Erik Navaro (not a good guy)...flake

This July, I bought 0.1 from Erik Navaro. He advertised a 1350g female which I purchased from him. When It arrived, it was about 200g smaller than he advertised, weighing in at 1170g. Just getting tired of things like this, I asked what he wanted to do, and he offered a partial refund. I suggested $75, and he agreed. Nothing huge, but I thought it was fair. After saying it would be a couple weeks, before he got the money (he'd already spent what I sent him), I told him it was fine, and not a huge hurry. That was almost the last time I heard from him, and he's avoided me like the plague!

Here's what I have on e-mail (if you are familiar w/ Google's g-mail, you'll recognize the format here)...we talked more on the phone, but there's enough here to get the picture. I of course have all the e-mails and can show that this what has transpired. I'm not angry, but just won't use him anymore and hope others wont either. I'm not out to mess his name up...his silence has done that in my eyes.
Jeremy Conrad

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Jeremy Conrad to Erik
More options Jul 26

Do you still have the 1350g ball python for sale? I'll tell you why I
ask. I've had a kid, Travis, who's 14 yrs. old who's been calling me.
He's getting into breeding bp's and is looking for females that he
can breed this year and has purchased a granite and another bp
already. He has had several boas and lizards in the past, and is
surprisingly knowledgable for his age. I had a lot of wc females
listed so he called me trying to get some to breed, but after talking
to him, I told him he wouldn't want a wc but a cb female. I've been
trying to help him get a female or two that could be up to size for
this season, but you know how that is. He has the cash available, and
I'd love to see him get this female. If you have this snake still
available, please let me get this to him. I won't make a thing off
this deal, but am trying to help him out. Let me know. Thanks.
Jeremy



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reticguy@comcast.net to Jeremy Conrad
More options Jul 26

CALL ME (219)616-9711
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Erik,
I'm not sure if you received my messages, but travis, the kid I was getting the female for ended up getting three females from a guy off reptibid (I think that's where he said he got them). I was just talking with him and he said that he had actually been talking with you about the snake as well. He mentioned something about you offering a trade for a different type of snake one of his buddies had. Anyway...
You can ship it to me though. If you ship it next day UPS, it'll be guaranteed to get here...we have UPS coming to my work pretty much every day. If you ship it tomorrow (thursday) I'll be able to get it friday. If you need to send it monday, just let me know, but I prefer Thursday, of course. Here's the address:

Jeremy Conrad

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Jeremy Conrad to Erik
More options Aug 24

Erik,
FYI, I've had the female eat two meals. Thanks. I'll be looking for the $75 sometime soon. Let me know if somethings come up. Thanks.
Jeremy

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Jeremy Conrad to Erik
More options Sep 17

Erik,
What's up buddy? Hope you're doing alright. Just wanting to check about my refund. This isn't very good business here. Thanks.
Jeremy

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Jeremy Conrad to Erik
More options Sep 30

Erik,
Again, just getting back in touch to see if you are going to send the $75 from the snake you sold me this summer that was undersized. It's $75 bucks...let's get this resolved. Thanks, man.
Jeremy Conrad

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Did he send you any e-mails? Or did he only respond by phone? Otherwise this is really one sided and it is hard to make out what actually transpired. Did you let him know about this thread? That may help things out.

I'd say you are getting the cold shoulder man.

Have you tried calling him again?

If you're not out to mess up his name as you say, what is your intention(s) by posting this?

Answering 3 questions.
1 - I sent him an e-mail about the thread this afternoon.
2 - Most of what we did was over the phone. I've posted all that I have w/ him. As you can see, his first reply to my e-mail was to ask for me to call him. If he shows up, I'm sure he will not say I'm distorting any facts.
3 - I'm not here to "mess up his name." I just don't think he's responded very well during this transaction and want to let other potential buyers aware.

He seemed like a NICE guy, but I see his faults as
1 - exaggerating his female's size (lack of ethics?)
2 - not following through with what we agree (which I feel was very fair)
3 - avoiding the situation (unprofessional)

Again, I'm not saying he's a bad guy, maybe just a little flaky

Good points Jeremy. I hope you get some resolution to this situation.

I just got an e-mail from Eric...Looks like it'll resolve this week. Thanks all.
Jeremy Conrad

Eric,
Hey, I appreciate your response. I'll post this on Fauna. and mention all's resolved. Thanks.
Jeremy


On 10/22/05, reticguy@comcast.net <reticguy@comcast.net> wrote:
hi jeremy
sorry i almost forgot about this i will send you the cash this thursday i need you to send me a email with your address again
again I'M VERY SORRY about the wait

THANKS....ERIC

-------------- Original message --------------

Erik,
Just to let yo know, I've posted a thread on the BOI addressing the lack of response I've received in getting the agreed upon $75 refund.
Jeremy Conrad

Question how much did this ball python originally cost? 75.00 refund for a snake of that size over 180grams difference to me seems exaggerated , I mean this is a decent sized ball python that could probably eat 2 maybe 3 rats depending on there size.. correct?, one rat would weigh in at what 100-300grams depending on size, Too me the "mistake" could of been as simple as being weighed before it pooped or right after a meal. A snakes weight can very greatly since they eat such large prey items compared with other animals. Maybe if I knew more particulars I'd understand where your coming from.But going off your post seems like you took your past experiences out on this guy.How much can a normal ball python go for ??? Snakes weight fluctuate with meals , water consumption etc.. To me it seems like there isn't any problem here...If the animal weighed like 900 grams or less maybe but a 1170g and 1350g is only a 13% difference. Honestly this is probably what happened , he fed the thing the python 2 small rats weighing 300 grams or more, weighed it a week later it weighed 1350 or so, put it up for sale, didn't feed it again before shipping..it craped out a 180g turd, you weighed it and it comes in at 1150g , you get mad because of previous experiences and felt this guy did it intentionally.
I appologize if I am completly wrong here , but this is my take on the matter from what I have read.

BTW ...I do not condone this guy flaking out on his word, if he agreed to something then he needs to follow through and keep in touch, but I think the issue of weight is really a non-issue.

I believe all snakes should be weighed on empty, not with a meal in them. Also if the guy took even SOMEWHAT good feeding records, he knows that it would still have part of a meal in it. I think it's just good business ethics. He could have payed another 100 dollars for that turd!

Female balls can go over 1,000 dollars for one that size, maybe even more. Or maybe it was less. Who knows but breedable females around this time of year (even though 1300 is still kinda small) goes for a pretty penny. At least thats what the market tells me.

Female balls can go over 1,000 dollars for one that size, maybe even more

That's ludicrous, a 1000.00 for a NORMAL BALL, I just scoured the classifieds the most I seen was 250.00 and the least was 100.00, so I'd say an average of probably 150-200.00ea is the going rate. There of course an exception to every rule but I think the norm is quite a bit less.
Ball pythons can take up to 2 weeks to clean out, so weighing them on empty wouldn't be realistic. I think the best answer would be use common sense when buying, if your buying a ball python keep in mind it probably will very in weight depending on how much and when it was fed and when it last defecated in relation to being weighed. To expect a snake of that size to not fluctuate after it's been fed or defecates is unreasonable. I would think a mere 13% either way is probably the norm.