Lemuel Burciaga, in San Marcos TX so shipping would have to be coordinated with him which he agreed to. The original shipping date was on 7/15/08 but there was a problem with the shipping and had to be rescheduled. The snakes were shipped through FEDEX (trackingnumber:865633436043) on Monday 7/21/08 to arrive on Tuesday 7/22/08. When the animals were received on 7/22/08 by Mr. Burciaga one was dead on arrival, one had a lesion on the ventral side, and all four snakes were heavily infected with fungus. In addition 2 of the animals were not blue(striped) but completely black (all black animals can be obtained regularly for $100.00 or less) which is not what was advertised and not what I paid the extra expense for. When Mr. Burciaga received these animals he immediately contacted me in Alaska at which time I instructed him to take photo documentation of the condition of the animals to be submitted to Mr. Scolaro. I contacted Mr. Scolaro on 7/22/08 and forwarded the photos Mr. Burciaga had emailed me. Mr. Scolaro apologized profusely and promised to set things right and send four new healthy, blue animals.

It was at this time Mr. Scolaro informed me he had used a third party(Justyn Miller/intense Herpetoculture) in Texas to ship these animals to me. In phone and email conversations on 7/22/08 and7/23/08 Mr. Scolaro requested the animals that had been shipped to be sent back to the shipper(Mr. Miller). I told him I could have Mr. Burciaga ship the animals back if he needed although shipping back might be a couple of days due to Mr. Burciaga's work schedule and most importantly due to the animals extremely sickly condition and rapid progression of the illness due to shipping stress if they were to be shipped back they would probably not survive the transit. He then said he would get back to me regarding the return of the animals. On 7/23/08 the snake with the ventral lesion died. Even after extensive medical treatment the other remaining two perished from the illness within a few weeks. On 7/24/08 Mr. Scolaro specifically instructed Mr. Burciaga and I not ship the animals back as it would probably be a waste of money and that we would receive four new, healthy, blue, specimens as soon a new shipment of them arrived (according to him he had none left at this time). Being that I was in very remote location of the world, working long hours and sensing I might be dealing with a disreputable merchant I decided not get confrontational about the situation which I could do very little about given my situation at the time and try to work things out in calm manner.

Over the course of the next three months I repeatedly contacted Mr. Scolaro about the new shipment of animals. For the first two months he continued to tell me the export/import permits for the animals hadn't been approved and so the shipper(Mr. Miller) in Texas had been unable to acquire new animals , but the permits would be approved soon and new animals would arrive soon afterwards. On 10/17/08 after contacting Mr. Scolaro about the new snake shipment he informed me the permits had been approved and the shipper/importer(Mr. Miller) was in the process of acquiring more animals.
On 10/29/08 I returned to Texas from Alaska. On 11/3/08 I contacted Mr Scolaro to check on the status of things. He Informed me he had been unable to contact Mr Miller for some time and asked how long I would be back in Texas for, to which I responded two weeks and that this situation would have to be settled within this time period. Mr. Scolaro agreed, said he would either refund my money, or send me the four animals he had retained from the original shipment for himself unless he was able to get a hold of Mr. Miller and get me four new snakes through him within the allotted time. I told him that either one of those options would be fine. Mr. Scolaro then said he would attempt to contact Mr. Miller and contact me with his decision. He never called back and on 11/10/08 I once again contacted Mr. Scolaro about the status of the ongoing situation. He once again said he'd been unable to get a hold of Mr. Miller and what he was thinking of doing was either sending me his four snakes, or refunding me my money, or sending me 2 of the snakes he had and a partial refund (which I told him was unacceptable). He then said he would try to contact Mr. Miller once more and call me back to inform me of what would be done. A few minutes later Mr. Scolaro called me back and informed me he'd been able to contact Mr. Miller and Mr. Miller was scheduled to receive a new shipment of animals on Wednesday 11/12/08. He then sent me Mr. Miller's contact information so I could get in contact with him and coordinate shipping.

I contacted Mr. Miller on 11/10/08 and he confirmed a shipment was supposed to arrive on Wednesday11/12/08. On Wednesday 11/12/08 I contacted Mr. Miller regarding the shipments and I was informed the shipment had not arrived and perhaps might arrive next Wednesday. I then contacted Mr. Scolaro and asked him to settle things with me within the two week period we had agreed on ending on 11/16/08 by either sending me the four snakes he had had in his possession this entire time or by refunding my money to which he answered I would have to wait indefinitely until the new shipment of animals happened to arrive at which point he would send me some new animals. I once again contacted Mr scolaro asking him to settle the matter like we had agreed otherwise I would have to resort to legal action to which he replied that I would have to wait and that he was not going to respond to threats of legal action(11/14/08).

On 11/16/08 Mr. Scolaro proceeded to post an almost identical ad to the one posted four months prior offering the very same animals he’d been telling me for the past 4 months he had none of. When I saw this ad on 11/17/08 I was unsure as to whether Mr. Scolaro had been lying to me all this time, had acquired new animals and was refusing to settle with me, or trying to con other people into buying animals he did not have. I asked my girlfriend to contact Mr. Scolaro through the Kingsnake ad pretending to be a potential customer and inquiring as to the availability of these animals. Mr Scolaro responded that he did in fact have animals available.

At this time, since Mr. Scolaro did not meet our agreed deadline I began filling reports with local P.D.s in both Texas and Florida, IC3, Better Business Bureau, Federal Trade Commision (false advertising), Paypal, my personal bank, and Kingsnake. Within a few days Mr Scolaro began frantically trying to get a hold of me and leaving desperate voicemails and emails all of a sudden very willing to settle the matter in any way possible, even offering free animals on top of a full refund, and begging me for the sake of his family to call off the FBI and cancel my claim with Kingsnake which had put his account on hold. He even admitted that the second ad was basically a scam designed “to get some sales going” on animals which he didn’t have and hadn’t had for the past fourth months. Interestingly enough this was the only time in the whole four month ordeal Mr. Scolaro took the initiative to contact me in order to settle the issue. By this time I was done dealing with him and decided he should reap what he sowed so I didn’t answer his phone call or emails. within a couple of days after that Mr. Scolaro not only refunded all of my money to my Paypal account but even gave me a little extra as a way to try to appease me and hopefully get me off the rampage path.