Deanna (Dena) Freeman, Rainbow Geckos USA

Hello,


My name is Rachel Bowers. This is my first time posting any kind of bad feedback on here. I am fairly unhappy with a recent transaction I have had with Ms. Freeman at Rainbow Geckos USA. This first started August the 28th of 2015, Rainbow Geckos USA was having an instagram special going on with with some of their geckos. I commented on a picture of one of the geckos that i was interested in to ask if it was available on the special. I was told normally that gecko would not but this time it would be okay. So i had sent out the payment not realizing that i had made a mistake. I then received a message from Ms. Freeman saying that she had not received payment. I double checked and realized that I had sent out the payment to a Deena Freeman instead of Deanna Freeman (shown in pictures below). I had apologized and explained what happened and that i had to wait for the refund to go through to make payment and that I understood if the payment was too late to get the gecko. She said she was alright with it, and the payment was fixed and sent three days later (also shown in pictures). A little over a week or so went by and like anyone that had just purchased something I got anxious and asked if I could possibly get a picture of my gecko and that I was curious about how and when she ships. She explained the gecko wasn't of size yet so shipping had to wait (which I understood and was alright with) and that she had to get to taking photos then she would then send me one. Well about a month or so goes by and I had still not received any photo of my gecko. I then sent her another message asking if she had taken any photos yet and that I would love to see the gecko, she then FINALLY sent me a reply that she had just noticed about a week before hand that the gecko looks to have a double jointed leg (in which I am starting to doubt now, you will read why later in the post with pictures to back it up) and if I want she could send me some pictures of some possible replacement geckos. So I agreed and after yet another week of no photos to choose from I finally just asked for a refund. (i do not have all of the screenshots from this point in time, but if anyone could kindly ask Ms. Freeman to unblock me I would be more then happy to get and post them!!!!)

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...20on%20special


I posted the above because I had noticed she had made a post on her Facebook page stating I was only going to tell half of the truth, so why not start from the beginning.



Okay as for this recent transaction.... On October 9th 2015 Rainbow geckos was having an auction for a Bold Red Stripe Bell Albino 100% het Radar.

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...and%20comments


The auction had ended on October 10th 2015 and I had the winning bid. The auction post had stated that payment for the gecko had to be made within 48 hours of the end of the auction. My payment went through smoothly this time within the first 24 hours, because of the previous accident so I was very cautious. (The auction post with the comments will be pictured, along with transaction history.) I waited until it was a little closer to shipping to pay it but the second she asked anything about it I sent the money which was on October 20th 2015. Okay now remember these dates, if you need to you can double check on the picture of our transaction history. Literally 11 days after i had won and paid for the gecko (aswell as having the shipping paid), she then made a post on October 22nd with some geckos in it saying they will be available for shipping to December HAMM after two people are done looking.... I look in the post and my gecko that i had already completely paid for was there in the post (which will be pictured), I clicked on the picture of MY gecko and the first comment on it was from Ms. Freeman tagging someone and telling them she can throw it in with the others???(also pictured with the dates showing it was after the gecko was sold!) Below is the post with the picture of the gecko I was supposed to receive with its comments, aswell as for the gecko that I actually received!

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...ter%20purchase

I shrugged it off and didn't even mention it to her, thinking it was just a mistake. Shipping time came we made sure everything was ready and i would be here to receive the gecko. The gecko arrived on time and as planned. I then unboxed the gecko took a short look at it then put it away so that it could get adjusted to its new home without to much stress. I then contacted Ms. Freeman to let her know the gecko had arrived safely and was in its new home resting, at which time she asked me to give her a good review on here. Well i wanted to wait a couple of days first to make sure the gecko was eating, defecating, and just overall okay. I trusted her and all but i do that with every gecko when it comes here. Well feeding time came a couple of days later and she was hanging out in her hide again, so i decided Ive given her enough time to at least give her a nice good look. I pulled her out and realized this was not the same gecko I had purchased, the one i had bought and wanted had two full stripes running the sides of her back, a little different head pattern, and a nice cloudy looking tail. I immediately contacted Ms. Freeman to let her know there was a problem and sent her pictures of the gecko I had received along with the one I was supposed to. She stated that she had help with the shipping of the animals and that she was upset that her helper had accidentally pulled her "HOLDBACK" and shipped it to me (which i noticed the gecko i had received was for sale with a price on it in the same post from the 22nd that my gecko was posted in, pictured aswell). At that time she said what we could do is wait for the shipping label to be sent so I could then send this gecko back and wait to receive mine. A day or two passed and she messaged me while I was a busy taking care of my elderly grandmother and taking two sick dogs to the vet with about 10 messages basically stating if i do not contact her within a couple of hours our business will then be finished. about an hour after she had sent all of the messages I was finally able to see them and told her that i was there. She then told me she sent her helper an Email not to cancel anything and that i would have to wait about 2 hours for a reply to see if her HELPER had already canceled it and if so things would have to stay???(after I had waited so long for any pictures from her, and receiving the wrong gecko along with being polite about the ordeal) I figured well its her business and it couldn't be right her saying that i have to keep the wrong gecko. I then said alright thank you and i appreciate you trying to fix this. I waited the rest of the night and never got anything back from her so I messaged her the next morning asking if she had any news and that i was ready to go get the label and ship the gecko. She told me she was at appointments all morning and when she got through she would let me know and that why things had to be handled the day before. A couple of hours later I received a message stating She had just got home and her helper has canceled it? I knew that things here, and simply stated that i would like the gecko i originally purchased. She then started to get rude with one of her messages saying she didn't understand because the geckos were the same morph with close visuals, and bringing up the issue we had with our first transaction months before also tying to say i was late on this one (not realizing i have proof i was not). I then let her know that I knew the gecko she had sent me was not I hold back and that I have seen the post, but not yet letting her know that I saw she was basically reselling my gecko. The only thing she could say back was that the post says they were holdbacks nfs, Im guessing she was hoping or thinking i was talking about a different post she has up. I then asked her again if i am getting the gecko i was supposed to and explained to her why I couldn't do it the day she came up with and never told me ahead of time it was that day like she claimed. So she asked me when the temps get below 35 where I'm from so I sent her a month long forecast. She then said Okay to let her get through these tests and she will send out my gecko and take a loss for the one i have, which was never suggested but okay Im not going to complain about that. I let her know to take her time and do what she needs to do. about an hour after that she sent me another message telling me to box the gecko i had received and go to fed ex with a list of shipping instructions and said it should be simple but to message her if i get confused. I then sent her a message letting her know that I was confused and the last thing she said was that i was going to keep this gecko. Her last message to me said that My last message is what will happen, that she is a single mother and cannot take a $265 loss from her hobby and do not feel that i deserve a free gecko. The last message i sent her from this account before she blocked me I let her know that i was getting frustrated with everything that she actually posted the gecko for sale for less, and finally told her that i knew about my gecko on the post and the comment on the pic saying she could throw it in. Right after that she blocked me and deleted her other posts so i wasn't able to get the last of the messages or exactly all of them but like i said if there is any way you could get her to unblock me i would post them all. I did log on to an old account to send her one last message though it was just to let her know that i was posting a BOI about her, I mean i would like to know if one was getting posted about me.

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...y/Conversation


I used to have high respect for the lady and have always heard good things but this is my exact experience. Sorry if there is alot here but like i said she had posted saying i was going to tell half of the story so here it all is.

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...e%20about%20me

I didn't read everything Rachel posted and to be quite honest I don't have any more time to waste with her. Some of the things she said are true, she did purchase a gecko during a special I had. She didn't make the payment in a timely manor however rather than cancel the sale (as I clearly should have) I allowed her to purchase the gecko. She hasn't posted all the screen shots only the ones that defend her side. It was over a week before she finally made payment on the original purchase. Life happens and emergencies occurs. It is true she began immediately asking about shipping to which I always responded in the same way "The temps in Arizona don't go below 90 till the end of October so shipping won't happen till then". She continued to message asking about shipping. I have had to pay someone to help me care for the geckos this season due to personal situations that have artisan. At the point where I was servicing the tub the 151st gecko she purchased was in I noticed something off with its right rear leg. Over the next day I was able to determine its right ear leg was double jointed and advised her. I offered her a refund or exchange. Eventually she chose a refund which was issued. I had decided not to deal with her as I had come to believe she was one of those customers and inevadably problems would arise. Ibstaryed an auction group on Facebook so I could choose who could join the group and hopefully avoids customers like her. I didn't realise until she bid on an auction that she was a member. I could have,out kicked her from the group at that point (which now I realise would have been prudent) however since she was a member and she did bid I didn't do. She won the auction and immediately began asking when I would ship. As gecko breeders/owners we all know no shipping below 35 degrees or over 90. Even thought it was still not close to the end of October I again told her I wouldn't ship till the temps were appropriate at the middle to the end of October. Finally the temps broke and we started scheduling shipping. I had over 40 geckos to ship and again paid someone to help me ship. The gecko she won at auction was a hold back I had decided to release as that particular morph was in high demand. The guy helping me pulled the wrong gecko. She notified me the gecko arrived safe and sound. 3 days later she contacted me saying,it was the wrong gecko so I investigated and it was in fact another hold back. I notified her I would send a shipping label for her to ship the wrong gecko back to me and I personally would ship the correct gecko back to her. Normally in this situation I would just ship out the correct gecko and let her keep the one she already had. After speaking to other ppl who were familiar with this situation as well as her I chose not to let her keep the wrong gecko. I notified her via Facebook to watch Monday for a message from me detailing what she needed to ship the gecko on Tuesday. Friday night was the last real o new I had from her and she agreed. Monday morning I began trying to contact her about our arrangement and had everything set up for both geckos to be shipped. She didn't respond to any of my messages. Finally I told her that since she wasn't responding our business was concluded. I issued her a refund and received an email from PayPal stating she had to accept it. I don't know if this is something new with PayPal as it has been a couple years since I have issued a refund. I will not be continuing to follow this any longer as it has been resolved. My reputation speaks for its self. I was notified by someone about this post. Not someone I have sold to as yet but someon who knows the story Rachel is telling didn't quite sound right. I am not saying everything she wrote he was incorrect however she did not tell the entire story. We both made mistakes throughout our dealings but the bottom line is she has a 265.00 gecko and she has theb100.00 she paid for it back. I seriously don't know what more she is expecting from me. Be cautious if you choose to deal with her or you might be here Dr f ending your self too.

Could you Please unblock me on facebook so I can take screenshots of EVERY message between the two of us? I dont see any that you have posted for any proof...

Also you had just contradicted yourself, You have given me a refund not even two months ago for the gecko you couldn't send me a new picture of (proof in pictures above), and you say you haven't had to in years? I guess i had just received the payment at 4:00 this morning but didn't show me until now. So me having to accept it was a lie. I would also love to know about the post that the sold gecko was in? It leads me to believe you had just sold it for a higher price.

http://s411.photobucket.com/user/rab...y/recentrefund

Before the moderators of the site get onto you about this, you should know that outside links are prohibited. All screenshots must be uploaded to this site. This has to do with preventing loss of evidence. The BOI is forever, photos get removed from photobucket all the time.

Originally Posted by rainbowgeckos04

I will not be continuing to follow this any longer as it has been resolved.

Apparently from the story, you sent the wrong gecko. How is that a resolution?

Originally Posted by rainbowgeckos04

My reputation speaks for its self.

We do not know your reputation here, the only thing I've gleaned is that you allegedly don't send out the correct critter. That's not a good reputation to have.

Originally Posted by rainbowgeckos04

I was notified by someone about this post. Not someone I have sold to as yet but someon who knows the story Rachel is telling didn't quite sound right. I am not saying everything she wrote he was incorrect however she did not tell the entire story.

You have the opportunity to tell, and prove, your side of the story.

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Before the moderators of the site get onto you about this, you should know that outside links are prohibited. All screenshots must be uploaded to this site. This has to do with preventing loss of evidence. The BOI is forever, photos get removed from photobucket all the time.

Instructions are at:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=304671

Thanks, I couldn't figure out how to add more then 4 photos to the post at the time. I will make the changes later today

I have also recently had an experience conducting business with Dena Freeman. The timeline of my experience runs concurrently with this story, but starts much earlier.

At the beginning of August, a Facebook based effort known as Breeder Shield began running auctions to benefit Ashley Jawiche of Scaredy Cat Geckos. The purpose of Breeder Shield is to raise funds for breeders in the community who have serious, unexpected trouble fall onto them. A prior Breeder Shield benefit was run to raise funds to support a breeder whose husband had recently been diagnosed with a serious cancer, for example. Dena Freeman donated several geckos to the auctions for Ms. Jawiche, including three female Tremper Tangerines from Tangelo lines, each worth about $165. On August 4th, I won those auctions for a combined total of $100. The $100 was sent by PayPal directly to Ms. Jawiche.

As the temperatures were hot, and I was preparing to start up school again, I held off contacting her about shipping for a while. I didn't yet have the room, and several other reasons. Turns out she wouldn't have been able to ship anyway due to the temps on her end. We chatted back and forth during the next few months about the geckos. I was in no rush. She got me a couple of updated pictures of the three during this time as well, though I hadn't seen all of them. As I said, I wasn't in any hurry, so I was fine getting update pictures of only two of the geckos. They looked healthy and that's what mattered. She also told me that these tangs weren't nearly as pretty in the pictures as they were in person, so she wanted to give me a little bit of a surprise when they arrived and I could see how pretty they were in person. I liked this idea, especially knowing how hard it can be to capture the true beauty of some of these animals. I would get to see how amazing they were with only a general idea of what they looked like. During this time I also entered in her giveaway contest for a 1.1 pair of Bold Stripe Lavender Snows that originated from GeckoBoa, as I qualified for entry with my Breeder Shield purchases. These geckos were worth $239 each as priced by John Scarborough of GeckoBoa, $478 for the pair, and I thought it might be fun to have them if I happened to get lucky as I've gotten interested in bolds lately. I didn't expect to win anyway because I have terrible luck when it comes to that.

October came around and temps began to cool right around the beginning. We saw a break in the heat in her area and scheduled shipping for Oct 5th. I sent her the shipping cost around this time and she let me know she had recieved it. While we were discussing the shipping, she asked me the hypothetical question that if i could choose any female gecko from her various lines, which would it be? I looked and I told her I loved her Red Stripe RADARs and her Pacific Greens. I'm a bit on the clever side and I had a strong feeling she might be including a surprise gecko for me. Turns out my hunch was very correct as she messaged me saying that she had forgotten to include a letter she had written to me that explained how she was giving me this Pacific Green as a bonus for having participated in the Breeder Shield. I was so excited by her generosity toward me.

Oct 6th I got the box, opened it up, and was blown away by what I saw. What I saw was three Tremper Tangs that were the most stunning orange, and a Pacific Green worth ~$225 with incredible green/orange contrast. Every single gecko looked healthy and plump. I took some quick pictures and tucked them away as they were jumpy, as was expected after such a trip. The only thing wrong with the shipping was that I noticed two of the birth dates on the lids appeared switched. I double checked with her and with the original auctions and matched the geckos properly. No real harm done there. I found in the next few days that the PG she sent was (and still is) an extremely personable gecko. He loves keeping an eye on me.

October 10th (I think) I was taking weights and better pictures in better light, when one of my Tang gals squirmed free of my hand and broke her leg. Freak accident, torque must've been just right or something. I alerted Dena and she told me to let her know if I needed a replacement for her. I told her I'd let her know if I needed a replacement for her, if the healing of her leg didn't go well or anything that made her unfit to breed. So far the healing is going quite well. The bone appears to have fused back together. During her healing though, I noticed she appears to have what I believe to be polydactyly, extra toes, on her front feet. It took me a while to notice them and unless you are looking at them extremely close, you wouldn't really be able to tell. I only noticed because I was taking the time to tong feed her food with extra calcium. I told her and showed her pictures and she again offered me a replacement since the gecko would be considered defective. Right now I've tabled that offer, not declined it, simply because I don't have the space.

Then, lo and behold, the contest for the 1.1 BSLS geckos I had forgotten about and actually discounted because I never win luck-based contests, produced me as a winner. She used that random name generator to pick the winner, and has the video on her page as proof. We arranged shipping for the following week. I sent her the shipping payment, as per the conditions of the contest, which she told me she got when she got alerted by PayPal. We were worried a little bit about the temps, we didn't want them to be too hot or too cold. She detailed how she went about packing them with a heat pack. I actually recieved them yesterday and they are calm, beautiful, and the heat pack under the lid was still nice and warm.

If you noticed throughout my story I made note of what each gecko was worth. This was on purpose to prove a point I want people to see...

Gecko Values
Tremper Tangs: $165*3 = $495
Pacific Green: $225
Bold Stripe Snows: $239*2 = $478

Total Value of Geckos: $1178
Total Paid (not including shipping): $100 to Ashley Jawiche

The only dime that ever went to Dena was the shipping costs, which she doesn't even get to keep. She did not profit from any of the geckos sent to me, though the estimated value is almost $1200. Not to mention she has offered several times to correct the issues with Temperance (the polydactyl gecko who broke her leg) without me even asking or prompting her for such. Such generosity is not the behavior of a sketchy business owner... And I have seen many a sketchy business just in the past year. It's extremely unfortunate Rachel's situation went down the way it did, but despite the mistakes I do see through her story the same woman who is carefully boxing up my geckos so they don't get too hot or too cold, who is giving me a surprise bonus gecko that is ridiculously beautiful, and who is offering me a replacement for a minor defect she missed and an injury that wasn't her fault. That is the Dena Freeman I have come to know these past few months.