Inquiry BallBids.com?

[SPJ]

They are dancing around the tough questions. In the above email, it shows that Kentucky told them to close down and refund money. Their new company is registered as an LLC in Florida. So, I guess now they can claim that they aren't violating any Kentucky laws.

Wonder if they have all of the permits required to be a seller in Florida?

 

[Fishbone]

How does a guy who's banned on pretty much every forum expect to have any support from the reptile community? There's something seriously wrong with his head. I almost feel sorry for the guy.....he's dillusional.

Unfortunately, I don't think they plan on preying on the "reptile community". I would believe their intended targets are new keepers, People who are fascinated by the new ball morphs and have heard how much some can sell for, without actually being educated about the business end of it at all, much less about how to care for the animals, or how the seller is acquiring, caring for, or treating the animals.

Sorry, I just skimmed most of this thread, I haven't read all 30+ pages, after hearing about all this nonsense on other sites and facebook, but is there anyone legitimately in the community, however small a part, that can vouch for these guys? I saw the bit that one was the "tech" guy and the other was a newer breeder/keeper? So is my impression correct that they just took some cash and started this up as a business idea without any care, passion, or anything else for any animals? There are allot of people doing this with Balls, because of the value and popularity that some hold. I am not into balls at all, so I just ignore most of it as a general "buyer beware" kind of sentiment. But guys like this can make everyone look bad, and possibly turn off kids who someday could become a very valuable part of this community. I hope I am getting some of this wrong, and these guys aren't as evil as they seem, but I am actually getting nauseous.

Not to mention, as I had read somewhere that "Zach" or one of his alleged pseudonyms, had stated that if he thought the animal was going to be flipped, he wouldn't ship, and avoided questions about weather the money would be refunded, if this becomes a theft/larceny problem, or maybe moreso of one, as they already have legal problems in Kentucky, and gets any attention whatsoever, it could weaken the credibility of the argument that has been made, by the USARK and others, that the bans on reptiles are hurting small businesses, as they would have a poster child for the problems with reptile businesses. And I'm sure there are those that would take that rope if it was given to them. Maybe I'm thinking to much into this. Just wanted to air it out of my head and put it out there. So far, in two days of research, I can find nothing positive about this.

 

[hhmoore]

I had read somewhere that "Zach" or one of his alleged pseudonyms, had stated that if he thought the animal was going to be flipped, he wouldn't ship, and avoided questions about weather the money would be refunded,

That is a pretty serious claim, and exactly why anonymous third party quotations are not allowed on the BOI. If you can't say (real name, not screen name) who said/posted that - you can't bring it here.

 

[Fishbone]

That is a pretty serious claim, and exactly why anonymous third party quotations are not allowed on the BOI. If you can't say (real name, not screen name) who said/posted that - you can't bring it here.

Sorry Harald, I was venting and not thinking. Let me see if I can find the original post of the matter since I brought it here.

 

[Fishbone]

Here you go Harald, it's on the "SayYesToBallBids" facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/sayyestoballbids

It's in the comments of a post made there yesterday that starts with:

"Ok, so we all know that many people do not like BallBids but for what reasons. As far as I can see these are the common arguments that people have."

There are 200+ comments, the part I paraphrased is about 25ish comments down

Say Yes to BallBids the breeders have the true connection. BallBids is a tool to sell their snakes. It also is a tool to market their business and ballbids benefits from it. I do not see anything wrong with that. Zack loves his snakes. He always has them out and he has everyone named. Trust me, he loves his reptiles. I don't think just because he has created this business that it takes away from his love for them. He wants to benefit everyone and ballbids only uses the best quality with guarantees down the line. I don't understand why people have said that there is no guarantee? There is every guarantee. It said so on the terms. So my point being that although Zack is not in direct contact with the snakes he still gets to help a lot of people and being that he can talk to each person that receives a snake from them. Most people do not have that luxury and therefor they can not be assured to the extent that he can about where the snake is going and if the person even knows what they are getting into. There are many things that zack can do to influence good practice of husbandry and all that. He even said that if he feels something is wrong or if the person just wants to flip it or whatever that he would not allow them to receive the snake.
17 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Shaun Sumner Oh if someone wins a animal and Zack thinks they going to flip it, he can refuse sale. So he can keep the money and still have the snakes. Ummmm interesting
17 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Say Yes to BallBids The whole connection thing is like saying that because kingsnake.com doesn't have the connection to the snakes that they cannot care about them. It's essential to the industry to create movement and to stimulate that movement. BallBids is like two in one.
17 hours ago · LikeUnlike.

As I said in my first post, the person running this site doesn't say they won't refund the money, they just avoid the question. And I have no evidence of who runs this facebook page, so I can't prove it's a pseudonym for the owner of Ballbids. That is hearsay among quite a few people, and I shouldn't have implied that. But if you read the whole page, this person at times switches nouns & pronouns occasionally, or at least there were a few earlier, from "Zach" and" them types, to "we" or "us" or "me". That was an inappropriate reference on my part.

 

[SnakeGirl3]

OK, so this thread has gotten extremely long, and since I have a life and animals to care for, I only read most of the first 13 pages. Here's all I have to say about it:

1) I have personally never been a big fan of QuiBids-style auction sites. They sorta scream "scam" to me.
2) If they've started out lying, what would make us think anything they promise us in the future wouldn't later turn out to be a lie?
3) The comment Avi made about the "other guy," Zack not knowing all that much about them, but he knows enough (yes, I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he said) to "get them through" is extremely unacceptable to me. When I am looking for an animal to purchase, I want to know they have been given the utmost care by someone who really knows what they are doing. I usually have a lot of questions when I get ready to purchase an animal, such as more pictures, what's it feeding on (f/t or live, mice or rats, etc), what's the current weight, has it been acting healthy or lethargic, etc., etc. If someone doesn't know ball pythons all that well, are they going to be able to answer my questions? My guess is, since I'd be bidding, it's more of a "as-is sale," no further information, you don't really know if it's a 200 gram animal or a 2,000 gram one. My concern here is that this Zack guy may not even have an interest in learning more about them, that "enough to get by" is good enough for him, as long as he makes a lot of money off of it. Sure, the one "winner" would get them for cheap, but that brings me to:
4) I believe it was rabernet who has in their signature on BP.net something similar to: you pay cheap prices, you get crap, you pay more, you get quality (again, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea). How do you know if this butter you're bidding on is the colors you'd prefer yours to have? If you're not able to get more pictures of the for-sale animal in different lighting conditions, you may not wind up with what you think you're getting. It all falls back to paying cheap prices and getting a cheap animal. What if they show a picture of a very nice, bright, clean pastel, but the one you're sent is a browned out one? If they've lied to begin with, what's to say they won't do it later with their pictures of "animals for auction?"

In short, for those who choose to waste their money on a site like this, more power to them; they either have more money than I do, or just don't mind spending it foolishly. Me, I think I'll keep my money in my pocket to put toward a quality animal.

 

[AGoodwin]

They are denying any claim of law violations or being forced to shut down....

BallBids.com
February 7

Hello BallBids.com Fans!
We continue to work hard to ensure that your experience with our company will be of the best quality available on the web and that the quality of products and service we provide will be unmatched in the industry! Without being able to commit to a specific date yet, we plan to launch soon. The work involved is tedious and complex and we appreciate your patience and understanding.

Unfortunately, since our inception we have realized there are some people whom think that since our business style functions on the Internet, they can say anything that they wish without recourse. We have monitored forged and fraudulent email postings as well as completely fabricated statements, on not only our Facebook page, but also on other Reptile Forums’. Aside from the blatant lies, some of these individuals have even resorted to committing State and Federal crimes in their personal endeavor to try and make our company look bad. It is sad to see this type of behavior but we will be dealing with these individuals in days to come. You can be assured that Ballbids.com is not, nor has it ever been, anything less than an upfront and honest business offering a new and entrepreneurial approach to increase and bring more awareness to the Ball Python Morph industry with a new and exciting environment for all to enjoy. And yes, we do intend to be a profitable company serving our customers for many years to come.

Here are some FACTS: Ballbids.com is not in violation of any laws, and we have NEVER been contacted by ANY enforcement or compliance agencies. We have NEVER been requested to close our site. We have NEVER been requested to refund any monies. With all of the time and money we have put into this company, one would be a fool the think we were opening this business with fraudulent intentions. We do respect the fact that our business model is not for everyone.

Most of you will remember that when we initially launched, our Script was internally recording properly but there was a visual lag time in the timers. We made a business decision to take down our site due to this Script not functioning at a level that we demanded. We had purchased this customized Script specifically for BallBids. Since our new site may have given the appearance of having problems, we made what we thought to be a fair business decision to give the winning participant’s those quality reptiles as a gift and we felt it would only be fair to fully refund all paying customers. As a brand new company, this is only the first fact based example that we currently have that speaks directly to our commitment to quality of our product offered, and more specifically to our integrity as business owners.

We are looking forward to getting back up and in the action with all of our friends and good customers as soon as we can!

 

[Fishbone]

For anyone who is curious, it appears they will go live this evening. At 6pm eastern time.

http://www.facebook.com/BallBids

http://ballbids.com/

 

[Ace of Snakes]

Does anyone know if Underground Reptiles is suppling them with animals?

 

[Siphon]

I just registered to snoop and they definitely claim that the "grand opening" auction snake was provided by Underground Reptiles. I don't know about it being legit or a scam for sure but when looking around for information I found this: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f....171931969581514.38255.149886288452749&type=3

Has anyone perhaps contacted Underground Reptiles to see if they did provide them with the butter on auction? There's a lot of argument in the facebook community about Ballbids, but it's hard to say what's fact and what's not for either argument.

I'm also peeved that they can't spell "Bidding" correctly. Just saying.

 

[Dbz4246]

And the auction is over, apparently there is a winner

 

[gonzoone]

My experience

I must confess, thought the concept was neat. Registered and bought a few bids just to form my own opinion to compare to all I was hearing. Participated in 4 auctions. All 4 experienced unexplained lag that ended the auction while bidding was still going. I went on Zach's FB page and let him know how I felt. My account was suspended. I have been banned from posting on his FB and below is the final e-mail I recieved from the official ballbids support office.
Copied and pasted straight from my inbox.

Ballbids IS a great idea and we ARE the right people to run it. Any new
idea will have its share of problems, and we have had a few, but to
label a startup a scam, well that shows you level of ignorance. But that
is your opinion and you're entitled to it.

My people skills are fine, I treat others with respect until that
respect isn't warranted anymore. Calling out scam because you didn't win
or can't form a winning strategy is juvenile and broke the respect you
were due.

I would rather lose 1000 assholes like you to gain ONE respectful
customer. Your approval of Ballbids is irrelevant to how we operate


Note his opinion of me in the second to last sentence. And this guy is running a business? This is a business like email? And this right after stating his people skills are "fine".
Please everybody stay verbal about this fool and tell everyone who will listen to stay well away from this mess.

 

[Argos_mom]

everything i have ever heard about ballbids is bad, and i have heard lots of things...you would think i would hear at least ONE good thing...but im hardly gonna pay to buy bids and then pay for the snake too..that seems to be a scam to me. and the resetting time thing is rediculous. i thought an online auction meant it ends within a set time. I mean i know when its a live auction thats one thing but every online auction i have ever seen always has a set time it ends...i wouldnt trust these people as far as i could throw them...all snake breeders that are worth a damn have a guarantee on thier animals

 

[Dbz4246]

and the resetting time thing is rediculous. i thought an online auction meant it ends within a set time. I mean i know when its a live auction thats one thing but every online auction i have ever seen always has a set time it ends...

it's not a normal auction, it's a penny auction. They have been gaining popularity recently and that is how they work, it's more along the lines of gambling than an actual auction. But this is the only one so far that has done a penny action with live animals

 

[AbsoluteApril]

I noticed they changed it so you cannot view any of the auctions or any other parts of the site besides the homepage unless logged on. Trying to build membership perhaps?

 

[Dbz4246]

I noticed they changed it so you cannot view any of the auctions or any other parts of the site besides the homepage unless logged on. Trying to build membership perhaps?

Believe so, you also can't view past auctions either. Once it's over, it's over

 

[bloodybaroness]

Believe so, you also can't view past auctions either. Once it's over, it's over

I saw that too. Hard to tell what has been won and what it went for.

Most of me still wants to call shenanigans on the whole affair.

 

[HerpVenue]

well he posted that his page has over 2302 likes. I had to take a screenshot. It looks to be only 11.

 

[Jaybee]

well he posted that his page has over 2302 likes. I had to take a screenshot. It looks to be only 11.

Not to back them in any way, but what you took a screenshot of is the "Say Yes To Ballbids" facebook page. It is apparently a reaction fb page to an existing "Say NO To Ballbids" fb page.

Their actual page, which is just the ballbids.com facebook page, at this point, as claimed, does have over 2300 Likes.

 

[rabernet]

Believe so, you also can't view past auctions either. Once it's over, it's over

Which, IMHO makes them even more suspect. Why would a "legitimate" business as they keep trying to claim, hide information on past bids, delete negative comments and force people to join to simply VIEW the auctions?