Ron Billingsly

I was going to buy 2 baby yellow anacondas from him. Bought a prepaid card and set up a paypal account. I ended up seeing a friend I havn't seen in about 3 months yesterday and found out he was selling his 7' breeding pair of yellows for an insanely cheap price. This is the only reason I'm not buying from Ron.

Thanks for the email Josh. Hope the adults work out for you.

As for my WC Spilotes, yes I knew the risks buying WC. But I was appalled at the obvious dehydration of the animal when I got it home and its cloaca problems ( I stated that that was something I probably should have noticed at the show, but it wasn't that bad until it tried to urinate and could not close its vent). I was also frustrated with how much work and how long it took to get a simple refund. Ron said he had a lot of problems and was running a bunch of shows one after the other, but I would think that he would have time to at least respond. He was very quick to respond when the animal was only ill, but after it died he started playing "dodgeball" with me. Whether it was intentional or not I do not know, but I will not be dealing with WC animals again and I personally will not buy from Ron again. He had the snakes on sand at the show and told me not to take it to a vet as in his opinion, vets do not know what they are talking about and kill more animals than they save. Not the words of someone I want to continue doing business with.
On the other hand, I do have a cave spider I got from him months earlier that is thriving and quite interesting. It eats well and drinks well and all around seems healthy. I'm sure he's not an all-around bad guy- the impression I get is that he overextends himself and makes himself just too busy to notice subtle problems in animals and to respond to customers in a timely manner. Not intentional, just poor time management and biting off more than one can chew.

Originally Posted by Ron Billingsley

The name does not ring a bell, I did a show in NC one time.... it was god awful. No customers..... Never been back. But I did not have colubrids at that show either...... Sorry...
If I had sent you colubrids, I would have remembered. From 2004 until recently, all I really did was Ball Pythons. I didn't own, breed or sell Colubrids.
Now in 2008 I got back into some wholesaling... but that was bulk babies I purchased from other breeders. Or animals I got when I bought collections.
Not all deals go 100% swell. Some have problems, but I always do my best to correct or make the customer satifisted with the transaciton.
That is why I do 100% Pay Pal now with online sales. Everything is recorded and if the buyer is unhappy, the money can be refunded thru that site.
Since I can not verify and you can not verify I will just take the bad guy post.
I have had tons of postive transactions selling reptiles.. I have had dozens of deals not go so good.....either missed shipments, animals coming in DOA, animals not what they thought they were buying, etc. everyone has to deal with these issues..... I do what I can. I try my best to make things right.
With some people... unless you bleed.... they are not happy.... i.e. the lady who tried to get gravid balls for $20 each..... and I caught the addition mistake... she cried for two weeks on the BOI... because I wouldn't ship her the gravid balls for $20. Made me a bad guy..... I can live with it.
If I am guilty of something... I'll do the time and pay my dues... but if I'm not... then I will stand and say.... Not guilty.... I'm only human.

This post alone is enough to make me not buy from Mr. Billingsley. It's obvious from his own words that he doesn't care either way, good guy post, bad guy post...whatever. If he doesn't care what his customers say about him then he certainly isn't going to care if they are happy with the transaction or "do what he can to make things right". For me, indifference is the worst quality to try to deal with from a seller.

Simply amazing.... That that story got so twisted.
She purchased a WC Spliotes at the Hamburg Show. She knew it was a WC Spilotes. That fact was never hidden. I had numerous ones, and by the time she made it to my table(s) I had two remaining.
I even cut the price for her for the one she purchased. We talked about the snake, and the absess it had. The reason I CUT the price for her. She paid me at the show with Pay Pal on my own computer. Along with the snake, she also purchased some Marty Mades, but that is going off the point.
When she called me some time later about the Snake, she was concerned it wasn't doing good, and wanted to take it to a vet. WHAT I SAID WAS make sure it isn't just a vet, but one that specializes in reptiles. THAT MOST VETS KILL MORE THEN THEY SAVE, when they don't work with reptiles.
We had communcation... I never not talked or return emails to her.
When the snake passed, and she wanted a refund, I could not do it that day because we had storms pass thru and tear out tons of trees and telephone poles, I had no service. The day they were back up I refunded her 100% of her payment.
I can not make everyone happy. Try as I may. Some people won't be happy until they think they are getting one over on you. Not everyone is like that, but some are.
Most of my transactions go off smoothly, and nothing is ever spoken of them.
The few that have problems, I attempt to fix, and some are posted here, for you all to assume and point fingers at.
What else could I have done to help this lady? I cut the price of the snake to lower then what I paid for it, she took the chance with it, and still got a complete refund. I can not believe to this day, that some of you want vendors/salespeople to jump when you say jump. Some things take a little time. So chill out. If I had scam this person... then yell at the top of your lungs I am Gulilty and point fingers to me... but here you are grossly mistaken.
Closed case. My last word on the subject. Have a good day, and ...... enjoy your animals.

Originally Posted by Ron Billingsley

enjoy your animals.

It's kind of difficult to enjoy dead animals.

Exacty my point. Here David is just being a ass. What is he bringing to the thread? The lady said her peace, I said mine. Wished everyone well, and to enjoy their animals.
David... trying to keep the pot stirred, posted something THAT DID NOTHING to help her or I.
Right David?

Originally Posted by Ron Billingsley

Exacty my point. Here David is just being a ass. What is he bringing to the thread? The lady said her peace, I said mine. Wished everyone well, and to enjoy their animals.
David... trying to keep the pot stirred, posted something THAT DID NOTHING to help her or I.
Right David?

Ron, I merely commented on your piss poor choice of words about enjoying your animals. And as I said it is difficult to enjoy DEAD animals. If you want me involved you'll open your mouth again and I'll show you what an ass I can be, if not shut your mouth now.

Hey, Kim -
Did he mention anything about the abscess prior to purchase?

Ron -
How long is "some time later"?

It is not for you to point out my wording. You had no business to even post anything. If you had brought some ideas to the table, or to have some kind of input, that would have been wonderful. But to just cut and paste to give you more numbers on your post count.. that was in poor taste.
And you people are wondering why the BOI is loosing it's popularity?
The BOI was a wonderful Tool, but with all the BS and thread stealing that goes on.... that is why most feel it's run it's corse....
David, you can threaten me all you like... call me any name you like....
I'm done. Take this and run with it.......