mtorosian
New member
I have heard many stories over the years about Jon Boone ripping off hobbyists, but I had a few successful transactions with him so I figured maybe they were just isolated incidents.
Last July I sent Jon Boone $300 for a deposit on some Diplodactylus tessellatus, it was too hot to ship at the time so he was going to hold them for me with the remainder to be paid at shipping time. Couple months goes by, September rolls around, and Jon tells me "I actually embarrassed to say that I lost in total 5 juv tesselatus." I found it odd that someone as experienced as Jon could lose that many juvies just like that, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He tells me next season he will get them to me or we will work something else out or I can get a refund. January 2017 through current day he has stopped responding to my Facebook messages altogether, these messages started out as simple requests for an update but gravitated toward asking for a refund when I realized I was likely getting screwed. He does not reply even though his Facebook shows him being very active online. It's my belief he is purposely ignoring messages from me and at least two other hobbyists I am aware of. In fact, I learned through another hobbyist whose name I won't disclose that he accepted payment on the same group of Diplodactylus tessellatus from another hobbyist, so he double sold them, and now won't respond to that person either. I have Jon's cell phone number, I tried calling and he won't answer, I tried texting 15 times since April and he has ignored them all. I tried to get my money back through PayPal but they won't dispute it because it was sent via Friends and Family, I tried disputing it through my bank but they can't dispute it, so I am out the money with nothing to show for it. As a good gecko friend of mine told me with Jon Boone it's not a matter of if he will screw you over, it's simply a matter of when. If you look on the BOI or similar Facebook groups you'll find plenty of similar stories. He strings you along and then inexplicably keeps your money without sending you anything. He has friends in the hobby that jump in and praise him, say what a great guy he is, how knowledgeable he is, but those are just his buddies. He should be avoided, take it from me.
Lesson learned from this experience is to never again do business with Jon Boone and to never send payment via Friends and Family via PayPal because then you have no recourse. This is in PayPal's terms, if you are not familiar with the seller you should send payment the traditional way using PayPal and simply adjust for the percentage taken out. You should also avoid doing direct bank transfers and instead have it on a debit or credit card.
It's really too bad, and I waited a long time to post this, thinking maybe circumstances would change, but they aren't and the more people I share this story with the more I am told that this is a pattern of behavior for him and not an isolated incident.
Buyer beware.
Last July I sent Jon Boone $300 for a deposit on some Diplodactylus tessellatus, it was too hot to ship at the time so he was going to hold them for me with the remainder to be paid at shipping time. Couple months goes by, September rolls around, and Jon tells me "I actually embarrassed to say that I lost in total 5 juv tesselatus." I found it odd that someone as experienced as Jon could lose that many juvies just like that, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He tells me next season he will get them to me or we will work something else out or I can get a refund. January 2017 through current day he has stopped responding to my Facebook messages altogether, these messages started out as simple requests for an update but gravitated toward asking for a refund when I realized I was likely getting screwed. He does not reply even though his Facebook shows him being very active online. It's my belief he is purposely ignoring messages from me and at least two other hobbyists I am aware of. In fact, I learned through another hobbyist whose name I won't disclose that he accepted payment on the same group of Diplodactylus tessellatus from another hobbyist, so he double sold them, and now won't respond to that person either. I have Jon's cell phone number, I tried calling and he won't answer, I tried texting 15 times since April and he has ignored them all. I tried to get my money back through PayPal but they won't dispute it because it was sent via Friends and Family, I tried disputing it through my bank but they can't dispute it, so I am out the money with nothing to show for it. As a good gecko friend of mine told me with Jon Boone it's not a matter of if he will screw you over, it's simply a matter of when. If you look on the BOI or similar Facebook groups you'll find plenty of similar stories. He strings you along and then inexplicably keeps your money without sending you anything. He has friends in the hobby that jump in and praise him, say what a great guy he is, how knowledgeable he is, but those are just his buddies. He should be avoided, take it from me.
Lesson learned from this experience is to never again do business with Jon Boone and to never send payment via Friends and Family via PayPal because then you have no recourse. This is in PayPal's terms, if you are not familiar with the seller you should send payment the traditional way using PayPal and simply adjust for the percentage taken out. You should also avoid doing direct bank transfers and instead have it on a debit or credit card.
It's really too bad, and I waited a long time to post this, thinking maybe circumstances would change, but they aren't and the more people I share this story with the more I am told that this is a pattern of behavior for him and not an isolated incident.
Buyer beware.
