Mike Souza

I'm trying to get a second opinion on where to go from here. I am genuinely confused by this mans reaction to what I thought was a very fair compromise.
I sold Mike Souza a pair of 2018 jungle carpet pythons. The day he recieved them I got a call from him telling me that he suspected the Male was actually a female from attempting to probe the snake. I had gotten the group of jungles from the breeder all individually labeled and sexed . I had no reason to doubt the breeders judgement and did not sex them myself when they came in, but was willing to 100% take responsibility for this mistake. I told this to Mike and told him that I would even cover shipping both ways for the returned snake and the replacement male. I texted mike after our phone conversation asking him to pop the snake because I was unsure probing was the best thing to do with such small animals. He agreed and said he would try. Today he told me that he is still unsure and would like me to send the replacement male on Tuesday and he will ship the original Male back to me on Wednesday. I was not comfortable with this for reasons I thought were obvious, but told him i would send the replacement as soon as I got the other snake back. At this point he completely lost his mind and started accusing me of trying to screw him over. I kept trying to assure him that was not the case. At the moment I am unsure what to do. The way he acts (as you can read from the text message screenshots) about not wanting that snake back even if I proved it was Male when it gets back is very concerning to me. Just looking for advice..

The screenshots read down not left to right.. just to avoid confusion...sorry about that

I just sent Mike a message letting him know about this thread.

Perhaps with you both communicating on here together you can come up with a compromise. Honestly, it sounds like you both are the verge of working this out, a little push in the right direction and it will be resolved.

My only concern is if I get this snake back and pop it a Male I am out 2 separate shipping costs for absolutely no reason and he does not want that particular snake back under any circumstances which seems very questionable to me.

I still feel like if he trusted you enough to pay initially and expect you to ship, he could trust you to send the replacement male after shipping it back, especially after you offered to pay shipping both ways (a stand up thing to do). Personally, I wouldn’t ship a snake until I received the original one being returned in any situation aside from a close friend (which even then, I think that has likely spawned some posts on here). That isn’t the status quo in any market that I am aware of. As far as the worry of sending back the individual snake, none of them are identical. There are pictures seemingly available of the available snake, and the buyer having a picture of both snakes could easily prove the new male is in fact a different snake than the original. Hopefully the buyer accepts your offer

Mike has always been a stand up guy in my opinion.

Ryan Shatto

Good Morning....here is the issue...I received a pair of JCP's from Blake. As always I sex the animals when I receive them. On this pair I probed first which is in my opinion the most reliable way. They both probed female for me and I immediately contacted Blake to advise him. He freely admitted that he himself had not sexed the animals prior to selling them to me and was going on the word of who he received them from. To me this was a red flag because I always sex the animals I sell prior to posting them on Fauna. He then asked me to try and pop them and I advised I was going to wait a few days due to the trauma this young snake had been put through in my attempt to probe it. (just shipped young snake going through that process is stressful and unbeknownst to me was in the blue, he shed the next morning) Blake had generously stated that he was willing to pay shipping both ways being he sent me the wrong sexed animal to start. I accepted this offer but advised Blake that even if he later states that this animal is a male I did not want that particular animal back because I've been in this business a long time and truly believe that animal is a female. That is when Blake started getting nervous of my reason's for not wanting that snake back, asking if I had hurt this animal. That's what made me a little angry as far as my text message. To me selling reptiles is all about the animal and the customer service...I would never hurt an animal in my care... but being this particular animal would have gone through much trauma...shipped twice or three times if sent back, the constant trauma to it's sexual organs whether by probe or popping, made me just not want that particular animal back, that and I still feel it's a female.
I am willing to work with Blake but I can't send the animal back until I receive a shipping label within the time frame I had mentioned to Blake yesterday. I even advised Blake that if for some reason he thinks I missed sexed his animal and felt it was a male that I would be willing to pay for his shipping one way but that I didn't want the same snake back that I feel is female. I hope all this makes sense.
I really don't think this is a matter for the BOI but here it is.

Thanks Ryan...I really appreciate your support.
Mike

You have made me feel very uncomfortable by freaking out about me not shipping another before you returned the original. That was completely unnecessary and unprofessional. I have done nothing wrong here and you continue to speak to me like I'm trying to screw you over somehow. This absolutely needed to be brought here because obviously it calmed you down enough to act civil in this thread when you were less than so in our conversations

-Blake

Great, you both are here now. Both are being civil.

What is the next step to getting this resolved?

Blake, any reason that Mike couldn't get a different male from you?