REPTICON / Super Pet Expo (NOT GOOD)

There is an upcoming repticon in Orlando at the end of the month. How is that one shaping up?
Theresa Baker

wow..I was going to go as well....glad I didnt...what a shame!

I went to a Repticon event last year in Orlando. I was actually pretty decent, there were several breeders there, and a pretty good variety of animals. It seamed like reptiles only but I do remember one of the boa breeder's wife had a bunch of cute, fuzzy, little bunnys she breeds. But as the best of my memory serves that was the only non reptile related animals/shwag there except for only guy that had some Biker stuff. I believe Lucky Lure was there vending insects and there were several other cricket food vendors there ,as well as a cage builder and other supply vendors. I would say I was satisfied with that show in particular and would probably go this year if i have some spare funds.

However it does sound like this show in NJ was a dud and everyone that went should be entitled to a refund.

Hello, this is Billy From Repticon. For anyone looking for our perspective, here it is from the source. To start off, I'd like to make a few things clear:

1) For anyone who was unhappy with the reptile presence at the Super Pet Expo, I can certainly understand why that would be the case, and I extend my deepest apologies. There were many, many things that went wrong with this particular show. Since we began promoting shows five years ago, we've promoted over 50 shows across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Some of them have been great, some of them have not. This one was not.

2) There were a few reasons why our area within the Super Pet Expo was not what we originally planned, including shipments that did not arrive, vendors who were forced to remove animals from their tables due to permit issues, and yes, local vendors who just plain did not show up. I personally made my best effort to explain this to anyone who approached me at the show, but please understand that over 16,000 guests moved though this show in one day alone. We had well over 100 guests for many of our presentations in a small 20x20 area that was constantly spilling out into the aisles of the show, and we were responsible for presentations on the hour. I had a staff of 3 including myself at the show, so my ability to have lengthy conversations with anyone who felt like chatting, positive or negative, was very limited.

3) This show was primarily a pet show operated by Super Pet Expo. The overall show was massive in scope, completely filling the convention center. This was not our show to operate, and we had no control of signs outside of the ticket area, and received no revenue from the gate. Rest assured that it cost us a great deal more to be at this show than it did any guest. That being said, the promoter of the overall show is a very classy individual and EVERY GUEST THAT ASKED FOR A REFUND DUE TO THE LACK OF REPTILES WAS OFFERED A FULL REFUND. For those of you who have personally e-mailed me, if you did not receive a refund, I'll paypal you one (just don't expect it tonight - I'm going to bed after I post this.) For obvious reasons, I'll only extend that courtesy to those who have contacted me prior to this post, unless you can verify your attendance at the Super Pet Expo.

I don't know how to state it any more simply than that. I will not be drawn into a "he said she said" conversation about every detail of what went wrong, I will not drag any vendor's name through the mud, and I will not spend the next two weeks responding to every post of every person who feels that the best use of their time is to spend hours parsing up what I'm posting. If that makes you feel better, by all means post-away.

For those of you who attended the show expecting something more closely resembling what our name has come to represent in the Southeast, I extend my most sincere apology, and I will do what I can to compensate you for failing to meet your expectations. If you're looking for an apology, you have it. If you're looking for your money back, you've either gotten or you will. If you're looking for someone to blame and be angry with, that person can be me.

Beyond that, it's time for our team to check our losses, learn what we can from the mistakes that we've made (and we've made plenty in five years of promoting shows), and focus our energy on the rest of our 2007 Calendar.

If you're curious about what REPTICON looks like, not the Repticon area at the Super Pet Expo, we'll see you in Orlando.

Thank you for your time and your feedback.

Billy Healy
www.Repticon.com
www.Reptileshows.com
www.ReptileandExoticAnimalShow.com

Originally Posted by Repticon

For those of you who have personally e-mailed me, if you did not receive a refund, I'll paypal you one (just don't expect it tonight - I'm going to bed after I post this.) For obvious reasons, I'll only extend that courtesy to those who have contacted me prior to this post, unless you can verify your attendance at the Super Pet Expo.

Hard to ask for any more than that...

Nice job...

See you in Orlando!!

Originally Posted by Repticon

Hello, this is Billy From Repticon. For anyone looking for our perspective, here it is from the source. To start off, I'd like to make a few things clear:

1) For anyone who was unhappy with the reptile presence at the Super Pet Expo, I can certainly understand why that would be the case, and I extend my deepest apologies. There were many, many things that went wrong with this particular show. Since we began promoting shows five years ago, we've promoted over 50 shows across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Some of them have been great, some of them have not. This one was not.

2) There were a few reasons why our area within the Super Pet Expo was not what we originally planned, including shipments that did not arrive, vendors who were forced to remove animals from their tables due to permit issues, and yes, local vendors who just plain did not show up. I personally made my best effort to explain this to anyone who approached me at the show, but please understand that over 16,000 guests moved though this show in one day alone. We had well over 100 guests for many of our presentations in a small 20x20 area that was constantly spilling out into the aisles of the show, and we were responsible for presentations on the hour. I had a staff of 3 including myself at the show, so my ability to have lengthy conversations with anyone who felt like chatting, positive or negative, was very limited.

3) This show was primarily a pet show operated by Super Pet Expo. The overall show was massive in scope, completely filling the convention center. This was not our show to operate, and we had no control of signs outside of the ticket area, and received no revenue from the gate. Rest assured that it cost us a great deal more to be at this show than it did any guest. That being said, the promoter of the overall show is a very classy individual and EVERY GUEST THAT ASKED FOR A REFUND DUE TO THE LACK OF REPTILES WAS OFFERED A FULL REFUND. For those of you who have personally e-mailed me, if you did not receive a refund, I'll paypal you one (just don't expect it tonight - I'm going to bed after I post this.) For obvious reasons, I'll only extend that courtesy to those who have contacted me prior to this post, unless you can verify your attendance at the Super Pet Expo.

I don't know how to state it any more simply than that. I will not be drawn into a "he said she said" conversation about every detail of what went wrong, I will not drag any vendor's name through the mud, and I will not spend the next two weeks responding to every post of every person who feels that the best use of their time is to spend hours parsing up what I'm posting. If that makes you feel better, by all means post-away.

For those of you who attended the show expecting something more closely resembling what our name has come to represent in the Southeast, I extend my most sincere apology, and I will do what I can to compensate you for failing to meet your expectations. If you're looking for an apology, you have it. If you're looking for your money back, you've either gotten or you will. If you're looking for someone to blame and be angry with, that person can be me.

Beyond that, it's time for our team to check our losses, learn what we can from the mistakes that we've made (and we've made plenty in five years of promoting shows), and focus our energy on the rest of our 2007 Calendar.

If you're curious about what REPTICON looks like, not the Repticon area at the Super Pet Expo, we'll see you in Orlando.

Thank you for your time and your feedback.

Billy Healy
www.Repticon.com
www.Reptileshows.com
www.ReptileandExoticAnimalShow.com

Billy, I'm not going to ask for a refund as I didn't e-mail you prior to your post; even though I am quite sure I could describe our brief conversation and the area surrounding your repticon set-up in enough detail to convince you that I was there and did speak to you.

I appreciate that you took the time to at least explain in detail about the show, hopefully in the future your other shows will go better.

I will take you up on your offer to visit the Orlando show, just PM me and I will give you the address to send me a plane ticket and give you my requirements for lodging, I prefer a suite.

Oh please. I've attended several Repticon shows in Tallahassee, FL and they were a complete joke---every time. I have no idea why I even bothered going again after the first one---but they progessively got much worse.

The last show I went to before moving was simply abysmal. I talked to several people after who went to the show and they expressed the same opinion. This 'show' had maybe 10 vendors--and that might even be generous. Not worth your money, folks.

I really never thought I would post about my bad experiance with Repticon but even to this day it still bothers me. About three years ago Repticon had a show in Orlando and I think it might of been the first one that they had there. It was not very big at all. But that isn't even the issue that my family had with them. Repticon has these games that the kinds can play and they can win prizes. Well my boy Joey won a game and he won the Grand Prize. The prize that he chose was a year subscription to Reptiles Magazine. So his mother filled out the form for them with our address and all of the other information. Joey was very excited that he was going to be getting his own magazine. At that time Joey was 7 years old. I have been getting Reptile Magazine for years so Joey was very familiar with it. Well time went on and NO magazine. We emailed them several times wanting to know where it was. I can't remember if they even emailed us back. They also set up a table at the other Reptile shows in the state of Florida to promote thier shows. So we would ask at the next show that they were set up at what was going on and why Joey was not getting his magazine. They said they were working on it. We even gave them all of our information all over again while at the next show that they were set up at promoting thier show. (It was either the Fire show in Orlando or the big show in Tampa) We saw them again at another show where they were set up and we would ask. They would say, we will look into it, or you should of had that by now. Just blowing smoke. So NO magazine again. EVERY DAY FOR MONTHS JOEY WOULD ASK WHERE HIS MAGAZINE WAS. WE HAD TO JUST KEEP TELLING HIM THAT IT WILL BE HERE. He would see me get mine in the mail and it really botherd him that he was not getting his. JOEY WAS 7 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME. IF THESE PEOPLE CAN LIE TO A 7 YEAR OLD BOY THEN I WOULD THINK THEY COULD LIE TO ANYONE. When I tell people about this they can't believe that someone could be so low. The thing Repticon doesn't get is that we go to all the shows throughout Florida and that has been the only Repticon show that we have ever gone to. The addmission fees that they have lost just from my family would have paid for that magazine over and over. I would have continued to go to thier shows even though they aren't very big because I like to see the people that are there. I have made alot of friends over the years and the only time that I get to see alot of them is at the shows. At the time all of this happened I didn't know about this web site or I would have posted it then. So if you as an adult think that you were taken for a ride, how do you think a 7 year old boy feels after all that he went through? Answer that. How do you think his mom and I felt every day when he would ask where his magazine was? So, does anyone think that I believe anything that Repticon would say? So seeing how this thread was started, how about some people letting them know what you think about this. I don't know about any of you but I have no idea how anyone could do that to a 7 year old boy.

Thank you for listening

Brian Dierking

I wish I would have seen this post before I went on Sunday the 11th and totally wasted my time and money also!

2 Albino boas and some Sugar Gliders (that weren't even for sale) - I did however see BUSINESS cards for a Beardie Breeder though.
Woah look out, that's really a great show...Nice work guys!

Next time you can have the reptile show at my house...It'll be 6x as large as the one in Edison! Here's the added bonus - you wouldn't have to navigate the floor like it was a WWII mine field from all of the dog's s**t.

How are people supposed to verify attendance to Super Pet Expo? It was paid in cash, there were no receipts, and someone took your entire ticket upon entrance?

So I guess the rest of us are screwed.

I'll stick to White Plains and Hamburg from now on...