Info Amy Zerkle's temper, beware!

[DAND]

I did a search on Zerkle right now and I see there are many good reviews.

Amy and Rob are good people. I give them the DAND seal of approval.

 

[Southern Wolf]

Here is something that crossed my mind. The seller keeps stating she wants her snakes back. HOWEVER... they are no longer her snakes. The OP bought and paid for those snakes.... therefore they are now the OP's snakes. Seems to me the OP was concerned about the one with the kink... as anyone would be.

As to the friendship thing... maybe that was done before all this started.

 

[Temporalis_Enterprises]

I have to say I have dealt with Amy and it has been nothing but great! I bought a King Rat snake from her. The snake is great. The snake was in perfect health when I got it. But when we had a issue at my house and the house overheated the snake got sick. Amy talked to me and she helped me through the steps of geting the snake well. Amy and I maintain regular conversations on Facebook. She is a great breeder and I WILL buy from her again. I plan to get my king rat a mate and get some red spotted garters from her. Have you alerted her of this thread yet? If not you need to! She needs to see what is going on and mabye she can explain. I have pictures of the snake I recieved and pictures of the shipping. She is a great person and I can't wait to do transactions with her again.
regards,
David Deem

 

[KelliH]

Just send her the snakes back and get a refund. Maybe she did not notice the kink? Amy Zerkle has been in this hobby for may years with a stellar reputation. She offered to refund you! How is that a bad guy?? Just send the animals back and get a refund!

 

[aleria]

I guess what I don't understand is why Amy is demanding all of the snakes back for a full refund rather than just refunding for the one damaged snake like the OP asked for. In her emails she stated she was perfectly happy with the others and wanted to keep them and Amy basically said no if you're not happy with the one then I want them all back(paraphrasing). That seems a little off to me.

 

[lanceheads]

Just send her the snakes back and get a refund. Maybe she did not notice the kink? Amy Zerkle has been in this hobby for may years with a stellar reputation. She offered to refund you! How is that a bad guy?? Just send the animals back and get a refund!

Well said.
Amy has been around, for like zillion years, and I have heard nothing but POSITIVE things about her.
Well, uhh, she's not that old, but you get the drift.

Randal Berry

 

[Zack319]

Why can't a partial refund be made?
If you go to the store, and buy 10 of the same item, and 1 doesn't work. You can ask for a refund on that "one" item.
Why should this be any different?

 

[bigdogg]

I know Rob and Amy personally and see them every month at the All Ohio shows. Im guessing it was a group price for the 4 snakes and would be easier to refund the money and get them all back then it would be just one. I could see why she would want them all back being a seller. Makes it easier then to try to figure out a price for a single animal. Rob and Amy are both stand up people. And as Dave they have my seal of approval as well. So thats my 2 cents.

 

[MayorNewton]

OK, you got a 'newbie' here, with an unsolicited, unbiased opinion based simply on what I'm reading, and not on any 'past friendships,' or whatever.

I was going to let this go after reading it with interest, but 'KelliH's' comment made me decide to put my dog in this fight. First of all, it's too bad that the seller hasn't weighed in here, as of course there are two sides to any story. I know neither party, by the way.

I will give it to you that the seller, 'Amy,' is a stellar dealer/breeder. Fine. That does not mean that they can't ever do something wrong...and it's my opinion that in this case, Amy is wrong. As was said, these snakes are not 'her' snakes any longer, though it is admirable, to a point, that she feels a certain 'loyalty' to them. The fact is, though, that she is 'demanding' the return of all of them, and that is not what Beth, the buyer, has in mind. She does not want to return any of the snakes, so I'm not sure why KelliH is telling her to 'just return the snakes.' They are Beth's snakes, and she does not want to return them.

The reason, as I see it, that Beth posted about this on here is not to get a refund on her purchase...as I said, she wants to keep them...but to point out that in 'this' case, Amy was not quite all that 'stellar.' In my opinion, Amy 'embellished' a bit, by saying that Beth questioned the snake's origin and species. That just didn't happen, did it? So Amy tried to 'spin' things her way, and it doesn't quite come off like she wants it to. She wants to throw some blame on Beth into the mix here, and I don't see what Beth did wrong at all.

Perhaps Amy is a wonderful person, but in my opinion, Beth is right to hold on to the snakes and not entertain the idea of returning them just because Amy and KelliH and others are 'demanding' that she does. I think Beth bent over backwards to be 'sweet' to Amy in the emails...something that I, perhaps, wouldn't have been able to do.

'My' two cents.

Randolph James (Rj) Linburg/AKA Mayor Newton
Port Richey, Florida
[email protected]

 

[jayefbe]

I think I understand why Amy is ticked with this seller. Yes, mistakes happen. She appeared to have mislabeled the sexes on two of the garters, plus one of the animals does appear to have a kink.

But, rather than deal with these issues (that may have been just a simple error, or an overlooked detail) by contacting the seller, the buyer chose to post about it on a forum. While I don't think the buyer was trying to drag Amy's name through the mud, that's exactly what happened. At this point Amy's name has already been associated with sexing errors and shipping a less than stellar animal, when she had no option to fix said issues. If I sold a snake that a buyer was unhappy with, I would want them to contact me about it first, not search for advice from an entire forum that has no firsthand experience with the animal.

 

[jayefbe]

Should say "buyer" not "seller" in the first line. Brain fart.

 

[jayefbe]

I didnt leav out any e-mails, ask Amy yourself.
She may be referreing to what I said in the other forum at Thamnphis.com, that if things don't work out I have access to the BOI.

This quote
"Maybe I can get the breeder to trade it with me for a healthy female(that I originally paid for). If not, I do have access to the BOI on fauna classifieds..... "

Why post something thinly veiled threats like this on an online forum when you hadn't even let Amy know that there was an issue with the snake in the first place?!?!??!?! If I was Amy, I'd be more than a little peeved about it, and would think of it as losing a problem buyer rather than a valued customer.

 

[reptile_jones]

Here is the link to the site were Beth asked about her new babies.

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/5637-expensive-b-day.html

It seem the reason why Beth does not want to send all the snake back is because they were her birthday present. Also if you read the link she never names who the breeder was.

I hope things work out for the both of you.

Dusty Jones

 

[Lucille]

If you click on your name, on this site, on the upper right hand corner, you will see an area for 'friends'. Amy and Beth have listed each other as friends.

If any of the people I listed as friends, who in my opinion are all people I like and trust, were to send me anything I had questions about, it would be incomprehensible, and an affront, to ask about the matter in a public forum prior to talking to them.

I would really like to see Amy's point of view, has anyone contacted her to let her know of this thread?

 

[Zack319]

Also if you read the link she never names who the breeder was.

Amy wants me to send them all back to her because I asked for help about Lumpy.

I don't really believe anyone would know Amy's last name from reading that, but it was mentioned.

Also, Quibble also states

Lumpy alone was $75, for that price I deserve a Healthy female.

And you're right Quibble, you do deserve a healthy animal, weather Amy was selling you that snake for $1, or $200 it was sold to you as healthy. And from the pictures you can clearly see it is not.

Has Amy already sent you half the refund amount so far? If so, I would refund her back all but $75 and the amount for shipping.

And find a new female elsewhere. I don't see any threads in the thread on thamnophis. Simple stated, If Amy does nothing, she will be forced to use the BOI, that to me is not a threat, and Beth didn't even use the name Amy.

 

[Zack319]

If you click on your name, on this site, on the upper right hand corner, you will see an area for 'friends'. Amy and Beth have listed each other as friends.

If any of the people I listed as friends, who in my opinion are all people I like and trust, were to send me anything I had questions about, it would be incomprehensible, and an affront, to ask about the matter in a public forum prior to talking to them.

I would really like to see Amy's point of view, has anyone contacted her to let her know of this thread?

I think bringing up the Friends thing on this website is completely irrelevant, they probably befriended each other because they were talking with each other about the trade.

 

[Zack319]

WHETHER

 

[Suncoast Herpetological]

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago. A customer bought a Cal King and i failed to notice that the very tip (about two scales) of the tail had a kink. The buyer had puchased a pair. I offered two choices.

1. Send it back at my expense for a refund

2. A 50% refund on the animal.

The buyer took option 2 and everyone went away happy.

While I truly believe that the OP should have, out of courtesy, resolved any problems before posting, i also think that the seller is over reacting a bit.

A step back and a couple of deep breaths would probably put this rather easy to resolve situation in perspective.

 

[dzoo]

Beth I am sure you are well intentioned but please step back and take a deep breath.

Taking the snake to a vet for a kink in the tail or back would be a colossal waste of money, there is nothing a vet can do for that and as far as not eating you received it on the 7th and are ready to take it to the vet on the 10th for not eating?

Give it some time, based on size it has obviously eaten in the past and might just need a bit more time and you may need to just give it some more privacy, perhaps it is in the early stages of shedding. Taking it to the vet would just add further stress and set back getting her to eat. Snakes can go a long time without eating with no harm. Make sure it has a good hide box, cover the sides of the cage and try not to hover around when offering food. All snakes have their individual preferences and quirks about feeding.

The kink could be caused by many factors but probably the snake was born with it and it became more pronounced with age, it could have been from something as simple as being in an odd position during "pregnancy" and may not even be a genetic factor. It is highly unlikely to cause any long term problems.

 

[Wolfy-hound]

I "friend" a lot of people on sites, without knowing them, just because they sent a "friend me" thing, and I clicked it. Doesn't mean I'm really their bud, or that they know me.

I'd set that aside.

I'm not sure why the one snake couldn't be sent back for a refund. Since the buyer wants to keep the others, and now says they will keep all of them, I'd guess this deal is over with.

In my opinion, the seller over-reacted, since she did (unintentionally) send a snake with a kink. I doubt she saw the kink, then sent it out anyway, since she has such a good reputation otherwise.

The sexing questions may arise when pictures are posted. I always hear "Oh, are you sure that's a female/male?" on different forums. It doesn't mean the owner was saying the snakes were missexed, just that some people looking at pictures think a snake is not the sex stated. If the snake has been proven to be missexed then there would be an issue.

Since the seller is apparently not willing to refund for the one snake, and the buyer is willing to just keep all the snakes, I think it's an impasse. I don't agree at all with the seller demanding "her" snakes back. She sold them, they are paid for, and shipped. They don't belong to her, and she cannot dictate that the snakes MUST be returned.