Hello everyone,
My name is Koby Engel and I had the misfortune of working with Eric 2 years ago.
At the time, I had to withdraw my claims from this board since I had no choice- my money was already transferred to Eric and he demanded I'll remove the post if I want to see the reptiles I paid for here in Israel.
I contacted Eric on March 2011. I am bringing this up again since there were issues and updates I think the community should be aware of when choosing to deal with him.
Eric agreed to ship the animals to Israel and promised that this can occur within 10 business days.
I sent Eric 60,000 NIS, the equivalent of 15-20K USD at the time.
Since then, Eric has repeatedly sent false reports and made errors. Eric claimed to have sent animals to Israel and that he's aware of the procedure- but he sent salmonella test swabs to only a handful of animals rather than all of them, and made other such errors that had cost money and quite a bit of time.
For roughly 5 weeks, he continued repeating various mistakes... every week assuring us that he learned from his mistakes until finally, after a period of said 5 weeks of repeating mistakes, he informed us that he got the CITES permit(after claiming that he had Master CITES and that this wouldn't take any time at all).
A summary of just a few of the emails.
28'th of July 2011:
"Well all is ready now, just waiting for Broker/Lufthansa ready to 'OK' to ship. All health certs are complete.
Sitting on USDA desk, I will call them and they will stamp and I will pay to have courier driver them say day to broker and fax you copy.
Please see attached copys of all docs"
5'th of August 2011:
"Well Friday after noon I got telephone call from USDA veterinary and he has delayed signature of paper work based on the issues states below, it is Monday am here and I am in contact with my local vet at Kulshan veterinary hospital to get this issues resolved as fast as possible to get shipment in the air.
PLEASE be patient as I am very frustrated at this point, so I can resolved the issues at hand and will advice all party's this afternoon as I know more."
Please realize that this very chain of events has been unfolding over the last -10- weeks. Every time a different mistake.
During this whole period, Eric has refused to refund my money
Here are the facts:
1- Eric claimed to have a Cites Permit and that he can deliver the animals within 10 business days. It took him 6-7 weeks just to obtain the Cites permits.
2- For over 10 weeks Eric made technical mistakes and errors.
3- Eric guaranteed arrival within 10 business days, the money was wired immediately, it took close to 3 months for the animals to get here.
4- Orders for reptiles were taken in advance, and the relevant time period had long gone. This meant loss of money to all relevant parties here in Israel.
5- Eric has been extremely unreliable as far as communication goes. He promised to get back to me and then didn't, I had to chase him around the clock to get updates and answers.
6- The dealings with Eric were extremely shady. On more than one occasion when we'd ask for pictures he'd send pictures of animals that weren't on my order manifest. At one point he was bold enough to send an email with 2 pictures of a blood Boa. Eric claimed that they were "too nippy" to properly take more photos of... I sent them to the person who owned them- so that he'll be able to appreciate the animals he paid for.
Imagine my embarrassment when that person got back to me- he pointed me to Exotic By Nature's site and indeed, those two pictures were from there. Indeed, after checking with Sean from EbN at the time, Eric indeed bought a pair of Blood Boas, but those pictures were from 2009, and of only one animal.
(see attached mail)
Now, after all was said and done, the shipment did take place(even though one of the Boas had a broken tail tip)- BUT, Eric failed to provide the full list of animals since several of them failed their Salmonella testing(meaning that the animals were shedding the bacteria. Hardly the state of healthy reptiles).
At the time, I was also forced to financially cover up for his mistakes in the medical test department, so I paid allot more than I should have- 2000$!
Now- why am I bringing this up now? well for undelivered animals(the ones that failed the Salmonella tests), Eric ows me 3500$.
For roughly 2 years he's been avoiding me, and refusing to pay up what I am due.
Recently, he described a fantasy concocted from God knows where- that I still own the animals he could not send, and that he should be paid for their maintenance. Also, since 2 years had passed and the BP market changed, their value is now lower.
Interestingly enough, he took the liberty of selling some of those animals though(how exactly do I own them if he sells or keeps at his own discretion without making sure I get those animals?).
You see, I am at a tough position here cause the man has my money and I from Israel can't do a whole lot.
I -tired- to reach some sort of agreement. Eric admitted to have sold 1350$ worth of animals from "my stock" and agreed that I am entitled to them. He refused to pay me the full 3500$.
He promised to send me that sum via bank transfer and I suggested we also work out a sum that is more relevant to today's value(again, this is outrageous but what choice do I have?)
He had since promised again and again to send the 1350$ and a counter-proposition for the rest of the animals.
He sent an email with "see attached file" with no attached file... he ignored requests to resend.
He promised to send the money on several occasions and failed to execute that as well.
To add insult to injury- some of the animals from that shipment were diagnosed with Crypto after some time they spent in their new owner's collections. I cannot know for a fact that this originated from him, or that they were carriers at the time of arrival.
In short, I have given up, in the face of the repeating lies.
This post's purpose is to show the real face of Eric when he deals with someone who he thinks he has the upper hand on.
How he believes that if he fails to deliver an animal I paid for, I still own it, though he still does with it as he pleases and wishes. And even though he never said such a thing in the course of over two years.
You decide whatever you wish. I would think twice and more before making any transaction with the man.
Yakov(Koby) Engel.
BTW- since then I have made several, very smooth dealings with other herp dealers and everything went perfectly.