Exotic Reptiles Jungle - anyone done business lately?

i have never done business with them but i have visited there site and was going to untill i noticed they were selling overly priced normals as something special or a morph type. they have a ball that looks like a pied but is called a super ringer and several others that are overly priced. they have another that looks liek a very nice and bright mojo but call it something else with a huge price on it. now these are assumptions of my own and my own opinions which others agree with also but to each his own i guess. if you dont have much exprience with ball pythons then make sure you get someone from the forum that does, to help give you an opinion on what they think also.

heres the link for them if someone would be interested in helping out.

http://lotsales1.ipower.com//ERJ-Specials-Page.html

Bo, I didn't even see that page! The ad I saw on Kingsnake listed lots of hold-backs; it linked to their homepage, where you click on a button that says "special balls" to get this: http://www.exoticsrus.net/Html_Pages/Ball_Pythons.html

I did notice that a lot of the snakes on that page looked like normals, but I chalked that up to me being ignorant about BP breeding/bloodlines. There is also one listed as a "super ringer" but it doesn't even look pied to me; on closer inspection, it's a different snake from the one on your link, and the price is $1k less. Again, maybe it really is a super ringer and/or pied and I'm just dumb. (The one I wanted was ERJ-6 - I really liked the high, deep black on him with the long stripe.)

I recently bought Kevin McCurley's BP book and I need to sit down and spend some time with it, clearly. I'm hoping to educate myself by reading the book and talking with reputable BP folks. Right now I confess a lot of the less-obvious morphs in the ads I see are hard for me to distinguish at a glance (i.e., Mojave, clown...). But there does seem to be a lot of variation among people's ideas of what makes certain morphs. One advertised Mojave can look very different from another, and I've seen ads where people are debating whether a snake is really this or that. It's often hard for me to tell which snakes are the better representations of what their morph is supposed to be. I have lots to learn!

As always, many thanks to all for the input!

Lynn

Hi, all. This is Ray Hunter. Let me see if I can help clear up some confusion. The company is currently owned by two families, Ricky and Stella Duffield, and Andy and Angie James. Ricky does all the importing, and Andy (British) and Stela (Brazilian) work at the facility (Angie is sort of a silent partner by investment, but is a super person. In fact she is the sister of my lovely G/F). Their current salesman is Danny Scoggin. Until the beginning of this year, I had always managed the venomous for ERJ.

I have left ERJ at the beginning of 2009 to focus on my rapidly increasing Realtor career with Exit Realty Associates. I am still doing some snakebite treatment lectures for our local emergency rooms and EMS as well as Animal Control. A good friend of mine and I are also working on a breeding project with Indian Cobras, and a few other venomous species. I have decided that venomous herpetology will be a hobby for me, and no longer a business (with the exception of lectures).

ERJ has undergone many staff and management changes over the past seven years (myself, Rocky, Jay, Mike Fields and so on) but Ricky and Stela Duffield have always been the principal owners and importers of the business. It is my understanding that Ricky may be re-activating his captains license, but he has not been out to sea for many years, as was mentioned by one of the previous posters, he has been, and is, doing the importing for ERJ.

While the TOS for ERJ does state that there is no live arrival guarantee for FedEx (and yes they are FedEx certified) they have always been good about making good on any shipping mishaps as long as the problem is reported w/i 24 hours. This was always my m.o. for venomous shipments as well. They do pack and ship properly, but once the shipment leaves the facility, who knows what the FedEx driver may do with it. They have had drivers lose shipments in transit that did not arrive until four days after leaving ERJ facility (fortunately the animals were ok), but in a case like that the claim should be against FedEx and not ERJ. Anything can happen in transit. Shipments have been left out on freezing loading docks. They have overheated animals by leaving them in the sun too long etc. So while the TOS is designed to protect ERJ from such errors of FedEx, it has always been the goal of ERJ to please their customers, even if it is at the expense of ERJ. No company can do this EVERY time, but that is their goal, and if they were not pretty successful about that goal you would see them in threads on this site

I hope that clears the air a little.

Ray Hunter, Sc.D.

They have had drivers lose shipments in transit that did not arrive until four days after leaving ERJ facility (fortunately the animals were ok), but in a case like that the claim should be against FedEx and not ERJ.

The claim should be against ERJ, because they are paying for a service --> FedEx is not delivering --> ERJ collects money to pay FedEx for a service--> ergo, ERJ is responsible. If your importer tells you he's importing Meller's Chamaleons, and you advertise as such to a customer, and then come the day to pickup the imports they turn out to be Fischer's Chamaleons, your customer is going to be upset. Should the customer file a claim with your importer then? Of course not - so why is FedEx any different? Oh, because it's out of your control - you didn't drive the shipment of the boxes to your customer's house. But you did pay for it, so YOU the company who is selling is responsible. Period.

I have never understood how so many companies get away with these kind of business ethics. It's the company's terms of service, outlined before the transaction takes place - sure. But to actually want to rationalize it...that's a whole different kind of animal.

chameleons*

Originally Posted by spawn

They have had drivers lose shipments in transit that did not arrive until four days after leaving ERJ facility (fortunately the animals were ok), but in a case like that the claim should be against FedEx and not ERJ.

The claim should be against ERJ, because they are paying for a service --> FedEx is not delivering --> ERJ collects money to pay FedEx for a service--> ergo, ERJ is responsible. If your importer tells you he's importing Meller's Chamaleons, and you advertise as such to a customer, and then come the day to pickup the imports they turn out to be Fischer's Chamaleons, your customer is going to be upset. Should the customer file a claim with your importer then? Of course not - so why is FedEx any different? Oh, because it's out of your control - you didn't drive the shipment of the boxes to your customer's house. But you did pay for it, so YOU the company who is selling is responsible. Period.

I have never understood how so many companies get away with these kind of business ethics. It's the company's terms of service, outlined before the transaction takes place - sure. But to actually want to rationalize it...that's a whole different kind of animal.

Well all I can say to you is that they DO guarantee live arrival if the animals are shipped via Delta (first priority = $65 or dash = $125). Most people who buy quantity or wholesale (which is what ERJ specializes in) pay the extra for the airline delivery. In any event, I am not aware of any FedEx deliveries that went bad that ERJ has not made good on anyway.

Your scenario of the exporter sending the wrong animal is not even a close analogy. If the exporter sends ERJ something other than what they ordered, then ERJ is not likely going to pay for it. That is not even a shipping error, that is a case of the wrong animal being sent. If ERJ sends the wrong animal, that is their error and they would have to make good on it. That is not a DOA issue.

Anyway, it is not a problem that I have to deal with anymore. I was just trying to shed some light on how ERJ operates from my past years of experience.

Originally Posted by spawn

Oh, because it's out of your control - you didn't drive the shipment of the boxes to your customer's house. But you did pay for it, so YOU the company who is selling is responsible. Period.

I have never understood how so many companies get away with these kind of business ethics. It's the company's terms of service, outlined before the transaction takes place - sure. But to actually want to rationalize it...that's a whole different kind of animal.

I forgot to mention that when there is a shipping error that results in a DOA when the shipment is sent via Delta, Delta pays for their error. The claim goes against Delta and not ERJ. FedEx is not willing pay for their errors.

Fortunately after reading anyone's TOS you have the option of NOT buying from them if their terms don't tickle your fancy.

Thanks for retelling your past experiences with the company.

Originally Posted by spawn

Thanks for retelling your past experiences with the company.

You're most welcome.

Thank you for the information and clarification about policies, etc. The shipping policy does sound reasonable from your description; it just comes across as very rigid in print on the web site. Sort of "your tough luck" if things don't work out as planned/arranged. It's also helpful to have an idea of the Delta prices; I assumed airline service would be cost-prohibitive but it's actually not that bad - seems like it may even rival, or best, FedEx/UPS in some cases.

You sound like an interesting guy; maybe I can attend one of your talks instead of hanging out with my MIL the next time we have to visit her in FL!