I have huge internal conflict over this - Joe Dembinski

Ok, guys. I have really debated with myself over posting this here, mostly because I want to believe in the idea of "benefit of the doubt".

I bought a trio of "feeding" CH baby ball pythons(ringer male + two females) in May from Joe Dembinski. I got so many good references about Joe that it is hard for me to accept that my experience has been anything but an aberration.

When the snakes arrived, their heat pack was not even luke-warm. The three appeared slightly emaciated. Over the next couple of days, they looked worse and worse. I attempted to contact Joe by email, but got no response (perhaps I am sending to the wrong email address?). My wife fell in love with the new "babies", and so I attempted to nurse them back to health. Two weeks ago, the smallest female (we had named her Mini-Dot, as she looked like a miniature version of one of our other snakes - Dorothy) died, apparently of malnutrition, dehydration, and/or internal bleeding. She had regurgitated nearly every meal she ate, keeping down only a fuzzy mouse (last resort).

The other two seem to be recovering, after having given us a bit of a scare. The ringer male seems to have developed a mild case of mouth rot (which I am treating), but I have no reason to believe that the problem originated any time before Joe sent him to us. I DO NOT hold him responsible for this issue with the male.

A tick was found on the female that died. Additionally, her belly showed a "stain" that appeared very similar to internal bleeding symptoms (perhaps compaction from a swallowed piece of substrate? - I kept her only on newspaper, so I doubt that this type of impaction could have happened on my watch). The remaining two have a rather persistant problem with mites, as several treatments seem to have been ineffective in solving the problem. I suspect there may be problem with the brand new bark I purchased as their substrate (this was, of course, after the death of Mini-Dot).

As I said, I'm reluctant to believe that the problems I've experienced with Joe are ANYTHING BUT an aberration. I know that he frequents these pages, so I hope that Joe will contact me soon. A replacement of the female who passed is fair, in my opinion. I don't expect anything else, as the two who are still with us seem as if they'll make it. I DO NOT want to tarnish Joe's reputation. I hope that this issue will be made right, and that I can do business with him in the future. He was responsive up until the time of purchase, and like I said, I believe strongly in the benefit of the doubt.

Brian Engleman

Brian,

Ive known Joe for several years now and know tons of people hes dealt with, you are honestly...to date..the ONLY person Ive heard thats had a problem. IE: Joe advertised a male het albino boa....at that time it was a $350-$400 animal saw the pics and went to pick it up. The snake was bigger and better looking than what id seen, obviously an older photo.....Joe had recieved the animal from a reputable person but seeing as he didnt recieve paperwork on it the man charged me $150 like it was a normal. Even with references and contacting the previous owner his attitude was "I still cant say 100% without proof". That to me is an honest man.
Email Joe, JWoma@aol.com I would bet anything he'll solve the problem.....as cheap as balls are who wouldnt?

Thanks for the address. I will email him now. I'm pretty sure, like I said before, that I missed on his address. A day or two after the animals arrived, my computer crashed. I'm not all that computer savvy, so you have helped me a great deal (although I am SURE that there was SOME way I could have recovered his address.) I will be sure to update this post with my experience, and, if Joe resolves the issue, I will certainly return to him as a customer. As I said in my original post, I have no reason to believe that my experience has been ANYTHING BUT an aberration! I would think that, if this were his normal means of doing business, his name would be ALL OVER this BOI. His name is everywhere, but not in a NEGATIVE way!!!!! Thanks for the help in contacting Joe, who I'm sure will set this whole situation right...I'm even more confident in this after having read your post. Thanks again!

Brian

Brain,

You never sent me any emails. I find this a little hard to believe. The ONLY way I wouldnt get them is if for some reason my AOL account is blocking you out. My email address is on all my ads in both KS and in here on Fauna. Plus, you had my phone number right on the airbill. If not, here it is again: jwoma@aol.com.

I will refund the value of the female in the purchase price. I have gotten these Balls from the same source for the last 4 years and though as with any imports, losses ARE to be expected. This was the worst year for me and seems my loss rate was 1 out of every 4. My years prior were alot less. From a few others that I know that got some in, they too had more problems than the norm, and there's were from a unrelated source. I will back up the female only and give the benefit of the doubt. Youll have your refund for the female in your Paypal account in less than 24 hrs.

Hopefully youll give us another try in the future.

Regards,

Joe,

Thanks for being so quick to respond. I JUST sent you an email! Like I said, my computer crashed shortly after I received the animals (Saturday, after the animals arrived on Friday - maybe Thursday, my memory ain't what it used to be ). The slip in the shipping box was blurred out (was a carbon form), and so the phone number was unintelligable.

I would prefer another CH (healthy) female over a refund. If you have none available now, perhaps another from your next shipment? I don't mind waiting, and in fact would like to have the opportunity to see you at your best!

Thanks again for responding so quickly! This only goes to prove that it TRULY WAS a situation beyond either of our control, and that my experience with you was AN ABERRATION! After all the positive references I've seen of you before & after our deal, I knew that SOMETHING was off.

At the risk of sounding redundant, thanks again for responding so quickly! I truly believe that the sign of a good businessman is the way in which he handles situations he did/could not foresee.

Brian

Brian,

Replacing her isnt a option for several reasons. As Ive always stated, I hand select these only once a year, then thats it. I dont get any more shipments in. Why ?? The quality goes down DRASTICALLY. Ask Ben Seigel, BHB, Alex Hue, Don Hamper or anyone that imports baby Ball Pythons. Secondly, what I would have access to will come from the same source. I'd rather send you the refund on her and you can buy from someone else. Maybe they got a better batch in than I did.
If you did email me, It never went threw. If I need to prove it, so be it. Im sure AOL can confirm the last time a email came in from your email address (at least I think they can). If your trying to email me now, I wont see it. Im at work and not on AOL. My company's services wont allow access to my AOL.
Another thing I want to add is that the heat pack only being lurk warm WAS intended. Its called smart shipping ! Why ?? I believe we did this deal back in May. The night's were still getting a little nippy, but the days were heating up. I only used a 8 hr heat pack to get them threw the cooler night. That way if the shipment was lost or delayed during the day, they wouldnt be exposed to daytime high's, in a hot truck with a heat pack still cranking. Heat kills alot faster than something coming in a little cool.
All I need from you is to know if I use the same email address that you sent the payment on ?? If you changed PC it may have changed.

Joe,

This arrangement will be fine. Though I'd PREFER one form of remedy, I certainly understand that it is not feasible.

I do not expect you to prove to prove that you did not get my emails before, as I'm sure it was a deficiency in my own memory that resulted in their not getting to you!

It wasn't a "lukewarm" heat pack that worried me, rather it was the the heat pack was NOT EVEN lukewarn. If you felt this was the best way to ship them at the time, I don't see any reason to disagree. I do not have any reason to believe that the death of the one female was due to this environment.

The same email address will be fine. Thanks for beng so quick to respond.

Brian

I don't know Joe D or Brian,,, but i do know that after reading all the horror stories here on the BOI Joe is one of the GOOD GUYS! what just happened above is one example of how a true business man handles business the right way. he is more than happy to refund the money, as a replacement is not available. he is telling the truth in the fact that he has has a 1 in 4 problem rate with the balls this year,(as we all know about the problems with CH Balls) he had a very good explaination as to why the heat pack was not hot when the animal was delivered. he also had his phone number on the airbill , so if the email was not "working" there was a second way to get in touch with him. he also gave a timeline when the funds would be back in his paypal account " 24 hours" stated above. to me you could not ask for anything better from someone. heck he did not even ask for proof the animal had passed, and if it was in the guarantee period. he did what he felt was the right thing basically "no questions asked"
JOE D you are a class act and you are on my "buy from list for sure!"
and Brian I think you owe a Big "THANK YOU " to JOE D, if you had bought from someone else you may not have gotten the same outcome,,,

I do not know Joe, and have only ever made one purchase from him. I purchased a 10 lot of fresh import female baby balls from Joe this year. They were sold to me as fresh imports he had not even attempted to feed yet.

I received 10 beautiful little girls; I was/am still very pleased with. Not a tick or a mite on any of them. So I suspect it’s the new substrate Brain purchased that caused the mite/tick problem at his home.

I had a bit of trouble with the new girls regurgitating. I treated them all with Flagyl and Panacur and notified Joe I was doing this. I just wanted to let Joe know he may have gotten a bad batch of babies. I purchased them as fresh imports so I did not expect any action from him; I just wanted to give him a heads up. He wrote back immediately (this was in June, so he was definitely receiving and responding to e-mails sent to his correct address.......So I believe Brian is correct in thinking he did not remember the correct address for Joe) Joe insisted on refunding some of my money, even after I reminded him he did not have too.

I did wind up losing two of the little girls, but that was to be expected (especially this year, I hear most people are having trouble with the farmed babies this year). When all was said and done, I still got a great deal. Joe went out of his way, and well beyond any guarantees to insure I was pleased with my purchase, and I would defiantly purchase from him again and recommend him to others.

Have to agree, about 20-30% were just bad this year. It happens. Another thing I noticed was that this year's babies almost required a paper substrate to avoid the mouthrot problem you spoke of, wierd. I normally use aspen, but they were having a ton of problems w/ that so I swicthed to paper and they are doing much better.