Avangel Reptiles- parasitic reptiles, and more

It says on your page that youre a veteran.... you just said your not.
My dad was army, as well as both of my grandparents, my stepdad, my stepmoms dad, my cousin(active), my brother in law (active airforce), both of my husband's parents are vets, as well as his grandfather, we also have active friends- one stationed in california currently.
If you are not... stop with the stolen valor. Its a crime, and disrespectful.

Originally Posted by Avangel Reptiles

I thought of a million ways to argue my point, to defend my business, to try and convince you people of jury and judge, but honestly at this point, it's rare that someone that has something good to say will actually come out and say it. (It's like good reviews and bad reviews) the good just never gets a chance to shine.

So, with that being said, I Chaz of Avangel Reptiles, will say what I have to say, and I will respond no more. I have been breeding and selling geckos for far longer than some of the people on here arguing and cursing my business and I. I have always been true to my customers, and treated them with the utmost respect. This is business and I would like to find the best way possible to right a wrong without both parties at a loss. Granted, unbeknownst to me, I did not intentionally send ill geckos. It has not, nor will it ever be what I stand for. There are some upset customers out there that feel cheated. I apologize you feel that way, but I have been fully responsive to any and all questions that they may have. I'm ashame it took you all 4 pages worth of comments before you decided to inform me of this thread, but now that is besides the point. For those of you out there that read this thread, knowing I gave honest and great customer service, and refuse to post your experience, it is for that reason why this should not be called a community any longer. I'm going to clear up a few things. I use a DSLR Camera on a white backdrop with natural light, light bulbs. I do not in anyway falsify a geckos appearance what so ever. Take a picture, with a white background and a carpet background with the same lighting and tell me you don't see a difference. Honestly, even though this has gotten way out of hand, you pet owners have taught me a lot. Just don't sale to inexperience people. I sold 100's of geckos, and now my first issue makes me the big bad enemy. Where is my validation in customer service? Also, I never told that girl I was a retired vet. It says I was in the military. There is a difference. Soldiers are contracted, and mine was a for a few years, and yes what I saw in my time in Iraq is (human) mass murders, destruction, and so much more. Us humans are so quick to kill and conquer based on jealousy and greed. So to say I sent reptiles intentionally with parasites is inhuman, the parasites the geckos had when shipped was a mere accident. There was no intentions about it. It's funny, the only time you all seem to band together, is when you are trying to take someone down, or the government is trying to take the reptile industry down. I'm tired of fighting for and against people on here. I came into this industry to make a difference, and the only difference I made, is nothing. Thank you for hearing me out.

You said a whole lot of nothing.
You whine alot about people not publicly recognizing you. Me me me me is what i hear and not a single answer to questions asked of you.

What does a customer buying gecko's from you have to do with your serving in the military? I know many people including family who served in war zones but I never hear them mention it or use it as some kind of sympathy card.
State your case and leave it at that. I personally have nothing invested in this but the way a person responds says alot about credibility.

Chaz, As with a few others who posted, I'm surprised about this. You can claim no fault, but there are way more issues brought up here about you than Nikki and Kayla. If I were you, I would have cleaned EVERYTHING involved with my animals. If your producing your own crickets, they would have been destroyed. If your purchasing from someone, I would have cut that tie immediately. Mistakes happen, but seeing at least 3 of the 6 geckos having worms means this is a problem. If I were you, I'd consider after finding the issue and fixing it, to downsize your collection. It's hard to admit, but we burn ourselves out when we have hundreds of animals. I know from experience. This is a hobby for most. When it's become no fun, it's time to take a step back.
People usually come forward with issues much more often than compliments. I've had hundreds of transactions over the years. There is no BOI on me, good, bad, buyer, or seller related.
Inhumanely treating anything is wrong. Hell, my animals tend to eat better than I do (it shows..)
I'm not understanding the military thing, but it's totally irrelevant. For every good soldier I know, I also know one who doesn't deserve a moment of time from anyone. If you chose to serve your country, that's great and honorable. But it doesn't in any way reflect you as a person.
It doesn't look good that you tried to hide the issue and blame the two who brought it up. They're leopard geckos. There shouldn't be a parasite load. These aren't issues that arise regularly in them.
With that being said, good luck with the whole situation. I feel for you two, Nikki and Kayla. Hoping for the best for your animals. And I hope Chaz steps his stuff up here. Bad excuses and a bad situation always makes you look bad.

Originally Posted by Avangel Reptiles

I'm tired of fighting for and against people on here. I came into this industry to make a difference, and the only difference I made, is nothing.

If you are tired of the business, get out. I agree you have not made a difference. Someone who wanted to make a difference would take their critter's health seriously, focussed on the critter's health instead of whining; yet you seem to be doing is brushing off the valid complaints made against you.
It is the transactions that go wrong that show what sort of person you really are. I'm not impressed. You've let down your buyer, and you've let down your critters.

Chaz, in your post I saw not much more than a little self back patting and complaining.
Whether you sent out ill geckos intentionally, or not, the fact of the matter is that it did occur and you have not addressed how you will make, or have made, things right.

The worms, and dull/skinny geckos, are not the fault of the buyers (be they newbies or highly experienced). It certainly appears that they arrived, in that condition, from You to your customers.

Not only do you have unsatisfied customers, that need to be properly addressed, you also appear to have some husbandry issues to address & correct.

Instead of complaining, trying to lay blame elsewhere, and behaving as though you can do no wrong, you should concentrate on making things right, with your customers, and immediately address your husbandry issues.

Just wanted to throw some happy news in, its been over a month and Mew finally ate on her own this morning! After 2 days of carnivore care, she ate quite a few tiny baby dubias

I was really going to stay out of this but there are a few points that bother me. First of all,, how does ARMION cure parasites? I saw in some of the text posted that you told the owners of the geckos you were using it to get rid of parasites and they should use it to treat for them. I'm just really curious how that works. I had all the respect for you in the world chaz and at first I wanted to believe that none of this was true and you weren't to blame and the girls were over reacting but with all the evidence presented here it's really hard for me to believe you did no wrong here. And if the things said here are true I'm honestly disgusted! Can you please for everyone's sake address the issues people have brought up? Like the feeding of sick geckos to your roaches, is that true? That bothers me the most! And if your entire collection has parasites it's going to take agressive treatment and cleaning to get rid of them at this point. And the military stuff, I'm not saying you aren't telling the truth about any of that but it honestly sounds like back paddling to me. I hope I'm proven wrong about that and the other thoughts running through my head but your post didn't do a very good job of putting those thoughts to rest!
That being said I personally did not have a really bad experience with chaz. I purchased a jar of his multi vitamin ARMION a few months back and it shipped quickly. When I got it I noticed huge clumps that were hard as rocks in it. I left a review on his site saying that my jar was unusable because of the chunks and chaz text me apologizing and told me he made a new batch of ARMION and that he had added more of a few ingredients for breeding season and this batch didn't have clumps. He offered to send me a free sample of the new batch, which he did. I used that sample and didn't have any issues with the product and my geckos seemed to like it! I wasn't able to feed them it for very long tho the sample was small and with 40+ geckos it didn't last long. And the jar had so many hard clumps I was too afraid to use that with my geckos I just fed it to my feeders, which kinda pissed me off I didn't spend as much as I did on it to feed it to my feeders but not much I can do about that now! Anyway as I said i didn't have a horrible experience. Figured I'd share some of the good since it's been all bad here!

BTW Things can go wrong, on occasion, with even the best in the industry.
A seldom occurring "mistake or two", in itself, will not destroy a business.
However, the manner in which a person/business handles things, including their behavior, can make or break a business.
Just something to keep in mind.

Originally Posted by KFoxysGeckos

Just wanted to throw some happy news in, its been over a month and Mew finally ate on her own this morning! After 2 days of carnivore care, she ate quite a few tiny baby dubias

That is great!
Hope things continue to improve.

Originally Posted by Pasodama

That is great!
Hope things continue to improve.

Thank you! Me too!