Brentwood Iguana-Unhealthy Stock + Deceptive Transaction

In January of 2018, I spoke with Nicholas Rahban of Brentwood Iguanas about purchasing a group of iguanas that he had posted on Fauna. We negotiated the following deal regarding all the iguanas: they’d be in good health without any toe nips/intact tails/no health issues; the group would be a breeding mix with all sexes guaranteed (7 females, 5 males); they’d be of Tom Crutchfield lineage. As Brentwood iguanas didn’t have a huge following at the time, I took a risk with entering into an agreement with him. However, he spoke very knowledgeably on the subject of iguanas and was very confident in his offering. He sent beautiful pictures of the crimsons looking healthy and the rest of the stock with vibrant pictures and chubby bellies. The Iguanas we negotiated were: 1.1 crimson pair, 2.5 red 66% het, .2 2016 100% het, .1 2015 100% het.
The issues began when we agreed upon a shipping date that would accommodate the iguanas in winter in Buffalo. He missed the original date and made several excuses as to why he couldn’t get them in the mail. I became nervous as I had already paid $6,800 in full. Three weeks later, on Friday, January 26th, they were finally shipped. However, he neglected to ensure the iguanas would be delivered Saturday morning. When you ship overnight through FedEx you must be sure to check a box for Saturday delivery, this was not done. They ended up sitting in a cold warehouse in Buffalo until Monday, January 29th with 12-hour heat packs. I was very nervous for the health and wellbeing of the animals at this point.
I took off work on Monday and went to the airport to pick them up first thing Monday morning. I rushed them home to a heated room as there was a good chance they wouldn’t make it. Upon receiving the box, I was instantly alarmed at the size (16in x 16in x 8in) of the shipping container, as it was much too small to house 12) 24"-36" Sub-adult iguanas. I recorded the opening of the box and realized 5 iguanas were packaged in the same snake bag and 7 were roaming free; no attempt was made to isolate any of these. All 12 iguanas were extremely lethargic and freezing to the touch. They all appeared to be extremely malnourished with little-to-no fat reserves in their tails. One red het had a broken ankle; (Pictured) nearly all of them had at least one broken toes and infections; the male crimson had lacerations to the face and leg and had an infected front finger that seemed to be infected for weeks-months before the shipments, both crimson females had what seemed to be chronic skin issues that looked like a fungus.(pictured) The only iguana that appeared mildly healthy was the 2015 100% het female, but she was still extremely skinny.
My partner and I took several pictures and took our concerns to Nick. Many of them required a vet visit, but his response was to just send them back. I expressed concern that they were not healthy enough to ship back to California from Buffalo and I wasn’t confident in his ability to give them the care he needed to revive them. Nick told me to look at them as more of a commodity and to care about them less as individual animals. Although he advised not wasting money on a vet visit, I took 7 of the worst iguanas to a local reptile vet for a check-up. An upper respiratory infection, several broken toes, a broken femur and some fungus later, I ended up with $400 in Veterinary fees and medication for both old (pre-shipment, pre-existing) and shipment-related issues. Nick offered two options: send all the sick iguanas back for a refund or get a discount on my next order. I wasn’t comfortable sending them back, as I didn’t think they would survive the trip and I was not going to order any more animals from him. He ended up covering the bills and we pretty much ceased communication, even though I had to put the male crimson iguana down a few weeks later because of how unhealthy he was and hand-deliver antibiotic medication to several iguanas for weeks after for their infections.
Fast forward 10 months, and I find out (2) of the 66% red het females and (1) 100% het females I was guaranteed turned out to be males. Nick’s ads say he doesn’t guarantee gender, but I have a text screenshot where he promised to make sure he sends 5 females. He placed the blame on Tom Crutchfield for inadequately sexing them for him and did not take responsibility. At this point, my chances of recouping the cost of this project are slim to none. Nick has refused to do anything about the issues as he claims he made partial payment back to me because of the $400 vet bill payment. Beware of purchasing reptiles from this person. Pictures + Video to follow.
I have record of all correspondence as well as pictures of all stated issues.

Unboxing Video https://youtu.be/kUMf8ohK03A

Originally Posted by Baue6879

Unboxing Video https://youtu.be/kUMf8ohK03A

Here is the video:


I see an account for: Brentwood Iguanas
Listed member is: Nicholas Daniel not Nicholas Rahban
I have a feeling there is more to this account than meets the eye.

You are the one who demanded shipping on Friday and I agreed. You requested a part refund or free iguana because you where unhappy so I paypaled you $400 and that was fine with you. I offered you a full refund but you said you wanted to keep them. Now a year later you are complaining because you think you got the wrong gender, well my ad said I don't guarantee gender for juveniles.

Also I've only bought one male %100 het from Tom ever and he was sold to someone else named Joe in texas. That lizard you have was probed female by Tom and I still believe her to be female. I asked for better proof from you and you never sent any decent photographic proof.

I think the pictures and video speak for themselves. I have everything well documented and if need be will supply you or anyone else with exactly how our transaction went. Show me your evidence Nick. To anyone wanting to purchase an iguana from him make sure you get current pictures of the shape they are in as most of his ads pictures are of when he first got the iguanas from Tom. He does not care for the welfare of his iguanas they are just a stock in his mind. He plans to breed snows in the future and sell of the remaining iguanas he has. be very careful when dealing with this man. I spoke with several other people who bought iguanas from him and have heard nothing good about the health and quaility of his animals. I am not going to go back and forth if you want more details feel free to reach out to me.

Regards

Originally Posted by Brentwood Iguanas

You are the one who demanded shipping on Friday and I agreed. You requested a part refund or free iguana because you where unhappy so I paypaled you $400 and that was fine with you. I offered you a full refund but you said you wanted to keep them. Now a year later you are complaining because you think you got the wrong gender, well my ad said I don't guarantee gender for juveniles.

So why did you send out thin, sick animals in the first place? Especially to New York, in the middle of winter, not packaged properly?

I told you I don't ship on Fridays and you insisted. That was the only time I ever shipped on a Friday and had that happen. Regardless I offered you a refund! and ended up giving you the $400 you wanted. You should have just sent them back if you where unhappy.

Originally Posted by Insomniac101

So why did you send out thin, sick animals in the first place? Especially to New York, in the middle of winter, not packaged properly?

They where fine when I sent them. There poor condition was from them being in a box for two and a half day's. It's common knowledge you don't ship on Fridays but the customer said he has done it before so I agreed. If I was a scammer I wouldn't have offered him a refund.

Nobody said you’re a scammer- you just send unhealthy iguanas to people and you don’t care about them nor properly care for them. FedEx tells you both at the kiosk and on form you filled out to ship them for overnight to choose Saturday shipping for an additional fee. They make you aware of it when the shipment will arrive and when you sent me the tracking # it was clear that the arrival was Monday. I called Fedex and they said you did not choose Saturday morning shipping. I have a text message from you admitting you made the mistake if you want me to share that. The issue isn’t the human mistake you made it’s you not taking care of a living animal or ensuring the make it to where they are going and when they are getting there. All this was to you was $$$. You are in the wrong business if you are only concerned with $. You give the hobby a bad name and I hope you don’t succeed in this business venture because you are doing it for the wrong reasons. This is a rewarding hobby not a business. If you make money on this it should be a bonus. I did not send these back to you because I knew you’d just flip them to the next person who fell for your ad. They needed to be treated and I did a great job with bringing all but 1 back from starvation. Get your facts straight and please get out of this business if you don’t want to properly take care of the iguanas you buy from reputable breeders. That is all I will say PM me if you want to argue more.