Announcement: Bad deal with Stuart "John" McDonald of Pasadena, TX.

A few months ago, i found a guy by the name is Stuart "john" McDonald in the classifieds of another website, The add was for a Pair of 03' 100%het albino boas. I Emailed him saying i would trade a 66%het snow and $75 using western union money order for the pair. I sent him a Pic of the snake and he said ok and proceeded to get all his info, at that time he called himself "John". he gave me all his info and i sent out the snake with the money. when the snake got there he told me that the snake i sent was not the snake in the pic and that it was a Mexican boa. i said no and emailed him the a copy of the receipt where i bought it from to prove it. he still said it was a Mexican boa. He demanded that i send more money and another snake to get the pair. i said ok, so I sent another snake and another $75 using western union money order . After i sent the snakes i realized that UPS made a Mistake and sent it by ground. and when i told them about it was to late, when he received the snake he said it had a RI and it looked bad. but he still said he would send me the pair. then when ever i would email me or speak to him he would say that they are going to be sent later in the week, this happened 3 times. then the next time i emailed him he said they were sent, and no was there to get them so they returned back to him. Keep in mind i had the snakes sent to my retired parents house to make sure some one was home. and he also did that 3 times, when i emailed him asking to prove that they were sent by giving me a tracking number, he wouldn't . then i asked for him to prove by any way he could that the snakes were sent. he couldn't. after that when ever i call he wouldn't pick up the phone, i email and he will not return the email. then a few weeks later i did some research about him and i find out that his real name is Stuart not John. I still have all receipts from the money orders, the tracking numbers and a few on the original emails to prove all of this. Now being 5 months later he still will not answer the phone or return a email from me.

If any one knows this guy or have worked with this guy reply with feed back. and if any one can give me info about what i can do about all of this please reply.

I think this would be grounds for instant suspension.

READ THE RULES......

OK Al...I'll bite....what is the problem with his post? He has the offending gentleman's name in the title and his own name in the signature line.

He posted it in 10 forums.

Ah...well then...that would be bad.

I won't go so far as to suspend him, as this seems to be a first mistake.

As luck would have it, our HH-60s were late coming back, and the C-130 cancelled, so I have a bit of spare time to kill. Deleting the misplaced posts wasn't much of a problem.

Anyways folks, let's steer this one back on topic, as the multliple posts are a non-issue now.

Did you pay with US Postal Money Orders? If you did that would be mail fraud and a Federal Offense. File a formal complaint with the US Postmaster General. That should get him moving.

I believe he said he sent the money via Western Union.

However, if you (Michael) paid for the money transfer with your credit card, I believe you can still try to reverse the charges, or has the time frame been too long? Perhaps, because it is a wire transfer, you did not use a cc???

Regardless, I see little that can be done beyond filing a police report for stolen property in your home jurisdiction and in the local jurisdiction where you had the snakes delivered. There is a small possibility that will help you get your snakes/money back, but it seems to be one of your only avenues of recourse.


I don't mean to scold you after you have been ripped off, so please take this in the spirit in which it is intended:

You had several "red flags" go off for you here, and you should have never made the deal in the first place.

1) You never, ever ship first in a trade ... unless you are the one initiating the trade (which in this instance you were, which leads me to ...)!

2) Never initiate a trade with someone you do not know very well and/or can be verified as a "Good Guy" here on the BOI!

3) If you DO trade with someone, and they question the veracity of your claims concerning your animal, demand the immediate return of your animal and cancel the trade instantly!

4) If the person with whom you are trading asks for more money/animals to even up the trade values, see #3!

5) If you really want something new, sell what you have, then use the proceeds to buy your new animal from a reputable breeder/hobbyist outright! Sure, it will take a while longer, but you will keep yourself from falling prey to the "impulse buy," and you are far less likely to be scammed by anyone in the process.

On the positive side, though...

You DID do the right thing in posting this guy's name here for others to see and be forewarned. Can you also post any other information (telephone numbers, address, etc) so that our "Watch List" can be completed?

Thanks in advance for your help on that!

I usually try to stay out of things like this as much as possible but this time I can not sit by and watch Stuart get slammed knowing what I do about this deal that took place in late November.
I came into a small amount of extra money in November and started looking for some boas. I got in touch with Stuart McDonald for the first time. He sold me some boas for a good price and we started talking after the deal. We have been talking 3 or 4 times a week since then.
I remember this deal with Michael in Philly where Stuart did send the 100% het pair to Michael and got the two Mexican boas in return instead of the boas that were supposed to be sent. One was sent overnight and the other was sent ground. The overnight was received fine and the ground shipped arrived dead (Not RI). The other thing that I seem to remember about this deal is that this Michael sent Stuart a CHECK that BOUNCED and that Stuart got in touch with him to get the money that was still owed to him since the check BOUNCED.
That is what I remember from the conversations with Stuart in November when all of this actually happened. Why all of a sudden is this comming up months and months later???