I was contacted by Scott Werner last week about doing a trade for my '09 male Cinny, female Pastel and female Normal for his '09 male Fire and pair of "het" Clowns. We only live about 50 miles apart so we arranged to meet halfway this past Saturday morning (9/26/09). We met and exchanged animals, he seemed like a cool guy. Explained that he was attempting to get started with breeding and this will be his first year hoping to produce eggs.
I made sure he had paperwork when he first initiated the trade. He said he got the "het" Clowns and another adult female het Albino from his "bud" who had gotten them at a recent show in NY. He said he'd see what he could do and had the paperwork in hand by the next day. He posted pics of the animals and the paperwork in my ad, which he has now gone ahead and deleted.
Anyway, during our in-person exchange he showed me how the "het" Clowns had flames and spots indicating they were indeed hets. He had said he's pretty new at this, so I didn't say anything. People can believe whatever they want. I figured as long as the paperwork was legit, that's all that matters.
So I get the animals home. The Fire is a great snake, no question about that. However, I notice that neither of the "hets" actually match the picture on the paperwork...so I weighed them. They weigh 40 and 45 grams. The paperwork states they were purchased on 9/13/09 and weighed 75 and 81 grams at that time. So they've lost half their weight in 13 days? Big red flag! I contacted Scott immediately and told him about the problem. He claimed he got them from his "bud" and he would contact him and get back to me. No response so I texted him again yesterday asking what he planned to do, because no matter what it was obvious that these weren't the right animals and we would have to meet to do some type of exchange regardless. I said we could trade back completely or just work out something on the bogus hets.
Long story short, he got pissy and said he got them from his wonderful "bud", I'm the second person to start bitching AFTER the trade from Fauna, and hey, "$hit happens". I told him it's not my problem that his "bud" ripped him opff and I would be posting on the BOI if he didn't take care of this problem that is now HIS problem. No response since yesterday, so here we go. He also seems to think that since just the Fire alone is worth as much as what I was listing my trio for, that he's really done nothing wrong by passing off phony hets...like I want a pair of Normals, and I wasn't looking for a Fire. I only did the trade for the "het" Clowns.
So basically, Scott Werner/Hunter325 is another lowlife out there starting off VERY badly in this hobby. The Fire is good, I will say that. But obviously him and his little "bud" aren't real into honesty, so DON'T trust his hets. He said I can say whatever I want because this will be his last trade over the internet, so if you run into him at a show, his most recognizable trait is that he has no front teeth. My guess would be rotted out by chewing tobacco...or meth. Buyer beware.