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Info BHB Poor Communications

B

BeauBoi

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Hi All!
Ever since I joined Fauna, I have posted Good Guy threads for every seller I have purchased from. I have never had to post a Bad Guy thread, and I don't think one is called for in this case, but I cannot in good conscious post this as a Good Guy thread either.

Earlier this month I realized that (due to some minor feeding issues) it would be best if I held one of my females back from breeding this year. I noticed that BHB had some of their breeder female Albino Black Rat Snakes for sale and decided I would order one to take her place, but before I ordered I wanted to get more information about the snake (age, weight, ect..). So I called BHB and left messages, but they never returned my calls. I sent a couple of messages from the "ask us a question" area on their site, but they never got back with me on those either. I was about to just give up on it, but I tried calling again and finally got to talk to someon, Stephenie, who answered my questions, and I went ahead and ordered the snake.

So, the snake shipped Monday March 28 and arrived at 10:40 March 29. When she got here, she was visually beautiful (good weight and form) but rather stressed out, so I immediately put her in her new home to let her settle in.

Late the next evening, I wanted to take a closer look at her and to see how she handled. I brought her out of her cage and introduced her to my spouse. She handles very well and is very even tempered, but as I was holding her I noticed that when she breaths she you can hear a wet "popping" noise. I asked my spouse to listen, and he could hear the noise too.

Visually, she seems fine. She doesn't have any mucus, no open-mouth breathing or anything like that, but I was worried that the wet noise might be from a very early stage Respitory Infection. However, I also know that (just like people) every snake is different, and that it was possible that the noise was just a "quirk" of this snake. We only have one Exotics Vet here and she is rather expensive, so I decided I would call BHB on the off chance that it was just a known "quirk".

Once again, I couldn't get anyone on the phone but I didn't see a point in leaving a message since they never returned my earlier calls. Finally, I got ahold of Stephenie after calling 4 or 5 times, but she said that Lori was the person who would know about this particular snake and she wouldn't be in until the next day. She suggested that, since the snake wasn't visibly sick, I wait about taking her to vet until after I talk to Lori, and promised that Lori would call me the next day. Lori never called me back, and (once again) all I got was the answering machine when I called.

I have made an appointment to see the vet Monday, and even if she does have RI I still want her. I wasn't wanting anything from BHB except for information, regardless. Respitory Infections aren't that uncommon in snakes coming out of burmation from what I understand. I would just have appreciated it if they would have been kind enough to have called me back like they said they would.

So, while I am happy with the purchase, and the snake was shipped in a responsible and timely manner, I cannot post this as a Good Guy thread. I am disappointed in BHB's lack of communication, especially since it concerns the health of one of their animals. I know that when I sell my hatchlings I go out of my way to contact the buyer to make sure the animal arrived safely and in good condition. Every seller I have every purchased from has done the same for me, except for BHB.

~Beau
 
BeauBoi said:
Hi All!
Ever since I joined Fauna, I have posted Good Guy threads for every seller I have purchased from. I have never had to post a Bad Guy thread, and I don't think one is called for in this case, but I cannot in good conscious post this as a Good Guy thread either.

Earlier this month I realized that (due to some minor feeding issues) it would be best if I held one of my females back from breeding this year. I noticed that BHB had some of their breeder female Albino Black Rat Snakes for sale and decided I would order one to take her place, but before I ordered I wanted to get more information about the snake (age, weight, ect..). So I called BHB and left messages, but they never returned my calls. I sent a couple of messages from the "ask us a question" area on their site, but they never got back with me on those either. I was about to just give up on it, but I tried calling again and finally got to talk to someon, Stephenie, who answered my questions, and I went ahead and ordered the snake.

So, the snake shipped Monday March 28 and arrived at 10:40 March 29. When she got here, she was visually beautiful (good weight and form) but rather stressed out, so I immediately put her in her new home to let her settle in.

Late the next evening, I wanted to take a closer look at her and to see how she handled. I brought her out of her cage and introduced her to my spouse. She handles very well and is very even tempered, but as I was holding her I noticed that when she breaths she you can hear a wet "popping" noise. I asked my spouse to listen, and he could hear the noise too.

Visually, she seems fine. She doesn't have any mucus, no open-mouth breathing or anything like that, but I was worried that the wet noise might be from a very early stage Respitory Infection. However, I also know that (just like people) every snake is different, and that it was possible that the noise was just a "quirk" of this snake. We only have one Exotics Vet here and she is rather expensive, so I decided I would call BHB on the off chance that it was just a known "quirk".

Once again, I couldn't get anyone on the phone but I didn't see a point in leaving a message since they never returned my earlier calls. Finally, I got ahold of Stephenie after calling 4 or 5 times, but she said that Lori was the person who would know about this particular snake and she wouldn't be in until the next day. She suggested that, since the snake wasn't visibly sick, I wait about taking her to vet until after I talk to Lori, and promised that Lori would call me the next day. Lori never called me back, and (once again) all I got was the answering machine when I called.

I have made an appointment to see the vet Monday, and even if she does have RI I still want her. I wasn't wanting anything from BHB except for information, regardless. Respitory Infections aren't that uncommon in snakes coming out of burmation from what I understand. I would just have appreciated it if they would have been kind enough to have called me back like they said they would.

So, while I am happy with the purchase, and the snake was shipped in a responsible and timely manner, I cannot post this as a Good Guy thread. I am disappointed in BHB's lack of communication, especially since it concerns the health of one of their animals. I know that when I sell my hatchlings I go out of my way to contact the buyer to make sure the animal arrived safely and in good condition. Every seller I have every purchased from has done the same for me, except for BHB.

~Beau
Click to expand...

What was the outcome of the vet visit?
 
Eyvonne, It does appear that you had a poor communication experience with BHB. Hopefully, they are not like that all the time.

Also, hope all is okay with your new snake. That it turns out to be nothing more than pre-shed pops/clicks or some other simple quirk. If it turns out to be an RI, it is good that, from what it sounds like, it is, at least, only in the early stages. Please do update after vet visit.

....
 
Pasodama said:
Eyvonne, It does appear that you had a poor communication experience with BHB. Hopefully, they are not like that all the time.

Also, hope all is okay with your new snake. That it turns out to be nothing more than pre-shed pops/clicks or some other simple quirk. If it turns out to be an RI, it is good that, from what it sounds like, it is, at least, only in the early stages. Please do update after vet visit.

....
Click to expand...

Thank you, I feel certain that regardless of wether she has RI or not, she will be fine. I feed her today, and even though the wet-noise has gotten louder she still had a good feed response. She seems to be a sturdy, healthy snake otherwise and has a really good temperament.
I will be sure to update the thread after the vet visit.
~Beau
 
BeauBoi said:
Respitory Infections aren't that uncommon in snakes coming out of burmation from what I understand.
Click to expand...

RI can also sometimes manifest from the stress of shipping in an otherwise healthy animal.

Hope all goes well at the vet!
 
Well, I'm not sure what sort of schedule BHB is on with their animals, but I know when I was in the business, this was prime breeding season for me. So I was insanely busy this time of year. This is "make or break" time of year for breeders, so they probably really have their hands full. If you miss the breeding cycle with the animals, you probably missed the boat completely until next year with them. I'm sure I had my share of dropped or excessively delayed returned messages in the Spring time. But push come to shove, with limited time and resources, you often have to make tough choices with priorities that are the only realistic choices to you in the fox hole.

The four critical sections of this cycle are: (1) breeding, (2) egg laying, (3) egg harvesting and setup, and (4) hatching. Breeders can't afford to mess up any of them or they will likely be out of business.

Not trying to make excuses for BHB, just pointing out something that you may not realize about this time of year.
 
I'm sorry for your situation.

I also have have poor communications with BHB. It convinced me that I didn't need that particular animal that badly, after all. I tried to get in touch with them for a month, both by phone and email, until eventually I gave up.
 
WebSlave said:
Well, I'm not sure what sort of schedule BHB is on with their animals, but I know when I was in the business, this was prime breeding season for me. So I was insanely busy this time of year. This is "make or break" time of year for breeders, so they probably really have their hands full. If you miss the breeding cycle with the animals, you probably missed the boat completely until next year with them. I'm sure I had my share of dropped or excessively delayed returned messages in the Spring time. But push come to shove, with limited time and resources, you often have to make tough choices with priorities that are the only realistic choices to you in the fox hole.

The four critical sections of this cycle are: (1) breeding, (2) egg laying, (3) egg harvesting and setup, and (4) hatching. Breeders can't afford to mess up any of them or they will likely be out of business.

Not trying to make excuses for BHB, just pointing out something that you may not realize about this time of year.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know! Plus making new videos for their massive YouTube following, I don't know how they keep up! The had just released a new video the week before I ordered, so I KNOW they are busy!
~Beau
 
Unfortunately, I can confirm having a really hard time communicating with them. I got my boa from BHB at an expo and they told me if I had any questions to get ahold of them later. I sent an email and a site message that following Monday with transaction details asking when he last ate, since I'd forgotten to ask at the expo. Weeks went by and I never heard back. I sent an email a month later saying he'd eaten for me since coming home and not to worry about answering my message, and that I was disappointed that they hadn't responded. Never heard back from that either. Don't plan to buy from them again, left a sour taste in my mouth.
 
I have tried to contact BHB in the past through email about animals I had interest in and never got a reply, so my business went elsewhere.
 
According to the YouTube channel they moved buildings in the last few months. I talked to Mr. Barczyk today, he seemed very tired. I know he has been scaling down the collection and staff. And as pointed out above, he is in the middle of breeding season.

Does not make up for the lack of commication, but we are all imperfect humans.
 
I too had a few questions on a couple of there snakes and never got a response. I didn't want to deal with someone that wasn't able to communicate with me when I had a simple question, I just avoided them.
 
CwnAnnwn said:
According to the YouTube channel they moved buildings in the last few months. I talked to Mr. Barczyk today, he seemed very tired. I know he has been scaling down the collection and staff. And as pointed out above, he is in the middle of breeding season.

Does not make up for the lack of commication, but we are all imperfect humans.
Click to expand...

It is always difficult to pair the amount of work to the staff needed, even big companies have difficulties doing this.
On the one hand, having, and paying, more staff than needed is not a good business decision. On the other hand, having too little staff on hand amounts to exactly what seems to be happening here, the owner reportedly seems tired and the customers are not having important and valid questions answered in a reasonable time frame.

Hopefully this company will read this review, and perhaps make arrangements, at least temporarily, for a few more staff, or even one part time staff member to help with communications.
Breeding season is time intensive, but a capable and trustworthy assistant, even part time, can go through, read and triage company emails and get answers from the business owner (even talking to him while he is feeding babies or other tasks that simply cannot be put off) and reply to the emailer.
 
The phone calls are tough to excuse and those should be replied to. Hard to say if it's the person taking the message or the person who needs to call back who dropped the ball.

As for online, do they have a system set up for questions or is it a general e-mail? I only ask because I have people who e-mail me and I don't always get the e-mails for some reason. They think I was ignoring them, but I wasn't. Same goes with facebook messages. That system gets messed up from time to time. I've recently had someone screenshot the message they sent me and it didn't show up on my end for an hour.

I make no excuses for their lack of communication though and I hope they can get things working better. I'm sure they get hundreds of e-mails a day and that can be tough to keep up with.
 
Hi All,
Well, it is definitely a Respitory Infection. The appointment was at 1:30pm, and I brought her entire RUB with me. Other than lifting her hide to see how she was doing, I hadn't taken her out since Friday. While the vet was holding her, you could see an occasional bubble from her nose. Also, she has managed to rub off her very front nose scale, which the vet said was probably from the inflammation.

She has been prescribed Ceftazidime injections every 3 days for 21 days, and she has a swollen area on her face right between and below her eyes (which I thought was just an oddity of face-shape particular to this animal--thus me wanting BHB to get back to m..) that the vet says is sinus inflammation. The vet gave her a shot of Meloxican to help,with the inflammation.

Luckily, I had a coupon for $20, which brought the price of the visit from $162 to $142 (but it still hurt!). Other wise the vet said to keep up what I had been doing: higher temperature, lower humidity.


The vet said that if I don't see marked improvement in the next 9 days, I am to make another appointment and we will try adding another intiboticmto the mix. To be honest, after speaking to the vet, I am a lot more worried that I was before. Of course, her nose bubbling didn't help...

~Beau
 
@Kristi23 The have one of those questions/suggestions setup. I would have preferred if they had just provided their email, then I would have had copies of what I sent..
~Beau
 
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