Bad Guy Bad experience with Family Reptiles

[mmarie341]

Having been to Family Reptiles before - and recently - their store is often crowded, and usually with frequent patrons. I second the above question: Are you sure it was the owner you spoke to? Or even an employee? A lot of the people in that store answer questions and help the customers... but 2/3s are actually just customers or Reptile enthusiasts, not actually members of the staff. I got confused just this weekend for the same reason, and since they don't usually wear name tags or uniforms (it is a very small establishment), it's easy to make that mistake.

I don't think I was clear in the other post. I have never been to there store, I am about 3 hours away. I bought from them when they came to Gainesville, FL Repticon. When the second bulb stopped working I called the store the man I spoke to claimed to be the owner, when he told me my options were to "either bring the broken product to the store for exchange or to pay to ship it to the store" I said "okay, thanks have a good day" Thinking that was all he could do.
I then emailed the store manager Scott Wisneski at "[email protected]" which I got off of their site. In the email I told him that I had spoke to someone from his store over the phone and they told me to return the product for an exchange.
I also asked if that was the case would he pay for the shipping or maybe just refund my money for the bulbs.

Over email Scott told me that I spoke to him on the phone and I was rude for hanging up on him. He told me they can not do refunds because "he does not have the sales volume like say walmart and can not be handing out money to customers". Scott told me to try and return the bulbs to a larger company like Petco because they would be local. He was not willing to pay for shipping then became rude saying something along the lines of "You want me to bend over backwards for the customer when you were rude to me". At that point I knew he wasn't going to help me so I went ahead and made it clear to him that I would never buy from Family Reptiles again and his "return policy" of taking to Petco was illegal... Its called fraud!

I'm not entirely sure what else was said in the exchanged emails.

When I was done with that I contacted Zoomed directly and told them my situation and they were also unsure as to why Scott Wisneski told me to take the broken product back to Petco. So they went ahead and replaced the product and paid for me to ship the old one back to them. Which is all I wanted from Family Reptiles in the first place.

 

[mmarie341]

Why didn't you "bring it into the store"? Also, what did you write on their fb page?

I was 3 hours away. I wasn't driving 3 hours to exchange 2 bulbs. The fb post was after the emails so it was a little bitter, I basically wanted all of their customers to know how unhelpful they were after I had spent a decent amount of money with them. He quickly replied that "he was an amazing business owner and had many loyal customers not needing my money. He gives reptiles to kids and helps support causes of some sort." Basically, he knew he was wrong but didn't want to admit it so he was trying to show me that he was a great guy because of the stuff he does.

Then he deleted all of the posts from the Family Reptiles page.

 

[Black Adder]

Actually to anybody who read the very first post I would have thought it was clear what and where you purchased from and the situation and there should NOT have been a Spanish Inquistion to make you repeat what was already provided!

 

[mmarie341]

Actually to anybody who read the very first post I would have thought it was clear what and where you purchased from and the situation and there should NOT have been a Spanish Inquistion to make you repeat what was already provided!

Thank you I agree! Besides this was months ago, I'm over it. The main reason I posted was so everyone knew Family Reptiles screwed me over. It was a warning as to how they treat their customers and to make you think twice before you purchase anything from them.

 

[Lucille]

Megan,
I wish you had saved the emails, something, about the shocking request to return the bulb to another store.
I checked out their website. I don't think I'd do business with them based on their lack of warranty. I personally feel that a little more than a LAG is required to get my business. I understand (from a seller point of view) that things can go south very quickly with an inexperienced owner, but to me, from a buyer perspective, good communication and a couple of days of warranty is not too much to expect from a seller in the sale of a healthy critter.

From their site:


Sales:
All sales are final. No warranty on any living animal or reptile.

 

[mmarie341]

Yes, I know you spent 300 and I know what you bought. You are being cautiously vague with your answers. Did you spend all 300 on the same vendor (FR)?

I'm sorry I didn't see this. Yes, I spent the full amount with Family Repiles.

 

[AbsoluteApril]

I'm sorry I didn't see this. Yes, I spent the full amount with Family Repiles.

I think everyone but Chris understood that to be the case.

 

[mmarie341]

Megan,
I wish you had saved the emails, something, about the shocking request to return the bulb to another store.
I checked out their website. I don't think I'd do business with them based on their lack of warranty. I personally feel that a little more than a LAG is required to get my business. I understand (from a seller point of view) that things can go south very quickly with an inexperienced owner, but to me, from a buyer perspective, good communication and a couple of days of warranty is not too much to expect from a seller in the sale of a healthy critter.

From their site:


Sales:
All sales are final. No warranty on any living animal or reptile.

I saved the emails for a while but like I said this was back in February/ March I am over it now.

As for the python we purchased she is beautiful and still healthy.

I'm sorry I don't know what "LAG" is. lol. To be honest, I am not really into reptiles all that much. ( I mean I don't breed or anything) My boyfriend is the one who we got the lesser ball for and he is much more into reptiles than I am. I purchased the tank for a bearded dragon I got at another booth while at Repticon. I didn't really think it would have been a big deal for him to have replaced the bulbs. But he didn't so there isn't anything else I could do except to post here and make sure everyone knew that his customer service was BS.

 

[Dennis Hultman]

About the bulbs

I believe this is about the third time I have read of a business telling their customers to return a defective bulb to Petco over the years.

I'm guessing Petco doesn't require a receipt for zoomed bulb exchanges?


I don't know if the store denied the accusations on FB.

Just going off what is posted here I'm left with this impression below.

Considering the OP has some distance and wasn't going to bring the bulbs to the store, The customer and the store probably didn't want to eat the shipping charges for shipping them back and sending out new bulbs.

Knowing that Zoo Med replaces bad bulbs without a problem, the store probably suggested taking them to PetCo for exchange. That way they wouldn't have to deal with shipping since the customer couldn't bring them back in.

They probably figured it wouldn't hurt anyone and the customer could get their bulbs right away.

I disagree. It's not the right thing to do. No-matter your feelings about PetCo or any other larger business. No-matter if one thinks they can adsorb little loses or that you believe nobody loses because the items will be replaced by the manufacture. It costs the company man hours to process and time for restock of products they didn't sell. It takes time for credits and replacements to be processed. I don't think PetCo agreed to be the hub for defective products sold by their competitors to be returned to one of their suppliers.

I only have what the OP posted to base that on and like I stated it isn't the first time someone posted something like this here before.

About the Return and Customer Service-

I don't know what happened on the phone. The OP hasn't really provided what happened. How the conversation transpired.

Megan, I don't know if you called and just asked for funds back, replacements shipped without returning the defective product etc..

Maybe you were rude, maybe you weren't. Since there is no emails posted we just don't know. Maybe he was just rude and stated he wasn't taking them back. You really haven't clarified this.

Oops. Scratch that. I see now your follow-up post. I'll just add instead of going back a rewriting this.

When the second bulb stopped working I called the store the man I spoke to claimed to be the owner, when he told me my options were to "either bring the broken product to the store for exchange or to pay to ship it to the store" I said "okay, thanks have a good day" Thinking that was all he could do.
I then emailed the store manager Scott Wisneski at "[email protected]" which I got off of their site. In the email I told him that I had spoke to someone from his store over the phone and they told me to return the product for an exchange.

That's making you jump hoops and being rude?

He stated "bring it in or ship it back". You stated, Thanks and have a great day.

You didn't state if you asked if he would cover the shipping back or anything else. So I have to assume you just called him up and told him your bulbs didn't work and wanted him to send me some new ones without returning the ones you state aren't working. He then wouldn't get the credit for the broken bulbs.

I guess a fair debate here would be discussing who pays the shipping fee to send the bulbs back. I know from past experience there would be disagreement on that point here.

In that post you didn't discuss how the topic of Petco came up or when.

Again, I don't think returning them to Petco is the right thing to do but I'm also not seeing how or when that was stated. How the shop was rude. How you addressed not liking the fact that they initially stated return the bulbs and they would replace them.

I do however believe that most people can understand the fact that a business does ask for the merchandise be returned before they issue a refund, credit or exchange.

You don't discuss anything about asking them to cover the shipment back.

I'm not sure how the conversation got to "Just take it back to Petco".


Next Point-

I must be dense this morning or missing something because I don't understand the direction of questions are going about itemizing the expenses
or knowing if the thread starter spent the whole $300 with this one shop at the show. How it matters? In any case it would appear to me that Meagan did by her first post. If it was just the bulbs and the cage I don't see how it matters.

In the end so far I don't have enough information to know what happened here. Not to condemn the thread starter but there isn't a whole lot of fact presented and the business hasn't posted.

I just don't know how the conversation went down or have a clear grasp from the thread starter how it happened from her point of view.

She asked for a return, replacement then stated thank you and hung up. During some follow-up, Someone stated just take them to Petco at some point.

I don't know............

 

[mmarie341]

Dennis Hultman: (I dont know how to reply directly to you without quoting. I'm new to the site)

Anyway, I understand this is going to be a he said, she said ordeal without the emails. Like I said this was months ago, so I don't know exactly what the emails said anymore, I wish I would have saved them but it is what it is.

The reason for my post was so everyone knew I had a bad experience. This does not mean you will. When I bough 300 dollars worth from Family Reptiles it was Scott and his wife at the Repticon and they were beyond nice at the time. My point with how much I spent is you would think because I spent a decent amount the least he could have done is replace the bulbs. I would have returned the broken bulbs if he paid for the shipping. I believe it was his responsibility to pay shipping since he sold it to me. It was simply the poor customer service when something broke. Buy from them, don't buy from them I don't really care.

I'm not being rude this is just me saying that I will not be purchasing anything from them again. I am in hospitality business so customer service means a lot to me, and I did not receive that from this business.

 

[mmarie341]

"That's making you jump hoops and being rude?

He stated "bring it in or ship it back". You stated, Thanks and have a great day."

No, this was not rude at all I just didn't think he was the manager so I emailed him. In the email is when he was impolite, he called me rude for "hanging up on him"

 

[sschind]

Yes, I know you spent 300 and I know what you bought. You are being cautiously vague with your answers. Did you spend all 300 on the same vendor (FR)?

It doesn't matter. She bought two bulbs that didn't work and he blew her off when he should have replaced them. Worse than blowing her off he told her to take the bulbs back to a store where she didn't buy them. That is all that is important to the situation. It doesn't matter if she spent 30.00 or 300.00 or 3000.00 with him.

 

[mmarie341]

It doesn't matter. She bought two bulbs that didn't work and he blew her off when he should have replaced them. Worse than blowing her off he told her to take the bulbs back to a store where she didn't buy them. That is all that is important to the situation. It doesn't matter if she spent 30.00 or 300.00 or 3000.00 with him.

Thank you. Its not that hard he should have replaced them. He was in the wrong. He just wanted to be lazy and cheap. Well and wanted me to do something illegal.

 

[sschind]

Actually to anybody who read the very first post I would have thought it was clear what and where you purchased from and the situation and there should NOT have been a Spanish Inquistion to make you repeat what was already provided!

No one expects the Spanish inquisition.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Whether it was clear or not doesn't matter. What was clear is that she bought two bulbs from him and they didn't work. What else she bought and who she bought it from is irrelevant.

 

[mmarie341]

okay well everyone knows where i stand on this so im done posting im going to work peace out homies

 

[Chris Kennard]

I think everyone but Chris understood that to be the case.

You "think", or you know? Her statement was "I spent over three hundred dollars INCLUDING a bearded dragon tank setup from Family Reptiles".

 

[Chris Kennard]

No one expects the Spanish inquisition.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Whether it was clear or not doesn't matter. What was clear is that she bought two bulbs from him and they didn't work. What else she bought and who she bought it from is irrelevant.

I disagree. And just because something is irrelevant to you, doesn't make it so. I had good reason to ask the questions I asked. That was for Regan's benefit, not mine. Not all were answered. No big deal. I was able to form an opinion based on her answers. Rehan's more recent posts have cast doubt in my mind. Her initial post states "I called Family Reptiles and spoke to someone who wanted my to bend over backwards". The conversation, according to her, didn't have a chance to evolve to that point. The original post made no mention of her hanging up on the owner, no mention of the context of the emails, and no mention of the abrasive fb intrusion. Perhaps she is roght or perhaps she is a problem customer. Short of Family Reptiles weighing in to give their side of the story, we may never know. Just my opinions.

 

[Chris Kennard]

No one expects the Spanish inquisition.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

Whether it was clear or not doesn't matter. What was clear is that she bought two bulbs from him and they didn't work. What else she bought and who she bought it from is irrelevant.

I also noticed that no one has questioned whether or not the bulbs could have been damaged in the three hour car ride. Just sayin'.

 

[mmarie341]

I also noticed that no one has questioned whether or not the bulbs could have been damaged in the three hour car ride. Just sayin'.

To answer that no it was in their sealed package and in the tank set up. The heating bulb did not work right off the bat and two days later the day bulb stopped working.

I've already said it's over and done with, my post was to simply let people know I feel like I did not get the customer service I deserved after spending 300 dollars with their company. So stop arguing about it, it really doesn't matter that much!

 

[Chris Kennard]

To answer that no it was in their sealed package and in the tank set up. The heating bulb did not work right off the bat and two days later the day bulb stopped working.

I've already said it's over and done with, my post was to simply let people know I feel like I did not get the customer service I deserved after spending 300 dollars with their company. So stop arguing about it, it really doesn't matter that much!

Arguing and disagreeing is not the same thing. And it may not matter to you, but I'm sure FR feels otherwise. In any case you both could have and dhould have handled it differently. You got quality merchandise out of the deal and are out of pocket no money. FM got a bad review out of the. Congratulations.