Edited
-
Responding to email notices you receive.
**************************************************
In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.
-
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed
=====================
Posted 08/15/2025
=====================
Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.
Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."
Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....
=====================
Addendum: 01/10/2026
=====================
Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....
Bad Guy James/ Ember Gecko
- Thread starter Sgtflex
- Start date
juliasara
New member
Is this about James of ember gecko?
It fits here because is an example of the same excuse been used,as is BS excuse.
Kristi23
New member
It is not always an excuse. I've had to wait a few days for boxes because I needed a specific size for an order and I didn't have any. Sometimes we can just get low on shipping items. I try my best to have as much as possible, but something might slip my mind when ordering. I don't have an inventory being a small hobby breeder. Don't always assume it's a scam or anything like that. I know I've had to wait on shipping from a breeder in the past for a similar reason. As soon as their shipment came in, they shipped right away.
I'm not saying James isn't responsible though. As soon as he realized he didn't have any, he should have either asked around to get one or refunded the money right away and avoided this whole thread.
Of course seller would defend sellers,but if you sell something a month in advance and a week before you say your shipping,there is no excuse for not having a heat pack,when they are available online and takes 3 days to come with priority shipping.
Best luck to the guy getting hes money back.
juliasara
New member
I agree with kristi, I've run out of shipping supplies before and also had to wait for shipments because a seller ran out of something. It happens to the best of us, I think the point kristi is making is its how you handle things shows your character. Knowing the op was making a special trip from outside the country to pick up the geckos on a specific date is different then someone who bought an animal and has to wait a few extra days to get it. I'm not saying making someone wait is right but in the op's case it should be handled differently then a sorry for making you wait a few days here's 10% back for your wait, which is what I typically do if I make someone wait an extra day or 2. In the op's case waiting a few days wasn't an option, someone who lives here is different.
Kristi23
New member
I don't defend sellers unless I see them being attacked unfairly. I was simply making a statement about supplies. I did not say that James was right for having run out. Just saying it can happen. I would not run out of something if I knew I was shipping soon. That would be for more of a surprise sale. I am not defending him in the least bit. I said he should have at least tried to find a heat pack and if he couldn't, he should have refunded the money right away. Heat packs usually take 4 days to get to me priority. Boxes take 5-7 days for some reason. Since he knew he was shipping at least 6 days ahead of time, there is no excuse for him running out of heat packs. Again, my point was that it happens sometimes and it doesn't make someone a crappy seller or a scam. No sale that far in advance should be an issue though. James had plenty of time to have his supplies ready.
The problem with this seller aside, since you have very limited availability due to your own travel into/out of the US, you may want to avoid purchasing animals and having them delivered over the winter months. The current weather forecast is for more snow in the mid-Atlantic Monday and Tuesday next week, so even if you were in the US to receive the animals it's not likely that they could be safely shipped.
Barring that, you could try to find someone here in the US who could receive the critters on your behalf, start their QT, and hold them until you're back in the US to pick them up.
Barring that, you could try to find someone here in the US who could receive the critters on your behalf, start their QT, and hold them until you're back in the US to pick them up.
Pasodama
New member
That is not how it works around here, and Kristi is one of the fairest people around.
It DOES happen, that supplies run out. And there WAS a fearsome storm in many places around that time. It is possible that the seller may not have been able to get the gecko ready, and you may not have been able to get in and pick up the geckos, depending on the day, as there were all sorts of transportation issues, air/car/truck, in many areas.
Under the circumstances, a refund would have been a fair solution.
I hope that your Paypal account is backed by a credit card, or that you can talk to your bank and file a chargeback. Because the gecko was paid for in payments, I would be surprised if Paypal allows a buyer protection escalation.
Kristi and others worded things well in response to this, but I will add a small bit.
It is not a matter of sellers defending sellers. The responses here have been mostly even-handed. This is because sellers understand sellers. Just about every seller is also a buyer. Very, very few sellers have not been buyers. A great many buyers are not sellers. There are people who do not sell that can place themselves in the shoes of both parties to be considerate of challenges faced and expectations present from or for either or both sides, but this is an exceptional mindset. The experience of selling some volume of shipments provides a range of interactions and results that instills directly acquired insights that many buyers simply never encounter.
Your off-handed comment that I emboldened is not taking into consideration that your subject of address has fought several kinds of battles and knows them better (on a personal level) than a person who has only fought one kind of battle. She is exercising a manner of kindness (to both sides) born of understanding. You could do her the courtesy of showing that a touch of respect instead of being flippantly dismissive when no basis of merit has been used to justify it.
hhmoore
tired & cranky shadow
It doesn't really fit here, unless the seller was James / Ember Gecko. If you have had an issue with another seller, please post in - or start - a thread about that person .
juliasara
New member
Ezra, have you made any progress with the paypal claims? Has James made any attempt to make this right?
While I do know a few breeders I have done business with in the past that were very nice. My problem would be who really can I trust with expensive animals? What happens if they die in the "holder's" possession? What if they sell them. I dont know anyone personal enough to risk this. What I can do is hold all my reptile runs until the summer. Even with James, while I was considering his offer to hold my animals, what if he sells them and tells me they dies or what if they really do die? Will he tell me "you paid for them so their yours?". Nah my problem with him isn't just that he could not deliver. I know stuff happens but my problem was that after he could not deliver he is refusing to refund me.
In relation to the paypal claim I have filed the claims and I am currently awaiting their decision. Failing that I will just head to the bank and get it over with.
Yeah I have maybe 2-3 people I could trust that much. One of them is the friend I have do my QT. My new critters go live in isolation at his place for 90 days. His wife doesn't like snakes and doesn't want him owning any, but he can have one short-term resident periodically.
Problems on the seller's side need to be resolved by the seller. So, if an animal being held on a payment plan gets sick or dies then the seller covers that vet bill, gives a credit on a replacement critter, or issues a refund.
I understand that, and I think in this case he is wrong to refuse the refund since the shipping problem was due to his error.
Good luck and I hope you get your money back.
Snake-Queen
New member
Has PayPal decided in your favor?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Black Adder
New member
Pasodama
New member
From James' dropping the ball, especially under your special circumstance, it is my belief that you deserved a refund.
With that, it is good to see that PayPal sided with you and that you got a refund of all your payments.
....