uromastyx13
Member
My name is Michael Rodriguez im here to post about Karl Koenig to warn people about him . I was dealing with Karl Koenig for a good while since this past summer of 2011. He was referred to me by my good friend Troy Jones , Troy said he was a good guy he knew what he was doing when it came to Uromastyx and had good success hydrating them and acclimating them to good health. With that I started a good business relation with him. I sold many uros to Karl this past year from Philbyi yearlings both sexes , Farmed Morrocons , Rainbow Benti juvenile pairs , Cb Sudan and farmed Ornates and not once had he complain about them and had always paid for them. It wasn't till the last shipment of animals that he failed to pay. I had informed him that a group of WC Philbyis had just landed and he was very eager and pushy of about getting them and wanted them immediately he kept on saying if I did not ship them by December 14, 2011 that Elmont , New York would be to cold to ship for a long time. So I trusted him and asked him what payment would he do? He clearly responded and explained that he would pay with a money order like all of the other payments he ever sent me. I told him the money order wouldn’t get to me in time, considering I had one day left to ship. Karl asked me to please send him the animals anyways and assured me he would pay me the next day (dec. 15th, 2011). I informed Karl about the animals and told him that the Philbyis were fresh imports. He asked me if I could front the money for the animals for him. I paid for the animals with my own money, trusting that he would pay me the following day as promised. I did this favor in good faith, because of all the other transactions. So I told him ok as long he swore he would pay me my full amount the following day, for both the animals and the shipping. The shipping was more costly than usual because I declared value on it. The following day Karl received the animals alive and active. I told him I only guarantee live arrival which he is well aware he too goes by this, especially since those weren’t my animals all I did was a favor for him of cherry picking the best philbyis and shipped them to him immediately and before I shipped I warned him again they had two days in captivity and he stilled pushed me to ship them right away instead of me holding them over the weekend or following week to make sure they were ok. I charged him $190 a piece for each philbyi and $80 shipping via fed ex I still have the receipt for proof that I paid it , I told him it was high price for shipping but he told me he didn’t care what it took to ship them as long as he got them he would pay for everything. So I listened to him and shipped the trio. The first couple days he called saying they hadn’t ate I advised him to separate each one in its own proper enclosure and to leave them alone since they were freshly imported and they were stressed due to all the recent shipping they had gone through, and I also informed him again before I sent him the animals that the importers warned me they weren’t fully acclimated yet in eating after telling him that he still insisted that I send them to him knowing their condition. One week went by with out me receiving the payment I told him what had happened and he said there was a supposedly “ error “ in the money order so he said as soon as he got it back he would mail to me again . By the time he got the money order back he would call me everyday complaining about the animals not eating and such, knowing we’re in the middle of winter and uromastyx are probably one of the hardest reptiles to acclimate in general especially if they were fresh imports and going through brumation! I once again told him I was not liable for them since all I guarantee was live delivery. That’s when the problems started were he told me he was NOT going to pay me my full money cause the animals were not doing good and this was already two weeks after having them in his possession. I then told him I was sorry for the animals but I sent him the best ones that I saw i told him the ones I sent him were good enough that I would keep them for myself and I told him if they had gone down hill on me as well I wouldn’t blame no one for there decline in health because since the beginning I knew they were wild caught animals and that’s the risk you take with WC uromastyx. I even tried to make things better with him by talking things out with him telling him I would send him a pair of Sudanese I had, because of the condition of the animals out of my own will since I considered him a friend. I asked him was it good to ship the pair to him because of the weather and he assured me again and insisted the weather was fine and to ship them out as soon as possible. I then shipped the Sudanese through fed ex. The next day Fed ex was super late on the shipment, he received them at 3:30 pm and by then animals arrived dead due to cold temps, even though I shipped with a 40 hour heat pack I disputed with fed ex already saying the package was destroyed thanks to a delay on one of their planes when I paid for priority overnight so not only had he owed me already on the philbyi trio but then I lost out on a perfect pair of Sudanese out of my own collection so that’s more money I lost and im still upset that I lost the animals more than the money , money is replaceable but the poor two animals suffered by losing there life’s when he then made me ship out in cold weather even after I told him it was to cold to ship he still said he didn’t care and told me to ship them, as always very pushy. He was still in the process of paying off his debt of the last $120 he owed me for a benti pair he did a payment plan on that I sent him in November so he owed me at this point $120 for the last of the benti pair plus $190 a piece per philbyi plus the $80 shipping of the animals that comes to a total of $770. I talked to him last Friday January 5 saying I was willing to settle for 50% of what he owed me and told him to keep the philbyi and he told me that he needed time to think of it so I left him alone for the weekend since I was getting prepared for my surgery that I was going to have this past Thursday January 12 . I then called troy over the weekend to see how he was doing and we discussed the issue of what was going on with me and Karl and he brought up that Karl had told him I promised him healthy baby philbyis and that I lied to him by sending him sub adults and that I had send him half dead animals Troy was shocked to hear that since I have dealt with troy and he knows I would never do that , I was shocked when Troy told me what Karl said on how he was making up lies of the deal me and him had , I told Troy that Karl was lying and I would three way call Karl at that moment and tell Karl why did he say I promised him babies when it was never true and why was he saying I sent him horrible unhealthy philbyis ,when the day he got them he couldn’t get off the phone telling me how happy he was that he had got them and was excited he had gotten them and was very happy on the animals I picked for him.
So this past Wednesday January 12th 2012 Karl called me saying he was gonna send me the money he owed me for the benti , I then told him what about the $80 for the shipping of the philbyis he then told me he couldn’t do that since he had to waste money on food and electricity trying to save the crappy philbyi I supposedly sent him. I told him I was not liable for the philbyi, when he knew they were fresh WC and all I guarantee was live arrival and he owed me the $120 on the benti and $80 for shipping of the philbyis and we would discuss the trios settlement after my surgery . I then asked him why was he going around saying I promised him baby philbyis when I never did ? And that supposedly I sent him horrible condition uromastyx , but when he got them he couldn’t stop talking about how nice and great they looked? He then got very angry and started to disrespect me over the phone calling me names that I am not allowed to type on here and he then told me to take my dead lizards I told him I wanted my money and that was that, he hanged up the phone and turned it off . I tried calling back three times so I left him a voicemail saying I had been patient enough with him, I cherry picked him WC philbyis not charging him gas to the location to pick out the animals and I still let him borrow the money for them and I still paid for shipping because he promised to send me the money right away as long as I would ship them to him right away and I told him all I guaranteed was live delivery and he agreed to it , but at that point I gave him 48 hours to pay me my full money of $770 or else I would put him on the BOI on fauna and it has been past the 48 hours with no payment . I understand this is my fault as well for trusting some one but I just want everyone to know about this guy and consider doing business with him in the future. I still have voicemails of him threatening me and cursing me saying he is going to go online and post pictures of the trio of philbyis and that he would tell people that the Sudanese I sent him were dead from the beginning. Even though they passed away during the shipment due to cold weather. From him assuring the weather conditions were fine on his end. Also claiming that I sent him horrible animals and that all my animals are trash just to try to get back at me. In the end he owes me $770 and i have not seen a penny yet!
-Mike Rodriguez
