Need help identifying bogus seller (dale and valerie of NH and MA)

Hi everyone.

A while back i answered a craigslist ad for some female balls. I went to the guy's house and purchased two of them, and really big girl for ~300 and another smaller girl for 150.

The bigger girl did fine - i still have her and i love her. I put a het albino male in with both of them. He bred the larger one but would get really angry and pushy with the smaller one. This was suspicious, so i probed her and she turned up male. I wrote to the guy and told him what i thought was going on, and we agreed that i would drive up to NERD and get a final word from the folks up there.

Well, Gail sexed him and he came out male there too. I wrote back saying "this snake is male" and he said all his females were gravid and he allows them to maternally incubate, but that he'd switch me out for a female later. I was pretty upset and told him that this was costing me a potential clutch as well as a lot of time and gas money, but that i would get back to him in june if i hadn't heard from him by then. He told me i should feel lucky that he was even willing to swap them out - that most breeders would just tell me tough luck. Funny, as that has never been my experience.

In june i got back to him and he said he was going on vacation for some time and he'd get back to me in a couple weeks or something. Again i never heard from him, so i wrote back. He put me off again and I got angry and said i didn't want to do anything rash, but that i was tired of being told to wait and then ignored.

Long story short, i was ignored repeatedly until i sold the male for 50 bucks. I told him i was going to post to this board about my experience if he didn't do something to change my mind in the next week. Of course, i never heard from him.




The problem is, i don't really know who he is. I'm hoping someone here can help me out. I'd like to perhaps talk about my options if i'm not just completely screwed. His name is Dale, and his wife is Valerie. They live in Methuen MA now, and used to live in southern NH. They told me that they didn't care that i was going to post on fauna because they did all their business in person and that it wouldn't affect their reputations at all. They have a small snake breeding operation that they run out of their house (ball pythons). Unfortunately, other than their email addresses, i don't know much else about them. I can do a more thorough search using other means, but i thought i'd see if you guys know who i'm talking about first.

Ironically, Dale thinks Kevin McCurley is the best thing in the world, but obviously doesn't seek to imitate him all that much. I can't imagine kevin ever telling me i was lucky to get the sex of snake i purchased from him, or selling me the wrong sex of snake in the first place.

pretty upset here. any and all help would be appreciated.

(i'm willing to post our entire email correspondence if it would help)

thanks!

i just wrote to the email address i have for them with a link to this thread, in case they want to say anything for themselves.

if you went to his house to get these animals, why wouldnt you sex them on the spot?

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

if you went to his house to get these animals, why wouldnt you sex them on the spot?

Naive i guess. :/

(i learned my lesson and insist on on the spot sexing or a business card from people i buy from now at shows or whatever. I feel bad treating everyone like they're out to screw me, but i can't afford to have stuff like this happen)

a member here found the following info (not sure how but thank you!)

this is him:


Name: dale landon
Company: dalenvalherps
Address: 14 b grove st.
Zip Code: 03064
City: nashua
State > County: New Hampshire > Hillsborough
Country: United States
Phone: 603 233 4672


He moved so the address and phone number are no longer useful. Any updated info would be useful. He said they moved to methuen, MA, as i mentioned.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

if you went to his house to get these animals, why wouldnt you sex them on the spot?

I have unfortunately done the same thing myself.

Ok i found some more about him - he is dalenval herps now, but he used to be "bigevilherps" and he's on this forum under that name, but he hasn't been on since almost a year ago.

again, any help is appreciated.

Well, apparently he got my message. He has recently visited and changed some of his info in his profile.

*still waiting for my refund*

He Pmed me attempting to say i put his information up here. Which i did not. Nor did i have any of his information to pass along.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

He Pmed me attempting to say i put his information up here. Which i did not. Nor did i have any of his information to pass along.

"Please get back to me as you have put all my information here I think its the least you can do thank you valerie8800@hotmail.com"