Beware: Of Reptileguru.

JNJ (Josh) says:
True I did ask for a partial refund. Anyone would have.

I would not have. Not if I had already agreed to accept a snake with mites. I believe that I would have made different assumptions than you, as I never have seen "just 5-10" mites. I'll bet others here would not have either.

But if its not about the money, than we started this thread just to warn the reptile buying public that Reptile Guru is only up front about some mites, but not all mites! I post here somewhat frequently, and obviously have my own perspective of what is, and is not, a valid complaint. But it seems that your complaint is now only just about the characterization of "a few" mites vs. a "lot of mites", as related in a phone conversation. If you had it in hard print, like an email, then we could give some credence to the claim. But since its from a phone conversation, which leaves much more possibility for an honest misunderstanding between parties, you decided it was enough to come here with and bash Reptile Guru, since its "not about the money". Like I said in the beginning, this thread is a mistake.

I did not know that credit card companies didn't do partial refunds. I have never done a chargeback because I have never been in a situation to do so. This thread needs to end. It is not about who said what or money. It is about the snake. Everyone keeps relying on the refund, mites and who said what but the only thing that matters is that he has mites and reptileguru never treated him. But it is a done deal. everything is over with.

Jennifer Norwood

To refresh the viewing public:

Jennifer, speaking on behalf of JNJ, says:
............ This thread needs to end. It is not about who said what or money. It is about the snake. Everyone keeps relying on the refund, mites and who said what but the only thing that matters is that he has mites and reptileguru never treated him. But it is a done deal. everything is over with.

While I have disagreed with you here, I do not think that you are to be avoided, or that it would be right for me to refer others to this thread, lest they draw a negative opinion from it as well. Just a disagreement. A bag full of dead mites does have me wondering about your conclusion that the reptile guru "never treated him", BTW. But in reading your above post, and some of the more recent posts by JNJ, I do have a quandary:
If its not about the money (or a partial refund), then since JNJ was the thread starter, what did you hope to accomplish, or warn people about, by your initial post? I don't need a book of an answer, and welcome any points where you may want to retract anything, or affirm anything, as we all make mistakes. But if not for the money, and call me thick-headed and blind and stupid, the theme of it all evaporated on me!

I applaud your frankness in admitting that regardless of the circumstances you should not have shipped the animal.

Ditto. Well said Scott! An animal whose health (or parasite load for that matter) is questionable should not be shipped. I applaud Jim's frankness too.

Regards

Just a thought, I have had to deal with mites in the past. My observance is that if a snake is left in a quarantine tank for 24 hours you will notice all the mites that you never saw, crawling all over the tank(looks like the photo of the bag). Why? Because they are in a large number and need to find a new host. I have seen this with snakes before AND after they were treated(usually because of a bad mite spray). They can travel 12 feet in one hour, so in a bag that is a lot. Also, it only takes a few eggs to hatch over night and have a mess like that.

You may be upset because no one is defending your side of a mite infested snake. I do not doubt that Jim has his employees on a mite watch for the next few days. Hopefully he will not sell any until he knows for sure that his store is clear of mites. In fact, I will personally go meet Jim and see his store. I live in San Diego and I drive a lot, Chino is not that big of a deal, I can visit my family and Laura while I am out. So Jim, lets get together and talk herps. I will post my findings.

I am in no way condoning the shipping of the snake. What I have seen here, Jim has learned a valuable lesson that he will not soon forget.

Michael,
I look forward to your visit. Please let me know when you plan to come in so I can be there.

Thank you,
Jim Alles

I'd like to visit the store too. However, for me, it is a 7-9 hour drive south. Anybody want to spring for a plane ticket? LOL j/k

The mites in the bag as I have said before were alive not dead. Therefore he was never treated or treated with a proper medicine. I posted this thread to warn people to be careful about buying animals from reptileguru. I don't want anyone to have a snake arrive with hundreds of live mites on it. Everyone keeps saying Jim did the right thing and that we should take the full refund and send the snake back. But why would I send the snake back to him when he didn't even treat it in the fist place. Everyone should be asking Jim why he would let a snake sit in that many mites without treatment. His employee even went as far to say on the phone that I shouldn't have treated the snake before talking to them first. What does he think, that I am going to let a snake sit in hundreds of mites while waiting for him to answer the phone. I don't think so. But as I said it is done and over with.

JNJ says:
I posted this thread to warn people to be careful about buying animals from reptileguru. I don't want anyone to have a snake arrive with hundreds of live mites on it.

Reptile Guru (Jim) made it clear from the very beginning, when he called you before he shipped, that he realized the concerns inherent with mites, to include an offer to cancel the deal. Maybe you don't "want anyone to have a snake arrive with hundreds of live mites on it", but your own words earlier in the thread show Jim thinking that canceling the deal (put another way, "not shipping a mite-infested snake") was proper, and you saying "No, ship it". Now you want to warn others, blaming Guru for your choice. You are sure now that he did not treat it, yet mite eradication takes more time than you allowed. No one knows whether it got a spray or not before it left, but what is certain is that you were knowingly and willingly receiving a mite-infested snake. And the claim is made in an earlier post that you already had an existing mite problem on your end, and therefore weren't as concerned as you otherwise would have been.
I thank you for the explanation, but as a few of us have earlier speculated, IMO if you had gotten your partial refund initially, you would have lost the motivation to warn people about Guru.

Is it just me or did jnj say they would post some pics of the snake like 6 pages ago?

I smell tuna here.

Maybe a bit of buyers remorse? I think so. You want a refund; then you don't. Make up your mind(s).