NEVER DEAL WITH BILL MEISZNER!!!

OK I have had many transactions with Bill and no issues ever. Is this the whole story?

I have done many transactions with Bill, no issue ever he always willing to go the extra mile for the deal to be perfect. There something not being told here. Did he offer way to fix this issue? Did you refuse it?

Originally Posted by BrianDallek

Wow, I was online posting an update on my experience with Bill Meiszner, http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=460482
when I found this thread.............As a seller it is your responsibility to give accurate information about the snake and offer a reasonable solution if a problem arrises. It sounds like Bill is willing to return the snake for the money he paid you. I see this as the perfect, fair resolution............You are fooling yourself if you think that a 2013 snake at 200grams doesn't have a feeding issue. If this was relayed to Bill from the beginning then the deal could have taken a better path or no path at all (more likely). The fact that bill sent a nice text about the snake when he first received it means nothing. Problems like feeding or RI's sometimes don't show right away.

I think it is an insult to everyone's intelligence to expect us to believe that you just happened upon this thread by coincidence. You and Bill have developed a friendship as your original thread has stated, and I believe that he probably mentioned this deal gone bad the last time you spoke to him. There is nothing wrong with that......my friends and I routinely discuss what's going on in the hobby.

I would think a feeding issue would have made it difficult for the seller to take a feeding video of the animal shortly after it was requested. A problem feeder does not simply turn on for the camera, and then back off when the filming stops.

Originally Posted by BrianDallek

The issue is if the buyer is happy with his purchase, which he was not. He could not get the snake to eat. The weight of the snake is evidence supporting this. From what I have read Bill has offered to return the snake in the same condition as it arrived well before this post was written.

The snake has not eaten in the 6 months the buyer has had it, despite being a documented feeder before the transaction. Therefore, it is not in the same condition as when it left, and according to the seller, the buyer had stopped responding until this thread was started. No mention of Bill's experience, husbandry practices, prey items offered, or how often they were offered.

I do think 200g is a little on the light side, but most snakes are way overfed in this hobby.....especially bp's, which are not my expertise.

I probably would have handled this situation differently, but I see no evidence here that Bill is without fault.....far from it. He demands his money back after a few weeks of a ball python not eating on HIS schedule, and then cuts off communication entirely with someone he was still in debt to? Not reasonable.

Originally Posted by MikeCurtin

I would think a feeding issue would have made it difficult for the seller to take a feeding video of the animal shortly after it was requested. A problem feeder does not simply turn on for the camera, and then back off when the filming stops.

With my limited experience with BPs (I breed mostly boas and bearded dragons) they eat when they want to and stop feeding for any number of reasons. I have had one not eat for me for 4 months, so I send her to a friend & she hasn't stopped eating ...

Originally Posted by MikeCurtin

The snake has not eaten in the 6 months the buyer has had it, despite being a documented feeder before the transaction. Therefore, it is not in the same condition as when it left, and according to the seller, the buyer had stopped responding until this thread was started. No mention of Bill's experience, husbandry practices, prey items offered, or how often they were offered.

Exactly!
There is no information on what prey items Bill offered, how often or the temps the BP was kept at. There are so many different factors that can and will affect feeding response in BPs.

Originally Posted by MikeCurtin

I do think 200g is a little on the light side, but most snakes are way overfed in this hobby.....especially bp's, which are not my expertise.

I probably would have handled this situation differently, but I see no evidence here that Bill is without fault.....far from it. He demands his money back after a few weeks of a ball python not eating on HIS schedule, and then cuts off communication entirely with someone he was still in debt to? Not reasonable.

When an animal isn't eating, I would hope that my customer would keep in contact and ask what I was feeding, how often, etc ...

200g is pretty small for an 8 month old ball python. I assume it was either maintenance fed or is a picky feeder. The fact it continues not to eat would make me assume the latter. I get that ball pythons can be finicky at times but it's not normal for a ball python that size to go off food. Sure it happens but it's far from the norm...

At this point the seller received $900 for what appears to be a picky feeder pastel clown. I don't think that's a bad deal for the seller... Sure it's not what you were hoping for but I doubt a picky feeder pastel clown was what the buyer was looking for either. Keeping the $900 as a done deal or sending back the pastel clown female for a full refund sounds reasonable to me.

just info on the size part from my experience and I do agree with others that 8 months at 200g is small.
all my 2014 babies were born in June and July, I feed them every 5 days after first shed then every 7 days after they have had 3-4 meals with no fuss.. I also feed them based on my years of experience with ETBs GTPs witch is always a prey item the max size of the snakes widest grit or smaller.. they grow nicely and slower than what power feeders expect.

so all of them are now in the 300- 380 range... the only ones that are lighter are the ones who were stubborn switching over to f/t were I would give them 14 days sometimes a little more to tempt them with f/t
and I have 1 that needed assist feedings for 8 meals before taking on her own, this one is under 200g at almost 6 months (born in august) I think 140 ish g last I checked
I would have to agree with Jason that this snake had to be a picky eater... and this is the second time I hear about maintenance feed ??? not sure I like the sound of that..

it's funny how the most $$ snakes tend to be picky mine was a marvel and is just now chomping on his own, won't take him long to catch up, but refused to sell it because it was picky with me.. in fact his last 3 meals, 2 he ate when I left the rat in front of his hide, but last night he eagerly striked and did his thing >>> finally :-D

I'm not sure how this should end...

I understand not giving a full refund after 6 months of not eating, first I would never let a 200g baby go that long before trying all options, than assist feeding it. sometimes it only takes one meal to get going.

it's not cool that the buyer backs out of his trade deal after stating how happy he was but understandable after his snake refuses to eat.. agree that we need husbandry details here..

perhaps the only solution would be to call it a done deal at this point, 900$ for that snake sounds fair. in the ball python world, that's a long time and I doubt it would sell at that price today.. prices go down faster than a new car leaving the lot..

Can we see the video of her eating, and how long was that video taken after the request was made?

Originally Posted by MikeCurtin

Can we see the video of her eating, and how long was that video taken after the request was made?

Excellent question. Initial conversation was on 5/21, and the video was sent 6/2 by seller.

I'd also like to know how much the BP weighs now. I've guestimated before and been off by as much as 100 grams, especially with little ones.

Bingo! You are very warm with that question Mike. It's so tempting to post the evidence but I won't do that to Jeff. I'm going back in the shadows but will say the comments in this post are hilarious. Realize that every comment in this post is an assumption based on less than 5% of the total phone calls and texts that actually took place. On with the show.

Originally Posted by morgan12

Bingo! You are very warm with that question Mike. It's so tempting to post the evidence but I won't do that to Jeff. I'm going back in the shadows but will say the comments in this post are hilarious. Realize that every comment in this post is an assumption based on less than 5% of the total phone calls and texts that actually took place. On with the show.

You are saying that the comments are funny because they are base on what we had (which you imply is not enough), yet you do not want to post the additional evidence?