Andrew Schnell

Merissa - glad to hear this. Matthew is GREAT ! Hate to see anything negative associated with the good people at Pangea by way of Andrew Schnell.

i am bored too of this guy...i gave him many and many chances but i see that are useless....at begin at last year,february i contacted him and i asked if he had a specific locality of geckos( R.leachianus) he told me that his pair was togheter and he was waiting her laying of this female...he told me that for put me in waiting list he had to give him a deposite of money ....i answered that for me was ok and i told him to keep for me a pair of this locality (total price 2800 usd) .i made a a bank transfer of 1500 usd. i asked him many times some photo of this pair because he showed alwais old photo of only female but never of male...during the summer i asked again some proofs of this copulation and this pair and he told me that this pair was not at his house but in house of other very reputable breeder (that i know well and i confirm that he is very very good person and breeder) in a sort of breeding loan.
that fact made me trust andrew and i gave him rimanent usd with paypal.
at the end of summer this female had not yet done eggs...after some days andrew asked me if i was interesting to his adult female(!!!!! the hypothetical mother of my future pair) this thing surprised me . i asked him the price and he told me 5500 usd and that this offer he made only to me ( ahahahah) the thing begun to smell to me..and i asked informations to other breeder ....with big surprice he told me that this female had become her and it was not more then andrew. he traded her with baby of same locality of this breeder..before to ask to me if i was interesting... so for give him other money....
i asked to andrew full return money 2800 usd and after some time and after mail and mail ignored , the other breeder shipped to me this baby (reserved to andrew like trade of his big adult female) for a valour of 1800 usd...so now the rimanent for andrew to return me is 1000 usd but he continue to ignore my mail and disappears like shadow....
i am very annoying of this situation... he told me many and many lies about all...
obviously i have proofs of payment with bank transfer and paypal

Took me a little over a month to get my refund of $900 back from Andrew Schnell last year. Never refunded my money until I posted on his personal Facebook wall. But his close-minded bandwagon/friends posted negative comments towards me without knowing the issue. such as "Why are you trying to bring down such a reputable breeder?" Too bad Andrew Schnell deleted the original post from his Facebook wall. Eventually I got my refund but never in full because of the paypal fees which he paid back for me and Andrew never replied to my messages since then.

He has a business page on Facebook called New Caledonia Northwest. I left him a 1 star rating and explained why. Maybe that will alert others to stay away from him.

I've ordered from Andrew Schnell Yate female for USD.1600,= . Payment (including shipping incide the USA) was done by PayPal as it was required by Andrew, on 31 Oct. 2013 - I haven't receive my animal until now - only was getting stupid excuses from Andrew time to time. I was PM him via FB, mailing and calling by his mobile with no success for last month - he promised me to ship the gecko to a friend of mine in the USA one month ago - never happened.
So I suppose to be the most long-waiting person, scammed by this young promising fellow LOL

I dreaded having to post this but feel as though this is the only solution to get the word out on Andrew Schnell of New Caledonia Northwest. This is transaction one of two, the second I will not go over in this post. I have given him many chances to rectify the situation I am faced with but have been getting the run around on a refund while seeing others having received refunds while I’ve been quietly waiting. The issue I am referring to is the arrival of a hatchling crested gecko that I had originally prepaid for with a $250 down payment on (6/29/2014) to hold without ever having received pictures of the offspring as they hadn’t hatched yet. I had made a mistake at that but had done a search on him prior to check his reputation and had heard nothing bad about him. After the geckos hatched the first clutch I had first pick between his geckos named Haze (male who I owned and has passed on due to unfortunate circumstances) and Rainfall (female). The hatchling was then determined to be priced at $750 so I owed $500 I sent the remaining payment on 7/25/2014. I didn’t want to ship right away due to having issues in the past with hatchlings not eating and he said he’d hold the hatchling till it had gained a few grams. Well the time came for shipping and I received the gecko freezing cold the box had no insulation and the temperature outside was 10/02/2014. There was a heat pack but it too was frozen. The temperature outside was in the 50s. The gecko arrived what looked like half dead and wasn’t moving. Once warmed up the gecko never acted normal, walked shakily and had seizures. The hatchling ended up passing a few days later on 10/04/2014. I didn’t contact him till 10/13/2014 because he had been ignoring my messages anyways. I had tried calling, I had tried emailing, I had tried texting, and messaging on FaceBook with no response. On 10/21/2014 he had finally contacted me in regards to the dead hatchling. I had explained that shipping without insulation through Ship Your Reptiles was against their policy. He claimed to have talked to SYR and used insurance but they had said a heat pack freezing was impossible but knowing a chemist myself they said that the ingredients inside could easily have easily malfunctioned. Either way they denied the insurance claim according to Mr. Schnell. He then proceeded to guarantee my money back. I have received a promise of a refund many times and none have been carried out. I have attached pictures of each assurance he was going to refund me on X amount of days since this incident. After going back and forth he said he would offer me a replacement. I agreed as long as I got a partial refund. He seemed in a rush to get rid of what he had and he never sent me any pictures of a possible replacement and when I had inquired and didn’t like any of the options I turned him down. He then proceeded to tell me before I had even made a choice he had already made a shipping label which was completely shocking to me as I hadn’t made a 100% commitment on a gecko yet as I know most wouldn’t want an animal without having seen it first. I told him I would take the loss for him already having purchased the label as long as I got back all of the money he owed me minus the cost of the label. He has promised me numerous times a refund but as of January 14, 2015 I still do not have one. A week ago I texted him again asking for a refund and he said he had taken a business loan out and would have it by 1/08/2014. He said he would even forward me the information regarding the loan and I replied send it over as I am currently working with our family lawyer to get this resolved and was going to forward him the information but never received such information even after including my email to send the information to. On 1/11/2015 I texted him again as he had assured me a refund by the weekend he proceeds to tell me again that he will have my refund to me 1/12/2015. After it was nearing midnight I texting him reminding him to send the payment, he assured me again he’d get it to me by midnight. Come morning there was still no refund on 1/13/2015. I texted him again asking where is my refund; he replied he had to go to the bank and would send the refund via Paypal. He assured me again he’d keep me posted. There is still no refund. After beating around the bush for months I had explained I was done with the broken promises and lies of a refund. Finally though on January 14 2015 I received most of my refund back a total of $606, he still owes me almost a $100 and promised to have sent it that same day. There is still no full refund. With my lawyer we had created a court summons, which I would fly out to his location to take him to court since I know he wouldn’t have come to Arizona where I reside. However since it’s only $100 now we have decided against that approach but we have informed his local authorities of his fraudulent activities. Just hoping he refunds the rest of everyone’s money but it seems like a lost cause now.


Attached I have a picture of the shipping box my 2 gram gecko I received came in. It was 40-50 degrees that day. There was zero insulation in the box just a lump of paper towels.

2 gram gecko in freezing weather and only paper towels? Wow.. Shady shady man.

This guy is like the Bill Cosby of the gecko community....

Supposedly he contacted everyone he thought was important to contact.. I wasn't contacted. I just think he really needs to take a break from the industry before he screws over the wrong person.

Did he ever have Pangea?! He's horrible at communication.