Craig Martin - proceed with caution

Through a friend, I’ve become interested in retics, so decided to purchase a super dwarf as my first retic (as a single mom, I didn’t want a huge snake, that would require 2 people for safe handling in the future). In March, I contacted Craig Martin about a yearling female superd warf retic, he was advertising on fauna classifieds. Didn't find any info on Craig in the BOI, as I always check that now. After conversing via text, I agreed to purchase the female and sent the funds via PayPal. He did want me to send via friends & family, but I wanted the purchaser protection so sent the funds, plus the fee (I know, probably should have walked away at that point, but I had contacted another breeder via e-mail and never got a reply). It was too cold at my end to ship right away and while waiting for a warmer day, we continued communication via text message. He sent me pics of some babies he had available and in the end, I ended up purchasing a total of 4 super dwarf retics: the yearling anery, het purple female along with her sire, a 3 year old adult purple albino, het anery, and 1.1 super dwarf platinum anery tigers. Unfortunately, I can’t retrieve the text messages any further back than 3/23, even though I didn’t delete any portions - if anyone can help me figure out how to get those back, that would be great! I made a sizeable down payment and Craig went ahead and sent 2 snakes when we got a break in the weather. The 2 females arrived in excellent condition, he stated the anery, het purple female was about a year and a half, making her a 2014. Both settled in well and I couldn’t be happier with their personalities - I’ve taken the 2014 female on public education outings numerous times since. Upon final payment, I received the 2 males. Now here is where things started going bad. The 2016 male was perfectly fine and is just as easy going as the females. Now to the 2013 adult male. I had been told he was about 6 ft and puppy-dog tame and when I had asked Craig what he had been feeding him, his reply was eats anything anytime - not what I was asking. First thing I saw when opening the bag was shed on his back. I got him fully out of the bag, expecting him to be in shed, but once he was out I realized is was older shed. Now he was pretty flighty and never held still, so I didn’t ever get a good look at his face. I placed him in a sterilite tub with some warm water and closed the lid. When I got him back out, I was able to get the shed off him, then managed to get him into a clean tub to let him settle in(I had ordered a 4 ft animal plastics tank, which was delayed). . Next morning, I open the tub to check the water, since the snake was pretty flighty going in. That’s when I notice the messed up mouth. Of course at this point I wasn’t sure if he came that way or if he did that in the tub overnight. I didn’t contact Craig at this point, as I was put off on his reply about feeding and decided to just deal with it. Couple of days later, when I checked on him again, he had managed to get sani-chips stuck all along his gum line and rubbed a sore spot on his nose. I called a friend, who keeps burmese and retics, to come help me. First off, I get tagged trying to inspect his mouth closer. My friend then grabs him, so I can clean out the mouth. Poor snake totally freaks out and urinates and defecates all over the place. Since my friend thought she saw bubbles, I go ahead and make a vet appointment. Things didn’t go too bad at the vet, but antibiotics are prescribed. He’s since been moved to a 90 qt tub on paper towel, still seems to be rubbing a bit. My daughter and I managed to get the antibiotic injections done and the big tank finally arrives. Once he moves in there, it becomes pretty obvious that he’s more like 8 ft, definitely not a 6 ft snake. He goes into shed at that point, has been eating weekly without hesitation. Once out of shed, I resume feeding and finally, there’s poop for the first time in the 4 ft tank. Pretty close to the center, near the front of the tank - just behind the support bar on the ap tanks. Finally in the afternoon, he’s in his hide after he had been lying near it for most of the day. I get my snake hook and move the garbage can closer to clean up. As soon as I slide the door open, he pops his head out of the hide and starts towards me slowly. I grab the hook to nudge him away from me, as he attacks the hook and wraps around it like he’s going to destroy it, while throwing his lower body out the wide open sliding glass door. I end up pushing the snake hook towards the far corner from me, while using my other hand to “stuff” him back in and finally get the door closed. Now I can deal with flighty and don’t have to handle every one of my snakes, but don’t want to keep one that I can’t even clean up after. I placed an ad on fauna and facebook to sell the male. Craig contacts me, wondering why I’m selling him. He does offer to take him back and give me a motley baby instead. I had been hoping for something along the same genetics to go with the anery, het purple female. When I contact him about the motley, Craig says it’s not doing to well and offers a het lavender male and tells me that lavender is compatible with purple, also that he’ll be getting the pied in a couple of days. However, he’s not willing to give that as “trade” for the purple albino male. Once I get the male back to him, I ask for a refund rather than wait for another baby. He adamantly refuses and threatens to send the purple albino male back to me, so I agree to just wait for another baby. Now I just realize he stated “getting the pied in”, so I ask more about the purple albino male. Turns out, it wasn’t his personal snake to begin with, he had gotten a group and that male didn’t fit into his projects. At this point, I was still willing to give him the benefit of doubt and assume he had been lied to when purchasing that albino male. But then I see him post ads of that male on fauna and facebook. At least he’s listing him as being flighty, but he states 4 ½ ft length in one, 5 ft length in the other. Not to mention it’s now a 2014! He’s grossly misrepresenting that snake and now I don’t know what to believe anymore. If my 2014 really is his daughter, are mine really super dwarf at all and can I trust him to send me a replacement, that will be a super dwarf. Granted, he did take that male back, but being new to retics, I would never have purchased him in the first place, if Craig had been honest about his temperament. I certainly paid super dwarf prices and was explicit in not wanting anything that would go over 10 ft - we have some county regulations we’re currently fighting, but that may end up the length limit, before requiring a permit with ridiculous stipulations. This is not about the money, though it is a tough loss. Lesson learned - I will NEVER purchase another adult snake online!
Attached are 2 pictures I took of the snake and the 2 ads Craig has posted to sell the snake. Some of the text messages in the next posts.