Tampa Show

Ben,

Now you are contradicting yourself again. Now you are saying this was happening after the show was over and people were loading their cars and such. Of course there are major dealing going on then. But these things were not going on during the normal buisness hours of the show. Of course I go around and purchase as well as sell things during shut down for alot less than during the show. You very well may have purchased some balls for those prices and chondros at those prices at the end after the show but not one ball was for sale at $10 during the show. This is not really getting anywhere. You have stated that you are unhappy with your animals being stolen (which is terrible and I agree it should not have happened) and unhappy with your sales and your location. But it still does not mean that just because you did so poorly on sales that is was because everyone else was selling so much cheaper than you. I know for a fact that there were people there selling some of the same animals I had for sale at about $25-$50ea cheaper and I sold mine without a problem. From what I remember did you not have the tables on the end cap except for the table on the one side? Tony gave you an extra table at no charge to try and make you happy even though there really was no need to other than to try and make a happy customer.
I am sure we can all agree you are not happy with the show and you say you will not be doing the show any longer but as said before it was not and is not Tony's fault nor responsibilty.

No, I did not have all the tables except one. My table was the end with the sliding box/lexan display cases and Premium Herp was on the side with all the large boas in totes. So that meant his 8X8 space was the same 8x8 space mine was. Mr. Cueto was not giving me the space to be a nice guy and make me happy, he gave it to me because he sold me a booth, and then sold the same booth to Premium Herp. He just had us facing different directions out of the square. The table was given to me becuase there was a cancellation. If there had not been he would not have done anything!

Yes you are right I am not happy, and I will not be attending any of Mr. Cueto's shows in any state, he has also informed me I am not welcome-oh well


Ben Cole

I have done Tony's shows in Atlanta and Columbia for the last 4 years now and have ALWAYS been treated VERY kindly by Tony and his staff. Tony is VERY easy to work with and I think he puts on a good show. I know this isn't much, but when a show promoter that I see once or maybe twice a year can call me by name without me having to tell him, I think that shows he cares about his vendors. He provides free food to all of his vendors as well. What other promoter does that? And there was one instance where I had a problem with the vendor I was to be placed next to at a show and upon explaining it to Tony, he had me set up in a new spot in 5 minutes. And I am not a big time vendor by any means. I get one table most times(though at the last Atlanta show I was working two) and am still treated as if I buy 10.

Also, Ben, I am curious to see the correspondences you and Tony had. I find it highly doubtful Tony would be as rude and disrespectful as you claim, but I could be wrong, and I would like to see what was said.

When it comes to wholesale, you did not explain that you were running around at the end of the show buying animals cheap or making offers. If you went to a vendor at the end of a show and offered them $175 for an import chondro(which I think are wholesaling in the $150-175 range right now?), that is totally different than them having them on the table priced that low for the general public. You making an offer to vendor and them accepting it is totally different than the picture you appear to have been painting. The last half hour of a show is different than the rest of the TWO days it's going on. Almost everyone at that point is looking to unload things and will sell things cheap, ESPECIALLY when other VENDORS come to their tables and make offers.

And the vendors you mentioned, Ben Siegel, Regal, and Glades are not exactly wholesalers. Granted, they deal mostly in imported animals and sell for lower prices, but they are not exactly big wholesale houses like Strictly or Burgundy.

Your mention of Tony's staff possibly being involved in the theft of your animals I think is a bit much. Tony usually has a core staff that does all of his shows with him and I find it far more likely that another vendor snatched your animals. This is the reason I usually don't leave my animals on the table overnight at shows. NO matter what kind of security you have during show hours, if you leave your animals on the table overnight, I think that is an open opportunity for something to get stolen.

Oh, and Tony has NEVER advertised or claimed that his shows are CB only.

Either way, it's too bad that you weren't satisfied with Tony's show and that animals were stolen from you. Hopefully you'll do better at another show

I'll agree with the originator of this post about the negative experience of this show. This is the first year I had ever attended the Tampa show, and all I ever hear of it is how it is the next Daytona! Anyways??????? It was a hole in the wall compared to Daytona, not to mention cost more to get into between parking and admission and besides my friend Tom Carlton with Cypress Creek and Ben Siegel the rest of the show was completely over rated and over priced. The coordinator obviously hasn’t been doing this long and should go to a few more of Wayne’s shows before promoting his next. And I also don’t see where they come up with saying over 275 vendor booths?

It sucks you lost you animals It could in part be with how cluttered the tables were. Maybe he should have spread them out and made resource of the other half of the building.

And I guarantee you’re not the only one who will not be attending Tampa again.

I was told that once my animals were vet checked they had to stay, so that is why I left them on the table over night.

I also never said Mr. Cueto was a captive bred show either. I was under the impression it would be mostly captive bred due to vet checks-but I never said it was going to be all captive bred.

I only now of a dozen or so shows in the u.s that are true captive bred only


Ben Cole

Ben,

Do you have emails or any other records of conversations with Tony? I think that is the only part of your situation that has yet to be established here. Everything else seems to have been hashed about rather thorougly. If you have recorded conversations in some form, I think several here would like to see them.

Yes I do have some e-mail conversations with Mr. Cueto. I have left them absent since this was Mr. Cueto's private e-mail to me. I have sent it to a few people who have asked but did not post it as it is Mr. Cueto's writing.


Ben Cole

Ben,

I asked you to forward the e-mails to me and in your response you told me you had deleted them and had a print out you would read to me if I called you. If you still have them please forward them to me as I still would like to see the conversation between you and Tony.

I would also like to view these e-mails if you have them. You can forward them to me through the e-mail button on my profile.

But if you feel that you were treated poorly enough to come here and post all those negative about Tony's show(pretty much most of which are out of his control), I am surprised you won't post the e-mails here publicly.

But please, I am very interested in seeing the e-mails as it would be a side of Tony I have never seen or even heard of before.

Ben,

I understand your hesitancy, but they are Mr. Cueto's writings to you. Therefore, they are free for you to handle as you see fit.

I also have to say that I am somewhat at a loss to understand why it was necessary for you to make these accusations about Tony, but you are unwilling to show the evidences that support them. If his attitude was bad enough toward you to justify the start of this thread, surely it was bad enough to justify the posting of his emails. Doesn't that follow, logically?