Matthew @ Monster Cages-BAD GUY

GuinnyOne · Aug 24, 2006

Okay, I've finally had it.

In December, I sent Monster Cages.com nearly $6000 for a dozen reptile cages in a variety of sizes. He told me 6-8 weeks, over the phone, for the order to be completed. Here, 9 months later, he still has not finished the cages and wants me to now pay an additional $1300 for shipping, when he originally stated it should be in the $6-800 range.

I have likely close to 100 e-mails exchanged between us. I've tried reaching reasonable alternatives because I do not want to get ripped off for another $1300. I've asked him to send the majority of the cages and hold a couple back to pay for the shipping. He won't do that. He said he would send all of the cages to a buddy of his that owns a reptile shop, and when they sell there, I'll get a portion of my money back....this is just ridiculous.

I've tried starting to organize all the e-mails...but they are taking up way too much room on the word document when I include all the dates and times.

Any specific questions...please ask. In the meantime, I DO NOT Recommend sending this fellow any money, EVER.

The phone numbers he has are 507-474-0172 and cell is 507-313-3734

On top of everything, he is saying now that he is charging me storage fees. I know that he has changed his website and terms page since December...this is one of the items that I know was changed. I read his terms page in full before ever placing an order with him.

Kelly Johnson

Junkyard · Aug 25, 2006

What, this is not good. 9 months later and he wants you to fork out $1,300 more for shipping, that is not cool. He should not be charging you that much for shipping after taking that long. If anything he can at least cut you a deal aon shipping or ship for free and eat that expense because he did not give you your product in the promised time frame.

This whole storage fee and having a friend sell the couple cages first to pay for shipping is bull!! You deserve the cages or a complete refund! For $6000, take him to court!!

liquidleaf · Aug 25, 2006

How did you pay? If by credit card (through PayPal or not) - file a dispute with the CC company. You haven't received what you paid for in the timeframe promised.

joepythons · Aug 25, 2006

fyi

Just in case someone wonders Matt is aware of this thread as he has been reading it over the last 48 hours.I agree you deserve your full amount refunded to you.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

I am perfectly fine with Matt reading this thread. He knows what is going on. He started to work with me after I posted this thread. He said that he has bent over backwards to make me happy. I've been trying to find solutions that would be easy on both of us. Every time I try to pose an alternative, he says "no, can't happen" or whatever. Then he says that he stopped working on the cages until I made up my mind....there wasn't anything to make up my mind about. He stopped working on the cages, from what I can gather, at least 5 months ago.

Frankly, I would be content with having my money back. He says that that cannot happen. He said he would give the cages to his buddy to sell and then I would recieve a portion of the money once the cages sold....this is unacceptable to me.

I would like to take him to court if we cannot come up with a solution that we can both work with. I will be looking for a lawyer in the next 2 weeks if an agreement cannot be reached.

From the options he has been giving me over the last 12 hours...it appears that he is trying to hold back $2000 worth of cages. This does not sound reasonable to me because he sent me an estimate on shipping for $1300.

I'm sure he is holding back the money for his "storage fees" which we wouldn't have had if he would have just worked with me and sent the cages at least 5 months ago.

I paid by personal check, and credit card through paypal and made several payments. Will I still be able to do a charge-back 9 months later? Anybody know? I guess I'll call and find out.

Kelly Johnson

joepythons · Aug 25, 2006

refund

I was just making sure you were aware of him reading this thread,just in case he tried he was not aware of it excuse.I see no reason to work something out in this situation.You paid the amount for the cages and he has not delivered them.Full refund and nothing else!!

Junkyard · Aug 25, 2006

I certainly have removed Monster cages from my list of who to buy from or refer people to. Thanks Matt for being such a fine example of the kind of people the reptile industry has to offer.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

Well, considering that my chances of a full refund are zilch unless I take him to court...I am willing to work through this. But there was no mention of storage fees at all until this week. I am very angry about this whole thing.

He is trying to work with me right now though....like I said, only since I posted this. He is trying to keep a huge chunk of money, after he sent me a shipping quote for $1300. What he is trying to keep back ranges from $2000-2500 and I can't get an answer really for why that is.

When I made my payments, I even added the 3% paypal charge in addition to the base amount. He also told me that he gets a pretty hefty shipping discount, and I can find that e-mail if needed. The shipping quote that he sent to me did not reflect that discount. So I don't understand why he can't just hold back $1100 worth of caging to cover the costs of shipping the remainder of my cages. Seems this whole thing has gotten terribly out of hand.

Kelly Johnson

Dennis Hultman · Aug 25, 2006

Matt, do you have anything to add? Have you finished the cages? Did she pay you in full for the work?
It would seem that she has, minus the shipping charges. $6,000 up front and nine months later seems the customer has been more than reasonable.
Is the only obstacle holding up delivery of this order the shipping charges?

Matt, you spent some time fixing other situations in the past. You would think you would want to make this right as soon as possible. Is there any other information that should be added or is Kelly’s account accurate? If not, It would seem you have made this customer wait an unreasonable amount of time. If you agreed to complete this order within a timeframe and have not fulfilled what was agreed upon, how could you justify storage fees, regardless of when it was added to your TOS?

Kelly, could you post the emails that reference how much shipping will be and when your order was to be completed?

greg4000 · Aug 25, 2006

ridiculous

well, i just committed to 1000.00 rack from animal plastics. i didnt even bother looking at his website. im glad i didnt, my breeding programs are growing in leaps and bounds and i will be spending quite a bit of money on cages here soon. im very sorry to hear of your predicament. i dont understand why alot of these cage builders think they hold all of the cards and can dictate there own "new rules" as it suits them whenever they want. i would definitely take him to court and get your money back. there should be no question as to him sticking to the original agreement. you cant just say i need 1300.00 extra for shipping 9 months after the deal was agreed on. matt will definitely go on my list of people not to buy from.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

Don't have an e-mail for the time-frame because that was part of our original and only phone conversation. Although several months ago, I checked his website and it said the average time for an order to be completed was 4-6 weeks. I'm sure that the website has been changed by now, but maybe not.

Here are the e-mails (I'll have to cut and paste because I'm not sure how to work all the coding on here)

The original e-mail for shipping costs:

It is hard to say depends on how it all fits on the skid or two
600-800 i bet

www.monster-cages.com

Your source for YOUR strongest cages customized just for you.

507-474-0172 Home
507-313-3734 Cell
507-474-4253 Shop

Thanks Matthew
Monster Cages
----- Original Message -----
From: KAJ
To: Monster Cages
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: new price of order

Do you have any thoughts at all on how much shipping will be for all these? And I got that card today, so I have to go activate and send the money. Kelly

And here is the more recent e-mail sent August 8th:

well I am not going to pay the shipping only keeping back one cage sorry I have a quote coming and it is up there
I can probably get it on two skids if I pushed it here is one quote

u can go to www.freightquote.com that is where the quotes come from
now would be less if you had loading dock to ship to but that is what I got

Carrier Name Est. Business
Days in Transit Cost-savings
Options Total Charges
Door-to-Door Make
Selection
Roadway Express 5 View options $1,184.81 Select
USF Holland 6+ N/A $1,274.10 Select

16668903

16668903

Thanks
Matthew
Monster Cages - your source for the toughest plastic caging around, custom made for you, no standard cages here.

507-474-0172
507-313-3734 Cell

I'm still trying to find the e-mail where he said that he gets a discount through his shipping company. I'll post that when I find it.

Griz · Aug 25, 2006

Hence the reason why Boaphile is the ONLY way I will go. Jeff has ALWAYS stood by his committments to me and I will not go any other route.

What a shame to see another individual (Matt) put his word on the back burner.

Griz

SPJ · Aug 25, 2006

SUE HIM.

Sue for the original $6,000 plus attorney fees, court costs, and for aggravation.

Screwing people over for cages is a real sore spot with me. Jeremy Bednarsh and his con man father bought out Neodesha a few years back. Ran the new company into the ground and screwed a lot of us that placed very expensive orders.

Take him to court and nail this guys ass to the wall. Go after any assets he has, get his wages attached, anything.

Make sure he gets the message that pulling a stunt like this has serious repercussions.

Dennis Hultman · Aug 25, 2006

Junkyard · Aug 25, 2006

If you would, post where he said that there will now be a charge for storing the cages. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of since you have already sent him his money and it is his lack of speed that he has the cages around. He could have shipped the cages out one at a time as soon as they were finished or built the cages months ago and shipped them out back then. It is his fault for that mess, do not let him charge you for that!! In court the judge would be laughing hysterically at him as the gavel fell against him.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

On April 12th, a full 4 months after he recieved payment in full, I e-mailed and told him that I didn't need all the cages because I would be going through a divorce. He told me I couldn't have a refund at all. Then, from what he said, he proceeded to load all the finished cages on a truck to send to his buddy to sell....but Matt did this without telling me. The last word I heard from him at that point was that any refund would not happen. So then I told him to send me all but a couple of cages to pay for shipping. And he wouldn't do that. So we have spent the last 5 months with him telling me that I had no options. He wrote to me that it was "all or none" but then would not send me a refund in full and that he was going to charge a 20% restocking fee. And his buddy would "sell" the cages for whatever he could get for them and I would get a percentage of that sale.

So I would have taken a refund, but he wasn't going to give me a refund in full.

Here is an e-mail that he sent with regards to the time and any refunding:

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:48:52 -0500

sorry that is not how it works and it was also indicated that the plastic was back ordered so that set things behind by two weeks you had also told us to take our time being you had to redo your flooring also. iBeing things have been layed up and almost completed with the 8s being layed up and just have to weld, doors and hardware we can't refund any of it considering things have been altered and it is a custom order and won't be able to resell these very easily and in order to would have to sell for less in order to move them out.

Thanks
Matthew
Monster Cages
www.monster-cages.com

507-474-0172
507-313-3734 Cell

I wish I could just put all the e-mails in a word document, but it would easily be 50 pages long.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

Junkyard said:
If you would, post where he said that there will now be a charge for storing the cages. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of since you have already sent him his money and it is his lack of speed that he has the cages around. He could have shipped the cages out one at a time as soon as they were finished or built the cages months ago and shipped them out back then. It is his fault for that mess, do not let him charge you for that!! In court the judge would be laughing hysterically at him as the gavel fell against him.

This is the first reference to storage fees:

Monster Cages" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: "KAJ" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: pics
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 04:57:56 -0500

if you check things out also on the terms page there has been a storage fee also unless we can figure something out

www.monster-cages.com

Thanks
Matthew
Monster Cages - your source for the toughest plastic caging around, custom made for you, no standard cages here.

507-474-0172

Dennis Hultman · Aug 25, 2006

Um Kelly,
You didn’t mention that you tried to get out of your deal before. You committed and owe for shipping. It would seem you changed the original deal four months afterwards. Why didn’t you mention this? Did you state you were not willing to pay for any shipping charges?

On April 12th, a full 4 months after he recieved payment in full, I e-mailed and told him that I didn't need all the cages because I would be going through a divorce. He told me I couldn't have a refund at all. Then, from what he said, he proceeded to load all the finished cages on a truck to send to his buddy to sell....but Matt did this without telling me. The last word I heard from him at that point was that any refund would not happen. So then I told him to send me all but a couple of cages to pay for shipping. And he wouldn't do that. So we have spent the last 5 months with him telling me that I had no options. He wrote to me that it was "all or none" but then would not send me a refund in full and that he was going to charge a 20% restocking fee. And his buddy would "sell" the cages for whatever he could get for them and I would get a percentage of that sale.

So I would have taken a refund, but he wasn't going to give me a refund in full.

Here is an e-mail that he sent with regards to the time and any refunding:

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

Matt asked me to clarify to everyone that while the cages were paid in full, the shipping on these cages was not supposed to be paid until the cages were completed. So there was no additional money sent for shipping. After 4 months though, and the cages were only partially done, I already felt like I'd been screwed and did not feel the need to send additional money. Thus, having him hold back a couple of the cages in order to cover shipping costs.

GuinnyOne · Aug 25, 2006

Dennis, the reason behind this was because he had stated on the phone to me that it would take 6-8 weeks. 4 months later, I did feel that I had been ripped off and was not in any way comfortable sending more money. However, the money for shipping was supposed to be sent when the cages were completed. And at this very moment, the cages are still not completed.

Matthew @ Monster Cages-BAD GUY

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