raindrummer101 Ashlie Howell RIP OFF!!!

This is one person I highly recommend EVERYONE stay clear of. My situation began in the end of August '04 when I responded to an animal Ashlie had posted here at Fauna. Here's a link to one of several ads she posted in various places here. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=47736
Notice in the ad it states female and although I spent a week trying to contact her I got no response...first red flag. I should have left well enough alone. Had I done so wouldn't be writing this now. I actually ended up winning this same "female" adult CA boa at Reptibid one week later and was notified the following by Ashlie.

Hi! You won the auction.. Congrats ! You'll Love the snake.. AND she just ate anyhow you can send the money to me via money order.. total is $135.00 send to
Ashlie Howell
8640 SW 9th St. Rd.
Ocala FL 34481

I proceeded to send her the money via US Postal MO that same day. I received the animal a week later. It had been shipped in an uninsulated box with no heat pack shipped via the USPS! That was red flag #2 since the packing job was non existent and virtually everyone knows shipping snakes through the mail is illegal. At least I received the animal and it was alive.
After quarantining for four months I decided to put it in with a male CA boa. After a month went by with no breeding activity I became weary and probed Ashlie's animal to be a male.
Okay, we've all had our share of mis-sexed animals and common policy is for the seller to take back the animal or compensate the buyer in some way because the animal was misrepresented, right?
On 1/23/04 I wrote Ashlie the following e-mail with her response located above.
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Please accept my sincerest apology. i bought the
animal in trust of the sellers experience in snake
sexing and sold it for what i was told it was. i will
purchase the animal back for what u say i owe. but it
will be postponed due to the temp.next email.,
--- BoidMorphs@aol.com <BoidMorphs@aol.com> wrote:
> Hi Ashlie. It has been a few months since I bought
the Central American boa
> item # 1094029826 at Reptibid from you. It has been
doing fine eating f/t
> rats whenever offered and is very healthy. The only
problem is I just recently
> discovered this animal is most definitely a male,
NOT a female. Up until now
> I'd just assumed it was a female but after becoming
suspicious over a lack of
> any breeding activity I decided to check sex it.
> I first noticed that the spurs were very long and
when I tried to probe one
> side a four inch sperm plug shot out onto my hand
lol. The probe went in very
> deep on that side so I then tried the other. Same
thing, plenty of sperm
> present and the probe depth was also just as deep.
> I already have two adult male Central American boas
that I had hoped would
> breed this animal but obviously that's not going to
happen.
> I really can't use this animal since it's a male and
would like to send it
> back to you immediately. I purchased it from you for
$135 shipped and according
> to your shipping figure from one of your letters it
should cost about $40
> to send back. I've also kept him well fed and
estimate I've spent about $20 on
> rats which you would have used also had it been
maintained in your
> collection. This means my total out of pocket
expenses which includes the purchase
> price, feeding, and return shipment cost will be
$195 adding the above three
> figures together.
> I would like to send this male CA snake back to you
ASAP since it is not
> what I bargained for and I really cannot use it.
Please let me know how you'd
> like to handle this situation. Thank you very much-
for your consideration.
>
> Greg Riso
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One week later on 2/01/05 I wrote Ashlie again to arrange sending the animal back to her. Here is that e-mail with her response.
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I know this has been ahuge inconvenience 4 u. i cant
refund your money now i dont have it. i just found out
that my mother has cancer. i am 1000 miles away and
have to go take care of her.
--- BoidMorphs@aol.com <BoidMorphs@aol.com> wrote:
> Ashlie,
>
> I'm making a shipment to Kentucky tomorrow for
Thursday morning delivery and
> would like to get the CA boa back to you. I will
take every precaution to
> pack the animal properly so he'll be warm enough and
well protected. Can you
> please give me your ship to address? I'd also
appreciate a refund for the amount
> mentioned earlier. As I remember I sent payment to
you via a money order. I
> have a Paypal account that is the same address as
this one if you'd like to
> refund that way. Please let me know what you'd like
to do. Thank you.
>
> Greg
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On 2/04/05 I wrote again in response to the sick Mom with cancer, thousand miles from home sob story.
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Ashlie,

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom but I still would like to clear up this situation concerning the mis-sexed CA boa. The fact that this animal is a male is no fault of mine since you posted it as a female and I bid and won it at Reptibid as such. Are you saying you are temporarily not able to give me a refund for this animal or you have no intention of ever doing so at all? There's a big difference between the two and I'd hate to see your reputation be affected if you've decided to take the latter route.
I understand you are short on cash but I might be willing to take another animal in trade that I might be able to use. Do you have anything else you may consider trading? I'd like to resolve this matter and move on ASAP. Thank you.
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We wrote back and forth some more and she had nothing else to trade, no money, blah, blah so I decided to send her the animal with shipping charges billed to receiver. I gave her proper notice and shipped the animal successfully which is verified here in her letter of 2/09/05
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Snake arrived this morning.. he looks good... again please accept my apologies as soon as i can get some money together i'll send it to you.. Maybe i can sell him to someone else to get your money..

BoidMorphs@aol.com wrote:
Hi Ashlie. I shipped him out via DHL with tracking number 6621601151. You may track the package here http://www.dhl-usa.com/home/home.asp just copy and paste the number.
I marked it bill to receiver and the total amount was $32.31 which I think is pretty reasonable.
Please let me know how he arrives. He's got a 40 hour heat pack going in a styrofoam insulated box so he should be fine.

Greg
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So the animal was sent to her and she acknowledged it made it there fine. I haven't heard boo from her since. Over the last month I've tried e-mailing and calling different numbers she posted here at Fauna for contact information in another thread found here:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=49131

Other information can be found out about her here on her home page.
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/mariah101/Ashlie.html

After reading the title of her home page "It's All About me" I guess that really sums it up about her. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS SCUM!
Is there anyone out there that can help me get through to this piece of work?

Greg

Has she been notified about the existance of this thread?

EVERYBODY I know guarantees the sex of snakes, however I don't know how many, if any would do it 5 months later.

Greg:


Did the seller agree to a refund or did you just send the snake back? To me, if someone shipped a snake illegally via USPS, and then you found it was not even sexed correctly, it WOULD raise red flags, I am not sure I would trust a person like that to get a refund back to me.

Did you notify her that shipping USPS is illegal? What did she say? Do you still have those emails?
I think people who put the reptile community in a bad light by shipping illegally are particularly egregious. I hope you get your refund and I do think it is a good idea for you to notify her of this thread; perhaps that might affect her future actions.

Not sure if I concur with the whole refund idea here...uh, shouldn't you have checked upon receiving the animal ? After that long, I doubt I would refund someone's money...
On the other hand, the shipping issue is horrible...definitely a seller that needs some education...
I guess I don't think that you were "ripped off"...an off deal, yes, but you do have a snake, and it isn't dead or in bad shape...hope that she reads all of this and pipes in !
greg

My $0.02 is *all* snakes should be guaranteed correctly sexed unless sold otherwise. And while, in a perfect world the buyer should double check upon arrival, there should be no time limit on that guarantee unless agreed or unless you want to argue that the snake underwent a gender conversion. As for refunding for feeding expenses. I would have said "Pffffffft" to that. That's on the buyer for not finding out sooner. But I would have refunded the purchase price and shipping both ways. It is the seller's responsibility to sex their own animals prior to shipping.

I am in the midst of buying an adult Cape York Spotted Python male. As part of the deal, I was offered a female yearling for $100 which I accepted.

They were due to be shipped today. Here is the correspondence that I received by e-mail last night from a very honest seller:

Jim-

Bad news… We resexed all the smaller cape yorks. They are all males (they were sold to us as females). Do you want us to refund you the $100? I’m really sorry.

I received the refund in my PayPal account within minutes of sending my response. That's a seller doing his job and doing it right. I have little doubt that I will be posing a "good guy" later on them.

Okay, in hindsight I realize I should have sexed the snake early on but that is not at issue here. As a result of this situation it is now my protocol to verify sex ASAP for each and every new animal that comes in.
To answer John Schmitt's question regarding did I notify Ashlie of this thread, the answer is yes, I notified her this morning. Here is my e-mail to her.

Ashlie,

Since you never bothered responding to my e-mails or phone messages there's some nice information on you that can be found here to warn others to stay away:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...0&goto=newpost
Feel free to chime in at will to justify your actions or inaction in this particular case.

Greg
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In response to John Kellar's questioning the 5 month time frame involved....
While I agree 4 months, not 5, is a long time that has nothing to do with this particular situation. The time elapsed is not at issue. This is not a case of, "did I get a guarantee regarding sex of the animal and if so for what period of time?" The fact is I wrote her to notify her the animal was not the female it was supposed to be and she agreed to refund me the money. She agreed to take the animal back and refund my money. The fact that she HAS NOT DONE SO IS AT ISSUE. I will repost Ashlie's very first response to my notification of the mis-sexed animal.

"Please accept my sincerest apology. i bought the
animal in trust of the sellers experience in snake
sexing and sold it for what i was told it was. i will
purchase the animal back for what u say i owe. but it
will be postponed due to the temp."

After this she agreed on a shipment date and I sent the animal back to her with shipping charges billed to receiver. Up until this point I have not received a charge from DHL but I cannot assume it has been paid. It has been over two months since she received the animal which she acknowledged was returned safely to her via e-mail on 2/09/05. I never received my refund!
So in response to Greg Ewald's comment, "I guess I don't think that you were "ripped off"...an off deal, yes, but you do have a snake, and it isn't dead or in bad shape...hope that she reads all of this and pipes in !" I respond
I DON"T HAVE THE SNAKE NOR DO I HAVE A PENNY TO SHOW FOR IT. ASHLIE FLAT OUT STATED SHE WOULD REFUND ME MY MONEY AND HAS NOT DONE SO. THIS IS WHAT IS AT ISSUE HERE.

Lucille, I honestly don't remember exactly what I wrote at the time regarding Ashlie having shipped via the post office but I do know I mentioned it. If I can track down an e-mail I will but I'm not sure I saved it. Up until just a few months ago I actually had the original USPS label paperwork from atop the package in her hand writing. I'm going to try and find it when I get a chance. As far as red flags go I agree with you. There were several. The way I looked at it was I originally had to trust her when I sent her the $135 for the animal after winning it at Reptibid. She did indeed send me the animal. She later stated in writing that she would refund me my money so I had little choice but to trust her again.

I appreciate everyone's comments here and I hope it is understood my use of capital letters and bold print is meant only to emphasize certain points. I am not "yelling" at anyone but I do want the herp world to know this person has not honored her agreement and unless she states otherwise here, it appears she has no intention of doing so. I am very tired of thieves in this business and have zero tolerance for them. Ashlie Howell is one person that cannot be trusted and everyone needs to know this. What has happened to me is very black and white. There is no grey area involved to be confused about.
BTW, this is not the first snake Ashlie has screwed up the sex on so it is obviously a reocurring issue with her. Check this thread out.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=48909

Regardless of everything that has transpired she now has the snake and the money. She needs to make a refund immediately.

Originally Posted by Dennis Hultman

Regardless of everything that has transpired she now has the snake and the money. She needs to make a refund immediately.

That is the salient point.

Originally Posted by Greg Riso

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In response to John Kellar's questioning the 5 month time frame involved....
While I agree 4 months, not 5, is a long time that has nothing to do with this particular situation. The time elapsed is not at issue.

After quarantining for four months I decided to put it in with a male CA boa. After a month went by with no breeding activity I became weary and probed Ashlie's animal to be a male.

That's why I put 5 months, but you're rigth seeing as how she agreed to the refund and already has the snake, she definitely needs to issue the refund.

Originally Posted by Jim O

there should be no time limit on that guarantee

To each his own, but I think that is crazy. I'm not going to take back an animal that has been in someone's care for an indefinite amount of time. Just like a buyer needs to notify you of the snakes health with in time alloted (whatever the guarantee is, 24, 48 hours, 7 days, etc) it's not an unreasonable expectation that the person makes sure that all aspects of a guarantee are met within that time frame.