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Bad Guy Dav Kaufman - Beware

Randy F said:
ok so I just got off the phone with Dav for almost an hour. It had a unsure start but will say it ended on a positive. We actually laughed at each other. He took 100% responsibility for not responding to my texts, even to just tell me he was busy and when he would get back to me. He admitted to seeing where my situation led me here, even though he wished I would have called and saved everyone this. He did tell me that the snake was a trade, that he got it mixed up with one he brokered for someone. At this moment there is an offer on the table that I believe is completely fair, and more than I expected. We had to cut it short but I will update it after we talk again.
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What ever it is, get in to get it in writing. Now that the lines are open, go to email or text. Get something written.
 
Randy F said:
ok so I just got off the phone with Dav for almost an hour. It had a unsure start but will say it ended on a positive. We actually laughed at each other. He took 100% responsibility for not responding to my texts, even to just tell me he was busy and when he would get back to me. He admitted to seeing where my situation led me here, even though he wished I would have called and saved everyone this. He did tell me that the snake was a trade, that he got it mixed up with one he brokered for someone. At this moment there is an offer on the table that I believe is completely fair, and more than I expected. We had to cut it short but I will update it after we talk again.
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Bout time time! Good, I'm glad yall were able to come to a conclusion that your happy with. Keep us updated randy
 
wyblep said:
Well I just seen this thread and have not had a chance to read it entirely but it looks like old Dav is up to his same dealings.

I purchased three animals from him last year. A double het snow female and two conda 66% pos het toffee. Well he shipped them when it was 10 Degrees out with no heat pack. The actually survived though. They came in very stiff and lethargic but came around a few hours after being warmed up.

The female double het was very skinny to the point I didn't feel comfortable putting her anywhere near my collection for fear of possible parasites. The two condas pos het toffee were both males.

Needless to say I told him I would send all three back for a full refund. Well that's when it all started. He said it was to cold to ship back the next day even though I told him I would take full responsibility of the animals. I have been shipping reptiles for over 20 years and I never have a problem. So then he was always too busy and could never be home to accept a package.

After two months of playing his games I finally got him to agree to take the animals back but then he had all kinds of stipulations such as if he feels they are not in the same condition as he sent them I get nothing. And I would only get a refund if and when he resold the animals. It was a total joke.

He also tried to use the old I did not produce these and they were a friends etc. but did not mention any of this until after I had a problem with the mis sexed snakes. Well he got them and then I had to wait another three months for my money.

I finally had to threaten to come on the BOI and told him that I have been doing this for a long time and I would make sure everyone found out how he does business. All in all I had to eat the PayPal fees both ways and shipping so I lost 170.00 on the deal for his mistakes. I wasn't going to post anything about him but after I seen this it’s obviously a pattern with him so I would rather warn as many people as possible about him. Paul Wyble at Steel City Exotics
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Don't know if this has been suggested, but this should have its own BOI thread, so that its not missed. Not everyone reading up on Dav will read this entire thread.
 
RossCA said:
Don't know if this has been suggested, but this should have its own BOI thread, so that its not missed. Not everyone reading up on Dav will read this entire thread.
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They encourage to post on the same thread instead of having 50 scattered over the board. Some people continue to post to the same one, others create their own. But it is good to keep one continual thread even though it's a pain to read through some, one I was following ended at over 100 pages..
 
I just read through it all, over a few days on lunch break at work... Before I made it to the end I wondered how many people have not come out with a post like this that have been in similar situations with this person. I applaud Randy F for this post as I do inquire and look up the people/businesses I might want to buy/deal/trade with.
 
ElexisOrtiz said:
They encourage to post on the same thread instead of having 50 scattered over the board. Some people continue to post to the same one, others create their own. But it is good to keep one continual thread even though it's a pain to read through some, one I was following ended at over 100 pages..
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Yeah, I've heard that said and it's good if it comes out in the first few pages, but this was very far in. Most people are not going to read the whole thread. They might just skip to the end to see what the outcome was.
 
So after we talked Dav said his original offer was for me to keep the pied male, send him $500 plus shipping for a killer clown female. That was very fair to me and I just sent him $550 a couple minutes to go. It's unfortunate that we didn't get there from the beginning. He realized he was thinking of a different animal and this one he did get on trade, not broker. He understands that I went here after not hearing from him and the story changing. We both wish we could do it over again now after seeing the errors that happened. Ultimately he stood up and took responsibility of it and I respect that. The one I just refunded and gave a snake for the problem, friendships are lost over that one. I didn't expect to see friends handle it so poorly. Dav is making his right............
 
Randy F said:
So after we talked Dav said his original offer was for me to keep the pied male, send him $500 plus shipping for a killer clown female. That was very fair to me and I just sent him $550 a couple minutes to go. It's unfortunate that we didn't get there from the beginning. He realized he was thinking of a different animal and this one he did get on trade, not broker. He understands that I went here after not hearing from him and the story changing. We both wish we could do it over again now after seeing the errors that happened. Ultimately he stood up and took responsibility of it and I respect that. The one I just refunded and gave a snake for the problem, friendships are lost over that one. I didn't expect to see friends handle it so poorly. Dav is making his right............
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That's great that you were able to agree on some terms. Congrats! After reading all of this and posts from others who had been in situations similar with less than desirable outcomes, I feel I would not be able purchase animals from him comfortably. It seems as though he stalled to figure out what he was going to say in the begining. When he read that the reactions on here were less than favorable towards him he then tried to blame you again (by not calling him, even though texts were posted). Now it's all a misunderstanding and he was thinking of a different animal...To the person that wrote dav kept meticulous records, I hope you were being fecetious...
 
Good to see that you (Randy), and Dav, have reached an agreement that will resolve this issue.
Please update if/when you receive the Killer Clown female.

....
 
Randy, sorry to check this so late, but I'm glad Dav is making things right for you. I agree completely that Dav should take full responsibility to you since he was the seller, middleman or not. It's up to him to take things up, separately, with the third party who provided the snake to him. Sorry this happened to you, but you did the right thing.
 
I did get in the mail this beautiful little killer clown female from Dav. Glad to see he stepped up like I hoped he did. I was really surprised my buddies locally screwed me over and he made good. I guess it just goes to show that you never know what to expect.
 

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I thought Dav Kaufman "collected snake sightings in the wild" & worked with North American colubrids, and now I see he's been selling Ball Python morphs? Geez, is ANYONE immune to the make-money-and-profit-from-mutants-mentality in this hobby? Stuff like this makes me glad I left the captive reptile world behind.

P.S.-The Herpers movies sucked.
 
DavidBeard said:
I thought Dav Kaufman "collected snake sightings in the wild" & worked with North American colubrids, and now I see he's been selling Ball Python morphs? Geez, is ANYONE immune to the make-money-and-profit-from-mutants-mentality in this hobby? Stuff like this makes me glad I left the captive reptile world behind.

P.S.-The Herpers movies sucked.
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Maybe it's a "I love Reptiles and can't see myself doing anything else" mentality? And the Herpers movies were actually quite good IMO. But if people leave the hobby due to others actions or inactions, then they never belonged in the hobby to begin with. :thumbsup:
 
DavidBeard said:
I thought Dav Kaufman "collected snake sightings in the wild" & worked with North American colubrids, and now I see he's been selling Ball Python morphs? Geez, is ANYONE immune to the make-money-and-profit-from-mutants-mentality in this hobby? Stuff like this makes me glad I left the captive reptile world behind.

P.S.-The Herpers movies sucked.
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It takes money out of pocket to maintain and properly care for these animals. I don't see anything wrong with making some money to put back into your pocket. Your mentality is probably what drove you out of the hobby!!

Milo
 
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