Crestieman - Robert Shays Reptiles

Your last two posts are a definite step in the right direction Robert. Follow up with what you have promised and you are well on the way to repairing this situation

Just as a quick update. Robert and I have agreed on a $40 refund sent via Money Order or check once he receives his first paycheck after starting work with his father. He has apologized several times to me, and again, I greatly appreciate it. Once the refund is done, I'll be sure to update this thread. Hopefully Robert and I can walk away from this with more knowledge for future transactions, and we can both grow from this experience. John, you said it well, he's definitely on the right track!

Originally Posted by Katie.Shinkle

Just as a quick update. Robert and I have agreed on a $40 refund sent via Money Order or check once he receives his first paycheck after starting work with his father. He has apologized several times to me, and again, I greatly appreciate it. Once the refund is done, I'll be sure to update this thread. Hopefully Robert and I can walk away from this with more knowledge for future transactions, and we can both grow from this experience. John, you said it well, he's definitely on the right track!

Katie: I've seen you around Pangea for years and I'm sorry this happened to you, I know you're far from new to the trade. $70 seems a fair price for a nice male. I hope the refund comes as promised (unfortunately, a lot of the promised refunds around here of late seem to never materialize.) Please keep us posted. (And is there a reason he's not refunding by Paypal? Also, if you do use a money order, make SURE it's USPS, not Western Union.)

Robert: I'm glad you're doing the right thing and trying to turn this situation around. As you well know by now, your initial reaction was... way off base. But I sincerely wish you the best in trying to (re)build yourself a reputation after this, and I hope you've learned from it. It sounds like you really realize you goofed up and want to fix it. Best of luck.

Here are a few notes/tips that may help you in the crestie world:

1) If you don't own a 30x lighted loupe, buy one. It's the best $12 you will ever spend if you do cresties. This right here! A loupe like this lets you pick out pores on juvies as young as 6-7 grams. It would absolutely pick out those photographable pores on a 16-20 gram subadult. If you don't loupe sex a crestie, it's best to sell it as "unsexed" unless it has a huge bulge. I would never, EVER sell a crestie as "female" without louping it unless I'd already seen it lay eggs with my own eyes.

2) most breeders (and buyers) consider 20 grams the "magic number" in terms of sexing -- if it's over 20 grams with no pores under magnification, it's considered "guaranteed female", and it's rare enough for a 20+g crestie to develop pores or drop a bulge that nearly all breeders and buyers would expect a partial refund (as you offered) on a mis-sexing of an animal that large. It's in your best interest to sell animals in the 15-20 gram range with no visible pores as "probable females". You'll have to make a lot fewer refunds or exchanges that way.

3) Cresties, the males are more common and less valuable -- the numbers are up for debate, but people cite anything from about 55% male, 45% female, up to about 70% male, 30% female. In any case, males are the vast majority, and unless they're SUPER high end males (like in the $400-600 range), males tend to sell for about 2/3 the price of an equally nice female. (Your friend may have been thinking about gargoyles, who have the opposite gender ratio -- males are the more valuable in that species.)

Thanks Diana! The reason for not using Paypal is I don't have it set up currently to receive money, as I am not selling anything yet. I'll be sure he uses a USPS Money Order. And that's some great information, thanks for posting it up!

you know after reading thru this thread its plan that something good might come out of this. while males are more common they should be the more wanted because you can put one male with more then one female and get great results. I bought a probable female from a higher end crested breeder that was 80% it was a female, well she dropped a buldge and he offered to trade him out for a female. it took me a few days thinking it over because of the looks of this crestieI kept the male and he is currently breeding with 2 great looking females and I have already goten babies hatchlings, and to my suprise the babies look like dad and they have Dal. spots on them to boot.(PM me with a e-mail address for pics of the babies for sale. 125.00 each unsexed) sorry shameless promo here.
sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, if it was a good looking female, now that its a male you can pass them genes on to other females and get more of them.

good luck with everything, and see everyone around.

P.S. if anyone is from or around the ashland Ky area saturday, there is a reptile show at the Kyova mall just off of SR 60.

(another shameless Promo)

Jaime, yes, I know he can be paired with several females, unlike females as they can only be paired with one male, but my intention was to purchase a female, as I already have several males. I will be keeping this one though, as I have grown to like him.

Glad to see another Tennessean on here!

ohh yeah i feel the pain from ya. better to make lemon-aid with sugar then just the lemons

Yup, and I responded to you on Facebook.

Glad to see everything is moving forward! This is how I like to see BOI's resolved.

I am very happy to see something heading in the right direction for a change.

Robert that was a good apology. Anyone can make a mistake sexing an animal, it happens. How you resolve that mistake is what counts. You just have to work with someone instead of against them. It seems you might have learned this. Which is great. Learn it now, you have a whole reptile industry life ahead of you yet. Do whatever you can to make that customer happy and protect your name at all costs.

Diana, you pointed out some good things, not only for Robert but others who are reading this thread. Good one

Katie, glad you were able to hold it all together, you came out of this as a top notch woman to deal with