JP PETS,any feedback?

MP. You need to post your full name or your post might be removed just a heads up.

I posted that because if the owners are obviously viewing this thread.

They can as easily post to this thread and speak to all parties who have had bad experiances with them.

To me that letter was more of a "lets hush up the problem" instead of "lets fix the problem".

Regaurdless if i had a problem or concern with any company and it was brought to this board I would post any and all E-mail's pertaining to it for the membership to see. Be it in a solution or a ongoing problem the members of the board have the right to see it.

I know very well how an import facility runs and the problems and hard work involved. However I also know that in bussiness your customer service and product is your reputation. When you are treated as rude as I was with them and obviously many others then it is a major problem that needs to be resolved.

This is not the first thread on JP either and yet the problems continue. That says it all for me about this company!

oh they are viewing it alright....

Joe personally PM'd me through AIM to bitch about the thread. Even went as far to threaten me, This guy is far from professional. Frankly he is a real A$$. I had no problem with dealing with him, as long as in the future I had someone handpick selections. I personally wasent pleased with what we got after further inspection, but it was exactly what we ordered and well within his written terms which is good enough for him. He also stated he would credit a few problem specimens we received but that would involve shipping them back to him or placing another order. I've dealt with numerous suppliers in my day, but by far Joe is the worst. We made some simple requests involving an order we placed, even paid extra for his troubles. I wont go into details about the order itself because I personally dont think I need to make him look any worse than he already does. All I know is after coming here and stating our honest opinion about a transaction with him he decided to confront me through messenger and prove what type of person he truley was. He also complained I did not come to him before posting here, which is too bad considering he had told us he would refuse to credit problem specimens in our specifc order and if he did they would have to be shipped back and credited on a future order. Basically ensuring another transaction.....
I would have dealt with him again if he had not acted like answering simple questions or requests was such a hassle. He is obviously under the impression people are supposed to throw their money at him and get whatever he ships them, and as long as it falls between his terms no one has a right to complain. Well the orders may fall within those very detailed terms of his, but his customer service still sucks. I dont care if you supply 10 shops, or hundreds nationwide. Being an asshole will only get you so far, and its quite obvious from this thread that the majority agree.

Whine all you want Joe. You're only making your issues worse. A simple conversation and respect goes a long way.

As for people looking to deal with JP, go ahead, the animals are good when they first come in. Not if they have sat tho. I've heard this from NUMEROUS people. Have someone local handpick your orders, do not have them package it themselves. You'll be very dissapointed, itll be what he says he is sending you, and he may credit lost or sick specimens if you choose to give him more money on another order, but if you want it done RIGHT the FIRST time, have someone pick for you.

mpiexotics,

You need to post your full name on every post. The easiest way to fix this is to add it to your profile or signature line. If not, you run the risk of having all of your posts in this thread deleted.

I got the same email from JP that, I believe, Scott did. I tried to reply to it but the email jppetz@msn.com came back as undeliverable. So here's what I had to say to JP.

I cannot give the store name because I'm not going to drag the owners into this. I posted what I saw. The owners have nothing to do with this. They will not order from JP again so anything Joe has to say is moot at this point.

Karen

The bottom line is this:

If you are looking for the lowest prices possible JP has them GUARANTEED!. Prices like that come w/ a cost. JP simply can not spend time hand picking, worming, tracking which animals feed and which don't, etc. If you are not comfortable with that, DON'T BUY FROM THEM. He's been doing this since 1989, so obviously someone is keeping him busy.

JP Pets is not a retailer. He is wholesale in the strictest since of the word. Especially when you are ordering from out of state. I've been dealing with him for about a decade now and even I don't get my money back for dead stuff. But you know what, I'm still going back. Half of the people on this board living in FL and with positive ratings on the BOI buy from JP. I know for a fact that some of the BOI "GODS" have spent many a day over at JP's.

Handpicking would certainly help (it does for me). But, handpicking helps everywhere, doesn't it? If you want it handpicked, let me know and I'll do it for you. My charge starts at 25% and goes down based on how much you buy. So if you think a 25% surcharge is worth it, you now have an option.

I understand where you all are coming from with the concerns over the animals. But, I've been to several of the FL wholesalers, and honestly the biggest difference is the number of employees. JP is bare-bones. Because of that, orders get packed w/o those employees spending 2 minutes going over every animal, checking it out. They grab it and go.

Are there ever dead animals? Sure, there have been dead or dying animals in every wholesale establishment I've been to. Most of them have a huge freezer full of stuff. JP's refund policy is clearly printing on the pricelist. Those are the terms, don't agree to them and then bitch about it later.

Top Shelf, you got exactly what you payed for. What you didn't pay for was the type of customer service you want. I was there when they were packing your order. In fact, I helped sex some of it. Joe, is not in the business of talking on the phone half the day, or IM-ing for hours on end, to make you "feel good" about your experience. He sold you female ball pythons over 2 feet. You payed extra for the sexing. You recieved a very explicit explaination of what would have to happen if you weren't happy BEFORE you spent dime one. I think you've even stated everything was "within the terms." If you want Joe to "be nice" to you, send him an autographed Dan Marino jersey. If you want low prices, send him an order.

From the very begining we offered to pay extra if he would ship sexed specimens, we have way too many males on hand at the moment so we have stopped buying unsexed imports for the moment..... Our first order was just to see how well things went, and obviously it was too much of a hassle for him. From our first inquiry he acted as if it were a huge hassle. I've purchased hundreds of these sexed specimens from various sources over the past month, and joe was the only person I dealt with who made me feel as if i was inconveniencing him even though I was paying extra for a service. Not very good business. I was warned by numerous people before contacting Joe but I always give everyone the benifit of the doubt, I like to base my decisions on experience. I did not complain about the quality of specimens even tho we did recieve one with an OBVIOUS bad eye (basically missing, even wholesalers sell these as b-grade) and another with a fairly bad infection. He also stated that all specimens sent were over 2lbs in weight, a couple of which were not. A couple were also mis-sexed. No big deal, they are imports, this is to be expected. When buying wholesale you get used to this obviously and I was not in the least bit concerned nor did I even contact him about any sort of claim. I contacted them soon as they arrived to let him know of the delivery and that at first glance they looked good. After further inspection we obviously weighed, sexed, and visually inspected the animals and found the above findings. Out of the quantity we ordered I was not upset about the few issues. Like I said, no big deal... The big deal was simple customer service. I dont care if you are a wholesaler or mom and pop shop, you dont treat any customer as if they are an inconvenience. Especially when they are placing their first order with you. Asking to sex out some female imports and try to provide specimens over 2lbs is not much of a hassle, especially when we're paying extra, WHICH WE OFFERED TO DO BY THE WAY

I was simply stating that if these retail customers are looking to purchase specimens from joe they had better have them handpicked or else they will recieve something below their expectations. He is a wholesaler, he is not going to cater to every single request. He's going to take your money, and slap your order in a box and have it to you the following day. Simple as that. I had no issues with joe until he decided to contact me via AIM and threaten me. We werent especially OVERJOYED with the order we receieved, but we werent especially angered at it either. It was within his terms, and what we ordered. No big deal.

However he acted like an ass, and I do not have time for his antics... I would have done business with him again, but not if he chooses to act like a angry child. He's obviously quite upset about everyone who has posted negativley about his company and I do not blame him. But these people dont seem to realize exactly what he is. He's a wholesaler, hes not in business to provide top quality specimens, he's in business to provide QUANTITY. Some wholesalers however take the time to strive for both which unfortunatley means hiring on additional staff, and much more overhead. I can understand why he dosent

means hiring on additional staff, and much more overhead. I can understand why he dosent

Simple, that's not what he does. His niche is LOW PRICES. That means cutting corners in order to stay in business.

Here in FL we have a food store chain called Save-a-lot. These stores are placed in low-rent strip malls. They are poorly lit. They have few employees, and the ones they do have make probably .10 above minimum wage. These stores SELL YOU bags to put your stuff in, they don't come with the purchase. But you know what, you actually do "save-a-lot." I know several people who won't shop there because of the atmosphere. Fine! Go to Publix, spend 40% more, and feel good about the experience if you need to. I don't. Kraft macaroni and cheese is Kraft macaroni and cheese as far as I'm concerned.

Imported animals are imported animals. I'll take it from there. How much can you save me? That's what I'm worried about.

LOL!

We have those here too. Save-a-lot and Aldi's

The woman frequently visits, i think she's 100% het jewish :P

Its all the same to me....

I am just telling it like I see it. I am not trying to give anyone a hard time. I fully sympathize with those of you who were not happy. I have been threw the frustration of learning what is what in this business. If you are going to let price guide you then you are going to run into problems from time to time. J.P. Pets truly has the lowest prices out there, and is known for that. 90% of our population is on that Wal Mart mentality, and that is why it is a dog eat dog world. You only need to look to the Internet to see that (those guys are picking each other off left and right. It seems everybody with a computer is a reptile expert these days). Small pet stores are becoming few and far between, while Petco's and Petsmarts are becoming more and more frequent. If you want to cut out all of the middle men then J.P. is the way to go, but remember if you are going to cut corners then be prepared to order large quantities, and turn off all emotion (which is hard to do when dealing with animals). Now if you are going to order large quantities then you need to eater pick real hardy animals, or be able to move them quickly. If you are not willing to do that then you should support your local Jobber or wholesaler who is moving large quantities (and probably buying for J.P. or someone like him). Sure you might have to pay 20% more, but often times you will get to hand pick your animals. If you are looking for animals for a breeding project then you may want to contact a breeder. Sure you may pay a lot more, but if you are going to breed animals you should never cut corners. I guess the question you need to ask yourself is what kind of customer are you catering to? The one who wants the cheep deals, or the one who wants quality. I will give you a little hint about the one who wants the cheep deals: The day will come when they cut you out of the loop and go straight to your supplier. They only see one thing and that is price (they are just using you until something better comes along). If you have the customer who wants quality then they will be willing to pay extra, and will be loyal to you. You should support the system in place with out skipping order. It should go importer -- to wholesaler (Jobber)-- to retailer. Retailers should never buy from importers. In most cases retailers make 100-150% on live animals. That is over what a wholesaler charges. Now if they go straight to the importer they add on an extra 20%(by cutting out the wholesaler who is willing to hand pick for you), but have more losses because they may not be getting the same attention from the importer as the wholesaler who just bought 10,000 worth of stuff. In the long run the retailer has not really gained anything buy gutting out the middleman, but often they can't see that. They only see that 20% less cost. I don't thank J.P. is a bad guy, but I do think he could avoid these kind of threads by upping his minimum orders, and only selling to wholesalers. I do not know if that is practical because he has to make a living, and I guarantee that if he only sold to wholesalers someone else would come along selling to the public (then we would all have someone else to talk about).

P.S.
Thanks DThomas --- Now I can look cool with some outlaw warning points for not putting my name on my posts. I am glad to see that someone took the time to care. You may want to go some of the other threads from today, I think you can ding a few people there.

Aaron Hammock

Originally posted by TopShelfExotics
[b]LOL!

We have those here too. Save-a-lot and Aldi's

The woman frequently visits, i think she's 100% het jewish :P

Public service announcement:

Joe just decided to write me again and lay down some more threats..... Apparently he is jewish and he thinks my last comment was a crack at him. This is not the case, but for those of you who would enjoy further explanation....

For clarification purposes... the woman, (ie. girlfriend\fiance) likes to shop at aldis and save-a-lot (a reduced price food market without the bells and whistles) frequently to save money on groceries.

Boy I hope you feel stupid Joe.....

Thank You, you may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.