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A good guy in the reptile business is Ben Siegel

mandarins

Greg
You did not contact me until at least a few days after the shipment. If the male looked so poor upon arrival, why didnt you contact me after receipt. I mean dont get me wrong, i am not going to sit here and say he looked wonderful, but he did not look like he was about to die either. Also why on your first post did you make it sound like you just purchased these animals and i told you i would not make good on it. Even quoting the price at $400?--that sounds kind of shady man. Why also did you conveniently leave out the part where i told you that i would try to do something for you on a future purchase to compensate for something that i should not be held accountable. Along with this post from dennis things just are not adding up together. So now the male did not die the morning after you got it?-
 
I am beginning to get a little confused. On Christmas day, the 25th, you posted "these are captive born hatchlings that are on aspen average temps around 75 to 80 degrees. they have secure hides in a low traffic area. I've only tried live pinks, and am going to try split head pinks next. the only thing I'm missing is a container with moist sphagnum which i am getting tonight." Now, if you got them on the 19th, and the male died on the 21st, why would you be asking on the forum 4 days after the fact about information on these, they, hatchlings? I would be using the singular on a snake of the other died. It seems kind of shady if you are asking for information on getting more than one snake eating if you only have one. That and the photo of the snake hardly shows that it is dead... it is a blurry photo of a snake... doesn't show anything to convince that it is a dead snake that I could see. Grated, I don't know much about rat snakes, but it looked like a photo of a snakes back... maybe dead, maybe not... hard to tell from a blurry photo. I am just trying to play devils advocate here... you are saying one thing, but a previous post by you seems to contradict what you are saying here. And before you ask, no, it isn't a problem that you are asking advice, just a little strange that you are asking advice for 2 snakes when you say you only have one.
 
greg4000 said:
besides all of that, is there a problem with me looking for advice?
Click to expand...

Absolutely not, but I would have suggested asking before receiving them.

I think what stands out the most is you didn't want this deal to begin with. Even mentioning in this thread you didn't think the payments you made constituted as a nonrefundable payment. You wanted out of the original deal. When Ben agreed to change the deal and work with you on another animal, you again changed the deal.

If what Ben types below is accurate,
He asks for a refund. I tell him that is not our policy, but if he needs more time to pay for it, i would be more than happy to do so. He said that would be great and thanks for understanding and what not. Forward a couple of weeks and he says he still cannot pay for the snake. I offer to give him a male sibling to the female for the same amount of money. This is not our policy either-to not complete paying for an item that is being held, and to just transfer it over to another more affordable item. He agrees to this at first if i remember correctly. A day or two later, he says he does not need a male and could i send him a pair of my baby mandarin rats instead of the male yellow belly. I recomend against them as i have not had them feed since i received them into stock. Not a one of them-not one time.
Click to expand...
you understood completely what you were getting. How many times does he have to change from the original deal? Did he not recommend against them?
Why would you accept or be eager to work with non-feeding animals that you do not have experience working with?
 
a couple of months ago i was misfortunate in experiencing an over-heating accident in which i lost 17 animals valued around $5000 - $7000. One of the snakes was a sub adult female albino blood python, that i bought from Ben about a year and a half earlier, and man it was a knockout :(.

I emailed Ben looking for a het, he didn't have any, but he had an albino...to which he gave me a great price on...especially considering market value.

He did not have to do this at all. I am sure he made some profit off of the sale, and he should have, as he is a business, and he has mouths to feed and bills to pay just like everyone else, but regardless, in a time when he didn't have to this, he gave me a pretty good deal to help me out.

Thanks Ben!
 
I could tell story after story of how Ben has been the best person to do business with...He and his wife Stacy are a blessing to the herp business...they go out of their way to please their customers, the bottom line is that Ben has agreed to do something for Greg even after their dissagreements....this is the rubber hitting the road...typical of the Seigels.....the scales will always tip in their favor because integrity is something they decided was priceless to them... adversity allows us to exercise our character...
thanks for being a friend to me Ben and Stacy..I believe this year is going to be a awesome year for you both...
Michael Ball
 
ill tell you all what, i put an s where it didnt belong, an obviously huge mistake on my part. my most humble apologies. secondly, i only put my experiences in this post because it seemed relevant. the reason i did not mention anything about a future great deal is because i have no intention of buying anything from ben again. i am not saying that he is a bad guy, i am just stating that i am the unfortunate one to have done this in the first place. although nothing has been stated in regards to the first transaction where i got the wrong snake and dealt with it. i am not on here trying to get anything back out of this. simply put things obviously did not work in my favor. as for the snake being dead, anyone who would like me to ship it to them for proof i would be happy to. once again so there is no confusion i am not calling ben a bad guy, and since people like to make inferences and read into simple mistakes, it would probably be better to leave this alone. no matter what i say, its going to be twisted. to let this rest, lets just say i made a bad decision during a bad time in my life. and once again i was not trying to get anything out of this, i simply responded to a post with my experiences, thats all, nothing else.
 
Ben good guy

I would also like to say that I had a great transaction with Ben over a year ago. Abbotts Okeetees shipped to me when they were supposed to be shipped, animals exactly as described. These snakes continue to do well a year and a half later.

Thanks Ben.

Carole

PS FWIW it would appear to me that the person who is upset didnt just add an "s" somewhere mistakenly. Saying THESE and THEY are a clear indication of more than one live snake that needed help... :shrug01:
 
Guys Guys Guys.

This deal with Greg just shows how good Ben is. Even if he put they and these in the other post. WHY you ask? Becuase Ben kept bending over for this guy. In the emails. In the posts here I see Ben doing right. He could have said the Female is here if I do not receive the rest of the payment by this date then the deposit is lost. BUT NO, Ben worked with Greg and now Greg thinks he got the short end of the stick? lmao.............

Ben keep doing what you are doing bro. You set the bar for us to reach.
 
I agree 100% with Gary on this one. It seems in every instance Ben tried to fix the situation, even in this thread.
 
thanks

Thanks to all who posted. Things like this tend to really get me upset, just because we do go out of the way to make our customers happy, and even in this case we tried to do right by Greg. I do not doubt him that the male died. I do not think he is lying about this. It was thinner than the female, and both were not feeding. What is upsetting is the fact that greg would rather come on here and post something negative on a nice positive thread then even email me back after i tell him that i will do something for him on a future purchase. Even after i patiently waited for the balance of the original sale, and it was a good long time--even after i offered him longer time because he was going through a hard time--even offering him a male for the $500 deposit, and he still thinks it would be best to come on here and post his bad experience. In reference to the wrong snake, I honestly dont remember this instance, i am sure it was awhile ago, and i am also sure if he was unhappy he would have been told to send the snake back or offered some kind of compensation.
Again thanks to everyone on here who posted.
 
Hey Ben Getting some more stuff from ya....I Like what ya got as always when you get them

Later

Winston
 
Ben,

I agree with the others. You don't need to defend yourself. You bent over backwards on this one and your quality and customer service are second to none.
 
Greg and Ben

Normally I don't pay take the time to read a "Good Guy" thread as I expect it to be the normal well-earned patronizing expressed by customers to vendors. Since this one hung-around, and gained posts more quickly than usual "Good Guy" threads, it was obvious something wasn't right.

Greg, it is clear that your situation was unfortunate, an did not meet your expectations. Without getting into the details which I do not know, unless stated in writing prior to the deal, I think you have some expectation of a health guarantee, in this case not that the animal was a healthy feeder, but not that it was on death's doorstep either. As Ben mentioned, he had no inkling of this when he shipped it, and there's no reason not to believe him. There is every reason to believe him. Regardless, unless stated otherwise, you should have had an expectation that it would be healthy enough for you to work with a bit, and it was not, to no one's fault, but to Ben's responsibility. Ben has made an offer of compensation, and all indications are that he is quite good for it. I think there could have been better communications of the parameters of purchase by both parties, but hindsight is 20-20.

The main reason for my post is this, a quote from you Greg stated twice in separate posts:

I am not saying that he is a bad guy
Click to expand...

Too coy for me. There's many different ways to read your posts, and both overtly and by omission, your words painted Ben as a "Bad Guy" in his dealings with you in all variations. While you may be correct in a "Clintonesque" way, that you did not state it directly, you painted with a "bad guy" brush in no unmistakable terms. You have right to be upset, although it doesn't make Ben to blame. But as you wanted Ben to take more responsibility for the demise of the animal, at least take ownership for your own words here as well. Ben is top notch proven over and over, just not perfect ....... yet :)
 
Well, I will tell everyone this!! I have dealt with Ben Siegel many times, both as a seller and a buyer. I have never had any problems at all in any of our transactions.
I will deal with him again without a second thought. Ben will continue to be a good guy in my book, IMO, he is one of the best in the business. Nice animals, fast shipping, great prices and very helpful.

Maybe a little slow to leave a trader rating :shrug01: , but far from a bad guy. :)

Ben, keep up the great work. I will not hesitate to deal with you, or refer others to you for a great transaction. :thumbsup:

I also had the pleasure of meeting him in Daytona, all of his animals there were just awesome as well. I will see him there again this season, I just got to remember to bring more cash. :yesnod:
 
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