Sergio Martinez BAD GUY

Today I received a shipment from Sergio Martinez of Miami Bearded Dragons which was the result of Reptibid purchase I made on 09/22/ 05. I purchased four 50% possible het albino ball python females. They were described as being 150-200 grams and perfect in every way. Upon opening the box today I was surprised to see four thin babies. They were very cool to the touch. Two were emitting very wheezy breath sounds. Three of the four clearly had visible spines with very little fat reserves. I placed them on the scale and observed weights from 64- 130 grams. 130 gram weight in relation to it's length was not proportionate. In addition the snakes did not appear to even look like the same animals in the ad.

I contacted Sergio and received a hostile response which was not unlike the hostile response I received from him on Thursday after paying for the animals.

On Thursday the auction ended around 0530 hrs est. From 0706 until 1758 hrs. I received four emails from Sergio. The last threatening to post negative feedback and relist the animals. I emailed him and advised him that payment had been sent and then questioned him about how and why he would leave negative feedback 24 hrs after the auction ended when he had requested payment in 3 days. I received a hostile response from him. Approximately 3 minutes later he sent another email saying that he received payment and that it was his mistake, blaming it on " being stressed". Against my better judgement I did not request my money back at the time.

Today after contacting Sergio I received a hostile response in which he called me a liar and scammer. This was after I called to alert him of the problem with the animals. At that time I did not accuse him of anything. Sergio told me that there was no way that they were sick or could have a respiratory infection and that he had weighed them on August 20 and that the weights were 150-200 grams. I again informed him that all four were well under 150 grams and obviously the did not loose more then half their weight in a month. In addition I again informed him that they were very cool to the touch and that no heat pack had been used. Temps dropped to the low 50's here last night.

Sergio then emailed me saying that I was attempting to "pull a switch" which was not the case. At least not on my end. I filed a dispute with paypal.

I observed the pic of the four 50 % het albino females that I supposedly bought today on kingsnake.com listed for sale as 66% possible het albinos by Sergio.

I just want to alert others of this situation and hopefully prevent them from being scammed as I was. Sergio Martinez

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=350618 This is the link to the ad on kingsnake. Matt

Matt,

You should post the full text of all of the e-mails between the two of you.

He sounds like a real treasure from your description.

Here are screen shots of the ad. Do you have pictures of the reptibid ad and also pictures of the ball pythons you received?

Jim,
do you know how to post the emails? I do have them saved.

You should be able to cut and paste them. If not, you can forward them to me at Jim@superiorectotherms.com and I will post them.

Does anyone else think this guy sounds like Mitch/Frank Tirana?

I honestly think that it is in fact Triana but I have kept quiet about it at reptile auction because of the lack of evidence. But IMHO they are the same.

Matt,

Could you post a picture of the animals you received?
Perhaps I might be able to be of assistance to you, I work in Miami. If there is something you would like me to check out..
I have to tell you though, trying to find the right Sergio Martinez in Miami will be about as hard as finding a virgin in a whorehouse...
let me know if I can help..
Michele

forgot to mention, I did try to access the link to his website and it has been disabled. I became extremely dizzy and nauseous my the pop ups! I also forgot to mention that a few months ago he was running an ad on KS trying to sell out on his Bearded Dragons..website and all..this doesn't look good..