Top Shelf Exotics (Inquiry)

in the never ending Herp business. Here is a person who sends money to a business, makes out arrangements to have the animals shipped, finds out that one of the principles is no longer affiliated with the buisness, and that the animals have not been sent, that the people who are running the business are to busy to respond, that the former employer is to ill to oversee his business and has basically bowed out of the operation. .............

and we expect the buyer to be patient.! Heres the solution, cancel the order, find a supplier who is healthy and present at his business operation, and finally if you have to find an attorney................because this is going to lead into a financial loss on your part unless you protect your interests, (which you seem to be doing by coming here to the BOI)

This type of business method of providing excuses and bowing out is really unacceptable. If Top Shelf would declare insolvency, that would be one thing, but when one of the principles no longer is willing to accept any responsibility, then thats another more malevolent sign that has to be addressed. The bottom line............they have your money, GET IT BACK and move on as quickly as possible.

I also tried to purchase animal from TSE and waited supposedly for the weather to be ok. Well after two months of no word I finally made a post about having to wait and not being contacted at all. Come to find out the place is located in NY and I'm right here in MA. Weather conditions were absolutely perfect. I was however promptly given a refund after going public. The guy (Chris) @ top shelf exotics then turns around and says he couldn't ship due to himself catching pneumonia which I full well believe, and stated that I was insulting his hard working employees by going public so ummmm yeah why didn't the employees ship it? Chris however is very knowledgeable and I would say he has great animals but have never seen any in person. After reading this inquiry unfortunately I would have to scream con-artist.

Just for the record this was last year.

Originally Posted by lucille

I think he is out of the picture, he as much as said so. I do not know whether those running the biz now are employees, partners, or new owners and of course it would be good to know that.
We cannot demand that he answer our questions, he's sick.
He (and we) cannot demand the presence of his existing management either, it's not like we can subpoena them or anything. Should they address these issues? Undoubtedly. Whether they will or not is not up to us, or to Chris. My only point is that he be left in peace to recover the best he can; I certainly do not want to close off discussion of this matter at all since there are plainly people who are not getting their critters shipped to them..

How is he (Chris@TSE) out of the picture. When He (Chris@TSE) is still the owner? He has responded a few times to this thread already. Cant He (Chris@TSE) tell his employees, partners, or new owners to respond??
If they are employees I'd give them the boot! If they are partners I'd look for some new freinds! If they are New owners I would never buy from them!!

Originally Posted by KNOBTAIL

The bottom line............they have your money, GET IT BACK and move on as quickly as possible.

I wish it were that simple Jerry. My friend who has been waiting since November, she was flat out refused a refund by the current management of TSE. I am not putting any of this off on Chris. I would still recommend him if he ever decides to return to the reptile biz, but what is going on currently at TSE is completely unethical at best.

Originally Posted by jasballs

How is he (Chris@TSE) out of the picture. When He (Chris@TSE) is still the owner? He has responded a few times to this thread already. Cant He (Chris@TSE) tell his employees, partners, or new owners to respond??
If they are employees I'd give them the boot! If they are partners I'd look for some new freinds! If they are New owners I would never buy from them!!

No doubt! Good points Jas.

It sounds to me like the reputation that Chris built is being destroyed by the employees running things in his absence.
I would have never hesitated to buy from TSE when Chris was there but based upon the way the business is currently being run, I would have to stay away.
If a customer is unhappy about waiting (I don't buy this too cold excuse because I have shipped many animals over the years in the dead of winter from the Northeast and never had a DOA) and the "new TSE" isn't keeping the customer informed, a full refund is in order.

once you see this type of a situation occur,you can only expect it to go downhill from here. I would like to know who are the principles of the business, is it a legal business or corporation and who is actually responsible! Secondly, its very convenient for an employer to absolve himself of any liability and leave the burdon of these liabillities on the remaining partners, or whatever you want to call them. When does one person no longer become involved in a business that apparently is having some financial problems. Who bears the responsiblity of providing the service, refunding the money, etc.

Their are some real issues here that need to be addressed. These monies should be refunded and if Chris is no longer affiliated with Top Shelf at this time, or is contemplating some return in the future, he should provide some leadership and resolve this as quickly as possible. The fact that he is not well, is unfortuante, but mortgages still have to be paid, and life does go on.

Originally Posted by SPJ

Chris used to post regularly on this site but hasn't now for several months.

I have several stories like yours recently where snakes were paid for awaiting shipment and even though the weather is OK now to ship, they still have not received anything.

I know he was injured at one point and that may have caused a backlog but his employees should be filling the orders in his absence.

I would be demanding a refund unless at this point. Waiting all this time and still not getting a firm ship date would concern me as well.

Have you given them a choice of either ship in the next week or issue a full refund?

ahh yes here it is in black and white. Same scenario as mine just with a gecko and not a snake. Very sad and unfortunate, and again this took place last year.

Originally Posted by shrap

I wish it were that simple Jerry. My friend who has been waiting since November, she was flat out refused a refund by the current management of TSE. I am not putting any of this off on Chris. I would still recommend him if he ever decides to return to the reptile biz, but what is going on currently at TSE is completely unethical at best.

I could be wrong, but I believe the OP for this thread also stated he talked about a refund, and the reply was it was against TOS. Are you kidding me? Buy something-don't receive it, but it is against our TOS to give you your money back, especially if it was November (in your friends case)? Well, IMHOO, I believe yet another former "good guy/business" has hit the slippery slope. It's one thing to not expect your money back if you put down an advance deposit on future offspring, but when you pay for an item that they say they have, and yet they still haven't bothered to ship it, that is a rip-off. Thing is, you apparently don't even know you're being ripped-off, because they don't bother with keeping in contact with their customers, until after the customer is pissed off (and the honey has turned into vinegar), then they say "you are rude". Hello, rude is having a number of customers pay for a product, that by all reasonable expections should have been delivered, a time ago. Rude is not communicating with your customers.

A lot of people will probably think I'm an , and that Chris/TSE has such a good rep, that I should cut some slack....well, normally I would agree, but in this case it appears to be quite a large number of incidents, as opposed to an "innocent mistake". Let's hope everybody is getting their 05's that they paid for ASAP.