Ken Hilton (Bad Guy)

I answered an ad concerning 2 female California Kingsnakes that Ken Hilton placed on KS classifieds. After contacting him and a dealing with a fever of ambiguous e-mails concerning what animals he actually still had for sale; he finally told me that the sex of the 2 animals originally advertised on KS as two females were a male and female pair (not 2 females). I did agreed to finally to purchase this "male and female pair" and sent him payment immediately.

A few weeks later, Ken sent me an e-mail asking if I had any adult Variable kings (thayeri) available for sale. I answered his e-mail and told him that I did not at the moment and asked if he could inform me of the contact information about the breeder of the Cal kings I purchased from him (Matt Morris from Austin, TX). He never answered my e-mail.

Another few weeks passed and I was preparing to make permanent ID tags for my animals, so I checked the sex by probing of the animals that were to be re-housed. The male/female pair from Ken Hilton were in fact TWO MALES, not a male/female pair.

This is full disclosure of my correspondence from Ken concerning this matter...

Ken,

I just got through checking the sex by probe of the FEMALE/MALE pair that I bought from you and BOTH of these animals are MALES! I an EXTREMELY unhappy about this. You originally advertised both of these animals as females. Did you even bother to probe them?

Maria Heidkamp

Ken,

Are you going to respond to my e-mail and correct this mistake or not? It has been 2 days now.

Maria,

I just checked my spam and seen your emails. I probed both of those snakes. I originally bought them as all females. That is why I listed them as females. I rechecked them and that's when I came up with a male and female. I don't know how you would like to correct this. After all you have had them since May. I don't think its worth you sending it back for another $70 shipping for a $100 snake. There parent's eggs should be hatching soon. I can send you a couple of females out of this clutch. That's all I can do. Sorry but you know these things happen. I assure you I am NOT trying to rip you off.


Ken

Ken,

If you know how to probe snakes, then you would know that there is no question that both of these animals are males. You said you "rechecked them". Are you saying that you probed the one as Female? If you would like proof that these two are males, I can send you pictures. Yes, I purchased them in May and I assumed that they were sexed correctly. I have absolutely no need for two males, but I'm nor going to spend any more money to send them back.

It's up to you how you are going to correct this. Your reputation is on the line. I already have one friend of mine who stated that you hounded him about these snakes when he was on vacation. If you weren't trying to rip me off, then prove it.

Maria


Maria,

Just do what you need to do. What do you expect me to do, give you your money back and you keep the snake. I dont think so. AS for your deadbeat buyer friend he asked me to hold them for him. I held them for a week. I had buyers for those snakes, they are top notch snakes. How am suposed to make someone happy that cant be happy. Good day!

Ken

Ken,

For the record, please answer my question; "if you know how to probe snakes, then you would know that there is no question that both of these animals are males. You said you "rechecked them". Are you saying that you probed the one as Female? If you would like proof that these two are males, I can send you pictures".

Maria

Ken,

I was just preparing to post a review about your unsatisfactory sale and service and thus was going through our e-mail correspondence regarding the snake that was not sexed correctly. I would like you to clarify something that you stated.

For the record, you stated; "There parent's eggs should be hatching soon. I can send you a couple of females out of this clutch. That's all I can do."

My question is this: Were you offering to send me the two '08 females free of charge for this mistake?

I'll wait until tomorrow at the latest for a response, since you didn't respond to my last e-mail. You also did not respond to me when I asked you for contact information about Matt Morris. If you remember, this is when you asked if I had any Nuevo Leons available for sale (your e-mail was sent on June 8th) and I responded to your inquiry politely and in a timely manner. Before you blame a spam folder, you should be aware that all of my e-mails to you were "replies" to e-mail threads that you started. Response e-mails initiated from a sender would in no way, ever be sequestered as "spam".

If I don't hear back from you, I'll will have free conscience to write a negative review about you.


Maria Heidkamp Scully, PhD
www.AlaskaReptiles.com

Maria,
I think you should give him a little more time to respond.
Also, could you send the original emails with DATES on them?

"If I don't hear back from you, I'll will have free conscience to write a negative review about you."


I think you already have.

Randal

Hello Randal,

Thank you so much for your response. The last e-mail from Ken (posted) was sent on July 15th, so I allowed plenty of time for any response.

Is Mr. Hilton's email kennethhiltonsr@yahoo.com ?

...That is correct.

Also, I would be happy to place actual e-mail correspondence from Ken Hilton on this forum from e-mails that I have received. Please leave me instructions for posting and I will respond.

Then Mr. Hilton is snakefreak72 here on Fauna and he was last on the site 07-21-2008 12:40 PM. I suspect he was looking to see if this thread had been posted yet or not given the fact he made no other posts at that time.
You might want to send him notification that this thread has been started.

Hi. My name is Greg Spencer and I too have had terrible dealings with Ken Hilton. I was going to purchase a pair of females from him as well. The two he showed me did not appeal to me so much, so I was going to purchase only one instead. He then stated that he had two other females as well. I was going on vacation, and he kept hounding me to send him money. He actually hounded me on the way to the airport, and he did not even send me pics of the other two females yet. I gave him my itinerary and said I would be back in a week. He can wait if he would like or not. He said he would hold them for me, and I can check my emails when I have time to see the pics. Two days into my Hawaiin vacation and he is hounding me as I lay on a beach. He called me again, a day later while I am on vacation. He was extremely desperate and that concerned me greatly. He then stopped hounding me, and I knew right away that he had sold them. His word is nil. Just not the type of person who cares about integrity or the animal's welfare. He is a peddler of animals trying to make a buck, and that is straight from his mouth. This is just a quick response, I can give detailed information as well. I actually wrote him off, but thought I should post a short narrative about him after reading the above.