Logan Enterprises - David Van Houten INQUIRY

Hi Everyone,

I am about to make a significant purchase from David and just wanted to here what you guys had to say.

Good? Bad? Dont Know?

Thanks,

Ross

I just bought an indian sand boa from David. Great snake, and great packaging and service as well.

I bought a 2002 het albino ball from David a few months ago and I am very happy with her! The only trouble is she is very expensive to feed!! 770gms already! She has gained 500 grams in 4 months. Gotta say great shipping and communications.

I, also, have done biz with Dave.... NO PROBLEMS, and great animals....

....Neil

I buy imports from him all the time and I have never had a complaint. he has tremendous animals and never!!!! misrepresents them.

Keep up the good work david.

David promptly replies to any questions you might have on your animals. He is also always willing to work with you either if it's a $100 or $1,000 sale. Very customer oriented.

Regards.

HI,
David Van Houten screwed me out of $1200 for three Trinidad Tree Boas that arrived at my friends house in a terrible condition. All three were extremely dehyrdated. One died a few days later and the decision was made to send the animals back to him for a refund as we could ship these animals to the UK in the same shipping bax as Amazon Basins and Boelens pythons. David refused to collect the snakes and left them to die in a Delta dash terminal in Richmond airport. Mr Van Houten was aware the animals were at the airport and refused to collect them as it was 2 hours away. I even told him to keep $400 of the refund in order to compensate for any inconviences he had in collecting the snakes or for having to pay someone to courier them to him or collect them. Not many people will take a $400 hit on animals that were in appaling condition when they arrived from him. He denied all responcibility for the animals and in the end washed his hands of the deal claiming he had "too much money to worry about a $1200 deal". This is certainly not the way someone should do business and I would urge you to seriously reconsider you deal with him. On a side note, a friend also bought some tree boas from him and over half of the neonates died and many of the others are having to be force fed. If you would like copies of every e-mail he sent me regarding the transaction I am happy to forward these on to you. Because I am the other side of the world he knows that I cannot come knocking on his door...yet...but I will later this year.
I hope you seriously reconsider your deal with him, and remember that there are many other dealers out there that you can buy from.
Regards,
The full stroy can be found on the board of inquiry on Corallus.com and on page three ( i think) of the message board. This is the picture of the dead animal recieved.

One died a few days later and the decision was made to send the animals back to him for a refund as we could ship these animals to the UK in the same shipping bax as Amazon Basins and Boelens pythons. David refused to collect the snakes and left them to die in a Delta dash terminal in Richmond airport. Mr Van Houten was aware the animals were at the airport and refused to collect them as it was 2 hours away.

Warren,

I'm a little confused by the story. Are you in the UK? Were the animals going to be shipped back to the UK for a refund or to the US?

Best regards.

Sorry, I'll clarrify.

I am in the Uk, well, infact I am in Northern Ireland (considered part of the UK although seperaed from the mainland by the Irish Sea. Right, I purchased the snakes off Van Houten and they were shipped from him in Virginia to my friend in Florida who was going to ship them to me along with one of my orders. Anyway, the animals arrived with him in extremely poor condition and he informed me immediately. I was away at a remote fieldwrok station and away from internet access however upon my retunr I e-mail Van Houten and expressed my concerns. He told me it was a load of rubbish and the animals he sent were fine, obvioulsy not however. Anyway, my friend decided to ship them back to him in order for me to get a full refund as they were too ill to ship to the UK. Van Houten refused to collect them from the airport and left them to die. He refuses to accept any liability for the poor quality of the animals and refuses to refund. I was even happy to settle for a $600 refund in order to get this out of my hair but he refused to accept any responcibilty for the animals.
Hope this clears things up.

Regards,

Warren Booth
Queen's University of Belfast
Behavioural Ecology and Evolution Research Group
School of Biology and Biochemistry
Medical Biology Centre

Warren,

You've left out so many important facts it is making my head spin. You've also conviently left out the name of your "friend" in Florida. That would be Don Kesseric. Do a search here and everyone will know all about your friend.

You didn't arrange shipping of the animals back to me. You just shipped them to a random airport without consulting me as to whether or not that is where they should go and you sent them after I told you not to send them to that airport. Your friend illegally shipping them Delta without marking them live snakes, has he heard from Delta yet as I informed them of this? Has he ever heard of the Lacey Act? He will now. I told you to ship the animals to me and we could discuss a refund, very standard in this industry. You have tried to "blackmail" me into giving you a refund on animals I have never received, by saying this could all go away and you would remove all thread you have posted if I did this.

I believe the last email I ever sent you was I would discuss a refund as soon as the animals, or bodies, were shipped to me. You have done nothing to try and do this yet still expect a refund? I wish I could do this only I don't know anyone that is willing to give refunds without the animals is question, if you do let me know and I'll pass their names along to everyone here, they are a cut above the rest.

David Van Houten