CagesByDesign my experience

I received two of their "new" cages in November and put them up by December 6th. Within three weeks a crack developed along one corner of the plexi-glass bottom of the cage allowing snake urine to leak out onto my carpet, wall, and woodwork. This was the first crack I noticed & I thought I could fix it. Within another week cracks developed in other panels, the doors would not slide and were scratching, and urine had leaked onto other wood panels warping them. At this point I dismantled the cages and found more cracks with whole pieces falling off of the corners of the cages (plexi-glass) once the frame wasn't holding the cage together. At this point I called the company and was told I was lying, that their cages wouldn't fall apart like that & that they would not refund my money because the 30 day warranty had expired. They also told me that the best they could do was to replace the panels at cost, and that again they didn't really believe me anyway. To prove to them that the cage panels had indeed cracked to the point where they were unusable I emailed them pictures. They still will not even replace the panels, but instead want me to pay for them again. Further, my phone conversation with them consisted of being yelled at, by a salesperson named Paul, almost nonstop (yes I began yelling back after being told they did not believe a word I was saying). This also happened when my wife contacted them. These cages are sold for large constricting snakes, but are from my experience not even close to up to task. I now have $687.00 of cages that I will have to replace every panel in but 2 (out of ten) to even use again. And this after barely 5 weeks of use! The owners of this operation are very belligerent and will not budge at all from their stance.
I have been involved in the reptile industry as a private collector for nearly 25 years and I have never even heard of the treatment I have received from these guys. They have yelled at both my wife and myself in phone conversations and put out a product that in my experience didn't even last 5 weeks of minimal use. These cages use very flimsy 1/8th inch thick plexi panels and you may want to think long and hard before believing their claims of using these with "extremely large reptiles" as these cages didn't even stand up to 5 weeks use with two 10 lb snakes. Be warned these cages and especially the owners are not what they appear to be.

Can you post the pictures you sent them so we can see the problems you're describing?
Did the cracks start from a screw hole or something and just keep spreading?
Chris Raden

Just a thought, but what did you use to clean these cages? I know that there are some types of chemicals that will shrink and crack plastics. I saw a thread on "The BoaForum" about the boaphile cages, and a person had used some type of cleaner that did pretty much the same thing you are describing to the door of his boaphile cage (plexi or lexan?). Don't know, just throwing that out there to consider.

I have never used or seen the cages that you are refering to, so I can't help any more than that. Sorry.

Jason Brennan

I can't believe anyone in the manufacturing business making enclosures for "large reptiles" would use 1/8" plexi. A very large, very angry snake could strike at that and go right through it. Reptiles with large nails would scratch it up something rotten too. They may want to rethink the thickness they use, or maybe the material. I know there are plenty of companies making good stuff out of thicker plexi or stronger plexi-type material (hint, hint).

Are you sure it is 1/8 inch plexi???
1/8 inch plexi is what you use for framing small pieces of artwork, not caging of any kind. Anything over 12 inches is going to be super floppy.
Photos would definitely help--even if you just go to walmart and get a disposable camera. You could then show the photos to them as proof--maybe they will be more agreeable then.
Dana

There's another thread concerning CagesByDesign on here. According to others posts pics or no pics your out of luck... I myself have lookd into those cages but decided feedback on cage quality wasn't positive.

I had received an email from Shane in regards to an inquiry I made on another forum about these cages for my burm once she is grown. I did not save the email in my pc (unfortunately) once I had read and viewed the pictures though I did print them out in black and white for my future reference. I can honestly say from the pictures that he emailed me, I am convinced that the cages are not fit for large constrictors. There were no drill holes where the plexi cracked and you could easily see the warping and swelling of the laminate covered particle board. Though I could not tell exactly the thickness of the plexi, it did not appear thick enough to be used with large constrictors IMO.

Dianne

I have the pictures that I sent to them on a disk, but I am a bit computer illiterate. If anyone would be kind enough to post these pictures I would be more then happy to email them, as I would really rather not see anyone else be taken by this company.
Oh, and by the way it really is 1/8 inch plexi-glass. CagesByDesign tried to tell me that these frames, regardless of the size, would hold up to a 100 mph fast ball without any damage. I told them I could easily put my fist through these frames, to which they replied "all you would do is break your wrist". It would be funny had these cages not cost me so much! Also the cleaner I used is quat-plus.
Best regards,
Shane

Quat-plus is the cleaner that cracked the boaphile cage (a very nice and well made cage). So that may have a lot to do with how it started but still...1/8 inch plexi? I wouldn't use that for a corn snake.

Here are shanes pictures of his cages