Michael Spradlin (REM Exotics)

I hate having to do this, but unfortunately Mr. Michael Spradlin is not following through on his promise to rectify our situation. I'll summarize here and if needed will expand on any details to support my claim. My claim is that I bought and paid for a male "Mystic" ball python along with a female super pastel on November 26, 2010.

The package was sent on November 30, 2010 and arrived the next day on time. I emailed Mr. Spradlin at 1030am letting him know they arrived safely and that I thought the Mystic looked like a "brown mojave". He replied later that day saying "the mystic and mojave are very similar in color. The mystics tends to be darker black and brighter tan".

As the snake grew over the next few months I started feeling more like a mistake may have been made so I contacted him on April 18, 2011 and this was his response...

"Like you said ... mistakes can be made in identifying mystics. It has been a while since the purchase and I am sorry that this "possible" mistake may have happen. I say keep the male, breed it. If it proves mystic, we are ok. If not..... I owe you $1500 in trade + I'll give you another $200 in trade for the troubles. But honestly it looks just like my previous breeder mystic (the sire of yours). If since replaced him with a mystic potion. I would like to keep our relationship in good standing so let's make this work".

Thank you for your time.
Michael Spradlin
REM Exotics

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

I had in the meantime sent pictures of the "Mystic" to a few known Mystic and/or Mojave breeders including Alan Cole and Brian Gundy to get their opinion(s). Not a single person thought the snake in question was a Mystic.

Since Mr. Spradlin had already told me he would make it right I continued growing him up intending to breed him to my two Mojave females in the 2011/2012 season. I did breed him to those two female along with a Spider female and got good clutches from all three and hatched all three clutches successfully.

The first Mojave clutch yielded no combos. The second clutch however yielded 1.1 Super Mojaves, not Mystic Potions. I emailed Mr. Spradlin on August 29, 2012 and informed him of the results. This was his reply...

"ok... I'm at work right now. So let me get back with you. Like I said before... We will make this right".

On August 31, 2012 I emailed him back simply asking him when I could expect to hear back from him. This was his reply later that same evening...

"Hey... Sorry. It's been hectic at work. Working around 70 hrs a wk. I can get you a visual male potion as a replacement if your ok with that. We have already spoke about how terribly sorry I am about this. I'm just going to need some time. It is a late clutch due to drop soon. Stay in touch and I will keep you up to date. That is if you are ok with this".

On September 3, 2012 I emailed him again asking him what he wanted me to do with the original male Mojave and what the contingency plan was if he failed to produce a visual Potion as offered previously. This was his response on September 4, 2012...

"Just keep and sell the mojave. I guess we will play it by ear with the potion. If things go great there will be no problem. If I don't get a male potion. We will just go with the credit that I told you I would give you. Im sure we can find something you're needing".

By October 29, 2012 it had been two months since he said he was expecting a clutch that may yield the Potion male for me so I emailed him that day asking him how things were playing out. With no response by November 5, 2012 I emailed him again reminding him that it had been 6 days with no response. I still hadn't heard anything by November 10, 2012 so I emailed him again reminding him it had now been 2 weeks with no response. He finally replied with the following on November 11, 2012...

"Sorry... I'm not avoiding you just been very busy and without a phone(my main source of email). I've been away from home on work for 4wks. So I'm actually not sure what is happening in the snake room at home. I will be back home this wk and let you know".

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

On November 18, 2012 being a now very disgruntled and ignored customer, I emailed him this last email...

Michael,

I haven't heard back from you this week as expected, so I thought I should follow up again. As you can tell, I am really anxious to get this resolved considering it's been 2 years since I purchased this "mystic" male from you. I had my doubts then, but you asked me to breed it, so I did and ended up with super mojaves, not mystic potions. Do you have a male mystic potion to replace the mojave you sold me 2 years ago? If so, I'd like you to ship it to me this week. If not, I'd like a refund. My PayPal address is KangasKritters@comcast.net. I understand you are a busy man, but I feel like I'm getting blown off. I'm starting to think I should report this experience to the BOI if I don't hear back from you by Monday, 11/19. I'd hate for it to go that far. I'd rather resolve this amicably between the two of us within the next 24 hours. I'll be standing by.

Thank you,
Charlton Kangas

I still have not heard back from him so as you can see this ordeal is now two years old and from the day the snake arrived I had my doubts. I don't feel this was intentional, which is why I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and breed the snake as he requested. His initial offer of resolution ($1700 credit) was generous as was his more recent one of sending me a visual male Mystic potion for my loss of time in this project over the last two years. My issue is that he won't make this a priority and do what he said he would do. I have had to constantly email and remind him that we have a pending issue to resolve. I informed him that I would be taking this matter to the BOI and unfortunately that is where we are at now. I invite Mr. Spradlin to correct me, but all of the quotes I posted here are directly from emails he has sent me. As a rule, I keep every single email from every single person I have bought or sold to since around 2005. Thanks for reading this long post, but it was necessary to put all of the facts out there from the get go. I would love to still get what's been promised to me by Mr. Spradlin, but it's not looking good. If anyone knows him or has any clout with him please help.

Charlton I'm sorry that you had this happen to you. Here is another post about this guy a few years ago.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...2ANVP%2A%2A%2A

Thank you Tim for the link. I don't remember if I searched him out back in 2010 on the BOI, but I typically do. I do know that when I do a search in the BOI that the thread you linked me to does not come up. I also did not know he was going as NVP at any time. When we did our deal he was going as REM Exotics and the deal was made through a Kingsnake.com ad. Again, I would love to have Mr. Spradlin take care of me as promised so I can add a post to this thread saying he made things right.

You must be livid! I would be...

Hi Tom. Yes, I'm not happy. After reading the thread Tim posted I'm fairly certain I'm going to take this one in the rear. What's hard for me to digest in regards to being scammed is that I did receive the male "mojave" and the super pastel female and have received emails from him even recently although I have to really "bug" him to get a response. If he wanted to scam me he already had my money. Why did he send me any snakes at all and why would he be corresponding at all? Very weird.

Sounds like he either doesn't want to admit that he made a mistake, or he doesn't want to deal with the consequences of his mistake. Two years later it's probably killing him that he has to give up a male mystic or $1700. Not making excuses for him at all, just speculating about why he would delay. Hope he makes this right for you.

Has Michael made this right?

Never heard from him again.