sale gone bad... opinions needed

After more than a year of dealings with James, I must say I have had nothing but quality transactions. He is very fair, loyal, and most importantly, he is a professional. I was completely impressed with his packaging methods, especially since I was smoked by some other guys who's name won't be mentioned.

In fact when Jame's package arrived, I was like, "Wow, so this is how it is supposed to be done."

Since that first box arrived, James has been my one & only man when it comes to critters. He is knowlegable & really cares about his animals. It was interesting when he would not ship certain animals to me until he was sure that they were eating and healthy.

I am sure neither James or his customer Ron wanted the snake to die, and this made things get complicated. The shipping error was his fault & James wants to rectify this error. Also, give his girl a break. My woman made me get rid of most of my tanks all together. Thank god I can hide my addiction behind the disguise of educating my students. (Muahahahahaha!!!)

You cannot fault James for wanting to have proof that this snake died. We all know how many jerks are out there that try to burn people that are out there busting their butts. Google images will easily supply a dead snake photo.

Anyway, Ron should get his entire shipping $ back and get the animal replaced. Even though there is obviously some miscommunication going on & some hastey decisions being made, I have faith that good business practice will prevail & James will satisfy yet another customer.

So, ship the guy his snake & give him back his shipping money. He should be pleased with that. If he is just being uncooperative, which it seems he might be, be the better man & give it all back. You will earn the respect & interest of many potential customers who will happily deal with someone who is concerned with their best interest.

I don't see anyone questioning whether James is a good guy. He seems to be owning up to his mistake and that's nice to see once in a while.

I did a search on Google for "dead durango mountain kingsnake photo" and wasn't able to find any (I got a Grateful Dead website when I searched under MSN (LOL). All he would have to do is put the dead snake on a piece of paper that says "here's the dead snake James". Kingsnakes don't play dead

James is certainly entitled to run his business however he pleases. I would just be a little disgusted if I was a customer that had just opened up a dead snake and had the seller tell me to package it up and ship it back to me to prove it's dead. It's just an inconvenience to impose on your customer for something that wasn't his fault.

James, I commend you for handling the situation correctly. (Check out some of the recent sellers on the BOI who have shot themselves in the foot with their behavior after their mistakes.) People tend to be very forgiving when someone works to correct their mistake.
Good luck,
Chris Raden

James, I personaly would send the refund that Ron asked for, and cover the cost to ship the dead snake back. And as everyone has already stated, its not his fault for your computer crashing.
Just what I would do personally if in your shoes. Im not doggin you in any way, and I think you did the right thing by offering another to replace the dead, but I feel if Ron wants a refund, a refund Ron shall get.

I'm the guy (Ron Radloff) that had the problem with James Parks. James IM'd me letting me know he posted the our situation here. James also said he will honor the shipping fees. I sent James 3 pics of the dead snake but he insisted I pack the snake in salt and send it priority for $4.00. I asked him who I should use to send the snake back, not once but twice with no response. I did recieve an email from him with his address between those requests for the $4.00 shipper. Since he shipped via Fed Ex I just figured I would use them also. Being Thursday I wanted to get the snake shipped for Friday arrival. I had no idea he was thinking 2 to 3 days travel time. The pics I took were definately proof enough.. heck I can't teach a snake to play dead in a few short hours. To the guy that had good experiences with James, I have no doubt he is a good business person but we all have bad days. I live in Wisconsin and told James to be sure and use heat packs. He actually didn't ship the first day because he had to get shipping supplies. The box arrived crushed by Fed Ex, it measured 8 x 8 x 8.. no insulation other than styro peanuts and 2 tiny heat packs 2 x3 inch size. I will try to include a pic of the snake. I actually would preferred James didn't post this. I did tell I would but that was in hopes of him co-operating. I would have continued to try and work it out directly with him. I thank everyone for their responses and hope you don't think bad of James. He did after all post this and agree to do the right thing. Thanks again... Ron Radloff

to set the record straight for a quick second the snake arrived alive..... and its a durango mountain GOPHER snake....in my defense i was told it was very cold... any one out there find a garter out of hibernation on a slight warm winter day it wont move much at all....so to be sure i asked for it to be shipped back...im not the only person out there that asks this....though there arent many but if you been burnt as many time as i have im sure you would consider it...and if thats something youd never ask of a customer....then you have a hell of a lot more faith in mankind then i do
james parks

Hey, I just wanted to state that I did a trade with James last year and I was pretty satisfied.
James might not remember, but we traded some oddball Eastern Hogs to him for some Terrapins. I was very happy with the deal and would be happy to do business with James again.

yes rob i remember.... i still have a few of those hogs
thanks !.....can you get any more?
james parks

James,

I don't have any now, but I'm sure I can come across a few more. Drop me a line, my e-mail is gex_anon@hotmail.com

Cheers!

So let me see if I have this right?

Ron paid for a snake in good faith.

He also paid to have the snake shipped by you.

You didn't ship the snake, your girlfriend did.

Snake died due to EXTREEMLY poor shipping.

You weren't happy with a few pictures.

You wanted it shipped back paid by you.

Now you wanna worry about the cost of shipping back to you?

The way I see it is not only should you do whatever it takes to make Ron happy but you should be ashamed for having shipped an animal with so much neglect it caused the death of the animal. I would have avoided this post at all cost just so people didn't see how poorly I shipped and the fact that I would trust somebody else to do it.

You wanted the snake back for WHATEVER reason, you pay the shipping cost. I dead snake can't be shipped through the USPS, have you lost your mind? The order would be out of control.

Point here is to buck up and do what you need to make Ron happy. I know AOL, your Girlfriend, Keyboard and blah blah blah but at somepoint you're going to have to account for trusting somebody else to ship, choosing the poorest ISP and drinking around your keyboard. Good luck Ron..

The black sheep (dog),
Adam Block

well sorry to hear about this james but hey $%#&happens ya'know? live&learn as they say,,youve shown your a "goodguy" by acknowledging the "wrong" and making it "right" and having delt w/you in past myself i know this must have been an accident,for all my shipments were very well packed and very healthy well represented animals as well ,,,,, thomas davis T&S reptile farm