Greater Nashville Reptile Show?!?! Warning / Potential problems.

@ sschind

Mr. Schindler,

Since you apparently were neither a vendor nor an attendee of this "show", and don't seem to have any personal experience with the scam artists who put this "show" on, I wonder what your interest is and why you have time to post here.

Since you are interested, I will clarify my post. I wrote a check for $125 made out to "Kellie Wikel" on Saturday morning. Our deal was that I would pay that for three tables. After I was ordered to leave the show I told them I would cancel the check. Driving home I, being a professional exotic animal dealer for 23 years with a spotless reputation, decided that I wouldn't sink to their level and wrote them to tell them I would pay what I agreed even after being insulted by them and provoked into a potential physical altercation, and the check would be good. I then received numerous reports and looked back through emails and realized that this was a premeditated scam from the beginning, not just a bunch of lies. I then decided that I would be more wrong to contribute to lining criminals' pockets and stopped payment on the check after all. I "freely admitted" it because I think I had justification and the corroborating posts affirm that. Thanks for your interest; you have contributed a great deal to this thread.

Cheers,

Michael Jacobi

There is a great deal of negativity directed toward Troy, Kelly, and their show. The beginnings of which pre-date the show. I did not know either prior to the Friday night event. I interested in mostly in venomous and that keeps me out of the TN circuit for the most part. I have a neighbor with an extensive boa collection and I rode up with him. I was hoping to find some feeder snakes/lizards for my coral snakes. Friday night was the only day I attended, and that was by far not the worst show I have been to. Venders, so some extent, priced themselves out of the market. I had money on hand to spend, but every thing that interested me was way over priced by show standards. The one vender, over by the back wall had some reasonably priced animals, but every other table that had snakes I have dealt with were trying to get “retail store prices.” You can’t do that at a show and expect to sell. (This only applies to dealers of animals I am familiar with. I am completely ignorant things such as chameleons.) But anyway, back to my point. I talked with Kelly to a great extent and Troy to a lesser degree. I liked both of them. I will concede that if they stated they pre-sold more tickets then they did, that was deceitful and grounds for a vender to be upset. However, take a look at what they did do. First, they provided a large and nice venue to set up and sell. They put forth an incredible effort to advertise. They had internet, news papers, radio, and TV putting over the show. And look at the food they provided for you. Haven’t you been to shows where the promised food turned out to be cold pizza? I know that I have. They provided an extravagant meal for you guys. The things that were within their control, such as the venue, food, etc was exemplary. They can not control how many people came thru the door. It seems they did everything possible to get the word out. Sometimes promotional ideas don’t fly. Maybe doing the show on a high traveled holiday weekend wasn’t marketing genius, but it was a fresh idea and worth exploring. It didn’t work, but how can you blame them? They told me that they have an interest in promoting a show in Chattanooga and one in Memphis. I was happy to share my ideas with them for both, and if they are still interested in Chattanooga, I will be helping them put that one together. Most of you are familiar with the Columbia show, one of the most successful in the nation. Recently a rival promoter booked the same venue and promoted a show using a very similar name. That is more deceitful then anything these guys did. They opened a fresh venue, used a fresh name. Did massive amounts of leg work and tried to pull together a nice show. They contacted venders from all over and as most of you have said, were very persistent. Looks to me like they were not trying to scam anyone. Looks like they wanted a large expo and did what they could to achieve that. The varying prices on tables is not dishonestly, that is only business. Do you think every vender pays the same price at Daytona? Sure if there are tables left at show time, they will cut deals to get them full. There is nothing wrong with that, anyone will business sense would do the same thing. Sorry some of you guys lost money, but that is the nature of business. There is always risk involved in any venture. I think they were definitely over optimistic on how well the turnout would be, but in all honesty, I left there Friday night thinking they would do pretty well based on what I had seen there. I couldn’t go back Saturday or Sunday due to holiday plans and of course I couldn’t pay $50 each for snakes to feed my corals either, but I was surprised to find out it did not draw well.

You know this floors me that you would have to gull to make a comment like you are a better business man than I because you "would pay for your tables". Okay, so maybe you would that is your descsision.

I on the otherhand go into a show with the frame of mind that the promoter sold me on the idea that the show was going to be a great show with lots of attendees. This was very far from what happened, especially since I called to cancel mid-week and was still promised that the show would be a success. When I drive 9 hours to a lie and then half to still drive back another 9 hours with now having to pay for expenses out of pocket this becomes personal. As I told the other vendors at the show, if even half of the promised vendors would have showed and I still would have made no money then I would have cut my losses and said well you know maybe I just didn't have what people were looking for. But in this case with all that went down or in many cases didn't go down, I felt lied to and honestly stolen from. I commited to a three day show on a 4th of July weekend to be away from my wife and kids due to a pile of lies from a crooked pair of "promoters".

I have done over 100 different kinds of conventions since I was 13 years old, so for the last 15 years I have done good shows and bad shows. This being the worst by far. This is the first time I have ever been lied to to the point that I refused to pay for the tables. I want to clarify that if Troy and his piece of sh*t wife would have asked me for money for the tables I probably would have told them to walk away before it got ugly. I was so pissed Saturday night after the show that I was shaking driving back to the hotel. These people stole three days from me that I will never get back. To me it's more than just the money, it's the idea that I trusted them enough to drive that far for a first time show. It's going to be very hard for me to trust someone like this again.

In closing, I have a hard time believing that you have experienced a show as crappy as this. So DO NOT make me sound like the bad guy for not paying for my tables. I did it once and if I had to I would do it again in the same conditions. I will not be taken advantage of by a couple of crooked hill billy pieces of crap.

I WISH they would come to KC or St. Louis and set up as vendors or even attend for that matter.

Boy, you summed that up very nicely. Hearing from quite a handful of vendors, this was absolutely awful. I know that promoting our own 2 shows (as my husband had discussed with Kelly) (its so sad that we have the same name.... ) she would at least keep it real with someone who puts on shows himself. But like was stated over and over again- all that they did was lie.
So mr. SCReptiles how could you fully comment on something that you were just a visitor for what an hour???? Did you really think that they would tell you the truth too.....? I mean not paying the help or catering people- come on. How can you pay for the tables when the promoters left before the show even ended! Get real..... this wasn't a kindergarden circus......... or was it?

It appears that the building that was rented from the MAYOR was also paid for by using a fraudulent check.

I really think that I would consider all that's in this thread before I "teamed" up with them on another show.

And someone has the audacity to question why people didn't pay for their tables.??? These are some nasty fraudulent people! Why give in and try to support their bad check writing habbits.
Cricket how many people are you expecting at the next vendor get-to-gether??? Or should I say how many tickets are pre-sold???

So mr. SCReptiles how could you fully comment on something that you were just a visitor for what an hour???? Did you really think that they would tell you the truth too.....? I mean not paying the help or catering people- come on. How can you pay for the tables when the promoters left before the show even ended! Get real

I was there probably 3 or 4 hours Friday night. Roark is a friend, so I spent some time chatting with him. I saw handful of other people I know and visited with them. I needed to buy a ball python for a friend, so I was hoping another venders would show with some “show priced” balls, but I finally broke down and haggled for one. My neighbor talked to all the boa people for a while. We were not just in and out. My point is, based on what went on Friday night, I was optimistic for the weekend. I helped promote a show in VA 2003 and I think we ended up drawing about 2300 thru the door and after talking to Kellie, I figured they would do better. They did everything we did and had a bigger city to draw from.

My whole point is, the things within their direct control for the venders was very well done. Can you honestly say it was not a nice venue? Can you honestly say it was not good food? Can you honestly say they did not promote it well?

Now, if you have direct evidence they did not pay the catering service, then you have a point. But do you have evidence or just hearsay? Kellie told me that night, the food was pre-paid, along with the building. And just the building and the food service was priced to the point they would not turn profit just by scamming venders into buying tables. That is why I do not think this was a pre-conceived scam. They put out too much money for it to make anything back for them.

As I said, Roark is a friend. I will know shortly if his check bounced or if that was more rumors. I just met the people once, so it may be as some as saying here….time will tell. But I think before inflammatory remarks are cast out, there should be some evidence that there was intent to con. And to the credit of other posters, if the statements about them claiming 6000 pre-sold tickets are true, that was dishonestly on their part. But that could very well have been more of a high hopes thing rather then a con thing. Where are we getting that info? Was it on their website?

Thus far, I am still comfortable working with them in Chattanooga. The only thing I have gathered so far is a bad business venture on the Nashville show. That is the nature of the beast, they can’t all be like Daytona. I am not trying to upset anyone here, as I said, I hate that anyone lost money….but did these people intentionally con you out of it? If everyone there paid $100 for each table, they would still not have broke even. I don’t see a motive to con venders into coming. I honestly think they expected a big turn out and were just as disappointed as everyone else.

Originally Posted by exotics2aquatics

I have already sold 6000 tickets online for the show and will expect a whole lot more at the door.

Kelly's words.

Why would anyone put on a show where they loose money? That is just insaine to try to justify. I know as a promoter of shows in the past, that I would NEVER put myelf in a position to loose money on one of my shows. I also know that I would never lie about my adverstising budget nor my supposed pre-sold tickets. I'm telling you man you need to open your eyes before they rob you blind like they did several other people.


Most of the information that has been given about their bad checks has been from people that have either received their bad checks or from people that know people that got screwed.

I'll tell you what professor Sam. You go right ahead and publically associate yourself with these guys. You go ahead and do a Chatanooga show. It might be worth the drive to see a show with one vendor. I already stated that it's my belief that they wanted the show to be a success. They didn't promote it in a manner to where it was advertised to the herp community. It was promoted as a "show of exotics". COME RIGHT IN, STEP RIGHT UP AND SEE THE AMAZING BOA CONSTRICTOR!!!!!. This was bring your kids to the zoo day in Nashville. If they would have been walking around apologizing for improper advertising it would have been different. Instead they were walking around preparing everyone fopr the news crews or talking about the $30,000 advertising budget. All that money and they couldn't place a free ad in reptiles magazine. You're looking for proof that they didn't pay people when Sherry's shelter has already testified that they worked all weekend and got screwed. Like I said, go ahead and start promoting your show with them as partners. We'll see you back on here. As for your "overpriced" comments.
I personally saw balls there for $20-$40. If you wanted some that were on their death bed from the guy in the back corner you mentioned he was dumping non-eaters for $5. Of course the story you wouldn't have gotten was the one about him getting them for free because they were lost in shipping for a while and half dead when he got them. It amazes me what people expect at a show.

PROFESSOR, "UH, Let me see. You say you fed the parents of this baby for 2 years, gave them supplements the whole time. The baby is now 6 weeks old and had to be fed for that whole time too. Verygood, very good. Oh really. You have to spend money on electricity to give them lights and heat? You mean you have to clean the cages too. Actually do work?? That's all great but why are you asking $40 for that lizard?"

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get a life! Go do a show and sell your babies for a loss.