Christopher Pratt (prattnc or prattnc@gmail.com) from Kansas

I dealt with Pratt a while back. He wanted to buy a crested gecko from me, but only if I shipped through USPS. I told him I wouldn't guarantee live arrival w/ USPS, because I've had too many problems with them, and I hated to use them just to save a few bucks. I told him I would ship Fedex and share the cost, but this wasn't acceptable to him. He would pay no more than $22 for shipping. Eventually he backed out, because we couldn't agree on shipping. Not enough to warrant a bad guy label, but he certainly is willing to put animals at risk to save money.

Noelle

Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

I read the entire thing word for word. I do not know either of these two people and I have not done business with either of them. I'm glad the op apologized near the end and I don't think the seller should have begun ignoring her emails and texts but he had a point when he said she kept putting it off. She put off the shipping many more times then he did. I honestly think this situation is silly.

No her $$ is not a deposit. Yes she needs the animal or her $$ back but the back and forth between them was just silly from the beginning. In my opinion.

Too many excuses. A seller to afraid (or nor prepared enough) to ship in certain weather conditions, and a buyer who can not communicate in a timely manner or make time to receive a $300 animal..

Not a good combination..

For someone that was in a hurry to sell this gecko, he sure isn't willing to get rid of it now. My guess, he doesn't have the gecko or your money anymore and that's why you are getting this treatment. I've seen it one to many times. He put you off long enough for the paypal window to pass (which he obviously knew of) and then turned everything on you to justify keeping everything. While there isn't much proof for everyone, he goes down as a scammer in my personal book.

Wonder if the gecko was gravid.

I have notified him of this thread.

I do regret being unable to receive for shipping, however, please notice the dates associated with those emails sent by me, declining shipping. It had been over a month, and two dates where we had agreed on shipping had been completely dismissed by him - the only way I would find out was by ME asking for confirmation that he had shipped out that day. Only in one case did he notify me that he wouldn't be able to the day before. To be really honest, by the end of August, I was pretty frustrated. I am a college student, and I was moving around that time in order to commute to school, so external stressors were also pressuring my ability to receive the gecko. I do not understand though, how my inability to receive would limit his status as being the one to fail to ship, after all, I did buy the animal in full. In my history shipping animals as a seller, I have always made it my responsibility to get the gecko to the buyer as it is convenient for them, and I made the assumption that this was the case for all.

Originally Posted by xPantherx

Re: Shipping the Red Harlequin female
FROM: Christopher Pratt

TO: K. Waldron-Francis
Message flagged
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 9:39 PM

This is gunna be the the last time i tell you, i can send her out next week. It was 86 degrees today and will be about the same tomorrow, i told you in the beginning that if the temp is around 85 or higher i do not feel comfortable shipping especially since we agreed to use usps. I dont know how this is gunna work if you cant follow the terms we agreed on. At this point you should just contact paypal, it doesnt sound like you want to work with me. To me it sounds like you need money so you start demanding a refund. And you can contact fauna, that was the first and last time i will use it to sell or buy anything.

I also find this statement to be a red flag.

In addition, I wish I had caught this prior to all this headache. Forgive me if this is irrelevant, but it seems to speak to the general character of Christopher:

#67
07-06-2011, 01:17 AM
prattnc
Found her at petco

*The above was from a thread at Pangea, discussing the female I bought from him. I can include the URL if anyone finds it necessary, I didn't think it was key to this discussion, but rather simply some good perspective, hence I quoted it only in addendum.

Sorry again for having to make a second post, I just wanted to also point out that I am male (not so important, I know, but just for the sake of pronouns - thanks!).

I just found out about this thread earlier to day by jaybee on pangea, Kai never told me about it. I also think is at least one message from me that is missing which is the second one below, as you can see he messaged me and i responded a few hours later. The next time I heard something from him was 19 days later which i had not realized he even messaged me then, because after about a week of checking fauna and not hearing from him i wasn't checking it regularly. So really i hadn't heard from him til i got an email which is the last message below. Also I wasn't unprepared to ship. It was in the mid 90 and hotter for along time here where i live. I wasn't trying to drag it out so he could file a claim with paypal. In most cases he wasn't able to receive her. The only time i wasn't able to ship when he wanted me to was due to the weather until here recently when i told him i wouldn't be able to ship on Tuesday due to my job. I do still have the gecko and i also have the money if a refund was necessary. But i dont think he should get a ful refund. Also to rcarichter, That has nothing to do with this. I was on a budget at the time and couldnt go any higher than i offered so i asked about shipping usps since it was a little cheaper and i had just bought one from styx on pangea and that was how she shipped to me and i had no problems. but back to the real situation. This is not really about the gecko or money anymore. I was quite irritated when he started threatening a refund if i didnt ship that week after not hearing from him for almost three weeks and also saying he hadnt heard form me in a month. Ya technically he hadnt heard from me in about a month but that was because i was waiting for a response from him. Then after going back and forth with him for a few days i stopped responding to him because he wouldnt agree on a day. Then all of a sudden he is all nice and apologizing which i think is because he found out he couldnt file a claim with paypal. I also got text messages from him and somebody else he know at around 1 am one day, and that really did not make me happy. I also got a few calls from some women saying she was his business partner and wanted to know when i could ship. Im not talking to someone that has nothing to do with this and that is why i blocked the calls and text.

I do understand that i was a little out of line on some of the things i said and did, but he wasnt helping the situation. I dont think either one of us handled this right so i just really need some suggestion on what to do about it from other people that dont know either one of us. I am willing to resolve this but it doesnt sound like sending the gecko is gunna be possible to i need some suggestions on how much of the 300 should be refunded.


09-08-2011, 12:38 AM
From Kai
Hey there,

Is there any chance that you could ship next week? The best day for me to receive would be Wednesday, but I could probably work out any day. My new address is xxxxxxxxxx Lexington, MA 02421.

Just let me know! Thanks,
Kai

From me
09-08-2011, 05:56 AM
It is gunna be almost 90 Monday and Tuesday but it mite be cool enough to ship Wednesday for a Thursday arrival

09-27-2011, 09:47 AM
From Kai
Hey there,

The best day for me to receive is Wednesdays, since I do not have class until 1:30pm. I know it's late notice, but if you can get her out today, that would be great - if not, no big deal. Just let me know, and maybe I can see if the post office by campus can hold her on another day.

Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Thanks,
Kai

Hi,

Please ship out tomorrow. I haven't heard from you in about a month. I realize that temperatures have been high, but it now looks to be in the low 80's by you, and I have shipped many geckos with no problem in this temperature range. It is beginning to get too cold to ship near me, so I'd like to do this before it does. If you can't get her out tomorrow, can you please refund my money?

Again, my address is

Kaiden Waldron-Francis
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lexington, MA 02421

Thanks,
Kai.

Christopher,

Thank you so much for coming on Fauna and replying. I really do apologize for getting annoyed, again, it was because of past issues I've dealt with.

I texted you this afternoon:

978
10/20/2011
I started a tread on fauna.

I'm not sure if you got it, since I haven't been able to contact you via phone.

In addition, I filed a claim with PayPal around 4:30pm today with a customer service representative who said that his account would be flagged.

Christopher, I'd still be happy to receive her, but I'd need you to actually decide on a date. I said that I can go out of my way in my schedule, and I'd still be happy to do that. I'd just like either the gecko that I bought or my money back.

Originally Posted by prattnc

i just really need some suggestion on what to do about it from other people that dont know either one of us. I am willing to resolve this but it doesnt sound like sending the gecko is gunna be possible to i need some suggestions on how much of the 300 should be refunded.

100% REFUND.

Originally Posted by prattnc

I do understand that i was a little out of line on some of the things i said and did, but he wasnt helping the situation. I dont think either one of us handled this right so i just really need some suggestion on what to do about it from other people that dont know either one of us. I am willing to resolve this but it doesnt sound like sending the gecko is gunna be possible to i need some suggestions on how much of the 300 should be refunded.

The full amount should be refunded in my opnion. Despite all the back and forth on the matter, the buyer never received anything. The only way to fairly keep a percentage of the $300 is if you had a predetermined and agreed upon TOS stating a non-refundable deposit.