Charles Koutris – Poor Businessman

Wade you did the right thing by posting this issue on the BOI. After all, this is why it is here. I personally have never had dealing with this person and, like Spyder79 (Brian) said, he certainly had a few minutes that he could have communicated with you what was going on.

I have a tendency to give people a break as long as the animals come in healthy, just not on time. There can always be some sort of personal reason why he couldnt ship out the exact day he thought, however, there is usually some sort of communication in the meantime. I, like you, would not personally label him a bad guy based on your transaction with him. I DO think I would proceed with caution if I were to ever have any dealings with him though.

Originally Posted by StrictlyExotics

I have a tendency to give people a break as long as the animals come in healthy, just not on time. There can always be some sort of personal reason why he couldnt ship out the exact day he thought, however, there is usually some sort of communication in the meantime. I, like you, would not personally label him a bad guy based on your transaction with him. I DO think I would proceed with caution if I were to ever have any dealings with him though.

I would be livid if the shipment did not arrive AND there was no communication from the shipper.

Of course I was upset or at least worried when the animals did not arrive. And you are correct that sometimes things happen. But three times, with no communication.

I don't expect any kind of retribution here, I have been a member here for a long time but I have not been active. I don't know what your normal procedure is beyond this stage. My only reason for posting was to go on record with my problem so others won't need to repeat what I did. I've done that and would be just fine if it all ends here. I think at least one of the people who called me is going to post here as well. So the subject may not be dead.

Sometimes threads like this do bring people out of the woodwork that may have been nervous to post on the BOI... It's good that you did bring this here! It just goes to show that communication is one of the key ingredients to good Business in my opinion!!

Originally Posted by StrictlyExotics

Wade you did the right thing by posting this issue on the BOI. After all, this is why it is here. I personally have never had dealing with this person and, like Spyder79 (Brian) said, he certainly had a few minutes that he could have communicated with you what was going on.

I have a tendency to give people a break as long as the animals come in healthy, just not on time. There can always be some sort of personal reason why he couldnt ship out the exact day he thought, however, there is usually some sort of communication in the meantime. I, like you, would not personally label him a bad guy based on your transaction with him. I DO think I would proceed with caution if I were to ever have any dealings with him though.

Agreed....as long as there is communications and not just leaving the buyer hanging. Things can come up but if you plan on being/staying in business then you must communicate.

I’m sad to read this thread simply because I like all the parties involved and would also consider Charles ‘an online herp friend’, known him for quite a few years. However, I do agree that people should not be left in the dark with no communication, especially when expecting and waiting for a delivery. I don’t want to get in the middle of anything, but I will share my experience.

I had a good transaction with Charles this year. There were some communication delays but I also know that Charles does this as a hobby and does not consider it a ‘business’ so I was prepared to be patient (of course each individual has varying levels of patience).

Here was my deal with Charles: in September ’09 I contacted him about an amazon tree boa he had posted pics of on another site and asked if she was for sale. We worked out a deal for a couple amazons and he agreed to let me do a payment plan, which I paid off in November (here’s the email, copy/past from yahoo, I edited out some personal stuff***):
*********************
Your snakes!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:19 PM
From:
"charles koutris" <ckoutris1@mac.com>
Add sender to Contacts
To:
"April Yohn" <hisba@yahoo.com>
Hey April,

Thank you very much I received the payments that you sent.
***(edit)
We need to figure out when the best time to ship and if you can send me your address again I can get a quote for the shipping. Your snakes are doing great they both just shed last week and fed today.
Charles
*******************
We agreed to wait until the weather was better. He provided me with a shipping quote 12/4. It was still storming, so we agreed to wait some more. I paid for the shipping on 12/6. (I can post more emails if needed). He emailed me on 1/4 and advised he’d ship Wednesday 1/6, then contacted me 1/6 to advise he accidentally fed everyone the night before and couldn’t ship (reasonable to me as I’ve done this before) and would ship 1/12. No snakes arrived, I sent him an email to check status. He contacted me 1/16 to apologize, thanked me for my patience and advised he’d ship the following Monday 1/18. I received my snakes Tuesday 1/19, they arrived in great shape and were as advertised. Now, that doesn’t mean he was right to delay and not ship when he said he would but I also knew by this time to be patient and not worry about it too much, I never felt that he was doing anything wrong, was just a very busy guy. I will also mention that I always get shipments sent to my work that way I’m available to sign and don’t have to take any time off to receive deliveries.

I’ve delayed shipping two weeks in a row once and was thankful the receiving party was willing to let me slide a bit, however they were well aware of the delays before the ‘scheduled arrival date’. I do agree that Charles should have been much more communicative with both parties (Wade and Mike). I would still buy from Charles and would still recommend him to others, but with the caveat that they be aware there could be delays and patience is key.

Happy herping all,
-April

For what ever it is worth, I just got and email from Charles apologizing. That takes a man to do that after all that I have done to him here.

Well it has been said many times here mistakes happen its how you deal with them that counts, I'm glad everything worked out for you!

Brian Hettinger

First off I am truly sorry Wade about the delays and lack of communication and I don't blame you for bringing this to the BOI like you did. I completely understand, it sucks but it's my fault. I didn't realize I was going to run into so many problems with my schedule getting the snakes to UPS. I should have told you at the beginning that I don't have a vehicle at the moment nor do I have a cell phone. So I wasn't able to contact you unless I was at home. I could say it till I was blue in the face how stressed out I was trying to ship the snakes out and when I would miss that chance a few times I was a nervous wreck.
This was my third shipment with UPS and 2 weeks prior to Wade's shipment I had scheduled a pickup for MIke's snake. I was under the impression that they would pick-up the snake around 6 pm as stated on SYR website and that was when my previous shipment to April was picked up. That day UPS knocked on my door at 9 am and I was obviously not ready nor did I want the snake driving around in a truck for 8 hours for no reason. the Driver told me I had to be there at the UPS store by 6 pm well he was wrong but still my fault for not checking, last pickup was at 5 pm.

I won't go into anymore detail other than I'm sorry and I didn't know about the paypal dispute until after the Snakes were shipped. I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be for me to ship with my schedule and current situation. I now inform anyone buying a snake from me that it may take me some time to get the snake out and if they can be patient they will get exactly what they want and the snake will arrive safely.
I've learned from this experience with Wade and am better for it now. I'm glad he likes his snakes and it seems they have gone to a good home and will be well cared for which is a big concern for me.

Thank you April for stating our transaction and how you felt about me I do appreciate it. Although I feel like you left out an important part that I wish I didn't have to bring up. But since my name is on the slab I feel it's necessary to state. I gave you a free Tree Boa because of the delay in shipping. I guess my feelings were a bit hurt that you would not include that in your post.

Anyway I am sorry Wade I hope you now understand that my intentions were good and didn't want this transaction to go sour because of the reasons it did. Most importantly I'm glad you're happy with the snakes and they made it safe.

On another note you mentioning a couple people having problems with me, I can only guess who that was and I was having problems with them and don't think it pertains to this in the least. That is a completely different situation that in my understanding you mentioning it is hearsay and third party stuff that isn't allowed on the BOI.

There's really not much more to say than I'm sorry and I hope you enjoy your snakes!

Originally Posted by chazzz

Thank you April for stating our transaction and how you felt about me I do appreciate it. Although I feel like you left out an important part that I wish I didn't have to bring up. But since my name is on the slab I feel it's necessary to state. I gave you a free Tree Boa because of the delay in shipping. I guess my feelings were a bit hurt that you would not include that in your post.

You are so very right Charles, I guess I didn't want to mention it for fear that others might 'expect' or feel they were 'owed' something free just due to a shipping delay. I'm very sorry to have hurt your feelings.

Re-reading my original post in this thread, it comes across more harsh than I originally intended as well. I am completetly satisfied with our transaction, couldn't be happier in fact, and look forward to doing more business with you in the future!