Inquiry: Anyone ever dealt with "The House of Reptiles and Tropical Fish" in Michigan

Whomever is posting for the house needs to include their full name per the rules of the BOI.

If he what he is saying is true, sounds like he got taken on the old Nigerian scam. Forged cashiers check for too much money and wired the excess over seas. Common sense tells you not to do this. Plus, there are multiple threads here you could have read to avoid a situation like this.

Of the thread I posted, I was in no way implying that doing business with the company was a fraudulent deal in any way. The guy I talked to on the phone seemed like a nice enough guy and we had a long, pleasant chat. My issues were why this company in particular accepts animals in shipments THEN pays for them with no reference support to speak of other than bad experiences people had had with the company! If I was to post an ad saying "sell us your reptiles", accepted reptiles with no money, then retailed them off I could make a profit doing absolutely nothing then send the initial asking price back to the sender. Or better yet, with a shady reputation, accept the shipment, say all animals arrived dead, sell them, keep the profit and the asking price. My original point was in a deal like this, what's to prevent the sender from getting ripped off by the company, especially by one with no positive public support whatsoever? I would, at this point, still work a deal with the "House" if they agreed to my terms (which were emailed to them yesterday- guess what? No response) and sent the money first. When internet sales rely on trust, I totally understand the position of companies accepting animals before the money is sent, but by the same token where does that leave we, the sellers, in any other position but to get totally ripped off by a company? My stance on it "a good compromise is when both parties are unhappy ()", a company has to trust me enough to send them what was represented, and likewise I have to trust the company to pay me. What's the difference whether it's paid for in advance or not if the animals are accurately represented? As a precautionary measure aimed at saving some money on a plane ticket to go handle things personally somewhere, forget any company who offers to pay you after receiving the animals and just hold out for your (the seller) end first. The issue isn't that something will or will not happen, rather that something COULD happen.

This thread got awfully quiet.
I want to see where it all goes.

Rob Natalino

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Now I've got it!! The old business name may have been
AV Exotics, of Port Huron MI!
Does this ring a bell with anyone here?


Rob Natalino

That may explain things a bit. I emailed them again today two more times from two different servers with no response. Two poor referrals and not a SINGLE GOOD ONE have my mind made up- Buyer and Seller beware! -Eric Lago

I recently did a trade with house of reptiles. I finally received my animals from them 2 weeks after they recieved mine. I was given numerous excuses over the phone each time they did not ship. They were next to impossible to get a hold of either by phone or email. When my shippment arrived the 3 emperor scorpions I had on my list were not in the box. I did however get 2 free spiderlings in the shipment for my "trouble". When I contacted them and said that the emperor scorpions were not shipped to me they apologized and said they apparently never made it in the box and said they would ship me the scorpions this week. Guess what they never shipped them and they have not contacted me either. I will never do business with them again. They have terrible customer service and did not ship my entire order. The house of reptiles in my oppion are "bad guys". regardless of whether they eventually ship you what you order, they will give you the runaround for weeks before they do and that is just "bad" in my opinion. when you get 3 different excuses over a period of 2 weeks as to why they cannot ship, it seems a little fishy. First they were waiting on heat packs, then a friends children supposedly died in a fire and then airbore never showed up to get the package. I called airbore and they said an attempt was made to pick up a package, but there was no package to pick up when they got there. This was after I was told everything was boxed up and ready to go. He did say however that he was not sure if airborne would show up because they are not very reliable. This I took as a way to make another excuse the next day when he did not ship. Ok this is getting way to long. lol. What I want to say is do not do business with the company they are unreliable at best.

Yup...they were very good, very creative with excuses.
It's gotta be AV Exotics...I wonder what business name they'll re-surface with next.

Rob Natalino

I'm quite amazed. All these posts here, and nobody from House of Reptiles and Tropical Fish has come here to defend him/herself.
Either the Nigerian money scam took away all their resources, or they're too busy thinking up a new name to use to scam people.
Their silence speaks volumes.
I buy a lot of turtles, and they advertise mostly turtles...I'll keep my eyes open for any possible new name for these scam artists.
Geez...at least they could have been a bit more creative with the ads.
They're identical.




Rob Natalino

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=39&de=173414
Some people just dont get it.Or they have really big...well, they just dont get it.
New postings for turtles for cheap on KS.
Would it be safe to say, this is a less than reptutable dealer?

Rob Natalino

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=8&de=175551

And another.
I guess AV Exotics, I mean House of Reptiles and Exotics is back in business after the counterfeit cehck scam.
Be afraid, be very afraid.

Rob Natalino