• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Bad Guy A Lesson to Learn From Buying From John Richardson (Bird's Reptile Shop)

tsthompson said:
Did I send that box 2nd day air (NO) Did I pack it with just papertowels (NO) Does it look to be tampered with (YES)
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Since I still have the box, I can take pictures of the label, but I will black out both John's and my address.

He did add hand-warmers along with the paper towels in which I noted in my original post and are seen in the videos. You also see that they are in deli cups in the video.

I did not tamper with the package. I did not record the opening of the box because I only had one hand and I would have risked cutting myself or the snakes if I had tried. There was a lot of packing tape (so much so that it was difficult to open), On the opening of the box there was at least two layers of clear packing tape (I suspect 3-4 because of the tape going along the sides of the box that connect to the top lid). So that would leave FedEx. If it was tampered with, whomever did would have had to tape-over the original tape with clear packing tape.

I can provide any pictures of the package upon request (keeping in mind addresses and personal info will be blacked out). I hope this clarified my involvement with this email, the rest pertains to his ads and transactions with Tom
 
We have seen the seller's actions before on here from others when confronted with their bad deeds. It is always blame the buyer and play innocent victim.
Bob Brown
London, Ky
Mt. Folk Serpents
 
I must admit that I was very surprised by John's email this morning. This is the first he has mentioned anything to me. He had last contacted me about 6 weeks ago wanting to purchase a group of pied bloodred hatchlings, and reverse okeettees. Does this sound like a dissatisfied customer??:shrug01:
 
He has all day to read the responses in this thread and hide behind sending private emails.... yet he can't come here and publicly defend himself? If he is so right and innocent why hasn't he proven that to us? I smell a liar...

And yes, being someone who properly edits my photos in photoshop... I can say this much. The term "photoshopped" isn't necessarily a bad thing considering you can use the program for many things. I use it to bring out the image to it's best and most vibrant, with true life color and removing all of the imperfections the camera picked up when I took the photo. Cameras aren't perfect and they pick up images and light a little differently than our own eyes which is why we so often end up with dull or weird colored images. I know when I try to photograph my snakes the images don't come straight off the camera looking amazing. In fact they're downright dull. So running your photos through photoshop is something that is perfectly acceptable to do. The real test is how it is done. With most of those photos it appears that someone found the saturation and contrast buttons in their editing program and simply ramped them up. Being someone that has ran thousands of images through PS... I can definitely say that some of those images have been cranked up a little too much.

Is it deceptive/purposefully done? Maybe... or maybe they have a terrible monitor that just isn't as vibrant and they can't tell that they've overdone it. I know that the differences between the really old laptop, the new laptop, and my iphone are striking. A picture that looks too bright and saturated on my iphone looks almost dull on my laptop.
 
I've also had a bad experience with this John Richardson. I ordered several okeetees from him b/c of how bright and vibrant the adults looked in the ads. He sent me a pic of one of the corns he was sending me and when I got them I was shocked to say the least. I compared that animal the the pic he sent me and it was a night and day difference. I also received a poorly packaged box although he did send a "freebie" that recently died. None of the snakes ever fed consistently and I lost all but one. I'm still waiting on my replacements after contacting him at least 3 times as well. I've seen photo shopped pics of animals and these were obviously blatantly enhanced.
 
1st. Blame the helpers. And 2nd. Divert attention from yourself by attacking another well-established member of the community. I think we all know where this is going :(

Glad you are getting a refund RR and no one would fault you for moving this pair on; breeding plans take time to develop, and having the wrong snakes increases the time necessary and/or lessens your chances at achieving your goals.
 
Update on the situation: I have not received a refund yet (it has been 4 days and he promised for it to be done in a couple), I attempted yesterday to contact the seller about the refund but he did not respond. Therefore, I informed him that I have opened a case between him and me on PayPal requesting the full refund, and if he has not refunded me by Friday, I will escalate the case to a PayPal claim.
 
He has acknowledged my text, so maybe he was just busy the last few days (of course there was the weekend). I will confirm when refund is sent.
 
I thought I would post an update for all whom are interested L2 ate its boiled pinky today (the one marked female in the video and is the most responsive) and L1 (the one marked male in the video and the one least responsive) did not. I will leave the boiled pinky in with L1 until morning (L1 is in a deli cup, which is in the tub).
 
Ryan Beatty said:
I've also had a bad experience with this John Richardson. I ordered several okeetees from him b/c of how bright and vibrant the adults looked in the ads. He sent me a pic of one of the corns he was sending me and when I got them I was shocked to say the least. I compared that animal the the pic he sent me and it was a night and day difference. I also received a poorly packaged box although he did send a "freebie" that recently died. None of the snakes ever fed consistently and I lost all but one. I'm still waiting on my replacements after contacting him at least 3 times as well. I've seen photo shopped pics of animals and these were obviously blatantly enhanced.
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RoseRed said:
Update on the situation: I have not received a refund yet (it has been 4 days and he promised for it to be done in a couple), I attempted yesterday to contact the seller about the refund but he did not respond. Therefore, I informed him that I have opened a case between him and me on PayPal requesting the full refund, and if he has not refunded me by Friday, I will escalate the case to a PayPal claim.
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Have any of these been resolved yet?:shrug01:
 
Nor mine. I've sent him an email and a message on face book requesting a partial refund. At this point I don't want any more animals from him and will settle for that.
 
What are the chances of PayPal supporting a live animal claim? I've only had to make a claim once, for clothing, and once the claim was opened the seller resolved it IMMEDIATELY. It's that or lose your PayPal account, right? If found at fault?
 
RoseRed said:
I have officially escalated the case to a Paypal claim
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Thats too bad. It's sad that the agreement wasn't completed. I don't have a whole lot of faith in paypal resolving an issue on a live animal. :shrug01: But I've been wrong once or twice in my life.

Good Luck.
 
I knew his Okeetee's looked too good to be true, and am glad my conscious told me to pass on his corns.

Best of luck Kim!
 
PayPal TOS dont cover Live animals or perishables. So its 50/50 on which agent is handling the case and properly reviews it and does right thing, or goes by book.

One reason i dont take paypal unless i Knew the person. As claims are pointless with animals
 
Kingofspades said:
Snakes are considered livestock?
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Pretty much any animal that can be considered inventory in a retail setting, is considered livestock. The definition generally refers to domesticated animals that are used to provide, food, textiles and labor, however, it extends to pretty much any "living stock" of animals.
 
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