• 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 Beware of selling to Forret Flinchum

G

Greg Valente

Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2012
Messages
167
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Coram, N.Y U.S.A
I sold a pair of sinaloan cosala milk snakes to Forrest Flinchum October 3 2015
He sent me the $280.00 using PayPal.The snakes were shipped and he received them sending me a email that he got them and was very pleased with them.Also commenting on how big they were for the age ("I was gonna keep them for myself " Anyway as far as I knew everything was fine.Until some time in March of 2016 I recived a email from saying that both snakes had died and I said what anyone else would was I was sorry but what happened he said he didn't know.ahe asked me if I had anymore and I said no he said ok if you get more let me know and I said ok sorry about what happened anyway first thing in my mind was he had to do something wrong for both to die.Anyway through the whole time he had the snakes never called or emailed me that he had a problem and never got a pic of dead snakes nothing on March 21 2016 PayPal took the $280.00 out of my account they said that I had a clim on me I never saw a email from PayPal I also said I must have deleted it by accident I don't check my account unless I sell something or buy well because I didn't answer the email and he had bought the snakes using a credit card through PayPal I'm out the money PayPal had told me to file a Ic3form for Internet fraud.Anyway after having the snakes for over 5 months I'm still out the money and also even though PayPal doesn't gaurentee live animals so just a heads up also I'm still waiting on the ic3 form and also I emailed hi telling him what I was doing with the form and still never heard from him so beware PayPal doesn't always have everyone's back
 
Greg Valente said:
so beware PayPal doesn't always have everyone's back
Click to expand...

This is an unfortunate collection of events and I am sorry you are out your money. But if a Paypal claim is initiated and you do not reply then the other party automatically wins because no proof was presented by you. It seems a longer than usual timeline, do you know why that might be? Was it a chargeback?
I don't think that you should blame Paypal if you deleted their attempt to notify you of the claim.
 
It was a charge back and I might have deleted it by accident and I never got another email nor letter or phone call PayPal said they are an online service and don't send letters or calls but when my bank made them put the money back because it was an unauthorized transactions action I got about 10 emails a day from PayPal plus phone calls I was waiting for the ic3 form to figure it out but never heard from them yet so I had to pay PayPal I k ow it's my fault with PayPal for not answering again I must have deleted it but I only got one email and that was verified from PayPal it's just with the buyer having the snakes for 5 months and then putting in a claim and again there is no proof the snakes are even dead
 
Greg Valente said:
PayPal had told me to file a Ic3form for Internet fraud.
Click to expand...

Greg,

That's a total waste of time. A few years ago I was ripped off for over 2K, I was told to do the same, I did, that was March 2011, I still have never heard a word from the Internet Fraud Division. What it did do, is keep the perpetrator from advertising on another website.

Best of luck to you!

Lynn Peterson
Big Time Reptiles
 
How was he able to file a claim 5 months after the purchase? I thought the time limit was 45 or 90 days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Greg Valente said:
It was a charge back and I might have deleted it by accident and I never got another email nor letter
Click to expand...
That is the way it works. They gave you fair notice. Had you responded you might have presented any fair evidence you had such as the positive response the buyer gave on receipt of the animals, the lack of notice, the lack of proof of death.
You didn't respond, and then there was a successful chargeback against you. You could have fought it but you did not because you deleted the initial notice. You can't expect Paypal to have your back if you don't do your part, and you can't expect them to plead with you or remind you to respond.
 
Well I'm not gonna drag this on I know it was my fault for not responding.I said that from the begining.I think PayPal could have maybe tried a little better because when my bank made them put back the money I got calls everyday.But my problem is from the buyer again he was happy with the snakes he had them over 5 months now don't get me wrong stuff dies,life is not gaurenteed for anyone or anything.But for both to die at the same time I'm gonna say it's something he did wrong also being he time of death I think he might have tried to hibernate them and something went wrong.Again this is all speculation because I never heard from him before and only once after sale letting me know that they died and even when I emailed after the PayPal back charge I still got know response and like I said who knows if they are even dead.Again me not responding back to PayPal because I might have accidentally deleted the email is my fault yes but for this guy to do that I think was wrong I would never even think about doing that.I can see if something dies within a week and you want to contact the seller but 5 months later I don't think so Anyway I don't want to drag this on just if you receive emails from PayPal make sure to open then lesson learned
 
I appreciate you saying something about this buyer. If you can, send him a link to this thread.
 
I told him I was gonna do it I also told him about the ic3 form PayPal told me to file he never answered but why would he he's got his money back and for alls I know my snakes.Like I said don't want this to drag on but buyer and seller always check your mail box before hitting delete.Also just bothered me how someone can do that after 5 months and still be able to get a refund and through the whole time never once contacting me to let me know he was having a problem.And like I said for both snakes to die I will have to say it was something he did.I explained it to PayPal like this if you have a fish tank and one fish died he might have been sick but if your whole tank dies something your doing isn't right.
 
Thanks for the heads up! Wow, after five months! That takes some balls! I've been really lucky so far. In 30 years of selling, I've never had a problem with my buyers, knock on wood.
 
The only time he did was to tell me the snakes died.I check all my mail but like I said I don't check PayPal if I'm not buying something or waiting for money.And at times I get a lot of junk mail from PayPal.But again no no contact at all even when I tried to contact him of the carve back and also for filing the ic3 form nothing
 
Snake-Queen said:
How was he able to file a claim 5 months after the purchase? I thought the time limit was 45 or 90 days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Paypal now gives you 180 days to file a claim.
 

Attachments

  • Untitled2.jpg
    Untitled2.jpg
    70 KB · Views: 180
Back
Top