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That Ad You Maybe Shouldn’t Respond To:

This concerns a transaction that I thought might be worth sharing, if only for the learning aspect of it. Of course, I also welcome your opinions, and will consider them part of that learning experience as well.

Recently I saw an ad on Kingsnake.com offering a “CBB 2016 Female Eastern Rat Snake”, further described as “super black”, which happened to be something I was looking for. The attached photo confirmed the coloration, and shipping was included in the asking price. I was interested, considering the sex and age, but there were a couple of flags that I should have paid more attention to. First, the seller offered free shipping 2nd day, with a live arrival guarantee, not overnight. Second, the seller mentioned that they would not answer “dozens of questions as all nessasary info is mentioned rite here in the add”. I contacted them anyway to ask about that 2nd day shipping, and was told that they always “ship 2day for everything as next day is totally unnecessary and overrated and expensive to I've never had a doa as it's all in the packing in which I have much experinace with, check my profile I have 2 recent reviews for sales both shipped 2day”. I took the chance and purchased the animal anyway.

The snake was as pictured in the ad, and did arrive safe and healthy on the second day, however, there were three things that bothered me anyway:

First was the packaging, or rather lack thereof. The box was thin and slightly crushed. There was no insulation at all. The snake was bagged (with some moss, which was nice), but all that was in the interior was a thin sheet of packing foam paper, top and bottom, and a single layer of hard crunchy things pretending to be “peanuts” in the bottom. There was lots of air space around the bag, allowing for a lot of banging around in transit. The box was well sealed, with no ventilation for air, and had no markings whatsoever suggesting its contents. None of the standard labeling was used.

Second, the snake had a large scar about ¼ the way back on its right side. The scar was old and healed, not life threatening, but not the sort of injury one usually sees in captive bred animals. It was something you might expect in a wild-caught animal, and was never mentioned by the seller, or captured in the ad photo.

Third, the animal had the perfect appearance of a male, not female. The ad did state that the sex was not 100% guaranteed, but did appear very female. I’ve sold a snake that turned out to be the opposite gender that I thought it was. This happens. Many sellers do not guarantee sex. I was ok with “appears female”. Some snakes are difficult to sex. This one was very male, like not-really-a-question male.

I contacted the seller about the packaging, saying that despite the lack of insulation, the animal had arrived safely as promised. I mentioned the scar, asked how it got there, and asked for confirmation that it was indeed CBB. I also mentioned the rather prominent male tail thickness and asked their reasoning in considering it a female. The seller copied the ad back to me with only one comment: “Here is a copy and paste of the add nothing more needs to be said as I see you didnt bother to even read it all you did was look at the price and photos and then email me!!!!!”

I have tried to contact the seller a few more times, but they refuse to answer me. On top of this, I do not even know who the seller is! The ad was posted by a two-initial username (AM or AJ, or something like that). I thought I had a name in the email, but that turned out to be the scientific name of another reptile. They have never used their name in any correspondence, and it isn’t even on the shipping label.

I don’t know whether to be angry with the seller, angry with myself, or both. Do I seek some form of satisfaction, or just chalk it up to experience? I don’t even have a name to complain about! I still have the option to take this up with Paypal. What would you do?

Attached Images