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SS Exotic Animals-- Deal with them and lose your money!

http://www.dhl-usa.com/resources/Prohibited_Restricted_Commodities.pdf

It was an Arizona; snakes are specifically prohibited. This is her business, she knows this, or she should know this. The box was not marked "live animal" which would have warned them to use extra precautions since they do allow the shipping of SOME types of animals. She was negligent in this, and in her choice of shipping containers and heat packs. This snake cooked and suffocated because of the large heat packs. The animals corpse was contorted as if it suffered greatly. This was witnessed by DHL's driver Ralph Rodriquez Rt902.
I received another snake from another shipper, same species, smaller, and younger, on the same day, 7 hours later, alive and well.It was packed properly and shipped by DHL on the same date, 2/6. The box was marked- "Live animal". Suzette just doesn't care; she is negligent. The section for Special Instructions on the shipping label was left blank.
 
First any seller that ships, should have arranged which day ahead of time.
Most people use UPS or Delta Dash
And a good seller will call that day to check if the animals made it there okay.
Also no guarantee on live arrival, big red flag.
And if someone avoids you the day your animals arrive they probably knew there was going to be a problem when they sent it to you.
I see mixed reports on there shop :shrug01:
how much do you loss?
do you have the e-mails
and what did you lose maybe some else here could help you.
 
I live in the same city as the S&S store and there is not even a guarantee purchasing animals on location. Reptiles there are bred behind the display cages (mostly tiny kritter keepers or overcrowded tanks) where I have seen 30+ new baby ball pythons thrown into one tank together. S&S has a real bad rap among keepers in their home town alone.
 
There terms are BS and would never hold up.
When you offer something for sale, unless you note the animal is sick or in bad shape specifically, there's an implied warranty that the animal is in reasonable shape to sell and can be reasonably provided to the customer in the condition offered. This is not canceld out by the fact that she posted terms on her site, store etc...
Many businesses fail to relize that just because it is in writting doesn't necessarrily makes it binding , leagal etc.. even if they accept the terms in writting any court will throw out the contract if it is unfair..plain and simple!!
For example let's say I own a pool..
I can post "not responsible for injuries, swim at your own risk" and if someone decides to jump head 1st into the 2ft end then that's most likley on them.
Now if I marked the 2ft end 12ft that would be on me...no matter what I posted!!
I implied that the pool was safe to swim in under normal conditions...and it wasn't!!
 
cccreptile said:
And a good seller will call that day to check if the animals made it there okay.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that just is not realistic for those who deal in a large volume of snakes.
 
FunkyRes said:
Unfortunately that just is not realistic for those who deal in a large volume of snakes.
Click to expand...

Why is it not realistic? I mean How many snakes can you have going out in one day? How long does it take to make a phone call? I have delt with a few people buying snakes online and all of them have been great to me. Matt Crabe was on the phone with me off and on for 5hrs while waiting for a snake to arrive that was late because UPS had a new driver. Dan Mulleary called me on his cell from Taiwan (He was on vacation or something) because the snake never arrived he sent me my money back found out UPS never sent it from the california location. when he resent the snake I sent him the money back. I also bought a 1.1 pair from Dale York and he was on the phone with me making sure everything was alright.

Good buisness starts with communication. The next steps are quality and consistancy. If you dont have those traits then you can never call yourself a good buisnessman.

Also wanted to say I was purchasing a snake from Joe Rollo (BCI Joe) and I almost had it paid off and he refunded me in full because I had to help pay for funeral arrangements for my mother :(

All those guys are good buisnessmen that I can say are fairly busy with selling snakes and they make time to call you to check the quality of the animal the day it arrives.
 
You'll find that many of the big places (IE vms) ship on one particular day of the week, and only that particular day of the week. During peak season, they can potentially have hundreds going out that day.

They ask that you (the buyer) contact them immediately if there is a problem, and have a phone number for you to do so.

Now - supposing you do have a problem, and you keep getting a busy signal because they are busy trying to contact 45 other people who happen to be higher on the list than you. You would be pretty pissed, no?
 
that wouldnt make them good buisness men then. poor customer service is the first thing I look at especially since Ive been a manager in retail. by them doing that it shows they dont really have a plan for good customer service. which would make the customer upset and more than likely not want to deal with them again and also they would tell thier friends in the trade about soandso having horrid customer service and then it leads to loss of sales. My last purchase was from insane canes in florida. I think I was on the phone with jennifer all day trying to figure out where my snake was I live in STL now and she sent it via delta and they shipped it to ohio for some reason. Since she went out of her way to put my cell phone number on the box I actually got a call from the airport in ohio (cant remember if it was cleveland or cincinatti) I called her and she said if anything was wrong then she would take care of me.

The way it looks is S&S is completely opposite what (by my standards) is a good buisness "persons". I have never delt with them personally but from what I hear thier lack of proper packaging and lack of communication leads me to not want to deal with them one bit.

When I personally am interested in making an online purchase I send my phone number and ask for thiers in the first email. I also save all my emails.

I reward good customer service though whether it be from pizza hut the dollar store or some misc person I buy a snake from online. I told all of the people I purchased a snake from that when I get mine to breed then I will send them a baby from the litter. (I have boas and am doing it as a hobby not to make money)

First thing to remember when you are in a buisness though is that the customer is your boss because without them you dont get paid.
 
VMS has some of the best customer service of the volume dealers in the industry.
If there is a problem, they will take care of it.

This is a bit off topic for this thread - but the bottom line, as with any business transaction, it is the customers responsibility to contact the vendor if there is a problem. Most vendors, including VMSherp, do ask that you send them an e-mail letting them know it arrived OK - and that is simple for a customer to do. Delivery confirmation from the shipping vendor is not always instantaneous, etc. - it really is the duty of the buyer to let the shipper know when there is a problem. If you do not want to do business that way, buy herps from your local pet store.
 
I am continually amazed that people order reptiles from these "jack of all trades" type outfits expecting that they will get a quality animal.

S&S has 70 ads of diverse reptiles for sale on KS as well as many birds and mammals. Look at their web site- they have 100's of animals. Do people actually think that it is possible to be so diversified and still offer a high level of care to all those different species? Do you think they have time or enough competent employees to inspect or care what they are sending out?

And although I sympathize with Jeff, their terms are clearly spelled out on the website, they ship DHL :

http://www.sandsexoticanimals.com/order/shipping-rates.html

and offer no guarantees:
http://www.sandsexoticanimals.com/order/guarantee.html

By no means do I think those terms are right or ethical but they do have it right there for all to see before doing business with them. No matter how much I wanted an animal I would not order after seeing those terms.
 
As has been pointed out just because they say it doesn't mean the law allows it . But if these folks don't want to check into that and do something about it oh well.. Randy
 
I would like to point out that shipping a snake DHL is not ILLEGAL it is just against DHL's policy.

Just like it is against FedEx policy unless you have special permission. That being said I have received many snakes both DHL, FedEx, UPS etc. that arrive in perfect condition if packed properly, which obviously this one was not.

I also don't think marking the outside of the box "Live Reptile" makes a bit of difference in how the box is handled. Most of the boxes are handled by machines. Reptiles must be packed accordingly to anticipate rough handling.
I receive boxes marked clearly marked "this side up" "live reptile" etc. and the driver throws them off the truck and hands them to me upside down and sideways.
 
Just wanted to pop in and say that we purchased a baby Columbian boa from S&S and haven't had any problem at all with her. No mites, no RI, eats like a champ. On the other hand I have heard a few bad things about them, including one incident with a Blood Python a friend of mine bought, but since that's third party info it doesn't really have any bearing here. They told me she is het albino but there's no telling til she's old enough to breed, as they had no paperwork or anything on her. She is supposedly the baby of one of the employee's snakes. Didn't charge extra for her so no skin off my nose.

From what I've heard they have done a lot of improving over the last couple of years, but I sure wouldn't have them ship (No need obviously as I live in Houston, but you get my point) and I wouldn't buy an animal I hadn't gone in and inspected myself.
 
I went to SS Exotics and the place sickened me. I went about 3 weeks ago to see what they had. I inquired about sugar gliders. I did not tell her I had any knowledge about them, because I wanted to see if she did. First she tries to sell the Sugar Gliders SINGLY. Which anyone who knows about sugar gliders knows shouldnt' be done. I even said, i heard they shouldnt' be in a cage alone, she said no there fine alone. The reason, I discovered, is that for each one she sells singly, she gets to sell a cage set up, so she looses money selling them in pairs!!! WHO CARES! Do what's best for the animal. Let me just say the state of that place is appalling. She has feeder mice and such in the bathroom. The state of the animals is sad. She has as much crammed in there as she possibliy could. It's filthy, it's truely sad. I feel for the animals that are in that place. I have since discovered that she has OVER THREE THOUSAND Sugar Glider Breeding pairs. She uses them for nothing but breeding and then taking their babies. From what I understand about Sugar Gliders, it is very upsetting to them to have their babies taken away. She will not let you see the condition of the breeding pairs, probably because she has so many and I don't even want to think about the condition of where they are held. And to the person who received the dead reptile, I am not suprised, it was probably dead when she shipped it, or sadly, it died on the way, from the poor shipping method. I would not give them a DIME of my money. I hope they go out of business, and someone can take care of those poor animals the way they should be cared for!!! By the way, does anyone know if it is even legal to have that many pairs of breeders, and if there is anyone I can call that could go an evaluate their overall enviroment?
 
By the way, does anyone know if it is even legal to have that many pairs of breeders, and if there is anyone I can call that could go an evaluate their overall enviroment?
Click to expand...

It is legal to have as many as they want as long as they are properly cared for and there are no local, county or state regulations regarding the number of animals on a property. As a wholesaler or commercial breeder they are required to be licensed and inspected by the USDA ( http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/index.shtml ) (you can even request to see copies of their inspections through the USDA website) and depending on Texas laws may be required to be licensed or inspected by their local dept. of agriculture or Wildlife / Fish & Game type agencies. The local Dept. of Health or even OSHA may also get involved if conditions are really bad.

Also the Houston SPCA may be of help.
 
Thanks so much for taking out time to find an answer about that. I appreciate it and will definitely use the information!!


Trish Alexander
 
I bought 2 snakes from her store in houston and I found out later they had mites and were infested with internal parasites after taking them to the vet. I would never buy from them again and sorry for everyone who has.
 
My experience with S & S

I've been to their store in Houston. What a mess ! If you were ever able to see this place you would not ever consider buying from them. This is why they do not give any warranties on anything they sell. They pass it off as our animals are top quality and no warranty is needed, but in reality they could not get an animal shipped to arrive alive if you put a gun to their head.

If you read their terms, they do not warranty anything unless you Delta Dash it and then - from the few I know who bought from them and lost - good luck getting a refund/replacement.

S & S Sux

PS......this site is a hoot ! Who knew ? :D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
Is this the same company with ads on KS right now...S & S Exotics? They seem to have a Ball Het for EVERYTHING. I have seen Het for IMG, Het for Congo Pastel, and a Het For Leucistic. Now, my first question is, is IMG a proven simple recessive trait? Second question, how do you get a Het for Congo Pastel from a normal looking Ball? Third, what is the deal with the het Lucy? Is it a Vin Russo line? The ad does not say anything about what line, or even what eye color!

Dave
 
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