??MIKE SMITH WWW.REPTILEVENDOR.COM???

I'm thinking about buying a snake off of kingsnake.com classifieds anyone ever heard of Mike Smith of McKinney, TX ??? Or of ReptileVendor.com. Thanks

Hi. I see that you got no responses, so I did want to give you some feedback. Unfortunately we had a very poor experience when we purchased a snake from him. The snake arrived with a HORRIBLE respiratory infection. Complete with gurgled breathing that you could even feel the rumbling with your hand a good 8 inches down from his head, and hear even from across the room, nostrils caked over, and so much gunk coming out of his mouth.

We immediately called, in in Mike's defense, he had gone out fo town hunting, so initial correspondence was difficult because it was via text message. Nevertheless, I did not feel he was sympathetic to the situation, did not offer a refund, to pay for vet bills or otherwise. He offered to send heat lamps, etc to help cover our costs of nursing the snake back to health, but never did. When I contacted him about it, he said he was waiting for me to place a supply order since he thought I needed some items anyway. Never sent anything, said we got a great price on the snake & offered no refund. Also accused us of being in this for the money & not concerned about the snake if we would have wanted to ship him back.

It all got very ugly and left a horrible taste in my mouth. I have never made any derogatory posts about him. We are very new to this reptile community & didn't want to air any dirty laundry, but being that you asked, I feel it would be unfair not to share our experience.

I would say be sure you have health & live, safe arrival guaranteed in writing if you do purchase. We also received no receipt, no feed/shed records, nothing.

Hey,
Just completed a transaction with Mike for a spotnose ball python. Everything went really smooth and though I've only had the snake for a few hours so far, everything seems fine with the snake. Mike was good about answering emails, and held the snake a week for me so that I would be home on the day it was shipped. Hope this helps!

Im a wholesaler from reptile vendor! Well I use to be! Everytime i order i get doa's! I dont get my shipment when i was suppose too! He is just a rude guy! I dont mean to be rude but im honest!

post #1: The snake sold in the first post was an anery boa and the reason I wanted her to take care of the snake is because if the snake was really in the condition that she said it was, shipping it right back to me would have been deadly to the snake. I asked her to to take care of the snake for a week, see if he gets better and then we can ship him back. I offered to send supplies and I will admit I did drop the ball beacaue as she said, I was out of town. After the week she told me that they had already fallen in love with the snake and did not want to send him back. After that the situation just kind of fizzled out.

post#2: Josh at Heavenly pets is a very pushy and demanding customer. When he places an order he expects everything to stop for his $300 order. We are a large and high demand company. First come first serve. He takes everything personal and the doa's he speaks of were very minor. I believe a $7 water dragon and an $18 tarantula or something of that nature. It happens. He also gets very mad when I run out of animals like its something I can avoid.

I have been in this business since I was very little and every large wholesale business in this industry knows me personally. If anyone needs references I sell to nearly 50 petland stores nationwide and am happy to provide references. My pet stores know me as IQW reptiles.
Thank you for considering both sides, Mike Smith.

Uh Mr. Smith,
I don't know you nor the quality of the animals you sell, perhaps you are an very nice fellow, but I would not consider a connection to Petland a glowing recommendation given the number of complaints against them that can be found on the web.

Did you used to be in AZ?

Hey John, I appreciate you giving your piece of mind in this matter. The deal is, people are always going to say bad things about pet stores on the web. Type in the name of any pet store in the country and you can find some dirt. Do we really believe everything we read on the web? Some do. As far as Petlands, I will agree that some are bad but there are some good ones. And unfortunatly, what they do with the animals after I send them is not my burden. The Petland corporate people are very picky about who they buy from and they are very hard accounts to aqcuire and keep. That is why I am proud to sell to them. The internet can be very dangerous and one angry person can destroy a reputation and potentially ruin a business. Animal customers can be cruel and vendictive, that is why I choose to not get mad or offended by some of the ignorant ones. I just keep doing what I love and know that I am a good person and I am in this for the animals just as much as the money. Thanks again, Mike.

p.s., I grew up in Arizona but have never been in business there, I moved to Texas when i was 12. I grew up in Central Phoenix, the hood.

Mike,
I do just have one rebuttal and that is that you did not offer to accept the animal back, if we kept him for a week. We rec'd him on 11/2 - you were already hunting...11/5 you were back & supposed to send out supplies. We had decent correspondence once we got on the same page. By 11/8, we HAD bonded with the animal, but had no idea we could have sent him back. It would have been the easier road for us had it been safe for him. He was still in bad shape on 11/17 when we tried to reach you. I emailed you his status and have never heard from you since. It's taken quite a bit of time and effort to get him back on track. Sure, you just leave him under disturbed to a degree, but you are always checking, trying to cage improvement, cleaning, taking notes, etc. After 4 months he was finally pulled out of quarantine. It was a daunting task.

I'm glad you've taken the time to respond to these posts. It has shown a level of integrity that I was unaware you had.

I certainly wasn't bad mouthing you , as I stated in my post, but I do feel that with how large your business is, it's fair to offer advice to buyers like myself, to be aware that correspondence in our transaction was tough. And that may or may have not been the norm for you.

You've handled this thread and responded to these posts with class.

Hey Tracey,

I appreciate your compliments. Again I am very sorry for the unfortunate situation we encountered with Huck. Although I am a big business Huck was a pet, rather than just a snake. I bought him from one of my best friends who had him from birth. I am glad to hear he is doing well now and I can't stress enough how proud of you I am for being strong and not giving up on Huck. Most people would have. Respiratory Infections are one of the hardest things to deal with in this business. If you guys ever need anything just call me. Also thank you for resolving the thread, people can overreact to these threads and rumors spread very fast.

Sincerely, Mike