and I hope Alex at Boa Republic reads this too...
spam_several months back I bought a pair of het albino boas off Alex of Boa Republic... he reassures me that they are BOTH feeding (the female being a pig that would eat anything you put in front of her... and the male only wanting live food)
spam_Both counts were wrong.. the male is the one that devours everything but the kitchen sink, and after a month and a half trying dead, fresh kill, live, rats, mice, gerbils on the female, she would NOT eat anything of her own accord, so I started force feeding her fuzzy mice before she ended up getting starved beyond no return.
spam_Meanwhile I had emailed Alex several times telling him I was not satisfied with this situation, and all he did was say "give it time, she'll kick in and eat eventually"... spam_ When I was asking for a replacement female..
spam_Well there was NO talk from him of being willing to replace her at No cost to me, and so I waited, and kept trying all forms of prey for her to willingly take, and emailing Alex every so often reinforcing that I wasn't happy, and forcefeeding this poor little female het. What he did say is that (even though I PAID FOR and DESERVED healthy animals once already) I could have another female at 50% off the $85... AND I would of course have to pay shipping BOTH ways in order to get a snake that actually EATS..
spam_There are probably a couple people gonna read this that I wrote to who were selling Het females that I was looking at buying... and have heard this story before.
spam_anyway, I got talked into writing him a "last chance" email (make me happy or I tell the world what you did) by one of the top breeders in the boa world today, and as promised, that got a reply out of Alex... a reply of "well I don't have enough money to ship you a new female and pay to have that one sent back here"... spam_Selling albino boas for over $1,000 each and numerous hets 100% and 66% , all also for good cash, and he can't afford to make one customer happy who's got a snake that would DIE if I didn't keep manually feeding her. And if anyone questions the authenticity of MY claims I can provide 2 witnesses who watched me try to feed this snake live, fresh killed, thawed, mice/rats/gerbils and saw this little snake refuse everything.
spam_ I mean let's face it, if I follow HIS instructions on how to feed the snake and it still doesn't eat after 3 months or so (he did say to give it time), you'd think that's a sign that you really did send out a screwed up animal!!!
spam_ So I think Alex didn't really care whether I was happy or not seeing as how he didn't do right by me and send me a snake that's healthy... I take non-feeding as being non-healthy... no reputable seller should let snakes like that go out the door.. spam_even if it is just a $122.50 animal with shipping... spam_ in a world of $1,000 high end ones that are more likely to get backed up if a customer isn't satisfied..
People still have the *resposibility* to sell good quality animals AND make customers happy with ALL legitimate complaints... spam_
spam_Alex failed to do so with me... so I"m letting everyone here know as a warning... buyer beware when dealing with Alex Barriero at Boa Republic...
take your money somewhere else before he pulls one on you too....and you end up looking like this...
or this...
because nobody enjoys being burned!!
Craig Hulsey
Fairbanks Alaska
spam_
spam_that little female is now several inches shorter than the male because I don't want to "force" feed her too much... spam_ so much for having a breeding pair now that the male is outgrowing her so fast.... anyone got a ladder-tail het albino female boa they wanna sell that's over 2 ft???