Top Shelf Exotics (Inquiry)

I also hope people get the 05's they paid for and not 06 hatchlings.

I agree 100%.

I hope that the "too cold to ship" excuse is not so they can buy some time while they wait for the 06's to arrive.

These people waiting better get 05's or there will be more complaints.

cold to ship, or I am no longer involved in the day to day workings of the business, basically means................avoidance and finally collapse of the business and loss of the funds. A thriving business does not operate on excuses for not doing business. These people are looking to get money and are providing the oldest excuse in the world.........their to busy to ship, to busy to reply to emails, and in the case of Chris, is no longer affiliated with a quality operation that was based on the good faith of his own name.

This certainly comes as a surprise to me. One of my favorite snakes is a Black Sumatran Blood that I bought from Chris last year. Sorry to hear about his illness.

Again this illness thing of Chris's is terrible I mean it would have to be if hes in bed 18-20 hours a day and like I said in a post earlier it was almost to the day the exact same time last year that I got that excuse so he has to have some kind of terminal illness to be sick that bad for a year straight. (I hope not but you know what I mean) But Herluver said it right "We should have more info on Glenn and Patrick" and that should be Chris's job to bring that info forward and to post that since he is no longer is running the show over there. Because personally I was happy with the het albino girls I bought from him, left him a good feedback and thread on here and he did the same for me so Im not defending him nor am I blasting him Im berating his practices. But I would never buy again from TSE or Chris for the simpple fact I feel that it was in Chris's hands last year and still I recieved no emails until I got in touch with him first and still waited months for the animals. It seems that I was not the only one.
Damian Macioce

Well, Chris I am still waiting for your response to my last post. It was you that I made the purchase from, not Pat, not Glenn, but you. So quit your little pity party about your health, stop the denials about you not being part of this, suck it up and be a man. You need to call me and try to make this right, and make it right for everyone else you mislead. Once this issue is resolved, we can go our separate ways. All I wanted was to purchase a $1500 pair of 100% het for pied BP from you. I didn't want to sit here day after day wondering if I had gotten ripped off, I didn't want to have to air your dirty laundry on the forum either. Now I wonder if calling the Buffalo PD is the next logical step in this fiasco. All you needed to do Chris was to MEET YOUR COMMITMENTS. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I guess that I'll never get my snakes. Did you ever really have them Chris? Was it ever your intention to honor this transaction? And to have the audacity to bitch about the tone of my email! You are showing your true colors, pal. So why don't you crawl back under the cabinets you cockroach until the lights are turned off, and you can go back to besmirching the integrity of the next crop of unsuspecting customers.

Originally Posted by tejasranger

Well, Chris I am still waiting for your response to my last post. It was you that I made the purchase from, not Pat, not Glenn, but you. So quit your little pity party about your health, stop the denials about you not being part of this, suck it up and be a man. You need to call me and try to make this right, and make it right for everyone else you mislead. Once this issue is resolved, we can go our separate ways. All I wanted was to purchase a $1500 pair of 100% het for pied BP from you. I didn't want to sit here day after day wondering if I had gotten ripped off, I didn't want to have to air your dirty laundry on the forum either. Now I wonder if calling the Buffalo PD is the next logical step in this fiasco. All you needed to do Chris was to MEET YOUR COMMITMENTS. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I guess that I'll never get my snakes. Did you ever really have them Chris? Was it ever your intention to honor this transaction? And to have the audacity to bitch about the tone of my email! You are showing your true colors, pal. So why don't you crawl back under the cabinets you cockroach until the lights are turned off, and you can go back to besmirching the integrity of the next crop of unsuspecting customers.

Wow, that was rather harsh. I was trying to avoid involvement in this particular thread, but I guess that was just not meant to be. My perspective may be a bit different than some of yours, and many of you may not appreciate my stance. I do not know Chris personally; therefore, I don't know the nature of his current health issues/concerns. Unless some of you are friendly with him, I will make the assumption that you do not know either. Quite frankly, the specifics of that matter are not only irrelevant to the situation at hand, they are none of our business.
What is of concern, is the poor customer service that has become part of TSE. This is not a new situation, but one that seems to have been getting worse anytime Chris was not breathing down the necks of his crew. Further, I have to say that Chris was no role model in that area...sure, he was usually pretty good to deal with, but I remember many posts where he was quite rude to his customers. This was demonstrated in posts he made here: by direct comments in threads AND by email responses that he cut & pasted. He sometimes seemed to take pride in belittling customers and giving sarcastic responses. TSE staff being rude to customers seems to be a pretty common complaint, and I have my own story about that (which I am not particularly inclined to post in a public forum). I think lack of effective communication has long been a factor...both internally, and with customers. Their shipping policy seems to be a huge source of problems...but, they argue, it is outlined in their TOS, take it or leave it. Whoever is "in charge" now, is not doing much to improve these things...but is it because it is business as usual, they don't know how to fix it, or they don't recognize the problem?

I find myself treading dangerously close to lines I don't wish to cross (for a variety of reasons), so I'll step away from the keyboard. But first, I would like to take pause to wish Chris well, and hope that he sees/feels some improvement in his state of health.

I live very close to where Chris and Top Shelf Exotics are located. Just thought I'd chime in with some input regarding the weather for the last 6 weeks or so. Typical "Buffalo" weather... (FYI Buffalo is not always snowing, locals tend to say weird fluctuating weather is "typical"... like the freak 60 degree January days we occasionally get, followed by 12 degrees and snowstorms, and 90 degree high humidity summer days) - I'd say "unpredictable" before I'd say "cold and snowy".

...We have been having wildly fluctuating temperatures the last 6 weeks. A couple of days in the 50s or 60s, then a couple of days in the 30s or 40s. Often nights have been at the freezing mark or below even when the daytime highs are in the 60s. We had some snow a couple of weeks ago (melted in a day).

So shipping with appropriate heat packs would probably be feasible, but who knows whether or not the low nighttime temps we have been having may have affected wholesalers shipping animals to TSE (complete speculation on my part, just a "maybe") if they use low temperatures to determine safe shipping times. No excuse for the lack of communication... seems like there's a lot going on here and sounds to me like there are some serious hard feelings between Chris and the people currently managing the business, which may account for his terse replies.

I haven't ever done business with TSE or Chris (though I had planned on it), it's disappointing to see a reptile business located near me struggle. I hope your health improves, Chris... and Robert, I hope the management of TSE (whoever they may be) send your animals out SOON.

Seems like they could solve all thier problems by hiring a good receptionist/office assistant. Then those boys could take care of the snakes and one person would be responsible for initiating or returning phone calls and e-mails, keeping the books, that type of thing. I am sure the boys could get the shipment boxed up for UPS or FEDEX to pick up at thier shop. I hate to see a good reputation get flushed myself

Although I'm not going to speculate on what the reason of the non-delivery of animals is (because I don't know), it's hard for me to believe that it's because they are overwhelmed with work. We don't hear thta kind of problem with companies that are without a doubt twice ior even three times as large. You can't fulfill your shipment obligations? You scale down to the point where you can, period.

As a keeper if you can't take proper care of the animals in your collection, what do you do? First thing you stop bringing animals in, and immediately scake down to a number you can manage. There's something else going on completely unrelated to Chris' health issues. What is it? I suspect that pretty soon we will know, as these kind of problems can't be dragged on forever...

Part of the issue is that they adhere to the shipping conditions stated in their TOS, so they get very backlogged during the winter months...but they continue taking orders for animals they won't ship. Then, when it warms up (from what I was told), they will only ship so many animals per day, and per week; so it takes them quite a while to catch up. I'm not sure how they deal with new orders that are taken while they are doing this...I have a guess, based upon what I have heard, but this is not the place for supposition. I will say that I have not heard nearly as many complaints of this nature regarding orders placed during the summer