scaledverts
I like all things scaly!
I contacted Michael Cardell ([email protected]) on 22-April-09 regarding the purchase of a pair of Puget Sound garter snakes from him that he had posted on kingsnake he responded that same day with more information.
He originally posted the pair for $200 shipped. After a total of 2 more emails each regarding the animals and asking for pictures, we agreed that I could purchase the animals for a total of $175 including shipping. I Paypaled the money to his e-mail address as requested ([email protected]) on 22-April. Mr. Cardell then sent an e-mail to me regarding shipping information and providing me with some pictures. He then sent me an e-mail saying that he could not ship until Monday 27-April to which I replied that was acceptable to me and asked for a tracking number when he did ship the animals.
He sent another e-mail requesting that I send a second payment to him and telling me that he was refunding my original payment. At this point I checked my Paypal account and found that there was a refund payment pending.
I emailed him saying that I had sent the new payment to him. Notice the time stamp on the e-mail (2 am), I just happened to be up late that night and got him the second payment as soon as I received his e-mails.
I had not heard from him regarding the second payment in 3 days so I sent an e-mail asking if he received the other payment, to which he asked which account I sent it to. At this point I became slightly more suspicious because Mr. Cardell seemed to not be very well organized. After a series of e-mails in which Mr. Cardell’s lack of organization became apparent, he sent me an e-mail indicating that he had a conflict and would not be able to ship the animals out on Monday as previously agreed upon.
I sent a series of e-mails asking Mr. Cardell when he was going to ship out the animals and again requesting that he refund my Paypal account the money he agreed to refund to me.
I sent him a series of e-mails telling him that I was being forced to file claims against him through Paypal, my credit card, and kingsnake.com. I heard nothing from him until after I began the claims process at which point he miraculously contacted me saying he had an emergency.
I sent an e-mail to him on Wednesday asking for the tracking number (at this point I had ZERO trust in him).
At this point I sent him emails asking why he AGAIN broke terms that he agreed to and did not ship when we both agreed for him to ship! Well today (Friday 8-May)) comes around and guess what..................... NO shipment. I just informed him that this was ridiculous and that I would be posting about his business practices on Fauna classifieds.
I truly do hope that this is just a horrible misunderstanding. I do not feel that I am being unreasonable and I feel that I have been more than accommodating to his schedule. I cannot wait any longer to post this information. BEWARE of buying from Michael Cardell (Mike C on kingsnake classifieds). My dealings with him have turned me off to dealing with people via the internet. I know not everyone is bad but this situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
He originally posted the pair for $200 shipped. After a total of 2 more emails each regarding the animals and asking for pictures, we agreed that I could purchase the animals for a total of $175 including shipping. I Paypaled the money to his e-mail address as requested ([email protected]) on 22-April. Mr. Cardell then sent an e-mail to me regarding shipping information and providing me with some pictures. He then sent me an e-mail saying that he could not ship until Monday 27-April to which I replied that was acceptable to me and asked for a tracking number when he did ship the animals.
Later in the evening of 22-April Mr. Cardell sent me a message indicating he had given me the wrong paypal address and saying he had refunded my money, and asking me to send a payment to a different e-mail address ([email protected]) (in this email he refers to me incorrectly as “Kara”)
He then proceeded to send me a number of e-mails within a 2 hour period the final email again confirmed our previously agreed to $175 shipped deal but was clearly attempting to go back to the $200 shipped he had listed in his add in spite of agreeing to my offer. Notice the time stamp on the e-mail (12:30 am), I personally think this is kind of shady to send an email this late in the evening saying that the offer is only good until tomorrow morning.
He sent another e-mail requesting that I send a second payment to him and telling me that he was refunding my original payment. At this point I checked my Paypal account and found that there was a refund payment pending.
I emailed him saying that I had sent the new payment to him. Notice the time stamp on the e-mail (2 am), I just happened to be up late that night and got him the second payment as soon as I received his e-mails.
I had not heard from him regarding the second payment in 3 days so I sent an e-mail asking if he received the other payment, to which he asked which account I sent it to. At this point I became slightly more suspicious because Mr. Cardell seemed to not be very well organized. After a series of e-mails in which Mr. Cardell’s lack of organization became apparent, he sent me an e-mail indicating that he had a conflict and would not be able to ship the animals out on Monday as previously agreed upon.
At this point I was very suspicious of him and asked some questions regarding shipping etc. I also told him that shipping out on Wednesday, 29-April for Thursday arrival was fine with me. I did this because of the extenuating circumstances. In spite of my suspicions, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
On 28-April-09 Paypal sent me an e-mail telling me that the refund payment that Mr. Cardell had agreed to provide to me had not cleared his bank and therefore was canceled (note in this e-mail that the name on the email address is different (Veronica Cardell) in spite of Mr. Cardell responding to me from this e-mail (see other e-mail messages)
I immediately sent an e-mail to Mr. Cardell communicating that the refund had not gone through and provided him a copy of the Paypal e-mail. I also requested that he again send the refund payment and provide information regarding the shipping of my snakes.
I sent a series of e-mails asking Mr. Cardell when he was going to ship out the animals and again requesting that he refund my Paypal account the money he agreed to refund to me.
At this point, having not received the shipment or any correspondence from Mr. Cardell in 4 days, I communicated to him that he must ship the animals to me by the next day (1-May-09) and that he must refund the money he agreed to refund to me. I gave him set deadlines to do so before I began the process of filing claims against him for the money. I would normally not be this worried about shipment of the animals. However, he had $350 of my money (half of which was supposed to be refunded but did not clear his bank). The fact that the refund did not clear his account told me that he took the money out of the Paypal account before attempting the refund! He had also had my money for over a week now and I had no snakes.
I sent him a series of e-mails telling him that I was being forced to file claims against him through Paypal, my credit card, and kingsnake.com. I heard nothing from him until after I began the claims process at which point he miraculously contacted me saying he had an emergency.
I do have to say that I was surprised to hear from him. I indicated to him the amount of crap that I had to go through and made it clear that if I did not really want these animals I would not be continuing to attempt to resolve the issue.
At this point I called the credit card company and Paypal to let them know what was going on. I did not cancel the claims as I did not trust that Mr. Cardell would actually deliver the merchandise to me. I was told by the credit card company to wait until he actually sent the animals and then they would re-bill my account. He sent me an e-mail saying that he could not ship out on Tuesday and that Wednesday (6-May) for Thursday delivery was the earliest he could do.
To which I replied that if Wednesday was the earliest he could ship, that would work for me and asked for the tracking number.
I sent an e-mail to him on Wednesday asking for the tracking number (at this point I had ZERO trust in him).
He replied that he was shipping Thursday (7-May), NOT Wednesday.
At this point I sent him emails asking why he AGAIN broke terms that he agreed to and did not ship when we both agreed for him to ship! Well today (Friday 8-May)) comes around and guess what..................... NO shipment. I just informed him that this was ridiculous and that I would be posting about his business practices on Fauna classifieds.
I truly do hope that this is just a horrible misunderstanding. I do not feel that I am being unreasonable and I feel that I have been more than accommodating to his schedule. I cannot wait any longer to post this information. BEWARE of buying from Michael Cardell (Mike C on kingsnake classifieds). My dealings with him have turned me off to dealing with people via the internet. I know not everyone is bad but this situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
My credit card company refunded my money. This is exactly why I chose to use a credit card through Paypal and not trust their guarantee. I actually called Paypal and they told me they could only refund me the money if it was in the seller's account because it was not an ebay purchase. So use credit cards when paying through paypal as an added layer of protection against scammers.
