Bad Guy bestcrickets, Elvis Mendoza, Patricia Castillo aka 5dollarmealworms.com

[poppy]

I recently purchased 2k mealworms from th5dollarmealworms.com. At the time of purchase, as requested on the 5dollarmealworms.com website, I stated in the paypal message that my temps would be below 40 degrees. Three days later on February 6th, I received a USPS electronic notification that seller had printed a shipping label. I immediately emailed seller that my temps would be extremely low, 5-10degrees, and I would have no problem waiting till the following week (This coming week - tomorrow) when my temps were forecasted to warm up into the mid to upper 30's.

No response.

I checked the tracking number each day to see if there were any updates. Acording to the tracking number, the mealworms shipped out two days later, on the 8th. They arrived on Friday the 11th, at around 5pm central time. They were packaged in a small USPS Priority box. (aprox. dimensions: (7"X4"X1 1/2") The seller had punctured several 3/8" air holes in the box. Inside the box was a canvas bag filled with, about 1500 mealworms, 90% have perished, the rest are barely moving, and there were also a handful of dead, black escapees, loose in the box. I immediately emailed seller, with pictures. I then went to fauna and saw that they were online, so I pm'ed him/her. I have sent several messages since, and I see that they are either online, or have logged in almost every time I frequent this sight. They refuse to even acknowledge my emails. I will not, and in my opinion neither should anyone else, do business with these people again.

bestcrickets is their fauna user name. Elvis Mendoza is their listed name on Fauna. Patricia Castillo is the person my paypal payment was sent to.
5dollarmealworms.com is their website.
Although it is just a shade over $15.00, it is still very bad business. Hopefully paypal will refund my money. bestcrickets does not even have the guts to return my emails. Over $15.00? Go figure.

 

[bestcrickets]

I just got back in town to find out about your DOAs. I am in noway shape or form trying to scam you or not ship out a new order of worms. I issued you a full refund for the worms and shipping. I stand behind what I sell and will go out of my way to keep my costumers happy. Just ask everyone else that has bought animals or mealworms from me. Now I know that your order was shipped out before you asked for it to be shipped and arrived dead. But I ship out thousands of mealworms every week and every once and awhile thing dont go right.
Sorry for the inconveniece Elvis

 

[sakasuvaki]

While I have bought mealworms from the 5dollarmealworms.com site, I have to say that I got my mealworms within two days after shipping and they were all perfect. I live in Maryland and bestcrickets lives in California (it was even pretty cold outside; under 40 degrees the whole week). I don't think this was the seller's fault that this happened, and given that he replaces mealworms if there are any DOAs with no questions asked I don't see anything bad about this guy at all.

The mealworms were a great deal, shipping too, I would definitely buy from him again. Even if there were a hundred dead mealworms in my box I would be fine with that because it was such a great deal rather than buying them from my local pet store. lol

It is unfortunate that you had problems with your shipment, but unfortunately problems do happen sometimes. =\ I would give Elvis a break about this. Sometimes people gotta go out of town for different reasons while they still have a little business going on at home.

 

[bestcrickets]

hey thanks for the good feed back kodie.

I forgot to add that I am in the California National Guard and was drilling in Camp Roberts this weekend. Thats why I wasnt able to reply sooner. All the log ins that you seen me make was my wife and kid looking at all the reptiles on fauna. I automaticly log in every time I visit fauna.

 

[sakasuvaki]

All the log ins that you seen me make was my wife and kid looking at all the reptiles on fauna. I automaticly log in every time I visit fauna.

I also forgot to mention that he answered all of my PMs in a timely fashion when I sent them, there were no escapees from my bag of mealworms, and it is not unusual for families to share log-ins for forums like this.

And you are welcome for the feedback. I hate to see someone get a bad reputation when they don't deserve it.

 

[poppy]

WOW! Didn't take long for you to find this thread, before even checking your pm's or email messages from me? Amazing! The ol' just got back in town routine? Ok, whatever, as long as I get my refund; and then there is no need for you to respond to any of my messages. Had I known all it would take was a kick in the...BOI, for all to see, I would have posted sooner. Amazing.

Thank you BOI for doing your job.

 

[sakasuvaki]

I don't mean to intrude...but I believe you mentioned you were posting a BOI on the thread where he first introduced his mealworm sales.

I would think that initially seeing that threat made there would lead him first to check the BOI rather than his private messages. This is how I found out about it. If he is like me, I get emails when someone posts to a thread that I have already responded on. Even though you were the customer that had the problem, since you brought the problem to the public, it would make more sense to respond publicly to your claims (at least beforehand) rather than copy and paste the same message that he would have sent you in a PM, to this thread here. By making a thread about him on the BOI, you are demeaning his business...people could have read this thread before he responded, what business owner would want people to see this negative claim without a response from the seller themselves? Who is to say that he even was able to see that he had "new" PMs on FaunaClassifieds when his child gets on the computer? I could see a child clicking the messages and forgetting to tell their parent that they had some new ones.

Just saying...

I do not mean to be making shots at you David, but I think you need to calm down a little bit.

 

[bestcrickets]

You should check your paypal account. Theres was a refund in your account before I even notice this. No one here has to lie, Some of us have a life outside of Fauna. Oh and Thanks for the for the extra advertising. I just received a few extra orders since you posted this BOI. Anyone else that wants a ton of mealworms for cheap can go to 5dollarmealworms.com. or can contact me at [email protected].

 

[Lucille]

Anyone else that wants a ton of mealworms for cheap can go to 5dollarmealworms.com. or can contact me at [email protected].

You should not advertise on the BOI. There is a classified here you can use.

 

[sakasuvaki]

Big, juicy, plump mealworms. At least...that is what my leo told me.

This was my shipment I got last week.

 

[ento890]

I too received about half of my mealies dead (prob due to cold temps). I PM'd Elvis right away with pictures, he responded a few hours later and said he was shipping me out another box on Monday (today). No questions asked, no arguments, the right way to handle business. These things happen in the hobby and Elvis handled my problem perfectly.

 

[Kristi23]

I've purchased from him three times with no problems at all. Our temps were in the single digits at night and I didn't receive any dead ones.

 

[poppy]

I can admit when I am wrong, or wronged. I brought this to the BOI because I felt there was a problem. I mentioned it on the advertising thread, and had quite a few pm's from others urging me to take it to the board of inquiry. Either being unhappy customers, or detailing instances where 5dollarmealworms was untruthful to other members where his meal worms were coming from, claiming he bred all of his own, when in reality he was buying and reselling.

I do not know or care where the mealworms come from, as long as they are living. I do not know if the 6 or 7 pm's I received were happy customer lies? I do know that it fueled my displeasure over this transaction. Others stated the reasons for his defense why he did not see his pm's from me, or the emails I sent him, or the open paypal dispute I opened, etc. The most important email in the inbox when Elvis/Patricia got back was that someone had replied to his Fauna thread, and Elvis/Patricia insinuates that I am the one with no life outside of fauna? Come on now.

Others stated how they were immediately issued a replacement. I saw that as a possibility too, but on the website it stated that with any DOA's, it was buyers responsibility to pay for replacement shipping, which I did not agree with. I was not the one who decided to ship with -20 degree windchill warnings all week, after being informed and warned by the customer, in a box identicle to the one pictured in this thread, except mine had about 30 dead black escapees. All these factored into my knee jerk reaction, so to speak.

Whatever the case may be, I see I did receive a refund from paypal. I did not receive any type of communication, or apology, no response to date from the seller, other than his defense finally, moments after I put up this thread.

So for $7.00 per thousand for the order I placed elsewhere last night, hopefully I have a great buying experience to make up for this very poor transaction.

Maybe Elvis is a good guy, I will never know. Especially after he comes to this thread thanking me for the advertising, quote "Some of us have a life outside of Fauna. Oh and Thanks for the for the extra advertising. I just received a few extra orders since you posted this BOI." I come to Fauna to buy or sell occasionally, now you are insinuating I have no life outside of fauna? Well said to the customer. "He's receiving extra sales from this thread?" That alone is a typical badguy response.

No tact and poor customer service. Regardless of a weekend away from the computer, I told and warned about the weather. All would this could have been avoided. "don't dive into the water, it is only 2feet deep" Now there is a problem and he lost a customer. Best wishes to all who never had a problem with this company.

I took mine here to the BOI and it was immediately resolved. Thank you for the refund Elvis Mendoza/Patricia Castillo.

 

[GregPhillips]

I purchase all my feeders from Elvis and he is always available to either have me pick up or have my feeders delivered to my home. Elvis has the healthiest and cheapest feeders i have ever found and will not stop purchasing due to a weather dispute or lack of communication. Thanks Elvis and keep up the good work.

 

[suzuki4life]

My mealworms were in transit for 7 days.

Most of this order of 10,000 survived.

Box was not labelled "Live" per USPS guidelines.

and the damage by the carrier and the manner in which the insects were packed is obvious.

Elvis won't be getting any more money from me or anyone who I can recommend to go elsewhere.

 

[bestcrickets]

I apologize for the carrier delay and the crush box. but I cant be held responsible for what happend during shipping. When you notified me last week about your order not getting to you. I sent you the tracking number for it and told you I would replace your order if they arrived dead.

gary your worms were shipped out on Feb 7. USPS tracking number is 9101 1501 3471 1572 1845 53. Sorry for the carrier delay but if they arrive dead they will be replaced. please update me once you receive them.

I told you this on feb 13, after you started getting worried after you heard that david poppy received a DOA order. Now there is nothing wrong with the way I pack my worms for shipping. I use extra newspaper and brand for insulation and not just throw them in a bag with newspaper like most other feed suppliers do. Sorry that you were not happy with your order but no one else will give you the same quality feeder so cheap and with the same customer service as I do.

 

[DAND]

No one here has to lie, Some of us have a life outside of Fauna. Oh and Thanks for the for the extra advertising. I just received a few extra orders since you posted this BOI.

How many times have we read this similar smug kind of post from someone who tried to pull a fast one and got called out on it here on the BOI? The mentality of a scammer personified in a few sentences.


About the condition of the meal worms pictured:

Anybody who knows anything about meal worms knows they do not blacken like that over night and certainly not from the cold. With that said, in order for them to have had to of arrived in that condition they were already dead prior to shipment. The question is was it done by the seller knowingly shipping them out in that condition or by his ignorance (as in not checking to see if what he was scooping, or sifting was in fact living) or just plain laziness? By his arrogant response I'm pretty sure I know what the answer to the question.

I too received about half of my mealies dead (prob due to cold temps). I PM'd Elvis right away with pictures, he responded a few hours later and said he was shipping me out another box on Monday (today). No questions asked, no arguments, the right way to handle business. These things happen in the hobby and Elvis handled my problem perfectly.

With a second buyer stating they received a less than satisfactory product (kudos to the prompt response back to dissatisfied customer #2 . I only wonder if it would have been done so quickly had this thread not been started?) my guess is the seller was scraping the bottom of the barrel of what he had on hand and instead of being honest with the buyers he just shipped out what he had left and to hell with the buyers.

And yes, "these things happen in the hobby", which is unfortunate and easily AVOIDABLE!!!!

Sorry that you were not happy with your order but no one else will give you the same quality feeder so cheap and with the same customer service as I do.

You know if you sometimes read between the lines the truth comes out.

 

[Utta]

My mealworms were in transit for 7 days.

Most of this order of 10,000 survived.

Box was not labelled "Live" per USPS guidelines.

and the damage by the carrier and the manner in which the insects were packed is obvious.

Elvis won't be getting any more money from me or anyone who I can recommend to go elsewhere.

That looks like a reused box, the edges of the box and corners seem to be a little more worn then what would happen even if the shipment got lost by FedEx

 

[bestcrickets]

I have refunded money and shipped out new shipments of worms to everyone that has problems with there orders. Unfortunately things do go wrong with shipping feeders this time of year. I will always stand behind my sale and do what ever it takes to keep everyone happy. Even if cost me extra to give someone a full refund. I have had 2 customers that were not happy with transcations. but they either recieved a full refund or a live worms.

Dand, your trying to make it seem like Im a scammer and that I have bad customer service. but not one person here has said that they were scamed or were treathed bad. There just complaining because I didnt respond fast enough and the carrier took longer to ship there mealworms and ended up crushing the box.

 

[suzuki4life]

I apologize for the carrier delay and the crush box. but I cant be held responsible for what happend during shipping. When you notified me last week about your order not getting to you. I sent you the tracking number for it and told you I would replace your order if they arrived dead.


I told you this on feb 13, after you started getting worried after you heard that david poppy received a DOA order. Now there is nothing wrong with the way I pack my worms for shipping. I use extra newspaper and brand for insulation and not just throw them in a bag with newspaper like most other feed suppliers do. Sorry that you were not happy with your order but no one else will give you the same quality feeder so cheap and with the same customer service as I do.

Correction: I was wondering where the heck the order I paid for was at since 6 days passed on a shipment that normally takes 2-3.


And since YOU chose the carrier and that was the only option given...then yes, you are absolutely responsible for what YOUR subcontractor has done.


At nearly $11 for shipping, I am willing to bet fed ex and UPS would have been mere dollars more, tracked AND insured.

If your choice in shipping materials can not survive abuse by your carrier, then your materials were subpar.(sucked)