| Author | Subject: Wild World of Reptiles (Bad Guy) |
| Rich Zuchowski | Posted At 09:32:51 10/13/2000
Identity: John C. Smith Wild World of Reptiles 969 13th Street Richmond, CA 94801 or 229 Starling Way Hercules, CA 94547 Phone: (510) 620-0385 FAX : (510) 620-0480 Email: [email protected] Also, he has his business listed on the internet, but the president's name is listed as 'Bert Smith'. The shipments picked up at San Francisco airport were signed by 'Beth' and 'B Smith'. On 08/10/00 I sent him a shipment of animals valued at $1,462.50. Then on 08/15/00 I sent him another shipment valued at $715.00. Yeah, I know I should have gotten payment up front. But I had dealt with the guy before and hadn't had any problems. My fault, I know. I should have been tipped off by the fact that he NEVER answered the phone in person when I called. On 09/07/00 he contacted me via email about more animals needed, but I insisted on payment on the previous balance before shipment. He said he would send out three checks covering the balance and sent me a USPS tracking number. Also he would accept the next shipment C.O.D. and would pay by cashier's check at the airport. The C.O.D. was paid upon delivery, and the three checks were received. The checks were dated 5 days apart, so we deposited the first one for $662.50. About a week later we got a notification from the bank that the check had bounced due to insufficient funds. Several phone calls, emails and faxes were ignored. We called the bank that he does business with to see if he had funds to cover even one of the three checks, but the teller told us the account would not support the check. Phone calls and emails still went unanswered, so I made up a fax that will be sent to as many people in this business as I can find and a preliminary copy was faxed to Wild World of Reptiles. That produced an email response on 10/02 saying he had been out of town and would send a cashier's check to cover the bad checks. Nothing has been forthcoming, and I have had no further response to multiple phone messages on his machine, emails, or faxed inquiries. So I broke my cardinal rule of requiring money up front for ALL shipments and it looks like I've gotten burned by this guy. This is a lesson that I won't soon forget. |
| Jason |
Re: Wild World of Reptiles (Bad Guy) (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 20:17:13 10/24/2000 If you still have not tried to cash the other checks hang on to them and call weekly to see if the funds are there and then when the funds are go to your bank have your bank call and put a hold on the money owed so you can cash the remaining checks, sooner or later the funds will be there unless he switched accounts which I doubt, Just a thought Jason |
| COLUBRIDS & MORE |
Re: Wild World of Reptiles (Bad Guy) (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 04:10:21 11/04/2000 Rich, i live about 30 minutes from there! i will go down there in person for you if you wish? they usedto be called wonderful world of reptiles. please let me know if i can help in any way. Steve "Colubrids & More" |
| Rich Zuchowski |
Re: Wild World of Reptiles (Bad Guy) (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 08:27:54 11/06/2000 Thanks for the offer. I got an email from him last week where he stated he intends to pay me the money he owes me by the end of this month (November). If that does not happen, perhaps I could use you to be a process server and deliver the court summons to him. I ran the other two checks through the bank last week and, of course, they bounced, but now I have all the evidence I need to file suit against him. I will be making preparations for the suit and am not waiting for the end of the month to continue with this process. The law allows for triple damages in the case of fraudulent checks, so it would be well worth his time to wrap this up quickly before it gets too far along. Maybe I think differently about this sort of thing, but it would absolutely embarrass the hell out of me to have people come up to me and tell me that they heard about me screwing someone out of some money. I would be curious to hear what he says to you when you asked him about the situation though. Rich Z. |