Beware: Of Reptileguru.

We just bought a 7ft male Guyana red-tail boa from ReptileGuru.com. After we purchased it the Owner/Jim called us and told us that he had found 5-10 mites on the snake and wanted to know if we still wanted him shipped and he would include a bottle of mite off or if we wanted to wait and he would treat the snake before shipping. We told him that if it only had a few mites it could easily be treated and we quarantine everything when we receive it anyways, so go ahead and ship it. We just received the boa and he is covered in hundreds if not thousands of mites. So much for a few (5-10) mites. The picture is just of the bag he was in. He also is/was covered in hundreds of mites and we soaked him in our tub which also ended up with hundreds of mites. We have now treated him to prevent the mites from chewing him up. We called ReptileGuru to work out some sort of partial refund from how we had already paid to have him treated. They called and said the only thing they could do was have us ship the boa back today and they would give us a refund upon arrival. I said no due to the fact that we had already treated the snake. And if they knew the snake was covered in mites before they sent it and never treated him for mites and still shipped him that way I was no way in hell going to send him back to that horrible environment. So I asked to speak with the person who sold the snake to me being Jim the owner and he was conveniently gone. So theemployee that I spoke with said he would get ahold of Jim and have him call me back within 10 minutes. Well we never heard anything so we called them back. They said that Jim refused to speak with me. Well after getting no where with all of the arguing I hung up. There is nothing else I can do. I absolutely will not send a snake back to that horrible environment where the wont even treat him for mites. But anyways I just wanted to give everyone a heads up on them so they wouldn't get screwed over by them. If you have any questions or advice please feel free to e-mail at: jnjreptile@yahoo.com.

Pictures did not post. E-mail for them.

We are going to discuss the transaction with JnJ Reptiles by listing the facts.

1. There were mites on the snake. We did not say that there were only 5-10 or we would have simply removed those.

2. There is no excuse for mites. When we found the mites on the snake, we contacted them immediately. We offered to cancel the sale, treat the snake for mites ourselves, or we could remove all visible mites and send the snake with a bottle of Zoo Med Mite Off free of charge.

3. JnJ said that they were not concerned about the mites and that they would quarantine the animal and treat the mites themselves. Also, that they were already dealing with their own mite problem. So we shipped the snake.

4. We received a phone call this morning (January 25, 2006) from JnJ. They spoke with the store manager, A.J. Charlson. They complained, saying that the snake was covered with hundreds, if not thousands, of mites. They also claimed that the snake bag was covered with mites, to the point that it appeared as though the bag was covered with dirt. We think this is a HUGE exaggeration.

5. We offered JnJ a FULL REFUND, including their shipping charges, and to pay for the shipping costs of returning the snake to us.

6. They did not accept our offer. They wanted to keep the snake and
receive a refund of their shipping charges. We do not renegotiate prices. We offer full refunds only.

7. They threatened to keep the snake and chargeback the credit card if we did not comply with their demands. They also made statements such as, “What’s Jim gonna do, fly out to Maine?.”

8. If they follow through with their threats and charge back their credit card, and keep the snake, then they can expect to see me in court in Maine.

9. It’s my day off. A.J. is more than capable of handling the situation. They repeatedly asked A.J. for my home telephone number. In no way, shape, or form, am I giving out my home telephone number.

10. I don’t understand the problem. I offered them a full refund and to pay for the shipping cost.

We just finished remodeling our store. Obviously this is not a horrible environment. Enjoy. [IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

We never said we are going to do a charge back and keep the snake. My wife said she was going to do a charge back if you didn't correct the situation.As far as Jim, he is the one I talked to during the deaL and felt he should be the one to correct the situation. As far as the statement "whats Jim going to do fly to Maine". Yes that was said, but was only part of the sentence. What was said was if Jim cant even talk to us over the phone whats he going to do about the snake fly to Maine. We were told he was going to call us about the situation in 10 minutes 20 minutes later I called them, and was told Jim was not going to contact us . As we said we have pics of the mites. We did not want to send the snake back due to the fact that we got it for a customer/breeder friend of our that needs a adult male guyana boa.We figured if they were going to pay the $85 to have it shipped back to them they could give us that as a partial refund as a sign of good business, and for the fact that a few mites on a snake turned out to be hundreds. The deal is done we will just mark it off as a bad deal and deal with it. Pics ARE AVAILABLE. JUST EMAIL. The jnjreptile guarantee is satisfaction guaranteed or your money back ,and oh yeah.......NO MITES

Why on earth would anyone knowingly purchase a snake with mites!! Not to mention a boa with mites!! Talk about stupid!! Good god!!

Large boids with mites?? Talk about a recepee for disaster or maybe het for IBD!! Why am I so angry and passionate about a topic like this?? Because I put down over 50 boas last year due to 1 positive necropsy and 3 pos liver biopsies!! I destroyed thousands of dollars worth of animals to try and prevent others from the same fate!!

And the best part of this story folks, they had no symptoms not a one, no mouth rot, no URI, on tremors or star gazing, nothing!! I don't own boas anymore, all the caging was destroyed and don't know if I ever will again as long as this kinda of stuff keeps happening.

Well, you were told the snake had mites. Unfortunately, you might think a few is "5-10". They're the size of a period . right? So others may think that a dime-size group of mites on a 6 foot snake might be "a few", which when you count them, this might mean 300. Why, if you were told before the snake was shipped, did you decline the offer to have them treat the snake there? "A few" is a very relative term. He would have done this for free according to both you and him.

As for these pictures - upload the photo to your gallery here (it's free) and then post a link here so we can see what you are talking about. I doubt many people will want to contact you privately just to see these photos, and if you are making "poor business practice" claims against Jim, you should make every effort to post your proof.

Eradicating mites from a collection is a daunting task. Willingly accepting a snake with just 1 visible mite is thus too risky. Routine quarantine works well for most ailments, mites are probably one of the exceptions as they are highly ubiquitous and can travel relatively long distances daily. Anyone who incorporates animals in a collection can face a problem with mites at one point or another. Once the mites were discovered the snake should have not been sold. Not even if the buyer agreed to it. The mistake was not shipping an animal with 5, 10 or 1,000 mites, it was shipping a snake with mites in the first place! Asking for a partial refund due to the number of mites seems out of place though. Treating for mites is all or nothing. A snake with 10 mites receives similar treatment as one with 1,000. In my opinion you should have not accepted an animal with mites.

Just an opinion.

I will say this again, I’m off on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I have four employees and my store manager, AJ, handled the situation. A full refund was offered and is still offered. I informed them of the mites and would have cancelled this sale immediately before shipment. I have always been upfront with all of my customers and do not lie. If you’re not happy I will give you a full refund, what more can you ask for? Personally, I’m embarrassed that I had mites at all, for this I apologize. We all work hard to keep our collection mite free and this incident upsets me. I’ve seen their pictures and personally I don’t believe them. That snake did not have that many mites on it. Why would I send a snake covered in mites and then offer a full refund? I consistently complain about bad dealers on fauna and them I’m going to act the same way. Come on, like I need this kind of headache. Anyone in the area can come into our location to see for themselves how we care for our reptiles. My offer of a full refund still stands.

Thank you,
Jim Alles

Originally Posted by prehistoric

2. There is no excuse for mites. When we found the mites on the snake, we contacted them immediately. We offered to cancel the sale, treat the snake for mites ourselves, or we could remove all visible mites and send the snake with a bottle of Zoo Med Mite Off free of charge.

Jim, what exactly was said to Joshua as to the number of mites found on the snake?

Joshua, I believe that the photos are pertinant to this thread. Perhaps you can e-mail them to someone who knows how to post photos. I would offer, but I am not sure how to do it either.

Something bothers as I was reading through this. Joshua's first reason for not wanting to send the snake back:

Originally Posted by jnjreptile

I absolutely will not send a snake back to that horrible environment where the wont even treat him for mites.

And then this comment:

Originally Posted by jnjreptile

We did not want to send the snake back due to the fact that we got it for a customer/breeder friend of our that needs a adult male guyana boa.

Now I know that there are frequently multiple reasons for wanting or not wanting to take an action. But these are 2 totally different stories, Joshua.

Originally Posted by prehistoric

5. We offered JnJ a FULL REFUND, including their shipping charges, and to pay for the shipping costs of returning the snake to us.

This looks like an appropriate solution. It would definitely solve the money issue. But Joshua seems to be more interested in keeping the snake. I don't believe that Jim has done anything terribly wrong here...although perhaps a lesson to be learned in the matter.

I am not unwilling to change my stance if the photos of the mites are posted and found to be deviant of how Jim describes the problem.

Just my thoughts on the matter.