Tabitha Newman

Just an information post about Tabitha Newman. She had contacted me about a boa I had up for sale about a week ago asking if I would do a trade. I told her that I would have to talk to my boyfriend about it to see if he would have another rack built by the time it was out of quarantine (I'm out of rack space but we have plans to eventually build a new one). She emailed several more times before I had a chance to ask him (later that night) so this gave me the impression that she was serious about the boa. I declined the trade due to my boyfriend not knowing when we would have the rack space and so she asked if I could hold him until Thursday since that's when she got paid. I told her I would hold him if she put a deposit down on him because I have had others in the past that asked me to hold an animal and then something came up where they could no longer get it. I know this happens often but it's what happened later on that irritated me enough to make this post.

She said she understood and would see if she could get a little money to put down on him. Monday she messaged me asking if I still had the boa and said she ended up selling her favorite bird to get some money for a deposit. She was buying the boa apparently for her boyfriend of 13 years. I was going to send my boyfriend to pick up the deposit the next day but he had work that day and didn't wake up until it was time to go to work. Since I was unable to pick up the deposit on Tuesday, I told her I would hold the snake until Thursday since she seemed serious enough to sell her "favorite bird" to get the deposit money. I then asked her if she wanted us to deliver or if she wanted to come pick him up (she's local so this wasn't a problem). She said she would just come to us.

Thursday comes around and I had been really sick the past 2 days which I made her aware of but I messaged her to confirm that she was still coming for the snake. She messaged me back saying that she was going to message me earlier as she had to rush to Tampa because her dad had to go to the hospital. She said that her boyfriend "as of right now" would be coming after work to pick up the boa.

At this time I offered to have my boyfriend pick up the deposit so that she could just come at a later time since I was really sick anyway and she was busy with her dad. Her boyfriend apparently works the opposite shift as mine and wouldn't be home to do that. She asked me to give her my phone number and her boyfriend would call or text me later when he got off of work to make sure I was feeling well enough to pick up the snake before he came over.

I messaged her when I got up to let her know I was up and it was ok for him to come and get the snake. Her boyfriend was still working at this time but I wanted to let her know that I was able to still meet with him.

At around 9pm it was starting to get late and my son and baby niece were going to bed. It was also way past the time it should have been for her boyfriend to be home from work so I messaged her and asked if he was still planning on coming. She messaged me back and said she had just talked to him and he was doing a double shift so he wasn't going to be able to do it. At this point I'm already irritated that I spent all day waiting around but I understood stuff happens and told her to let me know when he would be home and we could work out our schedules. She told me she would talk to him on his break in about an hour and let me know. I never got a message back.

Friday morning I messaged her to let her know my boyfriend was home and he would be until 4:30 and then he would have to go back to work. She messaged me back saying that she had bad news and her boyfriend was leaving her for someone else and told her not to come back. Of course she said she would no longer be able to get the boa.

Now all of this may well have happened (although that is quite a few excuses, 2 of which are pretty dramatic, within a 24 hour period) but I figured I would give a heads up to anyone else dealing with her in the future. I know that with no money exchanged there was no promises but she seemed like she was in a big hurry to have me hold the boa for her. It is my OPINION that she was making up excuse after excuse when she should have just said that she no longer wanted the boa. Since I made her aware that I had issues similar in the past, it seems to me that she decided drama and dragging it out was the best way to get out of a deal without making herself look bad.

~Crystal Borsch~

1. I bet you one internet cookie, one of the next three responses will request screenshots of the conversations.

2. Sorry you had to put up with that, local sales are fine and all that but I would have not held anything longer than 3 days unless a deposit of at least 15% was received electronically. I try to avoid straight cash deals as a seller, because I have an awful habit of forgetting anything finance related unless it's in print somewhere.

Everything is in print. I do have the emails and facebook messages but it's A LOT to go through since there was just casual chatting as well. To get it all would take me forever but I will post some screen shots of the excuses she made. It's not a bad guy post and it's just a warning to sellers that may also have these same issues with her. Other than that, I'm over it. Just irritated me that she seemed to be stringing me along.

At the moment I only sell local since I have 0 experience shipping snakes and I don't want to even chance messing it up, but I do make sure that our conversations are through some kind of text that I can refer back to. I don't do phone calls until they are on their way to pick up the animal.

Originally Posted by FroggyCrazy

At the moment I only sell local since I have 0 experience shipping snakes and I don't want to even chance messing it up, but I do make sure that our conversations are through some kind of text that I can refer back to. I don't do phone calls until they are on their way to pick up the animal.

Not much to it, 15 minutes in the shipping forum or on the SYR page will set you up. The very first sale I made was a roughly $700 package going to CA from me in TN.

Originally Posted by EmeraldBoid

Not much to it, 15 minutes in the shipping forum or on the SYR page will set you up. The very first sale I made was a roughly $700 package going to CA from me in TN.

I've read how to do it but I'm just too paranoid to do it on my own the first time. I've shipped a few crested geckos but that was it. Even that was stressful for me lol. I guess the whole temperature thing just makes me uneasy with snakes. Maybe when I get to the point where I have a lot of animals up for sale I'll ask someone with experience on shipping to help me with my first shipment.